Mystery: The Coming Back: (Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Suspense Thriller Mystery) (8 page)

Lydia was shocked, disgusted and shocked again…

What she had witnessed right now spoke volumes about her patient and his character. It was not the sexual act that made her shiver, or the fact that Stanley was having sex with another man, but the way he had acted. Lydia had seen how the young man had acted during the sex. Seeing him engaged in that questionable sexual activity dismissed all her present theories.

Lydia debated telling Stanley’s parents, but then she thought it would be too hard for them to hear something like that. All she could think about was how odd it was for autistic people to behave in the way she saw him behaving. The scene had raised a red flag in her mind and Lydia knew that she needed to investigate the matter further.

Lydia Chen was a good looking woman, whose long dark hair and charming smile had made many men fall for her, especially when she decided to put some effort into it. She liked to dress casually, in jeans and sweaters, leaving the suits for the times she was in the office. For her, life was more than a good career, a lot of money and powerful friends.

On the contrary, she despised people who choose to live their lives that way. Her job was her life. Her research and patients had given Lydia a purpose much higher than the bare money or success. Her job had given her a purpose in life, something to live for.

However, it wasn’t an easy life. No, dealing with people with many problems was not an easy thing to do. But, Lydia wanted to help and that gave her strength to continue.

The fact that life had sent him to Savannah, she took as sigh and the few weeks she had already spent here has been good for her. Hopefully the worst was behind her. The long days and night she had spent suffering, while coming here had been the worst in her life. Her body and mind had fought together against the despair that had been slowly bringing her down.

Today, Lydia had witnessed the fall of another human being. Stanley Douglass had presented himself as a confident, powerful, determinate man, who knew what he wanted and was ready to take it. His actions around the other man had been confident and superior. Stanley was the man in that relationship, and that was something Lydia had not been expecting from someone with his background.

It was not an anomaly to be gay, but it was disconcerting that he would take a man the way he did. According to Stanley’s files, ten years back, he had had friends and had been well respected by his teachers and the doctors. His parents had refused to send him to some of these clinics for people like him and Stanley had been taken care by his parents.

Stanley had been making great progress in his life and making plans for the future, when he had disappeared. The few weeks after he had finished school had given him enough time to examine his past and to start dreaming about the future. He had been impatient to enter the real world and to lose himself in the new life, he had been dreaming about.

The man that had returned ten years later was a complete opposite to that young boy, full of dreams and hopes for the future. What was more, in one of his files, Lydia had found something about a girlfriend. How was it possible, then, Stanley to be gay now? The bi-sexuality was a possibility, but after what she had witnessed, Lydia was sure that that man was not interested in women.

Unsure of what to do next, but sure that she needed to know more, Lydia went once again through the files and her own notes and found the name of the girl that Stanley had been going out with ten years ago. Sarah Stack had been one year older than Stanley then, therefore, now she should be 33 years old.

Lydia used Google to track Sarah Stack down and was glad to see that she still lived in Savannah. She found her home address and later in the evening went to knock on her door. Sarah Stack was surprised to see her and hear her questions about Stanley, but once Lydia explained her reasons, she was glad to help.

“Stanley was a wonderful boy,” she explained. “We were together the whole school year and even made plans to meet during the summer, but then he suddenly disappeared.”

“He never called you after that?” Lydia asked.

“No, I never heard from him after the news about him missing hit the news. I even went to his house one time, but his parents still knew nothing about him.”

“How was he when you two were together?”

“Stanley was the kindest man I have ever seen. He was gentle, understanding, always a gentleman,” Sarah said. “I remember him bringing me flowers, taking me out to dinners and once to a dance. I still measure my boyfriend with him.”

“I am going to ask you something strange, but please think about your answer carefully,” Lydia said, looking uncomfortable. “Can you think of any accident when Stanley showed signs that he might be interested in men?”

“Are you asking me if Stanley could be gay?” Sarah laughed at her question. “Impossible, we had many gay boys in school and Stanley was friend with most of them, but he never showed any interest in them.”

“I hope you understand that I had to ask you?” Lydia excused herself. “What about now? Did Stanley call you after returning home?”

“No,” Sarah shook her head. “I thought of going to his house, but then… if he wanted to see me, he would have come, right?”

“Yes, I think that it is for the best to leave him for now. Stanley needs time to adapt to his new life.”

Sarah agreed with her and accompanied Lydia to the door, promising to call, if something else came to her mind.

The next morning, Lydia went to visit Detective Wilson at the police precinct. The detective was happy to see and invited her into his small office. Lydia thanked him and accepted his offer of a coffee.

“I hope, you have made some progress with Stanley’s case,” the detective showed his impatience to find out how Stanley Douglass was progressing.

“I don’t know what to say about him, but certainly I have found a lot of interesting things about him and his case,” Lydia said and took a sip of her coffee.

“Tell me everything,” Wilson said, while adjusting his position behind the desk.

“First of all, Stanley still rejects my help and refuses to say much during our sessions,” Lydia started. “Yesterday, I tried to introduce him to objects from his past, a book, his old teddy bear, but Stanley either did not remember them or acted indifferent.”

“That is strange,” the detective commented.

“Yes, it is,” Lydia agreed. “His parents told me that he had been sleeping with the teddy bear all his life and the book he was supposed to know from cover to cover. But, Stanley discharged the teddy bear and did not recognize the book. But, that is not all…”

Lydia hesitated and Wilson could see that something huge was going to be said. “Yesterday, I returned to the Douglass house, because I had forgotten my reading glasses, but Mr. and Mrs. Douglass were gone somewhere and Stanley… well Stanley was engaged in some questionable sexual act.”

