Autopsy of a Mind

I walked over to the elderly gentleman. From up close, he looked familiar. Very familiar. I was not someone who forgot faces, and this was one I vaguely knew but couldn't place. 

"I think you are looking for me?" I asked softly. The man looked relieved and nodded. 

"I was. I saw you and recognized you immediately." He tried to give me a smile but it looked more like a grimace. 

"I have a vague recognition of your face but I don't recall who you are. Have we met before?" I asked. I glanced towards Harshit and saw that he was tense about something. Probably not a good connection between these two people.

"Evie, let me introduce you to Ross Reynolds. He was Sebastian's mentor about seven years ago," he said in a low voice. Harshit scrutinized my emotions carefully. 

I blocked any emotion from appearing on my face.

"Ah, yes. I remember now. You took up the Elegant Butcher case after my father was killed." I offered him a polite smile, one that he didn't deserve. "Pardon me for not remembering you. The last time I met you, I wasn't in the best of mental conditions."

He frowned. "Ah, yes… the interview."

"The interrogation," I corrected. Harshit startled. He hadn't expected me to talk so freely. "You interrogated me and accused me of helping Alicia Williams in her murder spree. Before that, you spoke to the media and convinced your team that I had slaughtered my whole family in cold blood and then run away from home." 

"I am sorry about that."

"You also wrote a book about the case, I have been told. I haven't read it because you contributed little to the killer being caught… or the victims being rescued." I tilted my head to inspect his expression. "But I also know that you have been riding on that fame for some time. I didn't know you would be at this conference, though. Did you change your specialization?"

He kept staring at me, stunned from the onslaught. "Oh, no. I was always interested in this sphere. I am giving the primary speech tomorrow, so I came to check out the papers presented today." He paused. "I hear that you have been interning with the police and also working under Sebastian…"

"You have received the correct information."

He nodded, satisfied that I wasn't attacking him. "Your father would be proud."

"I know." I didn't offer him more. "Why are you seeking me out?" I asked bluntly. 

"I think we need to sit down and speak for a while to explain why I acted the way I did."

I sighed. "Is this important?" I asked. 

"Evie, let's hear him out," Harshit spoke softly. "You need some closure on this."

Closure? What good would that do to me? I had already come to terms with the event.

"Okay. Let's go to the hotel's café and speak. I don't have much time on my hands because I have to work." I walked past them and heard Harshit sigh in relief. 

The elderly gentlemen followed. 

He sat opposite me and looked down at the table until our drinks arrived. 

"Please speak," I said finally.

He thought about how he should start for a minute before doing anything. 

"Your dad and I were rivals back in the day. When we reached your place, I was the one who inspected the area. No outside fingerprints or even footprints or dust were there in the house when we arrived. And with you missing and none of your blood spilled, we assumed you had run away."

I shook my head in disbelief. "A sixteen-year-old that killed her family and ran away. What motive?" I scoffed. 

"We see a lot of cases like this, I will have you know." 

I rolled my eyes. "I have been working for a while, too, and I assure you that your judgment is impaired. You probably didn't want to think that my father was close to solving the case and someone was trying to stop them."

I shook my head. 

"Well, his letters always came to the post-office and his face was nowhere on the news. No one knew what Charlie looked like, let alone where he lived."

"But someone did!"

"Yes. Because he was working on such a high-profile case, all his information was classified. There was no way someone would know who he was."

I frowned. "Did she tail him home?" I wondered. But then… someone would catch her there.

"That's why we were puzzled and I thought you did it. I apologize for my presumption. I should have done my job better and made sure that you were found earlier. The things that happened to you are irreversible and I wish it never it."

"You didn't think the same when you interrogated me. Why was that? By then, you should have been sure that I was indeed kidnapped and tortured."

He pursed his lips. "We had figured out that someone was aiding Alicia. The finding remained confidential. Only I and a few of the higher authorities knew about this."

"Sebastian never mentioned that was a possibility!" I exclaimed. I trusted him more than anyone. 

"Because he was not privy to the information. We didn't put out the notice that the location of a detective was leaked by someone. We had no idea what it could be and we needed to bury the whole idea and satiate anyone who even thought that there was an accomplice."

I shook my head. "So, you wanted to use me as a scapegoat?" I was incredulous more than anything. I couldn't even be angry. 

"I am sorry, it was a decision taken by a group of people who wanted the police's faults out of the news. You were clear in your responses, so we buried all evidence that someone else could have been involved."

I blinked. "What was the proof you had about this accomplice… existing?" I didn't trust the man one bit. He could be lying to quench his guilty conscience. 

"Alicia kidnapped people from all walks of life, including a family. She abducted them in the evening while they were in a family dinner." 

I felt my heart clench with worry and a hint of understanding. 

"Someone or the other would have been killed at the scene. But all of them were in the same room, having dinner when they were taken. No evidence was left behind. There was a fight, but no signs of people. No footage from cameras. No prints. Nothing."

I rubbed my eyes. "So, you suppose someone aided her in capturing the family without killing any of them and helped her bring them back to their lair." He nodded. "She would have to knock them out and then drag them out. If you are talking about the Wilkins… then the husband was home from his conscription in the army. Not easy to take down."

"Do you see?" he pleaded for my understanding. 

"What else?"

"The unnaturally sanitary conditions of the crime-scenes."

I closed my eyes and thought about it. "The lack of evidence is what you required to prove that someone was aiding her. And have you asked her about this?" I countered. 

"Yes, in undocumented interviews with her, I interrogated her multiple times to get the answer out from her. She didn't even budge."

I tapped my finger against the table. "I am not going to trust you. You have shown nothing but incompetence in your work and I can't put faith in your instincts. Therefore, you will need to tell me exactly how she responded. I will go through the files once more and jog my memory to see if there was someone who could have aided her."

"You might not have seen the person to begin with!" Harshit exclaimed. "Jog your memory? You'll relive your traumas to solve a puzzle?"

I shrugged. "That's one of my purposes. To find answers to questions unsolved. If someone had an equal hand in making my life hell, I want to know who it was and why they did it. I need to face them and get the truth out of them. I won't have it any other way."

Harshit shook his head. "If you think Sebastian will let you do it—"

"Sebastian will. He will be right beside me helping me through it, I promise you." I gritted my teeth. "Now, you speak."

The guy looked between Harshit and me before starting to speak once more.

"She would ignore the conversation altogether."

I blinked. "Anything else you noticed?" I leaned forward to take on an aggressive role. 

His breathing grew harsher. "She liked to play with the interrogators. You couldn't get out any straight answers and she would go off on these long tangents about nothing and everything and it fucked with people's minds."

"And you didn't think someone with better skills could have been brought in?" I snorted. 

"I was the best at the time," he said defensively. 

"Sure." I paused. "So… what was it that you wanted to tell me? You've gone off on tangents and told me nothing but excuses for your behavior." I ramped up the pressure. 

"I… I did you wrong. I shouldn't have gone along with the plans of others and done my job properly."

There was silence and Harshit gaped. 

"And that, sir, is how you conduct an interrogation," I said finally. I pushed the chair back as I stood up. "I'll go back to the room. I have work to finish."