11

Dr. Freedman heard the knock on his door. He said, "Come in," but kept his back to it, filling up his coffee maker. C.J. walked in with a nurse, clearly still annoyed at being escorted around the way she was. He turned to her with a smile, holding up two bags, "Mudslide or Cinnamon?"

She sat down in a nice comfortable chair and looked at him a little surprised at his question, "Mudslide sounds nice. I figured it'd just be regular coffee."

He poured it in and said, "Well, don't tell anyone, but I happen to be something of a connoisseur." He turned back after turning the machine on. "Besides, I have to have something in this place that brings a little smile to my face. Most of my patients are not in the same position you are. Many have been here for years, others, well, I don't know how long it will take them to get past their demons."

C.J. asked as he sat down in the big comfortable chair beside her, "How long do you think I will be in here?"

He took a deep breath and said, "I don't know, a lot of that depends on you. But I don't see you in this place for too long. While you and your husband were eating that bagel I did a little research on my own into your history. Quite impressive I have to say. You graduated at the top of your class from high school, UT Austin and Harvard." He shook his head, "Not many people can do that."

C.J. nodded and said, "And yet despite this, here I am." She seemed to just stare at the coffee maker for a minute, trying to keep herself composed.

Dr. Freedman nodded and said, "Well now I wouldn't worry so much. I read about all the different crimes you and your husband have solved, many times at great risk to yourself. Your husband seems convinced that this is what is going on now. Now, let me ask you...if he's right...how is what's going on now different from all those other times?"

C.J. seemed a little taken back and said with a snort, "Well for one thing, I've never been deemed not in my right mind or been admitted to a mental hospital."

He nodded again and asked, "What about a medical hospital?"

She answered, "Well, yes, but usually I'm not the one being admitted, it tends to be my husband."

He asked, "But it has been you before, am I right?" She nodded and he continued, "Well now, why don't we treat this the same way doctors treated you when you were injured. Only this time, the injury isn't one we can see. It does, however, happen to be one I specialize in."

He got up at that point and made both of them a cup of coffee. He asked her, "Cream or sugar?"

She shook her head and thanked him before drinking some and saying, "Matt had to make a phone call, but he wants to be here."

Freedman then said, "Then we wait."

Roy and Warren got over to the small apartment in no time. Warren knocked on the door and said, "Mr. Ralls...I'm detective Warren with the LAPD...I need to talk to you a minute..."

They heard someone approach and then open the door. In the doorway stood a middle aged man in jeans and a T shirt. "What do you want?" He simply asked.

Warren leaned in, "Mr. Ralls, may we come inside? We just have a few questions to ask you."

Ralls asked, "You have a warrant?"

Warren answered, "Do I need one?" Ralls just exhaled loudly and Warren continued, "Is there something in here you want to hide? Right now Mr. Ralls, all we want to do is talk to you about a lawyer that represented you about 20 years ago."

Ralls looked surprised, "Lawyer? What are you talking about?"

Roy then spoke up, "Daniel Parsons, I believe he was representing you on a case back when you were practicing psychiatry."

Ralls then looked angry, "That was a civil case, not a criminal one and I believe the statute of limitations..."

Warren then pressed, "Look, we aren't investigating you for that, yet. I mean I can have the case reopened if I need to..." Ralls just looked away but Warren kept at it. "Right now all we want to do is talk to you about Parsons' death."

Ralls then looked up at him in disbelief, "What about his death?" Warren motioned to go inside and Ralls let them in. "I had nothing to do with that. It would have stupid for me to do something like that. It was only a civil case, not a criminal one. I didn't need any more attention on me."

Warren then asked as he looked around the room. His trained detective eye spotting ticket stubs to the local X rated movie theater along with porn magazines slid under the couch. "Let me guess, you didn't need any more attention because you didn't want any more plaintiffs, am I right?"

Ralls didn't say anything, just scowled at them.

Roy then asked while trying to keep himself composed, depending on the answer, "You never 'treated' Parsons' daughter, did you?"

The room fell silent for a second but Ralls was only trying to think back. He said, "He had a daughter? I mean I knew he was married, but I didn't know he had a kid. Are you sure about that? I read the papers and those cops that came and talked to me, never mentioned a daughter."

Roy then said, "I'm sure about that. In fact that daughter, we think, had someone put her under hypnosis so she wouldn't remember her parents' deaths. She's never really been affected by it til now. Of all the people the police interviewed at the time, you were the only one who would know how to do that."

