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Name/Nickname: Mark Halsey Kincaid
Gender: Male
Birthdate/"Permanent" Story Age/Astrological Sign: NA; thirties/early forties; NA
Birthplace/Current Location: Unknown; Minot, North Dakota
Height: 5'9"
Weight/Body Type: Average; lean/fit
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black; short
Race/Ethnic Background: Caucasian; Irish-American
Relationship Status: Single; formerly romantically involved with Emma Hemstad, and briefly with Melissa Church
Orientation: Heteroromantic heterosexual
Siblings: Trina Mooney (younger sister) (NOTE, this is part of the character's backstory which is still under development, so may be subject to change)
Profession: Police sergeant, Minot (ND) Police Department
Distinguishing Characteristics: Usually serious, not prone to joking and frowns on frivolous behavior; patient and perseverant; dependable and trustworthy; somewhat jaded; believes in abiding by the rules when possible, and dislikes bending them unless under exceptional circumstances; rather traditional values--e. g., broke up with romantic interest Emma Hemstad as he wished to have children someday but she didn't; compassionate but also practical; more of a realist than an idealist; prefers working out of the limelight but can handle the media when necessary; very private--doesn't socialize much or talk about his past or personal life; developed a phobia of guns following being shot earlier in his career--mostly worked through this fear, though it never completely went away
General Appearance: Serious, generally quiet and reserved but not shy; dresses in uniform for work; tries not to stand out, so tends to not attract much attention or notice
First Appeared In: Minot (deceased/in memory) (NOTE, is deceased by the time the main series takes place, so only appears alive in flashback/dreams or backstories)
Character Summary: NOTE, this character's life history before he joined the police force was until recently unknown, and is currently under development. Therefore, this part of his profile may be subject to change.
When Mark Kincaid was young and his sister Trina was a toddler, he hid with her in a closet during a home invasion robbery which left their parents dead; only after the killings did one of the pair of robbers spot a family photo and realize there were children in the house. Not having time to track them down, he yelled that if the older child told the police about them, they would come back and kill him and his sister. Mark waited until he was sure they were gone, then crept downstairs with his sister, telling her to shut her eyes as part of a game as he carried her past their parents' bodies. He walked to a neighbor, but was too traumatized to explain what happened; the blood on his feet alarmed the neighbor into calling 911. Despite his inability to describe the incident, police determined the murders were the result of a robbery, probably by multiple suspects; Mark and Trina were placed in the foster system and were both taken in by the same family so they could stay together. The foster family treated them well, and Trina, having little memory of that night, thrived, though Mark remained mute and withdrawn for quite a while, even with therapeutic intervention. By the time he could speak again, albeit hesitantly, the case had started to go cold, and he could offer no description of the suspects anyway, as he'd only heard their voices. Mark and Trina stayed with the foster family until he aged out, at which point he moved into an apartment, found employment, and took over guardianship of his sister.
For a short while, things went well, until Mark overheard a man talking to the cashier at a convenience store, and recognized his voice as being that of the robber who'd threatened him. He turned to look at the man, who, unnerved by his stare, left the store; Mark attempted following him, but on turning the corner found himself confronted by the man, who demanded to know what he wanted. Mark didn't answer (being struck mute again), but the man realized who he must be, and again threatened to track down him and his sister if he found out he went to the police. The man then drove off, and Mark started to return to his apartment, only for the meaning of the robber's words--that he would finish off not only Mark, but Trina as well--to finally sink in. Without bidding it, he changed direction and continued driving, away from their apartment and away from the state.
An indeterminate amount of time later, Mark came to sitting in a bus station with a ticket in his hand; the station employee who'd gone to check on him--he'd been sitting motionless on the bench for over an hour, and had no luggage--informed him that he was in North Dakota and the bus he was scheduled to ride on, headed for Minot, was due to arrive soon. Mark thanked her, took a few Minot brochures to familiarize himself with the place, and boarded the bus. In his pocket he found money which he'd presumably withdrawn from somewhere, but nothing else; he did remember that his name was Mark Kincaid, but aside from that, his life was a blank. Once in Minot, after a few discreet questions, he managed to locate a man who created fake IDs, and paid for not only a new driver's license (he couldn't recall his middle name--in truth he had none--so the forger filled in the name "Halsey" on his own), but also for a birth certificate, partial school records (the forger advised Mark to say the rest had been destroyed in a fire), and other documents to give him a convincing new identity. Using these, Mark was able to find housing, employment, and even applied to the police academy; upon graduation he joined the Minot Police Department.
