It Started With that Talk

Briscoe intervened: "Thank you, Bill, I appreciate that. But at this point can I say how concerned I am that Dave and Sue's daughter is here? Isn't that somewhat unusual?"

Bill smiled at him, saying: "You are perfectly correct. It is unusual, but when we share with you the evidences we could be putting before the courts, I am certain that you will agree that the decision to invite Sandi-Sue here was the correct one."

Briscoe then began: "Despite your wife's talk with you at your house last Wednesday morning, what evidence do you have that a physical affair actually took place? That your wife really did commit adultery with anyone? Don't you feel you are being a bit premature, Mr Summers?"

"Mr Briscoe, I have a piece of information that I believe my wife is, as yet, unaware of. About an hour after she left our home, I received a phone call from Steve. He advised me that the moaning sounds I could hear was my wife having sexual intercourse with him. Up until that moment I had no evidence of a tryst, nor did I know who Susan was having her affair with. But that phone call left me in no doubt."

Before Briscoe could respond Susan let out a loud gasp and clapped her hands to her mouth. "Oh, babe! Oh Dave, sweetheart! That phone call must have devastated you! Oh, I am so sorry! I had no idea he had done that! Please believe me!"

Briscoe looked at her, askance. He said, almost to himself: "Well, that's put paid to that!"

Sandi-Sue looked at her mother, smiled and said in a fair imitation of the Valspeak dialect that Susan had used as a young girl: "Well, mom, about that sex you had with 'uncle' Steve. Was it, like, totally awesome? Was it worth it?"

Susan said nothing, but her face became flushed.

Briscoe glanced at Sandi-Sue before speaking again. He looked toward Bill and said: "I note that you said 'evidences', Bill. What other evidence do you have that you might be able to present to the courts?"

Bill smiled at him, in a not unfriendly way, and said: "We feel that the clincher evidence would be the sex video that Steve made of him and Mrs Summers. Which he kindly emailed to Dave, whilst he and Mrs Summers were together."

Briscoe forgot himself and muttered under his breath: "Oh, fuck!"

Susan looked sick and she shuddered, but said nothing, clutching the edge of the table. She seemed barely able to hold herself together. Her distress did not move me. 'Was this how it was going to be from now on?' I thought to my self.

Bill continued: "What I propose now is to play the video." He pressed a button on a remote and a large screen TV dropped down from the ceiling at one end of the room.

"No!" Shouted Susan, suddenly agitated. "I'll not have my baby girl exposed to such... filth... I mean such material!"

"It's too late, Susan," said Bill mildly and in a kindly way: "I am afraid that your lover Steve Evers has already sent Sandi-Sue her very own copy of the video. She has already seen it."

Susan let out a sob at that, but said nothing. I noticed her lawyer was playing with his pen. He looked distinctly unhappy.

We watched the video. It still made me feel physically ill, Sandi-Sue was glaring at her mother, Bill was trying to look cool and unflustered but he looked anything but, Susan whimpered and Peter Briscoe started to look as if he was having trouble keeping his lunch down.

When the video was over, it was his Australian accent, now broader and thicker than ever, that sounded out. And he was angry! Furious, in fact! "Well, fuck me sideways! Christ, that's bloody-well buggered it! Ding! Ding! End of the tramline! Everyone off!"

He turned to Susan: "It might be possible to argue about the admissibility of that video in court, but that doesn't matter, does it, Susan? Because your poor bloody husband and your poor bloody daughter now know exactly what you really think of them! Well, I think my work here is done! I won't even bill you, Mrs Summers. I'll..."

He stopped when he noticed that Susan had fallen out of her chair and had started to fit.

"Shit!" He shouted. He went into action. "Call 911!" He put her into the recovery position and after a while she stopped fitting and seemed to fall unconscious.

Scant minutes later an EMT team were ushered into the room, they examined her, put her on a trolley and took her away to the ambulance.

"Dave," said Bill, "I know things are shitty for you right now, but I'll offer my advice to you as your legal counsel and as a friend, go to the hospital for Susan. If you don't and something happens, I know you, you'd never forgive yourself."

Sometimes events just take on a life of their own. Happily married man to wouldbe divorcee to man anxious about the health of his wife. In what seemed like the beat of a heart.