“What?” the detective looked confused. “I thought Stanley was a very shy man, who knew little about women?”

“He was not with a woman,” Lydia explained. “I saw Stanley having sex in the back garden with a man. What is more, Stanley was the one in charge. He acted as if everything depended on him. The other man was at his mercy.”

“I did not know that Stanley was gay.” Wilson still had to understand what Lydia was saying.

“I suppose, that is another thing we had to learn about him. I saw in the files you gave me that ten years ago he had a girlfriend, so I went to see her. Sarah describes Stanley Douglass as the perfect boyfriend: loving, helpful, respectful. She is more than sure he was not gay.”

“What are you saying?” The man asked.

“I am saying that there are too many discrepancies in Stanley’s behavior. I will even say that he is not acting as an autistic person. This man is confident, intelligent and knows what he wants. I am starting to doubt that he is the real Stanley Douglass, or that something horrible had happened to him to change him so much.”

“What do you think we should do?” Wilson asked.

“I would like all the files connected to his case,” Lydia said firmly. “You told me that there are more, right?”

“Yes, but I thought that what I gave is enough?”

“I thought that too, but I need to know everything about him, so that I can notice every single discrepancy in his behavior and words.”

“Okay, I will give you the rest of the files, but…” the detective smiled. “You have to promise me that you will come with me to dinner.”

“Is this blackmail?” Lydia laughed.

“You can call it whatever you want, but I will be very glad to have dinner with you.”

“Okay, I would like that too,” Lydia smiled at him.

Wilson stood up from behind his desk and took a few files from the nearest shelf. “Here is everything I have about the case of Stanley Douglass. The notes are ten years old, but I am sure you will find something important that could help you with your sessions.”
 

They made plans to meet for dinner and Lydia took the files home to look them over. She read them carefully, taking notes and underlying the important facts.

The police specialists had worked for months on the case, but all the efforts had been fruitless. According to their findings, Stanley and his car were nowhere to be found, and there was nothing unusual that could be connected to him. There had not been any accidents or deaths in the area during that time. His body was not recovered in the morgue and the car was not found anywhere.

The only strange thing that they found was that there was no-one seeing Stanley after he had left his friend, Tim. On the recovered footage from the cameras could clearly be seen people walking around, doing their job and multiple cars coming and going. Nothing in their behavior suggested they were part of a kidnapping or murder and the police had nothing to take into consideration.

“I think,” Wilson had said, after they had gone through the reports together. “That Stanley disappeared on the highway, leading to his house.”

“Yes...” Lydia had agreed, but Wilson could see that something was troubling her.

“What is it, doctor? You know that you can tell me anything, right?”

“Yes...” Lydia had repeated in the same voice. “This whole thing... it was done by someone, who can move unnoticed... who knew his way around here.”

“Yes, we know that. But, what is troubling you?” Wilson dismissed her comment. “I know that the whole thing seems very mysterious, but I am sure that we would be able to find a very logical explanation with time.”

“Yes, I also hope that we would,” Lydia had agreed.

The highway ran for several miles nearby some thick and ancient woods, with multiple dirt roads leading deep inside the woods. Lydia could see that the police had examined all of them several times. They had even hired some professional hunters to canvas the place with their dogs, as the police dogs had found nothing.

Around midday, after eating a sandwich for lunch, Lydia sat down in front of the TV and watched some of the local channels. Unsurprisingly, Stanley’s case had made noise for only a week and now was as good as forgotten. They had announced his coming back, by putting an old high school photo on the news. Now, no one was speaking about him, and Lydia was glad that the journalist left them alone.

Lydia had listened carefully to everything Wilson had to tell her, and once again wondered what were they missing.

“What about now? What do you think, we would find now?” Lydia had asked him.

“Everything and nothing,” Wilson had smiled sadly. “I really hope to find out the truth, but I also accept the fact that we may never know the whole truth.”

“That must be very difficult for you. I became a psychiatrist because I wanted to help people. What about you, why did you become a policeman?”

“My parents wanted something different for their children and when my brother and I grew up and needed to go to school, we all left our home town. It was difficult for all of us, but my father wanted to give us the possibility to choose for ourselves. And I chose to become a policeman, so that I can do as much good in my life, as possible.”

“But why?” Lydia insisted.

“I don’t know...maybe it was because of the possibility to both protect others and still be able to protect myself. I really don’t know, but what I know is that I made the right choice. I am happy and I love my job. Are you trying to analyze me?”

“I already did that,” Lydia smiled at him. “What I want to know is how did you deal with failure?”

“With a smile... I have my own limits. This case is so important for me because of Vivian and Charlie Douglass, not because of myself.”

While they talked, Lydia could see how open the man in front of her was. Wilson really wanted to help those people and Lydia was happy to help him in that difficult task.

The young woman shook her head to clear it and returned to the files. Now, she had reached the part about Stanley’s best friend Timothy. The detective had made very few notes about him, but she could see that the boy had been raised by inattentive and unaffectionate parents, who never had time for him. He had had a few problems with the police in the past, because of his violent behavior, but nothing more.

“Where are we going?” Lydia asked Detective Wilson.

“There is a small restaurant nearby,” the man answered. “The food is good, there is excellent music and a small dance floor. Do you like dancing?”

“Yes, but it has been long since I had an occasion to dance.”

“Don’t worry, I will lead you,” Wilson smiled, while entering the small parking lot of the restaurant.

So, that was it, Lydia was doing it! The thought of going to a dinner with this man scared her a little, but determined not to back off, she proceeded in looking forward. Lydia had decided to wear an elegant black dress, a silver necklace and black sandals. She had thought about something more glamorous, but it was not her style to attract too much attention. “He wants
me
, not some artificial magazine model.”