Early in his police career, Mark was shot at near point-blank range while attempting to speak to the driver of a suspicious car; he survived, though the incident took a long while to recover from, both physically and psychologically; when getting dressed for his first day back on duty, he found himself unable to handle his sidearm without starting to experience a panic attack. He requested a temporary desk job while undergoing treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. He managed to work through the worst of the anxiety, though ever afterwards was strongly uncomfortable handling guns, and always kept his sidearm unloaded and locked out of sight while off duty, even though he lived alone. Bulletproof vests became mandatory in the department following his shooting. Mark was never able to connect this fear with the violence he'd witnessed in his youth, since he still couldn't remember it.
Mark was promoted to sergeant, though he had little interest in becoming a detective and instead remained a uniformed officer, preferring to work behind the scenes. He moved into a family-sized house in a quiet residential neighborhood and soon became acquainted with his shy, agoraphobic neighbor, Emma Hemstad, after a branch from a tree in his yard fell and damaged her beloved greenhouse; while he helped fix the damage, he learned that she'd been interested in him since he first moved into the neighborhood, and for a while they were involved. This ended when Sgt. Kincaid realized Em wasn't interested in having kids, something he'd hoped for someday; although she wished for the relationship to continue, he felt this would be unfair to both of them, though they remained on close terms afterwards and often confided in each other. One important detail they never shared with each other, however, was their pasts before coming to Minot--Em presumably because she wished to keep her past private, Sgt. Kincaid because he couldn't remember his.
Along with working behind the scenes, Sgt. Kincaid also preferred being careful and working by the book, and so often came into conflict with Det. Wesley Singer, a coworker who was more impulsive and had little issue disagreeing with authority and getting involved in risky investigative techniques. Despite this, the two found themselves working together on a particularly difficult case involving criminal cult activities occurring throughout Ward County and Minot in particular. The group believed to be responsible allegedly engaged in human trafficking, drug-running, and production and distribution of child pornography, in addition to animal mutilations and possible murders. The police had so far failed to garner anything but circumstantial evidence and vague rumors about the cult, and so attempted to implement a plan to gather more information from informants. Knowing that the cult wouldn't be fooled should someone try infiltrating them, Det. Singer suggested that he present himself to them as a crooked version of himself, minimizing the need for an unconvincing undercover persona. Sgt. Kincaid strongly opposed this idea, believing the cult would still see through the ploy; however, the plan was approved and Singer set about establishing his "corrupt" police character, supposedly assisting members of the cult who were known to work security on the vast property of a prominent Minot doctor, Ivan Kristeva. Helpless to get further involved, Sgt. Kincaid did what he could collecting and sorting the information Singer relayed back to the MPD. Eventually, what the police had feared came to pass when Singer, after running afoul of the Kristeva estate's chief of security (a suspected cult member), failed to return to work; the popular theory was that he'd run off with a female informant he'd made in the cult, thought Sgt. Kincaid and the other police were just about certain he'd been murdered. When another member of Kappa Security, with whom Singer had gotten romantically involved, shared her own fears that Singer had been killed, the plan to continue attempting to infiltrate the cult or garner inside information was scrapped, and Sgt. Kincaid was handed control of the case.
