Doctor Bljedolje may have earned all the letters he has after his name, but if you ask me he's as crazy as a coot. The man's medieval. What do you think he lectured me on? Transferred personality!
Of course I thought he was getting at divided personality, Jekyll and Hyde stuff at first, but not he. That, it appears is elementary, kid's stuff, to him. He seems seriously to believe that there are personalities of such hypnotic and dominating power that they can in certain circumstances project themselves into other minds — can actually drive out the former occupant of a body, so to speak.
According to him, this man who was shot, Krister Vlanec, must have had such a personality. It is, Bljedolje says, the nearest thing to immortality. That personality may have inhabited a dozen or more bodies before that of Vlanec. The points he makes about this case in particular are these. (He had, by the way, got much more out of Walter than there was in the letter.)
Firstly, Elaine is not just suffering from loss of memory or obsessions. She had become a different person with different mannerisms and different language. That many of her mannerisms were now masculine.
That I can confirm from my own observation. Elaine has a kind of uncertainty of movement and gesture which can easily be interpreted as a conflict of conscious intentions with unconscious physical habits. It is rather as though she has to watch and study herself the whole time — akin perhaps to the very active self-regulation of a tight-rope walker.
Secondly, Bljedolje figures Vlanec was evidently a man of disturbing and unusual personality. As evidence of this he points to the cut made on the man's forehead by his assailants, and the car driver's fear when he saw it. It was undoubtedly, he says a sign formerly much used in these parts to ward off the evil eye and discourage witchcraft in general. Something in Vlanec's nature must have caused the attackers to put it there. Otherwise, its presence is senseless.
Thirdly, he is of the opinion that Vlanec first attempted to transfer his personality to Walter himself — you remember Walter's own description of the strange, hypnotic effect — but that was interrupted by his own physical pain. • Later on, still according to Bljedolje, the man must have rallied again and have succeeded in forcing his spirit from his dying body into the only person on hand, Elaine.
Fourthly, he makes some play with this. You recall that Walter says that as he came back he spoke to Elaine and that she took no notice, but the dying man did. Well, Bljedolje maintains that, though it was Vlanec's body which lay by the road, it was Elaine who actually died at that moment. Vlanec is alive, in Elaine's form!
Now what do you make of that? From a man, mind you, with high degrees from Vienna, Berlin and New York. He must have seen pretty clearly how I felt about it, but he didn't take offence.
“All right,” he said with a smile. 'Then you try a little test. Sometime when she is at ease, quite unsuspicious, you understand, address her suddenly as ‘Kristor’ and watch her very carefully, my friend.”
Leslie, I did that later on. And she responded to the name! It was several seconds before she recovered herself.
Look here, this must be all rot, mustn't it? But, rot or not, I can't see what there is to be done about it.
We have decided to hang on here a few days on the chance that we may be of some use. I don't at all like the way Walter's got the wind up. It looks as though there's something more he's afraid of and has held back from you and from Bljedolje.
I'll let you know the moment there's anything more to tell.
Yours in a baffled condition,
Fred.
P.S. I think Mary is arriving at something like the same conclusion on her own. She keeps saying in a puzzled kind of way that Elaine doesn't seem to know how to wear clothes any longer and that she looks to her like a man dressed up.
Report Chief of Detective Bureau, Beograd to Chief of Police, Beograd. (Translation).
Marthe Kanjiki was taken to lounge of Hotel Princip as suggested, and there identified the English tourist, Mrs. Fisson, as the woman she saw leaving the Zanjas' house at the approximate time of the murder of Petro and Mikla Zanja. Identification is positive.
Telephone conversation between Dr. Frederic Wilcox, Hotel Princip, Beograd and Dr. Leslie Linton, 84, Nelson Court, London, W.I.
“Hullo, Leslie? This is Fred speaking from Beograd —Belgrade, to you. You got my letter?”
“Yes. What's happened now?”
“The police arrested Elaine, right here in the hotel.”
“What on earth for?” demanded Linton.
“Well, it seems that some chaps called Zanja whom the police suspected of bumping off this Kristor Vlanec were bumped off themselves two or three days later, and the police prove Elaine did the shooting.”
“But why in God's name should she?”
“She wouldn't, of course. It's absurd unless—”
“Unless what?”
“Unless Dr. Bljedolje was right.”
“Good God, Fred, you don't really believe that transferred personality stuff? Vlanec taking his revenge on them in Elaine's body. You must be crazy.”
“It — well — oh, damn it, then I am crazy! Why else should Elaine — I mean, they don't arrest foreign tourists on a charge like that without good evidence.”
“You mean you think she did do it?”
“Well, physically, yes. What's more I think Walter knew. That's why he was so windy.”
“Where's he now?”
“Vanished. Cleared out.”
“And left Elaine — like that?”
“He — well, old boy, I don't think he is Walter any longer.”
“What the devil are you talking about?”
“Well, I was in the lounge when they brought Elaine down. The moment she saw me and Mary she tore herself free from the police and ran across to us. And she spoke in English as good as yours or mine. She said: ‘Fred, for God's sake get me out of this. Get Dr. Bljedolje, he'll understand.’ That's all she could manage before they came up and took her away.”
“Did you manage to get hold of Bljedolje?”
“Yes. That's why I called you. He thinks Vlanec's done it again, and got away with it.”
“Meaning just what?”
“To put it simply: just as Vlanec, when his own body was in trouble, forced Elaine's spirit to change places with his; so, now that he's got Elaine's body into trouble he's forced another transference and taken over Walter's body. In fact, that if we do find what appears to be Walter, it will actually be an individual who talks Serbo-Croat and knows only a few words of English.”
“And the consciousness now in Elaine's body—”
“Is Walter's.”
“Good Lord! There must be something about those parts that sends you all crazy, if that's what you think.”
“Well, what the hell else is there to think? They're executing Elaine in the morning,”