I parked our car in the hospital's underground parking garage and Sandi-Sue and I went up into the San Francisco Central Hospital and made our way to the Emergency Room.

We were greeted by another culture clash. We'd already met an Australian attorney, now we met an Indian Doctor with a Cockney accent! Dr Kaur was a slight but no nonsense woman who, she told us, had been born and bred in London.

She asked us how Susan had come to go into a fit. When we told her she frowned and shook her head. "Bloody 'ell! Blimey, I can see why that would upset her, but even so, there's something that is bothering me about your wife's case. Her pupils are... not quite right. I want to get some very comprehensive tests done on your wife. Blood, urine, hair and a full body scan. I presume she's still on your health insurance?"

I assured Dr Kaur that Susan was still on my insurance, so the treatment began.

And things began to get even more fucked up.

They had quickly transferred Susan to a room in the psych section of the hospital and were keeping her calmed with a sedative. The next morning I visited her, Sandi-Sue had refused to come with me, but whilst I had wanted to avoid seeing Susan, I told myself I did not have that luxury.

After I had sat with Susan for a while as she dozed, one of the nurses in charge sent for Dr Kaur who asked me to see her in her office.

"Please Mr Summers, take a seat. I have some disturbing news for you."

"Christ? What now?" I felt a sense of panic. "Is she HIV positive? What?"

"It's nothing like that... we could not tell about HIV for several weeks, only. She also does not have an STD. Can you please tell me what medication is your wife on?"

I marshalled my thoughts for a moment, before replying: "None, that I am aware of. We are both fairly lucky with our health. Why do you ask?"

"Because with blood, urine and hair analysis we were able to establish that your wife is on a significant cocktail of drugs. Fairly heavy duty psychiatric drugs, at that. Who is her psychiatrist?"

"She doesn't have a psychiatrist. If she did, the payments would have shown up on the insurance? Wait... Steve, her lover, is a psychologist. Could HE have given her medication?"

Dr Kaur looked at me and replied: "I fear that he might well have done, but as he is a psychologist and not a psychiatrist he is not allowed, by law, to prescribe. He would not have legally been in possession of the medication.

"I have read the case notes of your wife, but please, to help me, tell me all you know?"

I told her what had happened, or what I knew about it. When I finished she shook her head and looked furious. "You say she was 'trained' by your so-called friend? Could that training have involved a CD or DVD, by any chance? Go to your home and see if you can find one. If you do, please bring it to me."

I must have looked confused because she continued: "The drugs your wife was on are very powerful, taken in combination and IF there was any element of hypnosis involved, it could be that Steve was using mind control techniques with which to ensnare your wife into having an affair. In effect, first, he raped her mind, then he raped her body!"

I somehow managed to get back to my car, although I still can't recall leaving Dr Kaur's office. I rang Bill, gave him the update and then somehow drove home.

When I got home I parked the car, ran into the house and I rushed into downstairs bathroom and began vomiting. I was kneeling down, clutching the toilet bowl, sobbing and retching.

Sandi-Sue rushed in to me. She knelt beside me, stroking my forehead. "Daddy! What's happened? Is mom worse?"

"No, Sandi-Sue," I was able to choke out. "The Doctor we spoke to, that British Indian woman? She told me that Susan was pumped full of drugs by Steve and probably hypnotised by him. That bastard raped her! He raped my lovely Susan! Why? Why? Damn you, Steve! Why'd you have to that?"

I spent a long time crying on the floor with Sandi-Sue comforting me. I told Sandi-Sue that I felt I had let her mother down; that my so-called best friend had been raping her and I never knew.

"That's nonsense, Daddy! How could you have known?" said Sandi-Sue.

Intellectually, I knew that what Sandi-Sue said was true, but emotionally? I felt I was somehow to blame. The situation had just become worse, again.

Sandi-Sue and I searched for the DVD and we found it in Susan's DVD player. The DVD was obviously specially made for Susan by Steve- and it contained some horrible exercises for stretching her vagina, but the majority of the disc was taken up with what looked to be positive affirmation sessions, all recorded by Steve for Susan. I was not an expert, so did not know what to make of it.

I made ten copies. Two were for Bill, a couple more were for Dr Kaur and the rest were placed in my safe.