Under the guise of a "followup" to Singer's investigation, Sgt. Kincaid ordered a raid on a house known to be affiliated with some lower-level cult members whom he planned to pump for information on their higher-ups. During the surprise nighttime raid, a handful of cultists were taken into custody, and a search of the house revealed firearms, drugs, cult-related paraphernalia such as masks, daggers, and packets of blood, and a large cache of dated VHS tapes which were suspected to contain child pornography. Also found was a cellar door in the floor of the pantry, when the house was known to have no cellar. Sgt. Kincaid ordered everyone else to remain above while he descended and searched what looked to be a hastily constructed basement. Within, he found filming equipment and what looked to be an "altar" with a large cross and restraints affixed to the top. A noise drew his attention, and on looking behind the altar he located a naked and obviously traumatized teenage male with ligature marks and a bloody leg. Sgt. Kincaid called up for an ambulance and Child Protective Services to be called, and after some coaxing managed to convince the boy to let him help him up the ladder. He accompanied him in the ambulance, calming him down when the EMTs' efforts to restrain him on the gurney, insert an IV, and place an oxygen mask over his face caused him to snarl and lash out. He stayed with the teenager at the hospital while his injuries were cataloged (he had to calm him down again when photos were taken), evidence was collected, and a rape kit was done; Sgt. Kincaid told him to hold his hand as tightly as he needed to, and focus on him only, throughout the procedure, and managed to keep him from lashing out again, though the glaze of tears that he saw form in the boy's otherwise hard and distrusting eyes while the kit was collected hit him hard. The teen was finally wheeled away to surgery to have his injured leg taken care of, and an exhausted Sgt. Kincaid had to return to the station to give his statement.
To Sgt. Kincaid's frustration, all of the lower-level cult members were extradited out of state to face other charges, and no significant information was gathered concerning the cult, so no local charges were pressed, including any involving the rescued teenager. For this and related reasons--he'd seen for himself how almost nobody took "cult"-related news seriously--he included an advisory note in his write-up of the case, that the other police, as well as anyone prosecuting the case, should avoid referring to cults specifically, so the crimes involved wouldn't be sensationalized. The case wasn't technically closed, though it was quietly placed on the back burner until more evidence could be obtained. Bulletins were put out seeking the family of the missing boy, but the few people who stepped forward were soon proven to be either lying or mistaken.
About a week later, Sgt. Kincaid was called back to the hospital by his captain and the staff psychiatrist, who suggested that he attempt to speak with the boy and convince him to eat before he was forcibly put on a feeding tube; the psychiatrist suggested that the boy, who had been silent and nearly catatonic since Sgt. Kincaid's departure, might have formed a tentative connection with him. Although skeptical, Sgt. Kincaid visited with the boy--who looked at him but otherwise didn't respond--and tried to get him to drink from the cup on his tray; after several moments had gone by without success, Sgt. Kincaid, noticing needle marks on the boy's arm, took a sip from the cup and offered it to him again, at which he picked up the cup and downed its contents. Once it was figured out that his refusal to eat or drink was simply due to a fear of being drugged and that this fear could be bypassed by testing the food, he began drinking and eating so voraciously that Sgt. Kincaid had to warn him to slow down several times so he wouldn't get sick. ("Your sergeant just figured out in five minutes what we haven't been able to figure out all week," the psychiatrist told Capt. Bowen.) Careful questioning from Sgt. Kincaid also revealed that the boy's first name was Alan and his birthdate was July 9, 1967; he claimed not to remember anything else. Sgt. Kincaid was shocked to realize "Alan Doe" wasn't around thirteen years old, as had previously been assumed due to his slight build and stature, but almost seventeen, and not far from aging out of the foster system. He agreed to continue visiting Alan in the hospital and take an active role in his recovery, even though it meant shifting his work hours.
At some time during this period, a strange woman furtively appeared at Sgt. Kincaid's house, seeking help; she identified herself as "Becky," Det. Singer's cult informant. During her brief relationship with Singer she'd ended up pregnant; although Singer had no romantic feelings for her, he'd promised to help take care of her if she'd leave the cult with him. She'd refused, though had warned him that they were on to him. When Sgt. Kincaid asked if Singer was dead, she confirmed that he was, and she'd fled the cult shortly after witnessing this, knowing that her pregnancy--and her suspected involvement in tipping Singer off, even though he'd protected her and denied this when questioned by the chief of Kappa Security--would make her not only useless to the cult, but a target. Sgt. Kincaid took her to the same man who'd provided him with a new identity and helped her "disappear." He decided against informing the police department about this, to protect both Becky and himself, as well as Det. Singer's family, and Alan; there was no telling how pervasive the cult's influence was, and he wasn't sure who to trust.
