Peggy Holloway - Judith McCain 04 - Jupiter Returns Read online

  JUPITER

  RETURNS

  PEGGY

  HOLLOWAY

  Cover Design by Patti Roberts of Paradox Book cover Designs and Formatting

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  This is a work of fiction. Names characters and incidents are figments of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real.

  Copyright 2011 by Peggy Holloway

  Revised 2013

  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people If you would like to share this e-book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your used only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  By gots2know - See all my reviews. This review is from: Terror on the Beach (Kindle Edition) Five stars.

  I just couldn’t put this book down once I started it. This writer makes very interesting characters which makes your imagination run wild. Would highly recommend this book

  Review of SOUTHERN FRIED CHICKEN

  Review by: lora roara on Jan. 12, 2012 : (no rating)

  A wonderful read. Suspenceful to the end!

  (reviewed within a month of purchase)

  5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding mystery, January 28, 2012

  By

  Tiger08 - See all my reviews

  Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

  This review is from: DOUBLE SHOCK (Kindle Edition)

  I am happy to be the first to review this book. I could not put it down. It is set in southeast Georgia in 1969, it begins with the heroine frying her extremely abusive husband in the tub with a hair dryer. But she cannot understand why everyone in town, including the hunky sheriff, is determined to accept it as an accident and cover up the justified murder share. I grew up in North Georgia in the turbulent 60’s, just as things were changing drastically in the South. Do not dismiss this story as fantasy that could not have happened. It was within the realm of possibility then, but not today. But we must never forget that we can be doomed to repeat the past if we forget the tragedies of the past.

  Review by: Lynn Thompson on Jan. 30, 2012 :

  Double Shock is spectacular. When I first started reading this book I wasn’t sure I would like it. Several pages in I found that I had a hard time putting it down. I read it in a day. There are a lot of twists in this book and the characters in the book aren’t what they seem to be! I would love to explain this book, but I don’t want to ruin it for other readers. (reviewed within a week of purchase)

  Review by: Gloria Antypowich on Jan. 31, 2012 :

  Review by Gloria Antypowich

  When Ramona Ramsey finally had enough of her husband Jake’s cheating and physical abuse, she decided she would end it; when the opportunity came she murdered him. history; in some measure, on different levels, it still thrives there today. Within the pages of this book you will find hate, love, pain, fear, intrigue, action, loyalty, betrayal, defeat and victory; a broad spectrum of human emotions in a believable setting. (reviewed within a week of purchase)

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.

  CHAPTER 1

  Ben and I had just returned from the honeymoon we had had to postpone when we got married. I had been in the process of selling my private practice when we got married and then Mimi had had a heart attack and well it was just one thing and then another.

  We had been married for almost two years before we left on the much needed cruise. We had taken a month to sail around through the Panama Canal and end up in Miami after island hopping. From there we caught a plane back to Houston. I kept my maiden name so it is still Judith McCain.

  I am a psychologist and I now work for the FBI on a consulting basis. I only rarely take on private clients unless they are connected to an FBI case. My consulting job takes me out of town often. Ben isn’t crazy about that part of my job but when we do have time to get together it is that much more wonderful.

  I love Ben with all my heart but it took me a long time to grow up enough to be able to handle a healthy relationship. My twin sister, Julia and I have had our share of unhealthy relationships but we’ve come a long way considering where we both came from.

  As soon Ben and I walked in the door to the mansion, where we live with my grandmother, Mimi, she came in shaking like something had scared her half to death.

  “Judith, there was a woman here this morning, who called herself Jupiter. She said she has come back and will get her revenge. Who is she? She scared me so badly.”

  “Oh, my God!” I said. “I wonder how she got out and how she knew where to find me. Mimi, you and Ben stay here. I have to go talk to Tracy.”

  Tracy Carr is the head of the Houston based FBI. She took over for her boss last year when he retired. She was in charge of the pedophile ring that was headed up by Jupiter. It took the FBI almost two years to complete the investigation and bring the bad guys to justice. Many judges who were involved committed suicide rather than go to jail.

  It was the biggest bust in the history of the FBI and won Tracy her position she has now. The FBI had given Jupiter life in a maximum security facility for the criminally insane. In exchange, she gave the FBI a list of names of all the people involved in her pedophile ring and the organizational chart. Tracy didn’t think they had gotten everyone but felt they had gotten the major players.

  I walked over to what used to be the servant’s quarters in the back of the mansion where my Uncle Mark and Tracy have lived since they got married. It is a smaller version of the big house.

  Since it was Sunday evening both Tracy and Mark were home. Brad answered the door. Brad is my little cousin but calls me Aunt Judith. He is now eight and is almost a carbon copy of his dad.

  He grinned at me. “Hi, Aunt Judith. How was the honeymoon? Did you do a lot of smooching?”

