‘We offer hypnosis and psychoanalysis and group therapy.’
‘You try and talk it out of them?’ Kim asked.
‘We encourage them to look for alternative avenues of attraction, more conventional.’
‘You recite over and over the benefits of being straight and then hypnotise them into believing they’re not gay?’ Bryant asked.
‘We use many different methods alongside each other,’ Victor replied.
‘Okay, what else?’ Kim asked.
‘Aversion therapy and aversion reduction—’
‘Back up. Back up. What’s aversion therapy in this context? I get it for dogs. If they bark, a collar shocks them so they no longer bark. Horrific, but is that what we’re talking here?’
‘Very similar. We have sessions where a patient sits in a special chair. We show homosexual images and issue a small shock, not painful but not particularly pleasant. We show heterosexual images and the chair gives a short massage.’
‘Association,’ Kim said, feeling the distaste rising in the back of her throat. People were not dogs that needed training in who they could or couldn’t love. ‘Isn’t that considered inhumane?’ she asked.
‘Without consent, of course, and yet it remains one of our most used techniques. It’s no different to the foul-tasting nail polish to stop the habit of nail biting. It’s a simple theory of associating any given stimulus with an unpleasant sensation. It’s used in alcohol addiction.’
Kim ached to point out that nail biting and alcoholism were bad habits or addictions.
‘But that’s not sexual identity,’ she argued. ‘You’re talking about unwanted behaviours.’
‘It’s unwanted if the patient wants to be straight.’
Kim knew there was no argument she could bring that they hadn’t heard before. It was time to focus on getting any information she could to help her find a killer.
‘Did you treat Sarah Laing?’
Celia visibly blanched. ‘Sarah?’
‘I’m going to take that as a yes.’
‘She’s dead too?’
Kim nodded. ‘We suspect by the same person. Can you tell us about Sarah’s treatment?’
Celia nodded. ‘Yes, I can speak more openly about Sarah. She was an adult who signed herself in here. She paid for the treatment herself.’ She shook her head as though trying to digest the information. ‘I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a greater or more complex case of self-hatred due to sexuality. She begged us to help her.’
‘What treatment did she take?’
‘Everything. She was here for one week of intensive therapy. It was all she could afford.’
‘Aversion therapy?’
‘Daily.’
‘And?’
‘I didn’t see her the day she left but all reports were positive.’
‘You think she’d been cured of being gay within a week?’ Kim asked with disbelief.
‘In truth I thought she’d be back in a few months to continue the treatment.’
‘Just so you know, it didn’t work. Sarah had actually decided to embrace her sexuality and the lifestyle.’