As Alan physically recuperated and plans were made for him to begin regular therapy sessions with a private child psychologist, Sgt. Kincaid expressed his concern that Alan would be forced to exit the foster system long before his therapy was completed; the suggestion was made that Sgt. Kincaid himself should foster him, since the two were already familiar with each other. Sgt. Kincaid worried that he wasn't equipped to handle a kid, at which the psychiatrist reminded him that Alan wasn't really a "kid," and didn't seem to be like most teenagers, either. Sgt. Kincaid reluctantly agreed to take Alan in, and neighbor Emma, with whom he'd remained on good terms, even helped move Alan into the house and get him situated. (On an occasion when Sgt. Kincaid again made mention of how he'd wanted a family, Em said that he'd now achieved that with Alan; Sgt. Kincaid paused before replying that this hadn't been quite what he'd meant, but Em's comment made an obvious impact on him.) He quickly learned to deal with Alan's eccentricities and abuse-related behaviors, such as attacking an expensive videocamera which the psychologist used to film sessions, hiding under the counter when he spotted Sgt. Kincaid holding a kitchen knife, and kissing Sgt. Kincaid when he assumed the police officer had plans to sell him to another "owner." (In response to this, Sgt. Kincaid informed Alan in therapy that he wasn't an object and could never be owned or sold, and that not everyone he met would try to hurt him.)
Alan's child psychologist soon discovered certain unusual talents and deficits that his patient possessed, which he believed were likely inborn characteristics and not attributable to his abuse. Alan displayed signs of an eidetic memory and the ability to speed read and retain great amounts of information, as well as a near-genius IQ when he was tested. Although impressed by these skills, Sgt. Kincaid asked what good they would do, when Alan also lacked basic social skills and the ability to appropriately express his emotions, much less relate to others on a meaningful level; due to Alan's apparent absence of both joy and sorrow, Sgt. Kincaid wondered if he might be a sociopath. The psychologist put this worry to rest by showing him a video of tears briefly filling Alan's eyes after Sgt. Kincaid assured him not everyone would hurt him, then suggested that Alan's talents could help make up for his deficits, with patient teaching. When it was made clear that he possessed no learning disabilities, Alan quickly made up for his lack of schooling, though he remained relatively isolated within the hospital rehabilitation and home environments. Sgt. Kincaid did take him on outings to try to get him used to the presence of other people; although Alan preferred to keep to himself and merely observe, the outings mostly went well, with very few outbursts on Alan's part. Physically he recovered by leaps and bounds as well, quickly putting on weight and growing taller even than Sgt. Kincaid. Although he never managed to eliminate his limp, and sometimes required a brace or crutch, he adapted to this as well, and Sgt. Kincaid decided that Alan could continue living with him indefinitely if he chose, to avoid the difficulty of aging out of the foster system and being left on his own. Unknown to Alan or anyone else, he also had a will drawn up, and purchased life insurance, naming Alan the beneficiary of both, so he wouldn't become destitute in Sgt. Kincaid's unexpected absence. Sgt. Kincaid told Alan he could pursue a career if he chose to, or not; either way, he was welcome to stay under his roof. For simplicity's sake, Alan took on Sgt. Kincaid's surname and others started to consider him Sgt. Kincaid's "son," although he hadn't been formally adopted.
In therapy, Alan gradually revealed what details he could remember of his experiences in the cult, including the ritual that left his leg maimed; the memories were patchy and muddled due to drugs and Alan's tendency to dissociate under stress. The sessions were recorded on film, with Sgt. Kincaid watching through a one-way mirror (with Alan's knowledge); Sgt. Kincaid took informal notes of any incidents related to known cult activity or which helped explain the cult's beliefs and motives, hoping they could be used to bolster the flagging investigation someday. When Alan memorized the entire North Dakota criminal code while sitting in the station during Sgt. Kincaid's workday, the station lieutenant, Niko Lampinen, half-jokingly suggested that Alan should try out to become a police officer himself. Both Sgt. Kincaid, and Alan when he shared the idea with him, were skeptical that he could pull such a thing off, but Alan took the police psychological exam anyway, and was cleared (although the tester admitted he showed certain unusual signs, they weren't serious enough to interfere with the job). He succeeded at the police academy as well, despite his social eccentricities and injured leg, and Sgt. Kincaid attended his graduation, speechless and almost in tears with pride (which Alan didn't quite understand). Alan went to work at the Minot Police Department as a patrol officer, Sgt. Kincaid working as his partner and mentor to guide him through the ins and outs of dealing with the community on a daily basis. Concerns that Alan wouldn't be able to handle such tasks were quickly put to rest when he proved himself unusually skilled at calming down witnesses and victims and getting them to open up, often with very little speech on his part. Sgt. Kincaid still had to keep him in check when dealing with suspects and the media, however, as he still had the tendency to occasionally lash out at people he viewed as perpetrators, and the media with their cameras and demands to talk often made him freeze up.