I made an appointment to see Dr Kaur and she told me she would arrange for an expert to review the DVD. I met both of them in her office. Dr Kaur introduced me to the expert, Dr Paul Baker. "Technically we should address him as Dr. Dr. Baker, as he has an MD, specialising in psychiatry and he has a PhD in psychology.

We shook hands. He was a bluff, on nonsense guy. He was an imposing presence, aided by his clothing. He wore Western gear, but even though he was a doctor (or a doctor, doctor!) he looked right at home with the Western gear, as if he might know how to do it for real. I subsequently discovered that he did and relaxed by working on his family ranch in Colorado.

He got me to retell the whole story.

He looked at me, with sympathy. "This is a hideous thing to happen to you. Based on the information you have just given me, I feel that it is likely that your wife was subjected to mind control or to use another name for it, brain washing. I will not know for sure until I have gone through this DVD and made a careful study of its contents."

I sat with Susan most afternoons for about an hour. She lay in her bed, or sat in a chair at the side of the bed. She was unable to look me in the eye. We tried to talk, but it was awkward. We seemed to be drifting apart.

At the end of the week Dr Kaur asked to see myself, Bill and Dr Baker in her office.

After the introductions Dr Baker spoke. I could tell that he was angry. "Dave, I can confirm that Dr Kaur's original diagnosis was right on the button. Steve Evers did use drugs and hypnosis techniques to induce your wife to have an affair. Although at first glance the content on the DVD looked like fairly standard positive affirmation sessions compiled by a master of the craft, there were also some hidden subliminal hypnosis sessions buried within them. Combine those with the powerful drugs, it's doubtful your wife stood much of a chance, in my professional opinion."

Bill said: "But I thought you could not use hypnosis to make people do what they didn't want to do?"

"Exactly so, Bill. But with the right combinations of drugs and mind control techniques, it is possible to brainwash someone and encourage them to act in a way that would be completely out of character. Remember those US servicemen who were brainwashed by the North Koreans during the Korean War? And please consider that drugs and techniques have improved dramatically over that time."

I felt sick and began to feel like I was panicking. "So that piece of shit raped Susan? And he sort of encouraged or made her say those horrible things about Sandi-Sue and me?"

"Yes, Dave," said Dr Baker. "Exactly so. Now we know pretty much what happened we will be able to devise a treatment regimen for your wife. Help flush the last vestiges of those drugs out of her system and also start on a program to put right the damage his perfidious brain washing sessions did to her. It will take time."

A couple of days later and I was with Susan. She had started to respond to the physical treatment, but it would be a long, long road for all of us. We were in a lounge, sat drinking coffee and chatting.

"Dave, can you ever forgive me?"

"Forgive you for what, Susan? For being raped? That wasn't your fault."

"But what I did! What I said about you and Sandi-Sue! Until I heard what I said, I couldn't recall having said those terrible things! It was hearing them that did something to me. According to Dr Baker, that sort of short-circuited what Steve had done to me."

She explained that it had all started out very innocently. Steve had been working with a publisher to design a new program to help people deal with issues of low self-worth.

He had asked Susan to help by serving as a control, someone without psychological problems who would be able to view the videoed sessions without them impacting on her.

He had asked her to complete a non disclosure agreement and also asked her not to tell me about the sessions because, he told her, telling someone else –even me- might invalidate her status as an impartial control.

At some point he must have replaced the genuine sessions with the program that he had devised to get her to cheat on me, plus he gave her the drugs which he probably slipped into drinks he was giving her, as she could not recall taking them.

Then he decided to introduce the stretching exercises and planted in her mind the idea that she wanted to cheat on me for three days.

Whilst Sue was in hospital receiving treatment, Steve had hurriedly left town and a warrant was obtained for his arrest on charges of rape and practicing medicine without a licence.

Helen came to visit Sandi-Sue and me one afternoon. I'd just got back from my office and was pleased to see Helen. Although she looked dreadful.

"Helen!" I said as I opened the door to her knock. "It's great to see you! You are looking well! Come in!"

She looked at me, smiled, and said: "You are full of it, but in a nice way, Dave. I look like shit and I know it."

We all went through into the lounge and I got drinks for all of us.