Ralls then said, "What? You think I...look, I may have done some things back then that...well... I never killed anyone, ever. Besides, if I really had those girls under they wouldn't have remembered anything so clearly I didn't even do that part of my job right. If someone put her under then and its only affecting her now, that's the work of a real pro, someone with a mastery of it. That's clearly not me."

Roy then asked, "Any ideas as to who that pro might be?"

Ralls shook his head, "Not really. You see I lost my license, so I didn't exactly keep in touch with many of my colleagues, can't help you there. I will say this though, a job like that...well, if you push her on this..."

Warren then pushed when he went silent, "If we push her, what?"

Ralls said solemnly, "If whoever put her under really doesn't want her to remember? He may just have a contingency plan in place. The mind is a tricky thing my friends, you push her to relieve that memory and it might just be booby trapped. Then, her mind and her memories will be gone forever. Take that as a warning. I would never have done that, but it can be done."

When Roy and Warren got back to Roy's car the phone rang. He answered it, "This is Roy."

Matt asked, "Well, what did you two find out?"

Roy told him about the conversation and the warning. "I don't think he looks good for it, Matlock. I think we need to look into Sacan and try to find him. I've been thinking about Hoyt telling us he disappeared about 4 months ago. That's roughly the same time you and C.J. started talking about starting a family. I wonder if he didn't leave because he got word someone was looking into her past."

Matt then exhaled, "And so he left...alright, well, let me think about it a little more, strategize how to get him back here if he is indeed the one doing all this. Someone here sent her that jewelry box and someone here brought her legal papers to make her try to jump. Sacan is tied to the syndicate right?"

Roy answered, "Yes he is with the syndicate...uh hang on." Matt could hear Warren talking in the background. Roy got back on and said, "According to Jacob here he's not just with the syndicate, but the head of it. At least the west coast section of it."

Matt then said, "Wouldn't be too hard for him to get people to do all these things with him safely tucked away in Italy."

Roy then told him, "It won't be easy, but I'm sure we can think of something to lure him back."

Matt told him, "Alright, look I have to go. C.J. is about to have her first meeting with the doctor and I need to be there."

Roy told him, "Tell her we love her and we know she'll be home soon."

Matt told him, "Will do." Then he hung up. Both he and Roy knew that this was one of the most difficult things Matt and C.J. had probably faced up until this point.

Matt cautiously opened the door to Dr. Freedman's office. Only the doctor looked up at him while C.J. just looked down, her back to him as the chair was facing away from the door. She knew it was him and just didn't really want to make eye contact, she just felt so defeated.

Sydney motioned for him to sit on the couch against the wall. He shut the door behind him and did just that.

Sydney then took a deep breath and said, "We were just waiting for you and enjoying a nice cup of coffee." He then turned to C.J., "I see you finished yours." He reached for her cup and she gave it to him. He put it on the coffee table along with his and then said, "I think its time we start." C.J. inhaled sharply so Sydney said, "We won't start out with anything too heavy, just a few memories from your days in Texas. Something pleasant, alright? And I promise, I won't keep you under too long."

C.J. just nodded her head. The entire time she had waited for Matt, Sydney had tried to make some small talk about the weather and such. He told her about his days in the military and tried to share a few anecdotes about men he had worked with that were funny. She only smiled once. For C.J., humiliated didn't quite describe how she felt at that moment.

He told her, "Ok now, just relax and look at this pencil."

She couldn't help herself, "That's it? Look at a pencil?"

Matt who was also on edge tried to say, "C.J..." almost like he was about to tell her to just relax and let the man do his job.

She just said after shaking her head, "Whatever."

Sydney took another deep breath and said softly, "Yes, that's the spirit. Now just relax. I really do know what I'm doing. All I need you to do is relax and look at this pencil. You are sleepy I know. That coffee was decaf."

C.J. looked from the pencil to him with a confused look on her face.

He shrugged and then said, "I never said it was regular. Come on now just look at the pencil and relax."

He was twirling it around and Matt was starting to get sleepy but caught himself and looked back at C.J. He had focused on the pencil because he almost couldn't bear to see the pain in her eyes.

Sydney continued, "Your whole body is starting to relax, starting with the top of your head...your scalp, your face...you can feel your whole body just start to give way to gravity almost. Lower your shoulders..." She did. "There now, and your arms, your torso, everything is starting to feel much better."

C.J.'s eyes were starting to droop a little and after about another minute she was under. Sydney then sat up a little straighter in his chair as he put the pencil down. Matt whispered, "She's under?"