Alan angrily confronted Sgt. Kincaid one day when a search through police files showed that his case had long gone cold, and no one was actively being sought or punished for his kidnapping/trafficking. Sgt. Kincaid explained the rationale of keeping the case out of the spotlight, and downplaying the cult angle, to minimize public skepticism and protect anyone involved, including Alan himself, since the disappearance and presumed death of Det. Singer. While warning Alan to keep quiet about the case, Sgt. Kincaid also suggested that he could look into it on his own time, without getting Bowen--now Minot chief of police--involved, and that his best hope of obtaining the most information possible was to take the detective's exam once he was qualified, and then the sergeant's and lieutenant's exams. He could also cooperate with the press rather than antagonize them to obtain further information. Skeptical, Alan started studying for the detective's exam anyway, although he required more time as a uniformed officer and the exam wasn't set to take place any time soon.
Along with making out a will and purchasing life insurance, equally unknown to Alan, Sgt. Kincaid requested information on adult adoption, seeking to make Alan's relationship to him legal. Around this same time, he ran into a woman named Melissa at a local restaurant, but although she expressed interest in him, he wasn't initially interested in her, still harboring unresolved feelings for Em. A few more seemingly random encounters with Melissa as he went about his daily duties, however, wore down his resistance, and they began to casually see each other. Sgt. Kincaid kept the relationship secret at first, being uncomfortable with the idea of Alan finding out; when Melissa insisted she had no problems with him having an adult son, and would even like to meet him, Sgt. Kincaid reluctantly agreed, insisting however that they meet in the restaurant rather than in his home. He awkwardly introduced them when they met for coffee, noticing how Alan remained silent and unengaging no matter how much Melissa chattered and attempted to set him at ease; he couldn't be sure if this was due to Alan's normal uncommunicative nature, or if Alan simply didn't like her. Fearing that it was the latter, he still resisted bringing Melissa home with him, though as their relationship went on he pushed his reluctance aside and she began to occasionally spend the night.
Alan avoided interacting with Melissa for the most part, and never warmed to her like he had with Em; since the few times she tried engaging him in conversation he was cold and even more terse than usual, Melissa gave up in some frustration and avoided him as well. Sgt. Kincaid tried to reassure her it wasn't anything personal; even though he didn't fully believe this himself, he had no other explanation. Additionally bothersome was the inexplicable feeling of malaise that gradually settled over him; he grew increasingly restless, fatigued, apathetic, and found it difficult to concentrate at work, sometimes "zoning out" for moments at a time and forgetting what he was doing. He had vague, recurring dreams where someone he called Trina kept asking, "Why did you leave?" but the dreams made no sense to him. He also felt a strange, growing sense of dread that something awful was going to happen to Alan, possibly in relation to the cult, and that there would be no way for him to escape a second time. Melissa tried to coax him out of his mood, but he felt himself mentally drifting away from her as well, even though she still stayed at his house. As the weeks went by and his thoughts grew even more muddy, he couldn't shake the feeling that some terrible fate was going to befall them if he didn't act first.
One night, while Melissa was gone and after having answered a phone call with "Sorry, wrong number," Sgt. Kincaid, loaded gun in hand, stepped out onto the upstairs landing overlooking the living room and Alan sitting on the couch below, studying for the detective's exam. By now the dread had turned into a feeling of certainty that the cult was going to get hold of Alan and whatever fate resulted would be even worse than death; the thought of him being subjected to years of torture and abuse a second time was more than he could stand. He stared down at Alan for a few moments, trying to summon the guts to do what had to be done; but, despite his certainty, there was still a tiny part that fought back against what seemed the only rational choice to make. After a pause, he chose to listen to that part instead, and turned back to his room, locked the door behind him, and sat on the edge of his bed. He stared into space for another moment or two before putting the barrel of the gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger.
