My Little Experiment (James Gillies)

Chapter 12: Liberation

Detective Murdoch reads over a piece of paper, his mind fuzzy with confusion. James Gillies did not quite have the past he expected him to.

Gillies never showed any signs of aggression towards anything or anyone, nor did he ever act out of line, according to his mother. His one big flaw, however, was his detachment from anything that didn't fall into his spectrum of 'emotion'. 

Mrs. Gillies wrote in a statement regarding her son that he never told her he loved her, nor did he ever display a lot of affection towards people. 

It was becoming more obvious to Detective Murdoch that James Gillies' brain was geared in a different way than normal. What kind of son would never tell his mother he loved her?

His weakness is his heart, while his strength is his mind.

Detective Murdoch finishes the statement, mulling over Mrs. Gillies' words as he picks up the next file. It was the records of where the Gillies' had lived over the years. Veronica Bowden's address was indeed listed at the first house they had lived in. 

Since then, they had moved around the city until James Gillies was sentenced: then his parents moved out of Toronto. They lived outside Winnipeg now and would only come to Toronto for occasional visits.

A knock at the door makes Detective Murdoch look up, seeing Constable Crabtree in the entrance of his door frame.

"What have you, George?" 

"James Gillies was the top of his class at University sir, before he killed his professor. Everyone who knew him thought he was the most brilliant man in the room. Apparently, one of his classmates had said they'd known him since primary school, and Gillies had always been at least two or three levels ahead of everyone else. It'd make him very bored in class because he already knew what was being taught."

"Really?" Murdoch asks, mildly surprised. He knew Gillies was smart, but he didn't imagine he was this clever. "If he's so smart, how has he been caught twice?"

"The same way he's escaped twice, sir. He probably thinks of it as a challenge." George shrugs and Murdoch nods his head, seeing the point.

"His home life seemed fairly regular and normal, from what I've seen on record. The one thing I do find very odd is that even as detached as Gillies was, he never seemed out of place. He knew enough about social normalcy that no one ever suspected him to do anything bad. It's almost as if he knows all these different emotions but can't quite...connect to them?" Murdoch guesses and Crabtree frowns.

"I've never heard of such a thing, sir. What if he just didn't find the right person to bring out those emotions? If he didn't really get along with his parents, he may not have wanted to express emotions."

"It almost seems doubtful that he'd be capable of any emotion." Murdoch grumbles and George nods his head. "His past is so strange. Nothing indicates that he'd just try to murder someone to test an experiment. And now, what's his motivation? Is he still testing experiments?"

"I'm not sure, sir." George says.

"Something happened to him along the line. Not expressing love as a child is indeed very strange. His mother says he was loved quite a bit." Murdoch says.

"But sir, have you ever thought that maybe the mother lied? Maybe she could've been protecting herself, not wanting to own up to anything," George suggests. "And what about the father? What did he say?"

Murdoch lets out a sigh. "Mr. Gillies never came or wrote anything down. He didn't show up to the trial or even the fake funeral. Apparently the actions his son did caused a lot of discord between the two."