Chapter 52

 

Maureen’s face lit up as Fred entered her room. She rushed to his side, embracing him tightly. 

“Hard day?” he asked.

“Yes, but it was okay,” she lied.

“Maureen, I know you don’t like to be here. But are you thinking I’ve deserted you?”

“No, not really.”

“Maureen, don’t lie to me.”

“Well, I guess a little bit. I’m getting stir crazy, and each day I hope you’ll capture the damn killer soon so that I can go home with you.”

“Have you been crying?”

“Yes, does it show?”

“No, I just guessed as much.” Damn, he thought, Atwell is for real!

“I’m sorry Fred, but I can’t take this place much longer.”

“Three more days, I promise, and then you’ll be home again.”

“You will have caught Ford by then?”

“I hope so, I really do.”

Maureen spent the next few minutes in Fred’s arms. For an instant in suspended time she blissfully did not hear the constant cries from those patients caged near her. Nor did she smell the ugly aroma from years of bowel and bladder accidents that permeated the floors and walls, or the heavy chlorine scent attendants used ineffectively to cover them up. She was temporarily in a safe place next to Fred, and she never wanted to leave it.

Fred, however, could not mentally escape from the horror of the institution. And with each new horrid sound emanating around him he felt more and more sympathy for Maureen. He had no idea if he would catch Ford in the next three days; but regardless he could not keep her here, no matter how much safer her life would be in this heavily guarded institution. Sometimes, he thought, quality of life supersedes safety; and this is one of those times.

After what seemed only moments holding Maureen, he left her “room.” He gazed at the clock in the sanitarium’s foyer. Two hours had passed since he first entered this dreadful place. Fred started back to the station with a steady stream of tears blurring his vision as he drove.

* * *

Jim was going over some papers on his desk when he noticed Fred enter the station. He walked into Fred’s office, eagerly asking, “Well, how did your interviews at Schultz’s company go?”

“I didn’t get too far; I was diverted with some mental games played on me.”

“Really; are they for real over there?”

“You better believe it. I have never seen anything so spooky in my entire life. I’m not at all convinced that they are doing anything at all to further national security; but that’s not my purpose in being there.

“Jim, I’m starting to believe nothing in these cases is a coincidence, but I can’t determine what the glue is that holds it all together. Atwell has all the ingredients to be involved, including a gigantic ego, a phenomenal mind and immeasurable talent. He certainly could be a connection, although all my bets still remain on Ford at this stage. I want you to conduct a thorough background check on Mr. Atwell. I need to know everything about him before I talk to him again. He may not be guilty of anything other than being an egoist, but I have to know that.”

Jim said, “Sure, happy to do it, I’ll get started right away.”

“In the interim,” said Fred, “I’ll go back and conduct some more interviews first thing in the morning. But I certainly will avoid Mr. Atwell in the process.”

* * *

Fred entered AU just five minutes after the doors had opened. Donna Lang gave him a warm hello. This was the end of the five day work week for the AU employees; and Fred wanted to finish as many interviews as he could before the weekend. He had again brought with him a series of different artist renditions of what Ford would look like with different disguises, including one with different colored wigs and mustaches.

Fred indicated that he wanted to speak to the head of the Science Division. Donna said, “That’s Mr. Dodd, sure, he’s in. I’ll tell him you’re here.”

Fred looked down; Donna was working on Friday’s New York Times crossword puzzle. “How’s it coming?” He could see that about three-fourths had been completed.

“Oh, all these puzzles are a bit too much for me; but my boyfriend told me they would increase my intelligence if I worked on them enough. Unfortunately, I have to constantly look up the answers and fill in the blanks. About all I usually have is blanks, thank God for the answer pages,” she laughed.

Fred noticed that she was a very attractive woman and she became even more attractive when she released a rare unguarded smile. She picked up the phone and told Mr. Dodd that Fred wanted to see him.

Fred placed his folder on the edge of her desk as he waited.

He had already decided that the personnel in the Science Division had no known reason to kill the two division heads. They could not, under Schultz’s inflexible rules, be promoted to the vacated positions of the murdered division heads. Unless there were other hidden reasons that he had not yet uncovered, they were not suspects. Nevertheless, speaking to the head of the Science Division might shed some additional light on what was happening in the other divisions; and the head of that division would be a good objective source to provide it.

Donna had just finished her call when the folder Fred had placed on her desk toppled over to the floor. The drawings of Ford fell out of the folder. Donna bent over to pick them up and said, “What do you do, collect posters from the most wanted list in the post office?”

Fred laughed, “No I don’t, but it might be a good idea, one never knows when and where we might find one of these guys.”

Donna smiled and started to put the drawing back into the folder. When she saw the drawing of Ford in a blonde wig and mustache, she paused.” Interesting,” she said.

