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Authors: Peggy Holloway

Tags: #Mystery: Thriller - Psychologist - Georgia

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BOOK: Peggy Holloway - Judith McCain 05 - Monroe Beach
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“His classmates started making fun of him and even his parents were ashamed of him,” he continued. “I have a private clinic about ten miles outside of Savannah and they brought him there.”

“Is it a psychiatric clinic?” I asked.
Things didn’t make sense to me so far.

Dr. Pullen’s eyes started tic
king faster than usual and I thought this is what he must do when he got excited.

“You are right, young lady.
You’re wondering why they would bring him to a psychiatric clinic. Well, he had stopped eating to get his parent’s attention.

“It didn’t work.
I think they were glad when he stopped eating and it gave them an excuse to unload him at the clinic. Once he was dumped there we never saw them again.”

“That’s terrible,” I said.
I was beginning to feel sorry for Randolph.

Si
mon let out an exasperated sigh. “I read about this condition just this morning on the internet. I didn’t see anything about someone with this disease being able to invade someone else’s dreams and make them do things they didn’t want to do.”

“You’re right, sir.
The fact that Randolph has this talent has nothing to do with leukoderma. I believe he was born with this gift, if you can call it a gift.”

“Is there any medication that will make him where he can’t do this?” Robert asked.

Dr. Pullen’s head started jerking and his eye started ticking so fast I, at first, thought he was having some sort of seizure. He kept looking from one of us to the other like he wasn’t sure how much he could tell us.

“Whatever you tell us will not leave this room
”, Robert said. “Is everyone in agreement on this?”

We all nodded and Dr. Pullen seemed to calm down some.
“I call it leukedium. I developed it myself and I would lose my license if it got out. The FDA hasn’t heard of it. It is a combination of several antidepressants and a benzodiazepine that I developed myself also.

“I have used it to successfully treat depression for years.
Even in severe cases of depression, and I mean in some cases a catatonic state, it has had a ninety nine point nine, nine, nine percent success rate.”

“That’s remarkable,” I said.
“Why haven’t you tried to get it on the market and approved by the FDA?”

He looked at me like I had grown two heads, “Have you ever tried to get a drug approved by the FDA?
I can take years of trial studies on animals before you’re even allowed to test it on humans. Then it is only tested on prisoners. In the meantime, you could be treating thousands of patients if the drug is as good as mine is.”

He looked lik
e he was so proud of himself that I found myself disliking this man. He was willing to experiment on human beings using drugs. It was like he had delusions of grandiosity.

He continued,
“I put Randolph on leukedium when he was admitted and within forty eight hours his depression was gone. He started eating again and started interacting in group therapy.

“One day during individual therapy, he asked me why he couldn’t travel at night anymore.
I thought he was talking about going places at night like he did when he lived with his parents before he developed leukoderma.

“But, upon talking to him farther
, I discovered this special talent he has. He thought everyone could get into other people’s dreams. He wanted to get into his parent’s dreams so he could feel like he was close to them. The medication was keeping him from doing that.”

“What happened,” Robert asked, “Did he escape?”

“No, you don’t understand. He was never locked up. He could leave anytime he wanted to once he reached eighteen. But he stayed one more year.”

“Dr. Pullen, do you have any idea why he turned violent?” I asked.

He shook his head so hard it was almost comical. “Randolph would never become violent, never.”

Robert gave a fake laugh, “I’m sorry, doctor, but your golden boy i
n there has killed thirty two women that we know about. It might be more than that.”

“I’ll never believe it.
He has suffered more than most people but to cause suffering in others? No, never.”

No one said anything for a few minutes and I could hear the clock ticking.
It was almost dinner time and I was getting hungry.

“I’d like to take him back with me today if at all possible,” Dr. Pullen said
.

Robert snorted so hard he thr
ew coffee across the table. It landed on Wade’s blue silk shirt. Wade jumped up and grabbed for a roll of paper towels and started wiping his shirt.

“I’m sorry, Wade,” Robert said.
“I just can’t believe what the good doctor just said. Sir, Randolph is under arrest for murder. We can’t release him. Did you think you could come over here and take him home?”

“Well, there’s no need to get so high and mighty about it.
I do understand. May I see him then?”

Robert pushed himself back from the table and rose, “We’ll all go see him.
And before you go home, we want some of that medication, doctor.”

Dr. Pullen didn’t ag
ree or disagree. We started off down the hall toward Randolph’s cell.

 

 

 

CHAPTER 21

Randolph didn’t seem as cocky as the first time I saw him.
When he saw Dr. Pullen, he withdrew to the corner of the room, sat on the floor, and pulled his legs up to his chest. He acted like he was terrified of Dr. Pullen.

“It’s okay, son.
You’ll be okay. No need to be afraid. They won’t let me take you back right now but after the trial, you’ll be allowed to come back home with me.”

He turned to leave but turn
ed back and said to Robert, “I need you to let me know when the trial is so I can testify on his behalf. I’ll pay for his lawyer. Just keep me up to date. Will you do that for me, Sheriff?”

“Of course,” Robert said.
“He’s entitled to a lawyer. I’ll arrange for one when he gets to Atlanta and give him your number. Do you have a card?”

Dr. Pullen
handed Robert his card and started off down the hall.

“Sir,” Robert called after him, “I need that medication.”

“Oh, I almost forgot. My bag is in the car.”

