Memories Ch. 03

"We strongly suspect you were drugged, but we have yet to find the drug in question. You've tested negative on all common drugs, and some less common drugs that cause amnesia and the loss of inhibitions. We just don't know this yet."

The rest of the tape was mostly Julia comforting Ms Locatelli, doing her counselling job.

Hearing her doing this counselling brought back some of my own memories. From the moment Julia began working with us, I'd had regular contact with her. Somehow we hit it off the day she joined the force. Somehow we ended up having lunch together that day and she's been my regular lunch partner ever since. She was definitely married then and she and her husband were settling down in our town.

I have no idea when she took off her wedding ring, or when she got divorced. Come to think of it, she never talked much about her husband. We talked about many things, work, current affairs, just not much about our private lives. I had always assumed she was still married.

Some three years ago, when my live-in girlfriend broke up with me and left, I was in pretty bad shape. I felt down, really down, and of course Julia immediately picked up on that. We talked about the break-up and she gave me some great support helping me to overcome it.

During that time I had also often set off on long hikes, to be out of my normal environment, sometimes camping overnight, out for the whole weekend. Julia suggested she come with me. She said she was curious about the great outdoors but wouldn't dare to go alone and had no-one else to partner up with.

At first I felt a bit awkward, going out camping with a married woman, sleeping in the same rather small tent out in the woods. What would her husband think of that? However we kept it purely platonic. It wouldn't have taken much for her to seduce me if she had wanted to. Thinking she was married, I didn't even consider making a move.

A pretty, lovely girl, I can't deny having fantasised about her a bit now and then. The bikini she wore when out camping left little to the imagination. And sure I did like what I was seeing there. Strawberry blonde hair framing her round face, shiny blue eyes and full lips. Smallish, pert breasts on a slender well toned frame, narrow waist and round bottom. I remember the sight of her in her light blue bikini very well.

In the end it was a very pleasurable and relaxing experience for both of us, I really enjoyed her company, and somehow she did help me a lot in coming to terms with my new life as a single. Soon I got over my loss, and stopped going for such long hikes.

Our relationship at work remained close. Come to think of it, she didn't talk much about her husband before those camping trips, and she didn't talk about him at all after that. Her reason to go out camping may have been the same for me, to be out of her normal environment for a bit, while going through her divorce.

The tape was still playing, but I wasn't paying much attention to it, I was too much involved in my own thoughts when the phone rang, pulling me back out of it. I switched off the video before picking up the receiver.

"Jones speaking."

"Hi, it's Julia. Did you watch it? And what do you think?"

"It's interesting. Interesting how they made her do all that, and how she actually seemed to enjoy it."

"She's having a hard time dealing with it. Fantasies and dreams are one thing, this is reality."

"You do a great job counselling. And I think she actually mostly enjoyed it, and maybe her greatest frustration is even not remembering it."

"You think so?"

"Well again she mostly sounds like the thought arouses her. It makes me wonder what she'd do if she received another invitation to such a party, now knowing what's going on there."

"You got a point there. She's very confused indeed, and that's what I have to work with. She wouldn't have done it had she known it all beforehand, for sure. And that's why I really hope we can stop these parties."

"Agreed, however the investigation keeps on running into dead ends. This Sonar guy really knows how to cover his tracks."

"Maybe we should change tack, and ask him directly."

"What do you mean?"

"Go on Facebook, pretending to be Emily Locatelli, and ask him more about the parties, try to get him to talk."

"That may be a good idea, trying to get some more bits and pieces of information out of that Sonar. I'll leave that to you. Anyway, you ready to go on our date?"

"I thought you'd never ask. I'm more than ready to go on a date with you. Let's go."

We took my car to drive over to the site of Hotel Aralla. I parked on the side of the road, next to the original entrance gate. The site was rather large, the hotel used to have large gardens with fish ponds and landscaped features. The ponds were dry now, shallow indentations in the terrain was all that was left of them. Plants and trees were growing wild everywhere, including inside the old hotel building. The place looked rather peaceful in the sunshine, wild flowers were growing everywhere.

