Page 22 of Ruthless Prince
I narrowed my eyes. “I told you, whoever sent them is obviously good with technology. He deleted them as soon as I readthem.”
She held up a second finger. “Then there’s the case of the threatening letters. They were all written on paper taken from a custom stationery set on the secretary’s desk outside the Oval Office, meaning the person who wrote them had White House access. Like you. Our handwriting analysts have also concluded that they were written by a left-handed person. Most likely a woman, judging by the size and shape of the lettering. You’re left-handed, aren’t you,Willow?”
“You can’t be serious.” I gaped at her. “Other people are left-handed too, you know! I’m not the onlyone!”
“That’s true. But it’s not exactly common,” she said. “Also, the analyst compared the letters to some samples of your handwriting. While the notes were printed in capital letters, as opposed to your usual calligraphic writing style, they were able to determine that you write capital letters in the exact sameway.”
She pulled two pieces of paper off her clipboard and handed them to me. One of the pages showed scans of the threatening letters I’d handed to my security detail, including the one I found last night, and the other page showed samples of my regularwriting.
Gen was right. I wrote the letters A, E, T, B, P, W, H and M in an identical fashion to thestalker.
“Someone could’ve copied my writing style,” I said, glancing back up ather.
“Yes, that’s certainly possible. But there’s more. Lab tests on the lipstick swabs taken from the mirror showed that last night’s note was written using a red Chanel lipstick which was found in your cabinet just below the mirror. It was an exact match. It even had your DNA in it from traces of saliva, meaning it was a lipstick you’d worn before. Not just an identical tube brought in fromelsewhere.”
“That… that’s impossible. I didn’t write that note, or any of the letters.” I shook my head frantically. “Hold on, what about the other letter? It was in a black envelope with a red wax seal thing. Totally different than all theothers.”
Gen flipped through her notes. “You mean the letter you told Jamie Torrance about? I believe you told him it was in a blue purse on your dressingtable.”
I nodded vehemently. “Yes.”
“When I interviewed him, he told me he sent someone to look for it, but they couldn’t findanything.”
“They must’ve looked in the wrong purse,” Isaid.
“It was a blue Balenciaga purse, no? You were photographed at the ball with it,” she said, holding up a photo from lastnight.
“That’s it,” I said in a smallvoice.
“There was nothing in it but a tube of lip gloss, some breath mints, and a makeupcompact.”
“I don’t understand how that’s possible.” I groaned and rubbed my forehead. “I swear it was inthere.”
“Sorry. I know this isn’t easy to hear, but it’s thetruth.”
I frowned. “How do you explain what was done to me after I went to bed last night? A man broke in, abused me, and hogtied me. Do you think I did that to myselftoo?”
Dr. Monroe leaned forward. “Willow, people experiencing the gang-stalking delusion often end up experiencing hallucinations too. Not only that, some of them actually act out their perceived abuse and harassment in a sort of fugue state. They have no idea they’re even doing it. That’s why you don’t recall writing the notes, or anythingelse.”
My face was aflame now. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I turned my attention back to Gen. “So you think I tied myself up?” I asked. “You think I lay down, tied my hands and ankles behind my back, and then convinced myself someone else didit?”
“It wouldn’t be easy to tie yourself up like that, but it’s not outside the realm of possibility,” Gen replied. “There was a case in Belgium last year where a popular game streamer suffered from gang-stalking delusions. She believed she was being targeted by a network of serial killers. About a month after her diagnosis, police found her hogtied in her bedroom in a similar fashion to the way you were found this morning. She’d also suffered severe injuries which resulted in her death. Everyone was convinced she was murdered until it was found that her webcam was on and she’d filmed the whole thing. She beat herself around the head, stabbed herself multiple times, and then tied herself up. She was in such a state of psychosis that there was no way she was even aware of her ownactions.”
“That really happened?” My brows shotup.
“Unfortunately, yes. That’s why we’re so concerned about you,” Dr. Monroereplied.
“Well, that’s a horrible story, and I feel terrible for that girl, but that’s not what’s happening to me,” Iinsisted.
“The tie stuffed in your mouth was from your parents’ closet,” Gen said, holding up a photo of a striped tie in an evidence bag. She was right. It belonged to my father. I recognized it from an event we attended last week. “Whoever took this had access to your parents’ bedroom in the Executive Residence. You were in there yesterday afternoon helping your mother select jewelry for the ball, weren’tyou?”
I frowned. “Yes, but I didn’t take a tie from theirroom.”
“The stockings you were bound with came from your own room,” she went on, barreling right overme.
“I told you earlier, the guy went through my drawers and took them,” I said, voicerising.
“There were also no fingerprints anywhere in the room, aside from yours. No DNA of any kind,either.”