  I laughed as I hugged him. “We had a good time, Brad. I need to talk to your mama.”

  Tracy and Mark came to the door together and told me to come in. Brad disappeared to play on the computer. I think he’s a genius.

  “You don’t look like someone just back from her honeymoon, Judith,” Tracy said after we were seated. “You look scared. What is it? What’s happened?”

  “Jupiter has escaped. Have you heard anything?”

  “No, I haven’t. How did you hear?”

  “She came to see Mimi this morning. Would you call the Charters and see if they even know she’s out?”

  The Charters was the hospital for the criminally insane where Jupiter had spent the last two and one half years. It was supposed to be maximum security. Tracy got up to use the phone and I looked at Mark.

  He looked worried. Tracy had been responsible for putting Jupiter away and if Jupiter was out to get revenge, then Tracy would be one of the main targets.

  Tracy came back shaking her head. “Two days ago Jupiter claimed she was sick and couldn’t eat. Then she got a visit from her sister. I talked to the head psychiatrist there. He said they found her so called sister strangled and in Jupiter’s bed shortly after visiting hours that day. He seemed surprised that no one had called the FBI and reported it.”

  Tracy blew out a long breath, “After we arrested Jupiter we found out her real name was Janice Adkins. She had been using an alias while she was a cop and Bill Wheeler’s partner.

  “Believe it or not, she comes from a good home of hone
st working people. Both of her parents are school teachers. She has no siblings so I’m assuming the woman who came to visit claiming to be her sister is one of the names Jupiter didn’t give us when she copped the plea.

  “I believe she kept back several people on reserve to help her, people who weren’t on that list. Judith, we’re going to need your help on this.”

  “What can I do?” I asked.

  “Well, I know you had been studying her and kept a file on her. Do you still have the file and when was the last time you saw her?”

  “It’s been over a year now. I quit going because I don’t like wasting my time. It was obvious she was playing games with me. The last time I saw her I told her I wouldn’t be coming back because I had more important things to do than play games with her.

  “She was so angry when I left she screamed at me until I got outside, telling me she would get even with me. I still have her file. I’ll get it for you.”

  I had left some of the active files with Dr. Alvarez, the doctor who bought my practice. The others, I took to my office in the mansion.

  The file for Jupiter was thick and the tab read simply Jupiter. She had told me several different names that were aliases. I had probably done more research on this one patient than all the others put together. But she was still a mystery.

  I had come to the conclusion that sometimes there’s no reason for why people do the things they do, that there were some people who were just evil.

  Ben, bless his heart, had already unpacked when I got back. I went into my office off the dining room and found the file for Jupiter.

  I first looked at the testing I had done on her. Her WISC intelligence test scores were off the scale. She was extremely intelligent.

  The MMPI, The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, showed an elevated sociopathic scale and the lying scale was off the chart.

  I put the rest of the tests results away. I knew she was pulling my chain when she saw butterflies and angels in the Rorshach, ink blot tests, and on the TAT, the Thematic Apperception Test, when she made up Pollyanna type stories.

  I went all the way back to my notes from my first session with her not long after she was arrested in 1994. I remembered being excited to interview someone who wasn’t depressed or suffering from anxiety or adjustment disorder.

  I remembered the first thing she had said to me. “Hi, Judith! I bet you never suspected me did you? You really thought I cared about you, didn’t you, when you were sixteen and arrested for prostitution. You were so scared and Bill and I were so kind to you.

  “You were always so dumb, thinking someone was going to give a damn about what happened to you. Bill and I really had you and everyone fooled. Poor stupid Bill, I’m glad I shot him in the head.

  “Did you notice the surprised look on his face? I got to hand it to you though. You kept your cool just like now. What’s going through your head right now, Judith?”

  I remained silent while she ranted and raved. “You remember the good ole sex you had with Bill? I bet you haven’t had anything like that before or since. Your new husband must be boring after Bill. I used to have some good sessions with ole Bill and his dad, the judge.”

  I stayed with her that first day for about an hour and she tried to get me to lose my cool. At the end of the hour I asked her if she would take some tests and she agreed.

  After about my fifth time with her I went in one day and she was crying. She told me she needed some help and knew she was sick. I bought into it hook line and sinker, fool that I was. I’ve had more experience now, I know better.

  I devoted more and more time to her and thought she was gaining insight. What I didn’t realize at the time was that she was having a high old time playing games and manipulating me.

  The one thing I gained from the experience was that I learned a great deal about sociopaths. My knowledge has helped me in working as a consultant with the FBI.

  Like most personality disorders, the person with antisocial personality disorder, also known as sociopaths, are very manipulative. Sociopaths can also be very charming and likable and can come across as very caring, as I had experienced with Jupiter when she was calling herself Sandy and working as a police woman when I was sixteen.

