The Trapped Girl by Dugoni Robert

Author:Dugoni, Robert [Dugoni, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, thriller, Crime, Suspense, Adult, Contemporary
ISBN: 9781503940406
Amazon: 1503940403
Goodreads: 31340860
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: 2017-01-24T08:00:00+00:00

WHO LOOKS OUTSIDE, DREAMS;

WHO LOOKS INSIDE, AWAKES.

CARL JUNG

The room smelled of incense.

Tracy handed Townsend the signed authorization from Patricia Orr for the release of Andrea’s records, which was valid because Andrea had been a minor when she received counseling.

“I was hoping to get your impressions.”

“Well, first off I can tell you I was not surprised to hear Andrea had died in an accident on Mount Rainier.”

Apparently, Townsend did not know Andrea had not died on Rainier. Tracy decided to explore his thinking. “No? Why not.”

“Because I was not convinced it was an ‘accident.’”

“You thought the husband killed her?”

“No. I would maintain that Andrea took her own life.”

“Why would you come to that conclusion?”

“Because of three years of therapy. This would be the kind of grandiose gesture I’d expect Andrea would choose to leave the world—something to let the world know she’d been here.”

“Grandiose? I understood from Mrs. Orr that Andrea was an introvert who hid from the world.”

“That was her coping mechanism,” Townsend said. “That was how Andrea chose to hide from her problems, to shut them away in a closet, so to speak. But that wasn’t who she really was.”

Tracy knew that trick very well. She’d become obsessed with finding Sarah’s killer, so much so that when she’d finally had to walk away, she’d had to literally shut Sarah’s files in her bedroom closet so that she could function. “How would you describe her?”

“Before the car accident that took her parents’ lives, and before the abuse at the hands of her uncle, she was described by her schoolteachers and counselors as a bright, well-adjusted, mischievous young woman.”

“Mischievous?”

“She liked to play pranks on her classmates and friends.”

“What kind of pranks?”

“Oh, she’d hide someone’s lunch, short-sheet their beds at slumber parties, put pin holes in the milk cartons so when classmates drank, the milk would dribble down their chins.”

Tracy’s sister had been similarly mischievous. Sarah had liked to hide and jump out at Tracy and her unsuspecting friends. “Harmless pranks,” she said.

“For the most part.”

“Were there occasions when the pranks were not harmless?”

Townsend nodded. “A few, apparently.”

“Such as?”

“She cut the stem of a bike tire on a classmate who she believed had been mean to a friend of hers.”

Tracy considered this. “Could her pranks have increased in their vindictiveness?”

“Yes,” Townsend said, “I believe they could have.”

“What was your diagnosis for Andrea?”

“Well, Andrea left when she was eighteen, so I can’t say for certain.”

“You don’t know.”

“I believe Andrea was susceptible to a dissociative disorder brought on by the trauma and abuse.”

“What do you mean by a dissociative disorder?”

“It can be a number of different things. In Andrea’s case it could have manifested in an involuntary and unhealthy escape from reality.”

“Her excessive reading?”

“Certainly. It’s a mechanism used to keep traumatic memories at bay. The person either has memory loss—you can’t recall what you did or who certain people are in your life—or she can take on alternate identities.”

“Split personalities?”

“In a sense. The person switches to an alternate identity. Someone suffering from a dissociative

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