Sydney nodded and put a finger to his lips to signal Matt to not say anything. He told her, "Now, C.J. I want you to listen to me very carefully. I want you to raise your left hand and then put it down again."

This was a test to see if she would respond to commands. She did.

Sydney then took another deep breath and said, "Very good. C.J. you and I are going to take a little trip. We're going to go back to when you and Matt were growing up in Texas. I want you to remember that this is only a small trip and that you are safe here, in California. No one can hurt you. Do you understand?"

She nodded. Sydney then picked up a notepad and pencil from off the floor on the other side of his chair. He started, "Ok, C.J. I want you to think back to a happy memory in Texas. Sometime when you were around the age of..." He looked at his notepad, "12."

Matt looked confused but was relieved to see C.J. smile. She still had her eyes closed but she said, "There's a big party."

Sydney then asked, "Oh and who is the party for?"

C.J. smiled and answered, "Houston...its his birthday." She started to laugh.

Sydney then asked, "What's so funny?" He was studying her every expression.

C.J. then took a deep breath and said, "Well, he just got bucked off a horse his Daddy told him not to ride. He landed in the pile of manure he's been shoveling out of the barn all week. I told him..." She chuckled again.

Matt smiled for a second remembering that day himself. He spent the whole week shoveling horse manure because he and his friend Ricky got caught taking old man Fimple's watermelons out of his patch and eating them behind that barn. It wasn't too hard to figure out who the guilty culprit was as neither Matt nor Ricky thought about the fact that watermelon seeds lead to watermelon plants. Soon Bill had his own patch growing behind the barn. The two spent the next several weeks shoveling horse manure to pay off what Bill had to pay to Fimple for the stolen melons.

Sydney interrupted his thoughts, "How do you feel C.J.? I want you to tell me honestly."

C.J. stopped laughing and took a deep breath, "I thought it was so funny. He never did listen that well to his daddy."

Sydney then asked although a little more slowly and cautiously, "What about your daddy? Did you ever think about him when you lived in Texas with Houston and his daddy?"

C.J. started breathing faster, "I...uh..."

Sydney then moved a little closer to her, "Let's say from the time you were 12 or older." She seemed to breathe a little easier then. So he continued, "Do you remember thinking about him or hearing anyone talking about him."

C.J. slowly nodded her head and said, "Yes, I remember Bill...he and Floyd..."

Matt moved closer and was listening intently now with Sydney.

C.J. continued slowly, "I overheard them."

Sydney asked, "How old are you?"

C.J. answered, "13, I just went in to get a drink of water. My canteen was empty and its hot."

Sydney asked, "So is it summer?" She nodded. He speculated, "So you went in to get a glass of water and you overhear Bill and Floyd talking. What are they saying?"

C.J. inhaled sharply and tears started to form as she relived that moment:

Bill said, "Look Floyd I put everything back where I found it. She won't know it was ever missing."

Floyd then said impatiently, "Bill I know and I appreciate it, but it was still dangerous."

Bill then said, "Floyd trust me, no one suspects anything. I waited as long as I could, but one of us needs to know what really is going on. My brother can't even get much information. Trust me, I fly all over the world, San Francisco is only a four hour flight and I met with an old oil man, Bancroft, so it looked like nothing more than a business meeting."

Floyd then asked, "Bancroft...C.J.'s friend?"

Bill answered, "Yes, Julia's grandfather. He's still living out there so it all looks legitimate. That key you found in her room did belong to the Warf station bus terminal and I got everything out of it. Nothing is left. I even took the tag off so she can't go back there herself. I made it even look like I had simply gotten lost while sightseeing."

Floyd took a deep breath and then said, "So what all did you find?"

Bill shook his head, "I can't make as much out of it. It looked like some medical records on someone and there were some photographs I wish I had never seen."

Floyd asked, "Where is everything now?"

Bill answered, "I had a compartment built into my armoire its hidden and has a combination safe. No one knows of its existence except for you and my carpenter. Everything is there and its safe. No one will ever find it."

Floyd then said, "What if we need it though? I did like you said, she kept her last name. Hell, she kept her first name. What if they come looking for her?"

Bill then said, "Listen, I've got additional security detail here now, I uh, hired them when we purchased that additional property and I found those workers for you. No one is getting close to her. And if they do...I'll just make it clear that I have all the evidence. If we need to I'm sure we can find out who to give this file to that can get these guys put behind bars where they belong. I won't let anything happen to my C.J."

After recounting the that last statement by Bill, C.J. smiled just a little through the tears.