“I’ll go with him,” Wade said and started off after him.

As we all started walking off, Randolph called out, “Please don’t let him take me back. I’ll do anything you say, only please don’t let him take me back to the Pullen Institute.”

I walked back to his cell, “What happened there?” I asked and he uncurled himself from the corner and came over to the bars.

He wasn’t grinning, like he did before, but tears were streaming down his face. I was standing too close to the bars and, before I knew what he intended, he reached over and took my hand.

“I’ll be a good boy,” he said.
Wade had made his way over but, before he got there, Randolph had already let go of my hand.

 

 

 

CHAPTER 22

We continued to stay in the s
ame house together all week-end, four couples having a good time in spite of the fear about what would happen if Randolph got off on an insanity plea. Simon and Delilah made up and it turned out that Simon liked to cook as much as Delilah. That was part of their entertainment. They spent hours in the kitchen together, laughing, talking, and cooking.

I was enjoying Wade more and more and I admired his no nonsense approach to life.
Most of the couples went off on their own during the daytime and we all had supper together at night. We no longer kept watch.

Dr. Pullen had left enough of the medication that he had invented to last Randolph through his trial so that we didn’t have to worry about him invading our dreams again.
I didn’t feel comfortable with looking the other way while an untested, unapproved drug was given to him.

I expressed my conc
erned to Robert and he shrugged. “I’m sorry, Judith, but Sarah comes first with me and I don’t give a damn about that murdering son-of-a-bitch.”

After the week-end, Simon accompanied the FBI in transporting Randolph to Atlanta
, where he would stand trial in a federal criminal case.

Delilah
, Julia, and Walter shared a flight back to New Orleans and Wade and I headed back to Houston. Our relationship continued to develop. Our assignments sometimes overlapped and we were able to work together to bring the bad guys to justice.

Randolph’s trial was set for the end of June.
It was in the back of everyone’s mind, as we carried on from day to day. Robert kept us updated. Delilah was going to Atlanta to visit with Simon and to go to the trial.

What we had feared mos
t, happened. Randolph got sent back to The Pullen Institute. Delilah called me later that night. “Something ain’t right about this whole thing, Judith,” She said and I could hear that she was crying.

“What do you mean,
Delilah?”

“I don’t know, me.
But I have a peculiar feeling about this institution. It’s a bad place, really bad and this Dr. Pullen, he ain’t what he appears to be, no.”

I tried to reassure her as best I could
, but she didn’t really have anything I could go on and I didn’t know what I could do. I thought about it a lot over the next few days, but then got busy and it faded into the background.

At 3:30
a.m. one morning I got a call from Randolph. The phone woke me from a sound sleep and he said, “Doctor. McCain, please come help me.”

I knew who it was right away but
, before I could reply, we were cut off. Wade rolled over and reached for me. He pulled me up tight against him. “Who was that, honey?”

I had spent the night with him after he had taken me out to supper.
I felt like I was falling in love with him.

I hesitated to tell him
what I was thinking of doing. “Go ahead and spit it out,” he said.

“That was Randolph on the phone.
He asked for my help…”

“No, Judith.
Don’t even think about it.”

“Wade, I want to find out what’s wrong.
Something’s not right. Delilah even feels something’s not right.”

We had our first big fight and it scared me.
Ben had been so easygoing, that I tended to take him for granted, I’m ashamed to say. Wade was not going to let me get away with anything.

“I’m not going to let you go back to Savannah, Judith. You’re a psychologist. You know this is not good for you.”

“Who are you to tell me what I can and can’t do? I’m a grown woman and, like you said, a psychologist. I’ve lived on my own and taken care of myself for more years than you have.”

We fought
, but in the end I was going to Savannah. Wade would be coming too. We were going to use the days we had planned for our vacation together. We could get a mountain cabin in the hill country of Texas some other time. Now we would be taking our valued time off, to go to Savannah, on what Wade considered a wild goose chase.

“It’s still time off to be together, Wade.”

“You don’t have to keep trying to justify it to me, Judith. We’re going and we’re going to be together. We’re going to have fun even though it’s a wild goose chase.”

I let him have that one last dig since he had given in.

 

 

 

CHAPTER 23

We flew into Savannah and rented a car. We had decided to drive straight to the area where Dr. Pullen’s Institute was and see if we could rent a cabin in the area.

The institute was about fifteen
miles northwest of Savannah. In was in a small town called Renwick that had a post office and a general store. It was like going back in time. Wade commented that we were going to have a good vacation together after all.

We found the only
realty agent in town and rented a small one bedroom house with a porch. The first thing Wade did was to sit down on the swing and pull me into his lap.

“Oh no, you don’t” I said.
“I want to take a look at this Institute.”

“And you know what I want.”

“Just think, Wade, the sooner we check everything out, the sooner we can devote all our time to each other. Come on. Let’s get this out of the way first.”

 

# # #

 

The Institute was sitting back from the main highway and we had to turn down a sandy one lane road. The oak trees grew over the road forming a canopy. The building was all one floor and was made of brick. It looked deserted even though the grounds were beautiful with gardens, gazebos, and winding pathway and bridges over small streams.

The building was cold looking but the grounds were beautiful.
What I noticed the most were the roses. They were everywhere and in every color. We parked under a big oak tree and walked around the grounds before going in.

BOOK: Peggy Holloway - Judith McCain 05 - Monroe Beach
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