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, just that it seems to me I’ve seen this man. I believe the guy I saw looked like him but I don’t recall him having blonde hair or a mustache when I saw him, but I can’t really be sure.”

“Really, you believe you saw him around here?” Do you recall if he gave his name as Ford?”

“I don’t believe so, but I seem to remember that he came in to see, oh I can’t recall who; I have such a terrible memory. My boyfriend says it’s because I drink too much coffee, and I don’t th—”

“—Wait a minute,” Fred interrupted her ramblings. “Are you positive you saw this guy?”

“I’m pretty sure, but I don’t believe he gave the name Ford when he came in. I don’t have a record of him because he didn’t have an appointment and I told him we don’t do business like that. Mr. Schultz doesn’t allow just anyone to come in, because they could be a salesman and—”

“—Yes, Yes,” Fred interrupted her non-sequitur ramblings again. “But who did he want to see?”

“Well, I’m not sure now; but he said whoever it was that he wanted to talk to would definitely want to talk to him as well!”

“Miss Lang, this is very important. Please try to remember.”

“Look, Lieutenant, why don’t you have your meeting with Mr. Dodd and I’ll try to remember in the meantime. Who knows, when you are through I may be able to remember—if I don’t have another cup of coffee in the meantime.” She laughed and turned away.

“Okay, don’t drink coffee; don’t drink tea, or gin, or whatever else might kill your memory.”

Fred remembered the joke about the blonde flying to Chicago who was asked to move to the back of a small plane to balance its weight distribution. She adamantly refused until the pilot told her something and she immediately got out of her seat and moved to the back. The stewardess asked what he said to her. He said, “I told her the front of the plane did not go to Chicago.” Maureen had told the joke to her woman’s club. When she finished the joke, all of the members laughed except one. The exception was a middle-aged blonde who asked, “Where did the front of the plane go?”

Fred left her desk thinking maybe the standard rap about dumb blondes might be more valid than he ever perceived.

On the way to Chuck Dodd’s office, he happened to see Miss Moore in the hall.

She greeted him warmly and then added, “I’m sorry if our extra sensory demonstration troubled you, Lieutenant. Sometimes Mr. Atwell can be a bit of a bother.”

“I would agree with you on that. But from now on I’ll never again question that extra sensory perceptions exist.

“Oh, they exist all right. Mr. Schultz is very deliberate as to who he hires. We had to go through an entire week of testing before we were even considered for the job.”

“I see. Out of curiosity, can you read just anyone’s mind, or does it have to be someone special?”

“Just about everybody, but sometimes the message I receive is a hodgepodge of impressions and visions and not very valuable. But actually, that is all some people have in their minds.”

“You mean, like our nation’s politicians?”

She laughed, “Yes, I guess they would all fit into my example.”

“You said you could just about read anyone’s mind, are there exceptions?”

“Well for starters I must tell you that initially I was able to read yours with no trouble, but then it seemed as if you started to erect some type of automatic block or filter.”

“That’s interesting. If I did it, it was a purely a product of my subconscious.”

“Perhaps you have more talent than you think you have.”

“I sincerely doubt that, I’m just a hard working cop who was lucky to get through college.”

Fred continued his questioning, “Are there any other exceptions to your mind reading talent?”

“Well, I’ve only come across a few so far. Believe it or not, one of them is Mr. Atwell. All I see is an all-encompassing black barrier when I try to enter his mind. It’s very strange, almost as if he has intentionally created some sort of strange defensive mechanism that blocks me. But he is just plain weird anyway. Oh, but I guess you consider us all weird.”

“No, not at all; I consider you special people laden with extraordinary talents.”

* * *

Fred entered the office of the head of the Science Division. Dodd welcomed him and asked if he would like a cup of coffee.

Fred said “No, thanks, I understand it dulls one’s mind.”

Dodd laughed, “I never heard that one before.”

“Actually until a few minutes ago, neither did I, now I tend to believe it. Mr. Dodd, for background purposes, can you tell me what your division does?”

Dodd said, “Sure, but please call me Chuck. We have multiple disciplines represented in my division. My background is in computer engineering.”

“I see. And does that expertise represent hardware or software?”

“Oh, it’s basically in software but I do have a sprinkling of knowledge in hardware platforms. Before I start with the details of what I do, let me start with our statistician’s job. I think that might give you a better overall understanding. Our statistician verifies that the extraordinary abilities represented in our paranormal divisions are scientifically legitimate. In other words, he certifies that the unique abilities of our employees are occurring beyond a random chance.”

“And how does he do that?”

“Let me give you a simple example. If you have a coin with heads and tails on it, and you flip it once, what are the chances you would be correct if you guessed tails for example?”

“That’s easy; fifty percent of course.”