  I now have gained a great deal of experience with these people from consulting with the FBI. I can pretty much see through any type of manipulation.

  Anyway, when I finally figured out that Jupiter had been manipulating me I called it quits and I believe she has hated my guts ever since. She probably wanted to punish me more than the agents, like Tracy, who were responsible for putting her away.

  I was worried but more so for Brad and Mimi that for myself. Mimi had been terrified and that made me mad.

  It looked like I would be starting my consulting job full time right away. Ben and I had come back a few days early to rest up from the trip but that wasn’t going to happen.

  CHAPTER 2

  I got up early the next morning for a meeting with the FBI. I rode in with Tracy. Ben had decided to go back to work early.

  I told Jesse, Brad’s nanny, to take Brad over to the mansion and stay with Mimi. Jesse is a tough quadroon reformed ex-hooker whom I met when I first went to New Orleans as a run-away fifteen year old.

  She had taken me under her wing and helped me find out who I was and where I came from.

  She had been arrested and the house closed down but Dave Boudreau, the owner of the whore house had agreed to turn the house into a home for ex-hookers and started a program for them where he helped them get legitimate jobs.

  I knew Jesse would take good care of Brad and Mimi and I trusted her completely. Brad adored her and so did Mimi.

  Some of the agents from New Orleans had flown in for the meeting. Jupiter had ruined many lives in New Orleans.

  Tracy started the meeting by introducing everyone. There was coffee and donuts on the table in the conference room and everyone dug in.

  “Judith, why don’t you share some of the information with us about Jupiter and her personality?”

  I walked around to the head of the table and stood by Tracy. I noticed John Shepherd sitting off to the side. I smiled and waved to him. John was the FBI agent who hypnotized me when I was sixteen and trying to remember my past and what had happened to me when I was three years old. He was now married to my best friend Rosa.

  After looking around the room and waving to several others I had met before, I began. “The woman who calls herself Jupiter, Janice Adkins, is a textbook example of a person with antisocial personality also known as sociopathic personality disorder.

  “She is extremely intelligent, charming and can come across as very caring. But don’t be fooled. She will do what it takes to get what she wants. She is very manipulative and has no conscience. For a sociopath, killing someone would bother them about as much as it would bother us if we stepped on a roach.

  “Because they are so charming, the sociopath has no trouble getting followers. They are natural leaders. Not all of them are criminals. You will find many sociopaths among CEOs in big corporations and many in government. They are usually very successful in whatever they choose to do, because they are so manipulative.

  “When they do commit a crime, many times the sociopath will escape prosecution. They are experts at charming and manipulating both their lawyer and the jury. We were lucky to have caught Jupiter in the act of committing a murder. I would have liked to have seen her on death row. I hated that we had to make a deal with her. I’m sorry. I’m getting off the subject. Are there any questions?”

  A dark haired man who looked familiar to me raised his hand, “Isn’t it rare to find a sociopathic woman?”

  “It is more common among men. However, we are seeing more and more women sociopaths in the last few years, we don’t know why.

  “Jupiter is one of the most hard core sociopaths I’ve ever run across. She almost had me fooled at one point. When I wised up and quit wasting my time with her, she became my worst ene
my.”

  Tracy spoke up, “You know you’re here because Jupiter has escaped but what some of you may not know is that she showed up at Judith’s home and threatened Judith’s grandmother.

  “We don’t think she is interested in starting up the pedophile ring again. We believe that this time she is out for revenge. Judith and I will probably be her first targets.

  “We have no idea where she is right now, so the main purpose of the meeting is to put you on alert. Remember, she used to be a police officer and she knows the ropes.

  “As some of you may know, Judith has a twin sister in New Orleans. Her name is Julia McCain and she has an art gallery down on Royal Street.

  “I would like to have twenty four hour surveillance on her and on anyone connected to her. She is dating a professor who teaches art history at Tulane University. He needs to be protected also. Get his name and address from Julia.

  “Julia’s employee, Jean Pierre, at the art gallery needs to be watched too. Can anyone think of anything else? Okay, then the meeting is adjourned.”

  CHAPTER 3

  I had parked my car against the curb in front of the bureau and when I got to it I thought I had a ticket under my windshield wiper. It wasn’t a ticket, it was a note.

  I had been consulting with the FBI long enough to know not to handle the note so I got a surgical glove out of my purse. I never left home without them anymore. I took the note and opened it. It read:

  Your days are drawing to an end. I am watching you. You can’t escape.

  Jupiter

  I took the note inside and gave it Tracy, “I haven’t touched it,” I said.

  She got a tissue from the box on the conference table and took the note from me and put it in a zip lock bag. “Let me guess, it was under your windshield wiper?”