At first, understandably, some suspicion fell on Alan Kincaid as being Mark's killer, since even he insisted that Sgt. Kincaid had never shown any suicidal intent, and was even more unlikely to shoot himself, given his fear of guns. He was quickly ruled out as a suspect when it became obvious that the suicide took place in a locked room inaccessible from the outside, and Alan wouldn't have had the ability to fire a gun anyway after breaking down the door and dislocating his shoulder to get to him. Despite Alan's insistence, and Chief Bowen's order for a full autopsy and tox screening, Sgt. Kincaid's death was ruled a suicide, though the medical examiner, Dr. Steiner, detected traces of an unknown substance in Sgt. Kincaid's system, a possible drug that somewhat resembled ketamine in its chemical makeup; it was almost completely metabolized at the time of his death, meaning the dose had been given some time earlier. When informed of this, Alan again insisted that Mark never would have taken drugs, and had hardly ever even consumed alcohol. No explanation for the drug's presence could be found, and after Sgt. Kincaid's funeral (from which Melissa, who had disappeared shortly before the incident, was conspicuously absent), the issue was quietly put to rest. Chief Bowen, who to his surprise had been named executor of Mark Kincaid's estate, informed Alan of his inheritance, the still-valid life insurance policy ("What would I do with that?" Alan asked, for which Bowen had no answer), and the pending adult adoption paperwork, which dumbfounded Alan. "I guess he wanted to make it legal," Bowen suggested; "make you his family."
An angry confrontation which resulted when Alan uncharacteristically got drunk and went to Chief Bowen's house late at night to argue that Mark's death wasn't a suicide resulted in nothing more than Bowen ordering him home to sleep it off. When Em visited and begged to know if Mark had left any sort of note explaining why, Alan confided in her that he believed that, while he knew Mark had shot himself, "He didn't commit suicide." Em immediately understood what he meant, and said she believed him. The two were still left hurt and confused, however, in the absence of any concrete explanation for Mark's bizarre behavior.
It wouldn't be until years later when Melissa herself, then fleeing the cult as its higher-ups had deemed her no longer useful (and, ironically, she determined that Alan Kincaid was the only police officer she could trust not to be owned by the cult), provided an explanation, which fit the details of the cult's activities as given in Det. Singer's notes. Women such as herself and Becky were used as sexual "bait" by the cult, to either lure men into joining, or pump them for information. Melissa's original intended target had been Alan, but when all her attempts at chatting and even flirting with him--which she did only when Mark wasn't around to see--were met with cold rejection, her handlers changed their plans and Mark, whom she'd initially contacted, became her target instead. His own reluctance to get too involved with her was worn down with the aid of an illicit drug manufactured by the cult and administered to him through drink and small needles with which Melissa injected him when he was preoccupied. While under the influence of the drug, certain people could become more open to suggestion as if under hypnosis, and while they still couldn't be compelled to act in ways that ran counter to their natural morals, they could be convinced to act upon their existing morals in a manner that would be considered irrational or exaggerated while in their right mind. The cult knew that Mark would never kill Alan at their command, but perhaps he could kill Alan if he felt this was the only way to save him from the cult's ongoing threat. This was the mental program Melissa repeated to Mark until it took hold, followed by a program to kill himself out of guilt, so that what was in effect two cult murders by proxy would look like a murder/suicide. What had presumably happened instead, however, was that somehow Mark had managed to mentally override/resist the first program, sparing Alan's life. When asked why Mark had still gone through with the suicide, however, Melissa explained that this, too, had been done to save Alan: "He knew that as long as he was alive, they could still get to him, still activate the kill program or use him to harm you (Alan) in some way...if he took just his own life, then you'd be safe from him. That was the only way he could be sure." Meaning, Mark Kincaid's final act, which had seemed so senseless, had actually been his greatest sacrifice.
In the years following Mark's death, Alan--who eventually became the Minot Police Department lieutenant--would continue trying to find out more about not only his own past, but Mark's as well, especially why his foster father apparently didn't exist before he attended the local police academy. It would turn out that he and Mark had more in common than he would have suspected.
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