Murder or Not?

Murder or Not

By

Rebecka Vigus

Copyright ©2019

All Rights Reserved

Chapter 7

Sam found herself opening her office door at seven-thirty the next morning. Her dad put the coffee on while she went to find the notes from the day before. She knew Robert Bakersfield and Matthew Weaver had been the two survivors from the weekend hiking trip. Thomas Mason had disappeared and was later found dead.

It was time to find out what had really happened on the mountain. Sam expected Mr. Marvin Bakersfield and his son to show up with an attorney. Her hypnotist was the best in the country. Nothing to worry about there. Dr. Adele Garcia did not scare easily. She had video and tapes set up in the room. There was a mirrored window in the room and a view in from the hallway. The only one who got to sit for this were the doctor and the patient.

Sam had faxed the list of questions she needed answers for onto Dr. Garcia last night. Must have done it before she crashed on the couch in her office. She shuddered. Still groggy and disoriented from sleeping in her old room at her dad’s.

As she was pondering what to do next, the chief came in with a steaming cup of coffee. She heard the outer office door open and Anna came through the door carrying boxes of goodies from the bakery. Sam grabbed a gooey doughnut and began eating. The chief found a fried cake doughnut and ate it with his coffee. Anna grabbed her cup and poured coffee, then helped herself to a pastry. There were plenty left for seconds for everyone.

Dr. Garcia was the next to arrive, carrying her briefcase in one hand and a coffee in the other.

“Help yourself to some baked goods,” Sam told her.

“Don’t mind if I do. Hi, Chief, Anna,” she replied.

“I expect the Bakersfields to show up with an attorney,” said Sam.

“Most do,” Adele replied. “They want to be on hand if their client reveals misdeeds.”

Nodding Sam took a bite of her second doughnut. “Did you get the questions I need answered?” she asked.

“They are in my brief case,” Adele replied. “Where are we setting up? I’d like to get a feel for the room.”

“This way,” Sam stood and headed down the hallway. She’d set up the video and tape recorders when she arrived.

“Oh, I like this,” Adele told her admiring the set-up. The camera was not visible, and neither was the tape recorder.

“Here is the button to start everything running,” Sam showed Adele the button on the far side of the desk. “Press once and it turns everything on, and once again when you are done.”

They walked back to the reception office. The Bakersfields and their attorney were just coming through the door.

“Welcome, Gentlemen,” Anna began, “I have coffee and bakery delights for you this morning.”

Each man asked for black coffee and went to peruse the table of baked goods. Each selecting the doughnut or pastry of their choice and excepting cups of coffee.

“Chief,” Marvin said nodding. “You know my son, Robert and this is our attorney, Bernard Alderman.”

The chief shook hands with all three.

Sam and Adele entered. “Good morning, Gentlemen,” Sam greeted them. “I’d like you to meet Dr. Adele Garcia. She will be assisting us this morning.”

Dr. Garcia shook hands with each of the gentlemen. “I am ready to start when you are,” she assured them. “Please enjoy your coffee and relax. I’m not interrogating anyone.”

Mr. Alderman cleared his throat, “I understand this is a fishing experiment looking for some hidden secret my client has.”

“Actually, no,” Dr. Garcia assured him. “We are hoping to help Robert recall some lost memories. It is an effort to save his life. No one wants to put him on trial for anything. Nothing he says today is for court.”

The shocked look on Mr. Alderman’s face was priceless. Sam put her hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh.

Robert spoke up, “I want to get started. I need to know what I remember.”

“This way,” Dr. Garcia said starting down the hallway.

Robert followed with his father, the attorney, Sam, and the chief trailing behind. At the door to the office Dr. Garcia looked at Sam saying, “Will you to take the gentlemen to the observation area? Mr. Bakersfield, please come with me.”

Sam led everyone to the hallway mirror where they could observe the session.

In the office, Dr. Garcia began explaining to Robert what would happen. “I’m going to take you into a comfortable dream state. Once you are there I am going to ask you to think about the camping trip twenty years ago. I will remind you, nothing in your memories can hurt you. Are you ready?”

“I think so,” he answered.

“Take a seat on the couch. You may sit or lie down,” she told him.

“I’ll sit.”

“Now I want you to close your eyes, think of your favorite place, and begin describing it to me.”

 He complied. Closing his eyes he began to dwell on the house he and his wife shared. The memories of his children and grandchildren in the house.

“Take some deep breaths,” Dr. Garcia told him. “Tell me about this place.”

“It is my home,” he began. “The beautiful Cape Cod inspired mansion his wife fell in love with. She decorated one room at a time until the entire house reflected their tastes. It always feels bright and airy even on the darkest days. The lawns are immaculate and flowers bloom three seasons out of the year. The children liked to slide down the bannister. They frolicked in the backyard with their friends. We did put in a pool when the kids got older. Now the grandchildren come. They bring such joy.”

“Take a few more deep breaths, Robert,” Dr. Garcia told him. “We are now going back in your mind to your weekend backpack trip with Thomas Mason and Matthew Weaver. Can you tell me how the weekend started?”

“We met at our rendezvous point and had some coffee. We looked at our maps and talked about the route and some alternate routes. Deciding to stay with our route and leaving the alternates for another time.

