The Neighbor II

Denial

"Can you say aunty?" Sarah cooed at Michael as she was bouncing him. "Come on, say it for me." Tom quickly emerged from the kitchen and said, "Don't teach him any words! If he picks up on it, then they'll wonder where he learnt it. It's already bad enough that I'm letting you see him."

Sarah sighed and rolled her eyes. Tom went back into the kitchen and slipped on his black gloves. He started opening every drawer and cabinet, then moved into the living room and started looking through vases and behind pictures.

"What are you looking for, exactly?" Sarah asked. Tom took his hand out of a vase and told her, "Anything. I want to get ahead of him. If there's any evidence that he's killed anyone, I want to find it before he gets rid of it. Chances are he already has, but even Ted Bundy made mistakes. And mark my words, this man will end up exactly the same."

Sarah snickered and continued bouncing Michael around. Tom went through each and every drawer in the house, but found nothing. When he got into the bedroom, he immediately went to Ben's nightstand. He carefully dug around, but all he found were books, condoms, cigarettes, and ultrasound pictures. One was labeled "Michael", another one labeled "Gone, but forever in our hearts", and then a newer one labeled, "Baby girl".

Tom sighed and went over to Cassie's side. She didn't have much, except for some sex toys and books. He rummaged through their bathroom cabinets and finally found something interesting. He found anxiety pills that were prescribed to Cassie. He wrote down all the information on the bottle, then returned it to its exact place.

His next spot was her desk. The top drawers mostly contained blank paper and pens and pencils. Another one had folders with lists of editors and companies who would take her book. Another one contained the manuscript for her first and second book. The last one contained more folders, except these were labeled with doctor names.

He found the folder of the doctor who had prescribed her the pills and found a copy of the note he wrote with the prescription. "For PTSD", it read. "Take twice a day. Not good with pregnancies." Tom remembered how the bottle was still half full.

"She must have gotten pregnant soon after," he mumbled to himself. He took pictures of the notes and prescription, then moved on to the next folder. It was her primary doctor, who was giving her ultrasounds and what-not. He didn't find anything special in there.

The next one contained Michael's information. Again, not much there. He put that back, then picked up the last one. A wide smile went across Tom's face as he looked through everything he needed to know about a certain therapist.

**

Cassie sat looking dumbfounded at Dr. Evans. "Absolutely not," she told him. "My husband doesn't need to be here." Dr. Evans sighed and set down the folder. "Mrs. Carlton," he said, "I've seen many cases like your husband. Severe Anti-Personality Disorder is a serious thing. From what I'm seeing on this screen, he needs treatment immediately."

This was not going to go over easy, she could already tell. Still, she didn't want Ben staying here with a bunch of people that could encourage him to kill all the more. If anything, this isolation and exposure could just harm him more.

"No," she told him. "I have a son at home that loves his father more than anyone in the world. I won't keep them away from each other, especially like this." Dr. Evans was getting even more impatient. He pointed to the screen with the scan of Ben's brain and said, "This is the mind of many people I have seen come through here. Your husband doesn't show any signs of feeling, except for when it comes to you. That means he is a danger, could be a danger."

Cassie shrugged and said, "So my husband is a sociopath. We'll work on it." She started to get up, but Dr. Evans quickly followed and urgently said, "Not a sociopath, a psychopath." Cassie gave him a sharp look. "Don't call my husband a psychopath!" She practically shouted.