Deprogram?

It was well past dawn when I stumbled into the Albergo Valentino. Dodging the staff, I tottered upstairs, fell on the bed and remained there for the rest of the morning.

After a very late lunch, I paid Lucia’s bill and told Gabriella that she had booked out. The girl was panting for an explanation, but I couldn’t even be bothered to invent one. Instead, I asked her for some notepaper and wrote a letter to the Fiat garage in Chieti Scalo in which I told that their car had suffered an accident and enclosed a map to show them where they’d find it. Then, having fulfilled my obligations, I got  taxi to the airport and flew back home to England.

It felt good to be in Wembley once again. It didn’t seem to have changed much during my absence. Mrs Guest caught me in the garden, made me tell her where I’d been, and then brought me up-to-date with everything the neighbours had done while I had been away.

Leaving her with some difficulty, I drove to Athelstan House and discovered an enormous pile of post behind the office door. It contained, however, nothing of significance, so I made a mug of coffee, carried it to the desk by the window, put my feet up and leaned back in the chair.

It was now nine-thirty in Harrow, so it must be ten-thirty in Pisa. The Perfectionists would have been up for hours. I took out my notebook and dialled the number of Palazzo Marinelli.

‘Pronto,’ said a voice – a female voice.

‘Buongiorno,’ I said. ‘May I speak to Riccardo Fisher, please?’

There was a pause and a whispered discussion away from the phone, then she came back to me.

‘I am sorry, but Signor Fisher is not available.’

‘This is very important,’ I said. ‘I need to speak to Signor Fisher urgently.’

‘Who is calling, please?’

It was my turn to hesitate while I wondered who I should be.

‘It’s Henderson – Kevin Henderson.’

‘One moment, Signor Henderson.’

After a further consultation with some distant colleague, the receptionist returned.

‘Signor Henderson, you must telephone our English headquarters if you wish to speak to Signor Fisher.’

‘Thank you.’

‘Prego.’

I made a note on the pad and dialled Holly’s work number.

‘Good morning,’ I said. ‘It’s Matt.’

‘Where are you?’ Her voice was strained.

‘In Station Road.’

‘Is Richard with you?’

I took a deep breath.

‘I’m afraid not.’

‘Where is he, then?’

‘I think he’s in Margate.’

‘You think? You only think?’

‘Holly,’ I said, ‘could we meet and have a talk about things, please?’

‘Stay exactly where you are, Matt. Don’t move. I’ll come to you.’

Half an hour later, she was sitting on the chair opposite my desk, staring at me and twiddling her hair. Was it my imagination, or had Holly grown even more beautiful during my absence?

‘So,’ she said, ‘you think the Perfectionists have taken Richard back to Lyonesse Court.’

‘That’s what the people in Pisa told me.’

‘He hasn’t changed his mind about them, then?’

‘Not from what I saw, Holly.’

She frowned.

‘Well, Matt, you’ve certainly demonstrated that you have the ability to find Richard. You’ve even managed to get him away from the Perfectionists for a while. The problem is – he’ll always want to go back to them till he’s deprogrammed.’

‘If he’s brainwashed as you say, yes, I suppose he will.’

She sighed.

‘It’s a hard job making a member of a cult see the error of his ways. Generally, it’s a specialist’s job. I suppose you don’t know any deprogrammers, do you?’

I shook my head.

‘No.’

‘Neither do I.’

‘Aren’t there any in your Baptist Church?’

‘Oh, no. I’m afraid it’s up to us.’

‘Us?’ Even as she spoke, it flashed through my mind that by “us” she meant “you”.

Holly smiled.

‘It’s alright, Matt. I’ve got a book out of the library that tells us exactly how to do it.’

I bit my lip.

‘I’m not sure about this. Mucking about with people’s minds is uncharted territory to me.’

‘You never object to giving advice to your clients, do you?’

‘No.’

‘Well, then, all I want you to do is give some advice to Richard.’

This sounded better. I grinned.

‘Oh, I could do that, Holly.’

‘See, Matt, it’s easy. But first we have to get him away from Lyonesse Court.’

And then a thought occurred to me.

‘What if he refuses to come with us?’

Her smile grew even broader.

‘Well, we’ll just take him anyway, Matt.’ A wild look entered Holly’s eye which worried me a lot.

‘I’m sorry,’ I said, ‘but I can’t possibly advise you to get involved in kidnapping.’

Her expression softened into one of hurt innocence.
‘We’re not going to kidnap him, Matt. What I’m saying is that Richard, after all that he’s been through, needs to go on a retreat – somewhere nice and quiet – where he can think things over without distraction.’

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘but what you choose to call “going on a retreat”, the counsel for the prosecution will almost certainly describe as abduction.’

Holly seemed quite unconcerned.

‘Then he’d be wrong, wouldn’t he?’

I sighed and changed the subject.

‘Would you like a cup of coffee?’

She wrinkled her nose.

‘No, thanks.’

‘I do – desperately.’ I got up, trotted over to where the electric kettle sat on top of the refrigerator and turned it on.

‘Holly,’ I said.

‘Yes, Matt?’

‘Don’t you think you ought to accept that you’ve lost Richard and move on?’

She stared, as if seeing me for the first time.

‘You still don’t understand, do you? Listen very carefully, please. I can accept that I’ve lost Richard. People do lose those they love – it’s just one of those things. What I can’t accept is Richard’s loss. He’s not himself, Matt. You didn’t know him before he got mixed up with the Perfectionists. If you had, you’d understand exactly why we can’t leave him in their clutches.’

‘I think we can, Holly. It’s his choice, not yours.’

She gritted her teeth. I’d never seen her look so determined.

‘How many times do I have to tell you, Matt? He’s been brainwashed. He can’t make rational decisions for himself any more, so it’s up to us to make them for him until he’s been rehabilitated.’

‘You may be right, Holly, but you can’t ignore the law.’

She gave a sinister chuckle.

‘That’s really funny – coming from a man who thinks nothing of breaking into people’s houses in the course of his work.’

I felt my cheeks burn

‘That’s different. I only do it when I have to and I always leave the place exactly as I found it. I never do any harm.’

‘And we’re not going to do any harm Richard. On the contrary, we’re going to do him good! If the law says it’s okay for a cult to cart him away and brainwash him but it’s wrong for us to rescue him and restore him to normality, then the law’s an absolute ass.’

I nodded.

‘I’d prefer to get Richard’s permission for your plan, though.’

‘I know, Matt. So do I, but we can’t always have what we want, can we?’

‘No, I suppose not,’ I said, secretly hoping that we could.

Holly smiled with pleasure.

‘I knew you’d see it my way. Now, give this retreat idea a bit more thought, please, and I’ll meet you here at three o’clock tomorrow to discuss it further. Okay?’

‘Okay.’

She left, and I sat alone in the office, wondering why I’d let her involve me in such a ridiculous business.

~ by Christopher Jealous on December 11, 2008.