“Right, an average person would experience that same rate of successful guessing. But if the coin were tossed 100 times and our subject guessed correctly each time, he would certainly be exceeding any random chances. Our statistician would measure how much beyond a random occurrence that would be.”

“Yes, I saw that experiment demonstrated in your Matter Division.”

Dodd continued, “It was our division that created the pyramidal contraption that you saw when you visited that division. But to continue, our statistician is responsible for the development of statistical controls. Let me give you an example associated with the remote viewing division. They often start their paranormal testing with a picture containing twenty distinct objects on it. The picture is, of course, located in another room from the subject and outside of his or her visual range. The subjects have been randomly selected from the general population. We determine from that control base an average of how many of the objects can be identified by subjects from the general population. That average becomes our baseline. Our expert’s success rate is then compared to the baseline. I should tell you our experts score well beyond the success rates of the general population, sometimes reaching 100% accuracy. And, of course, that has to be well beyond guessing.”

“Mr. Schultz mentioned that you have a neurologist in your organization. What does your neurologist do?”

“He identifies where in the brain these special capabilities exist. He also has developed a recording device to monitor the slight electrical discharge that is emitted when these extraordinary forces are in action.”

“That is quite impressive.”

“Oh, I’ve just begun. Then we have subjects think of some basic things, both those that create emotion and those that are emotionally neutral. We have learned how to capture the thought waves from our reading experts. Now we are attempting to decode them. What we have found so far is that two different paranormal experts, reading the same subject, emit a comparable pattern of thought waves. I then attempt to transfer that information into codified software and output the results. So far we have developed several preliminary codes that were extracted exclusively from our paranormal personnel.”

“You’ve accomplished this using the experts from all of the operating divisions?”

“Yes, to a degree. For example, we’ve had some minimal success from the remote division. We actually can obtain rough pictures from the computer that represents what our remote viewers are seeing.”

“It sounds as if someday you will be able to have a computer accomplish what humans are now doing in this field.”

“That day may not be a long way off, but you are getting into a classified area that I really can’t talk about. Our paranormal experts, however, have more responsibilities than just acting as guinea pigs for our division. The program managers, who use our company’s services, employ our human experts for practical exercises in the government. What they are doing is top secret. I myself don’t know what they are being asked to do, but sometimes they are on temporary duty for a week or two and I know that they serve all over the globe. That’s why we’ve built in limited redundancy into our work force, to insure we have an adequate indigenous work force when our people are away on assignment.”

“Your division seems to contain the same level of extraordinary talent as the operational divisions.”

“Not at all, we use a scientific approach for everything we do. And in that respect Mr. Schultz has hired some of the top scholars in the country. We need to develop extensive proof of concepts to satisfy the requirements demanded by our customers; otherwise they would perceive our experiments as some sort of black magic. In the Science Division, we all have extensive formal education in our respective fields. On the other hand, the people in the paranormal segment of our company seem to have innate talents. Likely the seeds of their capability had been genetically implanted at birth, and they certainly use a different part of the brain to accomplish their objectives as compared to my employees. In select ways they are comparable to idiot savants with respect to their extreme capabilities, but there are fundamental differences. Unlike with the savants, there’s no trade off. No part of their normal brain is diminished; in fact, most of our employees have superior IQs and their talent lies in areas far beyond that of the typical savant.”

“I understand, but yesterday I spoke to Ms. Moore and Mr. Atwell. They told me that when they used their combined talents synergistically, the results were more effective than when they functioned individually.”

“Yes, that seems to be the case, and the more interesting detail is that they are constantly in the process of developing their unique talents. It’s almost a type of accelerated intellectual progression on a scale that we have never seen before. I have no idea how they apply a learning curve to what they are doing, but without question they continue to learn, develop and refine. They are doing all of this inside their brains, often unassisted by outside help. There are no schools that teach the special gifts they have.”

“Mr. Dodd, have you ever used or dealt with hypnotism?”

“Interesting question, but no, I haven’t. I know it’s for real and that’s about all I know about it. Oh, yes, I do know that the difference between hypnotism and what our special employees do is the hypnotist requires the cooperation of his subjects. Our gifted employees do not.”

“Thanks, I appreciate the indoctrination.”

On his way out of the building, Fred stopped at the secretary’s desk. “Ms. Lang, did you remember who Mr. Ford stopped in to see that day?”

“Mr. Ford?”

“Yes, Mr. Ford, the person in the artist’s drawing that I showed you and you thought you recognized.”

“Oh, yes, I did remember.”

“Ms. Lang,—Donna—who in heaven’s name was it?”

“It wasn’t an it; it was a them. He wanted to see both Mr. Long and Mr. Jackson. It was such a strange coincidence, don’t you think, that both of them were killed less than a week later?”