Helen had an expression on her face that showed the pain she was going through. "I can't begin to tell you how sorry I am that Steve did this to you all. I can't begin to imagine what he thought he was doing! And what's worse, he was raping my best friend and I didn't even have a clue!"

"Don't blame yourself, Helen. You weren't to know. None of us knew."

Helen nodded and continued to speak. "I never noticed him changing. He seemed normal, he treated me just the same, we made love as we always did. So when did he become the monster? Or was that something that was always there, always waiting to escape?

"I can't stay in that house, knowing that was where he raped Susan. I can't! I'll look for a cheap apartment, but I can't stay there!" She began to sob and both Sandi-Sue and I comforted her as best we could. Eventually one of us, (can't recall who!) invited her to stay in the duplex apartment that was attached to our house but which was then currently unused. She took a little persuading, but later that week she moved in, having locked her own house up.

Life went on. I continued running my business and after some deliberation I decided to retain Peter Briscoe as Susan's attorney. We would be suing Steve's practice for a variety of offences. I'd talked it over with Helen and when I convinced her that it wouldn't cost her any money as we'd be suing his insurance carrier, and not her, she seemed at ease with the idea.

Eventually the police ran Steve to earth. They'd feared he might have gone to Canada or even overseas. It turned out he was still in California, in a place called El Centro, way down in the south of the state.

Much to everyone's shock he decided to plead guilty to all charges and got 8 years jail time for the rape. Seems crazy, but if it had been a state like Alabama he could have got 99 years. Which I'd have preferred.

What happened was this: He'd been going to plead 'not guilty' which pissed me off, as it would mean Susan would have to appear as a witness in his trial.

At his arraignment hearing I was in the court. As he walked in, Steve's eyes had flickered around the court. When he saw me, his face lit up in a smile. I looked at him, shook my head and mouthed to him: "Why? Why? Why did you rape Susan?"

The smile vanished from his face and he shuddered. He staggered to his right, recovered himself and when he was asked what his plea was he said: "Your honor, I have decided to change my plea to guilty. It has just been brought to my attention what I did. I can no longer deny it. What I did was evil and I must be punished."

18 months down the line and a lot has happened. Helen divorced Steve and the house was sold. She moved in to a small house on our block, so she's not far away. We still see her, but not as often as we used to. Currently she isn't dating.

Sandi-Sue is studying. Originally she'd thought about going to college back East, but decided not to and to stay close to her folks. She's coping, I think, but she says very little about what happened.

Susan stayed as an in-patient for a couple of months, until they decided that she was OK to be released and to come back home. This was a little awkward for a while and we had separate bedrooms for a couple of months. Apparently my nightmares of the day that she left me were pretty graphic re-runs of what had happened from my point of view and as I'd started talking in my sleep, they distressed Susan to the extent that she needed a separate bedroom. Eventually they faded away and we were able to sleep in the same room, but in separate beds.

We are currently still in counselling sessions as individuals and as a couple. Sometimes as a trio, with Sandi-Sue. We have issues a-plenty to cope with and get over as best we can. Sandi-Sue has her own counselling sessions.

My counselling included some advanced NLP techniques to help me lessen the memories of what I had seen in the video. It was not easy and took a great deal of time and effort. Sandi-Sue went through a similar program in her counselling, too.

It wasn't so much what we had seen, but what we had both heard Susan say about us, her husband and her daughter, that caused us the most distress. These elements, our counsellors told us, were the most intractable problems that took longer to help us get through.

After a long time Susan and I started to make love again. The first several times were complete disasters as I suffered from a severe erectile dysfunction. Not even the hint of an erection. This made me feel like I was not a real man. I apologised to Susan for what I perceived as my failure as her husband, and she sobbed bitter tears, as she blamed herself for my problem. More and deeper counselling and some Viagra helped me overcome this. And we were eventually able to start making love again.

Things still aren't completely fixed and I doubt that they ever will be. For example, Susan flinches every time I put my hand on or near her vagina, as a result of Steve's rape of her. And Susan had required two sessions of surgery to put right some physical damage he had caused her.

But things are getting better. I realise our marriage can never be as good as it used to be, but we are both working to ensure it will become as good as it can be.