The Mind Virus

Chapter 1 - Part 1

"Another suicide, huh? That must have been a fun call to get right before the end of your shift," Detective Miller drawled, sipping on a little styrofoam cup filled with hot coffee. He was a tall man with cold blue eyes and a receding hairline, probably quite handsome in his glory days, but now resembling a stern vice principal more than anything else. His tie was hanging loose, a sign that his shift was about to end and he had no intention of going out anymore except to go home.

"Yeah, what are you gonna do, right?" Jim didn't recognize this officer. A bald man wearing the patrol uniform, he and Jim worked different shifts and had not met before. "The overtime will be paid into my next paycheck, so why complain? Mostly I felt sorry for the kids that found her. Not a pleasant sight to come across on a late night walk."

"Jumped off a building, did she?"

"Yeah, one of the campus parking structures. Not the tallest building, but it did the trick."

Jim listened to the officer and the detective speak. He was accustomed to being considered part of the furniture. His dress shirt and black trousers made him indistinguishable from the detectives as far as the public could tell, but within the police station, he was the lowest of the low outside of the suspects being brought into interrogation rooms.

"So what are we on? I lost count. Seventeen suicides in the last two months?" Miller took another sip of his coffee.

"Eighteen," Baldy replied.

"Are they really suicides, though?" Jim piped up, his croaking voice betraying his desire to conceal his anxiety.

"Yes," Miller replied curtly.

There was a moment of silence while Baldy stared off into the distance, fully aware of where this was going.

"I mean, so many suicides in such a short period of time for a small city – I don't know, it seems unnatural." At this point, Jim didn't know what he was doing staying in a conversation that he was clearly not welcome to, but the awkward silence was a bit more than he could handle.

"They come and go, or would you feel better if people chose to kill themselves on predefined dates spread evenly across the calendar?" Miller was making only the token effort to disguise his disdain.

Baldy shuffled uncomfortably.

"Well, no, all I mean is I've gone back the past couple of years, and we've never had this many suicides in a year, let alone two months," Jim replied, doing his best to seem unfazed by how unpleasant the detective's tone was.

"So what? It changes. Let's look at these cases on their own. There's absolutely nothing to suggest that anything was done to these people. Every suicide has been different. If they were being killed, we would have noticed some sort of pattern."

"The majority of the suicides were students at the college. Is that enough of a pattern for you?" Jim regretted his choice of words immediately. Miller had almost approached a civil tone before that point, but Jim's last comment would certainly inflame him.

"Yes, and you know what time of the year it is? Exam time. Some kids just can't handle the pressure," Miller's voice was as close to hostile as could be without crossing the line.

"Oh, come on!" Jim exclaimed. "A mass suicide over exams? Where were the string of suicides last semester?"

"You like dumb questions? I've got a dumb question for you. How are you still an intern when you left college three years ago?" Miller was no longer making an effort to be civil, although frankly, he hadn't put much heart into it thus far.

"Leave it alone, Mil," Baldy said calmly, abandoning the comfort of not being part of the exchange. "He's just asking questions. There's nothing wrong with that."

"He's fucking implying that we're not doing our jobs properly!" Miller's yelling was beginning to attract the attention of people from beyond the rest area. He turned to Jim. "Why don't you go investigate the suicides for yourself and prove us all wrong?"

Baldy tried to say something to him, but Miller was already storming off. He exchanged a sympathetic look with Jim, then left.

*

Jim was sitting in his weathered old Dodge Intrepid out in the parking lot of the police station. After the furor in the rest area, he thought it would be a better idea to eat his sandwiches in the solitary comfort of his car. While digging into his meat surprise sub, he heard a rap on his side window. He looked over. It was Baldy. He rolled his window down.

"You all right, buddy?" Baldy's voice was as collected as always as he leaned in through the car window.

"Never better," Jim said through a forced smile, not wanting to make more of the incident than already was.

"Don't let Mil get to you. He's got a short fuse, but he's not a bad person."

"I'm over it." Another forced smile.

"Hey, listen, about the suicides, you're not the only person who's picked up on the trend. I was talking to Spaulding last night on the scene. He's convinced there's some connection too. Me, personally, I don't know, but if you want someone to talk to about it, Spaulding's your man. Besides, he was the first one on scene, so it's his case. Maybe you can help him crack it!" Baldy accompanied the last sentence with a short laugh before taking off without a proper farewell.

Jim was once again left alone with his thoughts and his sandwiches.