"Doctor Chelson?"

The man himself looked up to see Ally standing before him. "That would be me," he replied.

"Hello, I'm Ally Dawson." She stuck out her hand for a handshake. "It's nice to meet you."

Doctor Chelson's eyes twinkled. "The pleasure's all mine! I've heard of you, detective. Please, take a seat and join me."

"You've heard of me?" Ally's tone was curious, perhaps the Wyners had failed to keep the situation under the wraps.

"Of course I have! You are quite the topic of conversation in psychiatric circles. We doctors are fascinated by your mind! The level of empathy you have that allows you to think and feel like the wanted criminal is incredible. Not to mention the fact that your IQ is very high."

"Thank you," Ally smiled, "and well, it's a good thing I'm on this side."

The doctor chuckled in response. "Yes indeed, you would be an unbeatable criminal."

Ally thanked him in good humour. A waitress came by to set down plates of steaming hot food, and the two adults thanked her. She figured Trish must have sent her order to this table after she left. The doctor and the detective made small talk while eating their dinner.

"Not that I do not enjoy your company," said the doctor, wiping tears from Ally's retelling of a particularly bizarre but funny case, "but is there another reason that you want to speak to me?"

She grinned sheepishly. "You should be a detective, Doctor. Yes, I want to talk to you about your former patient Patrick Cipriano."

"I see. He got into a nasty accident, didn't he?" The atmosphere immediately turned sombre at his solemn words.

Ally nodded. "He was violently murdered last night, and we are trying our best to find the culprit. Can you tell me about him, and anything that was suspicious before he died?"

"Patrick had an odd anxiety disorder combined with other things. He suffered from sleepless nights due to night terrors, and hallucinated during the worst of times. Writing those novels helped him, managing the company distracted him, but it wasn't enough. He came to be on the suggestion made by his assistant, Noreen's a mutual friend of ours, and I gave him treatment. But..."

"But?"

"He got better, but not in the long term. There was a period of time where I believed he had been cured, but no. He eventually couldn't help becoming what he had to be."

Ally observed the doctor with a careful eye. He showed no hate or anything when speaking of Patrick. There was a hint of sadness when he spoke of his patient's fate. She highly doubted he had maliciously murdered Patrick, but...something just seemed off. The detective knew when someone was hiding something.

But just as she was about to dig deeper, her phone vibrated in her pocket. Cursing, she excused herself as she took the device out.

Austin:
Found something, come home if you can.

She apologized to the doctor. "I'm so sorry, but I have to leave."

"It's quite alright," the doctor responded, waving it off, "feel free to find me if you need anything else. Or just drop by my office some time! As mentioned before, I have a professional curiosity on how your brain works."

Ally accepted his card, and then they bid their farewells. She pondered what could had been found while she went back to their apartment. The 'interrogation' with Doctor Chelson had left her with both answers and questions. It cleared things up and caused confusion at the same time. How did he 'become what he had to be'? What was it anyway? If only the doctor hadn't spoke in such a cryptic way.

"I'm home!" She shouted as she shut the door behind her, "this better be good!"

Austin poked his head out from another room. The detective noticed he looked a bit greener than usual. He said, "Yeah, it's definitely good."

Ally joined him and saw that some black and white video was playing on his laptop. A glance at the corner told her that it was from last night, around the time of the party. "Is this?..."

"Security camera footage, yeah." Austin rubbed at his eyes in exhaustion. "I watched the whole thing, up until the magician's box was moved out."

And then the duo watched as the box was moved into the room. The magician pushed against the wall and left. Austin fast forwarded to a man's figure walking into the room. Ally studied his formal wear closely, and identified the figure as Patrick Cipriano. He was walking sort of drunkenly towards the magician's box. There seemed to be no one else there besides him.

"Here comes the best part," muttered Austin sarcastically.

Ally watched in both horror and fascination as Patrick grabbed the magician's sword that was to be put through the box, and thrust it through himself. He raised his arms in triumph, and Ally could hear him shouting "woo!" through the speakers. The sword stuck up from his torso, and Ally could see black liquid gushing out of the wound. It was a good thing the video was in black and white.

"What the hell?" The Patrick in the footage continued to put all of the swords and long objects through his body. He seemed to feel not pain, but joy when he stabbed himself. At last, when he used all of the props, he opened the box, got inside, and closed it. Fast forward hours later, the magician's assistant rolled it out of the room and probably into the ball room where everyone was.

"Crazy, right?"

Doctor Chelson's words repeated in Ally's mind. He became what he had to be...So he was destined to become a human kabob like in a barbecue?

"Yeah, pretty crazy." The detective replied absentmindedly. "I have a theory, but I need to confirm it. I think I have a doctor's appointment to go to. Do you want to come?"

"Of course. I didn't know you aren't feeling well?"

"Oh no," Ally smiled, "I'm fine. I don't think the doctor is though."

Sorry about the overdue update! Something came up and I couldn't write anything for a long time. But it's here! I hope you guys enjoyed it-expect some action next chapter. Leave a review maybe? Pretty please? I haven't gotten much response lately and I'm hoping people actually read this story.

MoodBerg: Yes, he will. I'm not sure how he will make an appearance yet though. :)