At the gate I immediately noticed tracks of a vehicle entering the compound. The vegetation was slightly damaged, and there were tracks in the mud. I photographed it all, using a small compact camera, to not raise too much suspicion. Not that I noticed any other people on the site, I just didn't want to take any risk. The tracks quickly disappeared and could not be followed any more.

I looked at Julia, and said, "Let's go, have a closer look."

She stepped closer to me, and grabbed my arm. I looked at her a bit confused.

"We're on a date, right?" she said.

"Yes ..."

"Then we'd just as well behave like a couple. Let's go!"

It felt a bit odd, but also strangely comforting, to have her on my arm like this as we walked onto the compound.

There were a few small auxiliary buildings, one of which had the roof still intact. None could have possibly been used for any kind of party recently, all were full of debris. We also couldn't find any trace of hidden rooms, like hidden basements below those buildings. No signs of human activity beyond the obvious trails made by occasional visitors.

Next we focussed on the main building. It was in terrible condition. Roofs and floors had collapsed, an old bath tub was hanging precariously by its plumbing from a wall at what used to be the upper floor. Remains of curtains hanging next to broken windows. There was a basement, it was flooded.

"It looks like a ghost house," Julia remarked.

"Indeed. I don't see any traces of recent occupation. Only some trails, likely made by curious passers-by, like us."

"It scares me." I felt her grip on my arm tightening a bit, as if she was genuinely scared of the place.

"It must be really creepy at night. No light here at all."

"Creepy, indeed. It's an interesting site, indeed. Just left behind, with nature slowly claiming it back."

"Lets walk around the building, see if there is anything interesting, and get going. I don't think there is much more to see here for us."

"Good idea."

We walked around to the other side of the building. Her grip relaxed as we walked. Another entrance to a basement, again full of water. We entered a still standing part of the building, and found what looked like the former dining room. It was a terrible mess, chunks of concrete from the ceiling strewn over the floor, shards of glass scattered everywhere. We even found an old menu posted on the wall. Just too bad the prices on that menu are not valid any more, it would've made for a very cheap meal.

Just as we got out of the door, a few large black crows flew up, screeching loudly as they flew right over our heads. Julia crouched, she looked pale. She held on to my arm with both hands now, pushing her body against me.

"Let's go back to the car," she said with a faint voice.

We quickly walked back, and entered the car. She didn't let go of my arm until we were back.

"You look pale," I said, and grabbed her hand as she sat down in the passenger seat. "You OK? Your hand is really cold."

"I'm fine. Just ... it's just so ... so scary, that place. I know there is no-one, well I think there isn't ... let's just go back. No way they had a party there, it's way too creepy, your phone records must be wrong somehow."

The place had totally scared the crap out of her. I drove off, and soon her face started to regain some colour, and a few minutes later she could smile again.

"That was a really creepy place. Not good to take your date to. Next time you ask me out, please find something nicer, OK?"

"Promise."

I held out my pinky to her, and she grabbed it with hers to seal my promise. I wouldn't take her there again. I have no idea what made her so scared, as I didn't share that emotion at all. I found the place mostly interesting, beautiful even. Very peaceful, a place where time stood still.

Even though it looked totally abandoned, phone records don't lie, and I was definitely not done yet with that place. There just had to be more to it than met the eye. I did believe there hadn't been any party there recently though, at least not a sex party with as many people as Ms Locatelli described. We would have seen more evidence, like more vehicle tracks, and there just didn't seem to be any large hidden space there that could be used as a party venue.

Instead of driving back to the station, I took a detour and stopped at a bakery shop. Julia looked at me questioning.

"Care for some coffee or tea, and a piece of cheesecake?" I asked, knowing that cheesecake is her favourite.

"Cheesecake, love it."

"This shop has the best, and I want to make up for that not so successful date."

"Thanks," she said, with a big, sweet smile. "You're really good to me."

We spent what was left of the afternoon in the bakery shop, enjoying their cheesecake and just chatting the time away. The day was almost done for anyway, and I really felt bad about her reaction at the ruins. When finished I just took her to the police station's parking lot for her to collect her car and we both headed home.