Within the Shadows by J.D MCG (book recommendations .TXT) 📗

'Stress from trauma?' Ally answered again, while Barnes stayed confused.

'Correct but there are many different reasons including substance abuse and psychosis.'

'You think both Nathan Lawrence and Felicity James could be experiencing this multiple personality disorder?' Barnes piped up.

'I did tell you I was clutching at straws,' Ethan joked.

'But why would that make them killers?' Ally asked.

'I don't know, I'm a police officer, not a psychiatric doctor,' he laughed.

'Thanks, Ethan,' Ally said as she walked away with Barnes in tow. 'Do you think Ethan could be right about this?'

'I'm not sure, but it does explain an awful lot,' he replied. 'Can you look into Jack Roberts past and see if he fits any of the symptoms of Dissociative Identity Disorder?'

'Sure thing, boss,' she said before leaving Barnes to enter his office alone.

He sat at his desk, his head pounding from an ungodly headache. The doctors told him to rest after his ordeal but thinking he knew better, he ignored their advice and continued with work. It was the only way he'd be able to take his mind off the trauma he experienced, but the quiet moments were when his mind took him back to those moments. Being inside that warehouse and canal boat, the blood pouring out of him, the shock from the electrocution and the pain from the knife wounds. It was all he could think about in those quiet moments. He lost sleep every night because of them.

As he woke from his thoughts, he noticed Jacob entering the CID and walking over to his office. Barnes wiped his face with his hands before the door knocked.

'Come in,' Barnes spoke before the door opened.

'Morning, boss,' Jacob greeted him. 'What's been happening in my absence?'

'Where do I begin?' Barnes said, making Jacob laugh, not meaning for it to be funny. 'Ethan seems to think Felicity James and Nathan Lawrence are suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder,' he explained to Jacob.

'What is that?'

'It's when someone suffers from multiple personalities.'

'So where's the connection?' Jacob asked.

'We haven't found one.'

'What about Jack Roberts? Do you think he suffers from the same disorder as them? He sure shows symptoms of it.'

'I've got Ally looking into his history. Anyway, how are you? Is everything okay at home?' Barnes asked him.

Jacob sat in the chair, and Barnes noticed tears welling up in his eyes as he explained what had been going on in his own life. He didn't want to seem self-absorbed, knowing what Barnes had been going through in his own life.

'Wow, our lives seem to have taken a toll for the worst lately,' he comforted Jacob. 'Look, I know you want to jump straight back into work, but these past few months have been hard, not just for you, but for all of us, and I think the thing we all need right now is to have a holiday. Once this case is over, I want you to take a break as will the rest of us,' he continued.

'I think that's a good idea, sir,' Jacob agreed.

Before another sentence could be said, Ally came rushing through the door with some new information.

'Boss, I've found something,' she started, before closing the office door behind her. 'When Jack Roberts was younger, he was put into the care system.'

'Right,' Barnes said, wanting her to get to the point.

'The reason for that was because he watched his parents get murdered,' she continued.

'Do you think he had post-traumatic stress disorder which brought on Dissociative Identity Disorder?' Barnes theorised.

'Could be. Maybe sparked up once he saw his wife's body,' she also put her theory out there.

Jacob interrupted the pair of them. 'But if you think this is multiple personalities, he said he'd seen the disfigured man lurking before the incident. How'd you explain that?'

'Maybe something else triggered it, and his brain was showing him the personality before he murdered his wife.' Ally continued.

'I think Mr Roberts is suffering from D.I.D, but I think it's quietly been there since his childhood and suddenly something has caused his secret personality to come out and take over,' Jacob expressed his concern. 'The thing we need to find out is what caused it to come out.'

'There's got to be a connection between these three people. I don't believe it's a coincidence that three people with D.I.D are all in the same city. I also don't think it's a coincidence that Hannah had just escaped from Felicity to be murdered by Jack. There's more to this that we're not seeing,' Barnes started to get frustrated.

'Or that we choose not to see,' Jacob interrupted.

'What do you mean by that, DS Wright?' Barnes questioned him.

'Look, last year we were searching for a cult of witches that were doing sacrificial killings. I'm just saying, let’s look at this with an open mind,' he explained his thoughts.

'You think this is supernatural in some way?' Ally asked him seriously.

'I wouldn't rule it out,' he replied.

'Okay,' Barnes said, rubbing his finger across his chin, deep in thought. 'Myself and Ally are going to interview Jack Roberts again and I want you, Jacob, to be listening in. It's better to have more eyes on this,' Barnes ordered.

Chapter 18

Jacob and Ally left the CID for lunch and sat inside a quiet little cafe a couple of miles away from the station to discuss the three cases and their similarities. Jacob ordered a cheeseburger and fries, but Ally wanted to watch her figure and chose a salad.

'Do you think all three of them really are suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder?' he asked Ally.

'I sure think Jack Roberts is, but I'm unsure of the others. Like Barnes said, how can three people in one city all have this rare disorder? Only seven percent of the world’s population suffer from it and