“When we left the coffee shop, Tom ran into some guys he knew. They hassled him about something, but then went on their way. We never thought about it as we picked up our gear and headed up the trail. We knew we were taking a less traveled trail so, our odds of running into these two guys was slim.

“Three hours into the hike we stop for water and a snack. Sure, enough these two guys stumble onto us. They stopped to chat, telling Tom they hadn’t forgotten. Then, they moved on.

“We made a decision to take the right fork at the next junction instead of the left. It would take us more time to get to our destination, but it would keep us out of the path of the two other hikers. At least we thought it would.

“Late afternoon we came to a flat area good for making camp. We each pitched our tents, put our packs inside and went to gather fire wood. Tom returned first to find his two buddies going through the tents. Matt was there before Tom could do anything and I arrived last. By the time I go there, the two guys, Brad and Bryce Hillman were tied back-to-back. The story unfolded of finding them in our tents going through our backpacks.

“Each of us went one at a time to our tent to see what if anything was missing. It was determined the only tent missing anything was Tom’s. He was missing socks, rations, a camera, and flashlight. Matt and I allowed Tom to check out the backpacks of the Hillman brothers. Where he found his belongings. They were told to get their stuff and head down the mountain and it would be forgotten. Otherwise we were going to call the park rangers and ask for police to be brought up the mountain to arrest them for theft.

“They assured us it was only a prank. They would leave, and it would be forgotten. We gave them their stuff and let the go. We watched them walk down until they were completely out of sight. Then we built a fire and began to cook dinner.”

“Take a couple of deep breaths, Robert,” Dr. Garcia told him. “You are doing great. What happened next?”

“We banked the fire and went to bed. The next morning the fire was completely out. We covered it with dirt, ate a cold breakfast, and took down our tents. Then we headed out on the trail. When we stopped for lunch, we discovered Tom’s canteen had a hole in it and all the water had leaked out. Seeing it was a puncture hole we knew the Hillman’s had done this and put in a temporary plug. The plug came loose while we hiked, and the water was gone. We had been smart enough to bring bottled water. This did not appear to have been tampered with, so Tom was okay. When we got to our camp spot for Saturday night, we set up camp, this time leaving one of us with the tents. I stayed while Tom and Matt got fire wood. They came back, we made the fire and dinner. We sat around after dinner. Matt finally asked Tom what his problem was with the Hillman brothers.

“It seems Tom had dated their sister for a while. Nothing he felt to be serious or long-term. He broke it off when he went back to college. Evidently, the sister, Bryleigh was distraught and killed herself about six months later. It was learned at autopsy she was two months pregnant. The baby could not have been Tom’s. But, the brothers blamed him. They’d been sending threats to him at college and they called his cell phone making threats until he changed his phone number. We went to bed, again banking the fire so we could cook breakfast.

“Sometime in the night we heard terrible screams. Rushing out to find two unidentifiable creatures pulling Tom out of his tent. I went back into mine, grabbed my boots and threw on a shirt and coat, then ran to grab Matt who had done the same.

“I guess we were cowards, instead of trying to help Tom, we both ran in the other direction. The creatures were growling. All I could think was bear. We had no water, food, or anything. We just kept heading away from the screaming and in a downward direction. When we couldn’t hear the screaming anymore we hunkered down near a couple of dead trees. We huddled together to keep warm. In the morning we started out again. I didn’t even know where we were. I lost track of days. Finally, someone found us.”

“Breath deeply, Robert,” Dr. Garcia began, “I’m going to count backward from three and when you open your eyes you will remember everything you told me. Three…two…one, open your eyes.”

Robert opened his eyes and slowly focused on Dr. Garcia. “Oh, my God! We just left Tom.”

“No, you did what you felt was right for the two of you in the situation.”

“If we’d gone to help, maybe he would be alive. Maybe Matt would be alive. What have I done?”

“You did the right thing, but by the time you were found, the trauma caused you to block out what happened,” Dr. Garcia told him. “This is the brain’s natural reaction to trauma too great to bear.” She tapped the button to turn off the tape. “Let’s go join the others.”

In the hallway, those who had been listening were glad it was over. Two men died for some misplaced revenge. Sam couldn’t speak for the others, but she was livid.

Sam thanked them all for coming. She especially thanked Robert and told him she was sorry he’d had to go through it all again.

“Actually, I wish I’d gone through it earlier,” he told her. “Maybe Matt would still be alive.”

“We will never know, but we will know who killed him. Maybe we will know who killed Tom, too,” she assured him. “Then justice will be done.”

“Amen,” he said shaking her hand as he left.

###

The chief left after the Bakersfields and their attorney. Leaving Anna, Dr. Garcia, and Sam to the rest of the pastries.

“Sorry, Samantha, I have patients to see,” she said. “Call me when this gets all unraveled.”

“You got it,” Sam said as Adele breezed out the door. “Guess it’s just us,” she said turning to Anna. “When we have finished indulging here, I need everything you can find on Brad, Bryce, and Bryleigh Hillman. They are key players in this.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Anna replied reaching for a second doughnut.

Sam took a doughnut and a cinnamon cake into her office. She needed to gather her thoughts after what she heard. Who were the Hillman brothers, and did they kill Tom? Were they behind Matt’s murder or was it someone from the Mason family? How was she going to sort it all out? It was a conundrum for sure.