Dr. Fox took the empty glass from Mary’s hand and refilled it with water before returning it to her.
Mary immediately took a large sip.
‘So,’ the doctor said, as she sat back down, ‘going back to the reason why you asked to see me today, my advice would be, do your absolute best to act like you would if you had never discovered this secret room. Don’t let him know that you know, but the most important thing is, keep your eyes open for an opportunity to get back into that room and snap just a few shots of these photographs on the wall, or even a video, if at all possible. All you’ll need is a few seconds in there, that’s all. Once you have that, the game changes. Then yes, get the police, the FBI, whoever you want to arrest this guy. I’ll go to the police with you, if you want me to.’
‘That’s a lot easier said than done, Doc,’ Mary came back, tears starting to well up in her eyes again.
Dr. Fox grabbed a tissue from the box on her desk and offered it to Mary. ‘You’re right. It really won’t be easy, but I think that it’s the only plan of action here. I’ve known you for about two years now, Mary. You’re a good person with a strong moral compass. I think that even if you wanted to, you wouldn’t be able to just walk away and do nothing to stop this guy from hurting anyone else in the future… because he will. These people don’t ever stop, Mary, unless somebody stops them… and from everything you told me, at the moment, it seems like you’re theonlyone who can do that.’
Mary finished the entire glass of water in three large gulps.
‘If what you’ve found is real, Mary,’ Dr. Fox added, ‘then this isn’t something that you’ll be able to just brush under thecarpet and move on with your life. If you try to do that, your subconscious will crush you with guilt.’
Mary cursed herself under her breath because she knew that Dr. Fox was right.
Eighty-Nine
Mary had always been a great planner. She wouldn’t have survived this long in the con game if she weren’t. But the quality that really set her apart from other con artists was her incredible ability to compartmentalize.
Dr. Fox was right. Mary had known Quaddra for almost two years, and in all that time she’d never, not even once, felt threatened or in danger while in his company. Quaddra had never even raised his voice at her, never mind showing any signs of being physically violent. Their sex life was varied – sometimes tender, sometimes rougher, sometimes kinky, sometimes a mix of all three, but always consensual… always within limits… never pushy… and never, ever aggressive. If Quaddra had a sick urge to torture and murder women, then, just like Dr. Fox had said, Mary didn’t seem to meet his ‘victim’ criteria. If she did, she’d be another Polaroid on that wall by now. So, theoretically, as long as Mary carried on acting like Mary… like she never knew about that secret basement, she would stay out of danger, and the best way for her to do just that was to compartmentalize – something that she was brilliant at.
This wouldn’t be easy. Mary knew that. Especially given the fact that she had less than a day to get her mind wrapped around the absolute insanity of what she’d discovered and into the right frameset.
The idea was very straightforward. Mary would have to bundle the new Quaddra – the one with a basement of horrors under his office, the one with a sick urge to torture and murder innocent women – into a tight package and store that package away in a hidden compartment inside her mind. That compartment wouldn’t be touched until she was ready to go to the police with the proof she needed.
The other Quaddra – the one that she had married, the one that she was conning, the one that she was falling in love with – would stay exactly where he was, at the forefront of her mind. And that would be the Quaddra that she would see every time that she looked at him, every time that she kissed him. That was the compartmentalization part of the plan.
The ‘obtain proof’ part of the plan was just as straightforward. Quaddra kept the keys to his office on a keychain that he carried with him everywhere he went. But because access to his secret basement came via a state-of-the-art Murphy door hidden behind a filing cabinet, a door that he had no idea that Mary knew about, that keychain was just that – a regular keychain. He didn’t keep it on a piece of string around his neck at all times, or locked inside a combination safe somewhere. When Quaddra was at home, he would empty his pockets onto his bedside table in their bedroom, and that was that. The office key, together with his wallet, and whatever else he had in his pockets, would be right there – on the table. Mary saw that key every day. All that she needed to do now was grab it, and she was planning on doing so as soon as possible for a very simple reason – the compartmentalization of the two Quaddras wouldn’t be easy to execute, but Mary knew that she could do it, she just didn’t know how long she’d be able to do it for before the enormity of the danger that she was putting herself under began to really creep in, and once that happened – game over.
Ninety
Quaddra returned home from Seattle the next day like he’d said he would, and Mary was surprised with how well she was able to isolate ‘evil Quaddra’ into some hidden part of her mind and keep him there, allowing her to concentrate only on ‘good Quaddra’. And her performance was worthy of a standing ovation.
As Quaddra got back home, Mary kissed him like she always did, they had dinner and shared a bottle of wine like they’d done countless times before, and they had sex as if they hadn’t seen each other in months… and this time, Mary didn’t even have to fake it.
‘Every time you come back from one of your trips,’ Mary said, as Quaddra rolled off her to his side of the bad, his breathing labored, his smile so wide it practically reached his ears. ‘You come back… hungry, if you know what I mean.’
Quaddra took a moment to catch his breath. ‘That’s because I miss you so much. But…’ Their eyes met. ‘You seemed pretty hungry yourself, baby.’
The smile on Mary’s lips was just as wide as Quaddra’s, her breathing just as labored. ‘That’s because I miss you more.’
‘We’ve been married for a year,’ Quaddra said, turning on his side to look at Mary. ‘We dated for nine months before that, and you still take my breath away… every time.’
‘And so do you,’ Mary replied, her chest rising and falling hard with each breath. ‘As you can clearly see.’
‘I’m not talking about only when we’re in bed, honey,’ Quaddra countered. ‘That’s just a bonus. I’m talking about all the time.’ He ran the back of his index and middle finger against her left cheek. ‘Whenever I look at you… no matter where we are… my heart beats faster. It happened right on that first night that I saw you at that art exhibition and it has never changed in all the time that I’ve known you. You complete me in a way that it’s hard to explain. It’s like… if I’m a ship, you’re the ocean that carries me forward, do you know what I mean?’
Mary held his gaze for several long seconds. ‘Is this pillow talk, baby? How good was I tonight?’
Quaddra laughed. ‘You were fantastic, as always, my love, but this isn’t pillow talk. This is real talk. I love you so much.’
Mary slid a little closer to Quaddra to kiss him on the lips before whispering. ‘And I love you so much back.’
‘I really can’t wait to be back in Salzburg with you next week,’ Quaddra said, reaching for her hand and kissing it. ‘That was so much fun.’
‘That was absolutely crazy,’ Mary corrected him, her memory clearly taking her back to the private drone show that Quaddra had organized when he asked her to marry him. She swung her legs off the bed and put her panties back on. ‘I’m going to go get some water, would you like some?’
‘Actually, yes. Can you get me a bottle of sparkling, please, baby?’
