Insanity, p.31
Insanity, page 31
“So, you still have a job, and you’re still getting a paycheck,” he noted, with a note of humor. “And, therefore, you feel like you need to do something.”
She shrugged. “Sadie was one of those women I knew I could help. I’d actually contacted Stefan about her to see if we could do something to give her a hand in getting out of here.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s like me, like Stefan, like Dr. Maddy.”
“Is she though?”
“Yes, absolutely she is.”
He then asked, “Would somebody like that be a danger?”
“In her case, she’s not.”
Sensing something, he turned, looked around, and frowned. “It’s awfully quiet.”
“It’s too quiet,” she announced. She phoned Keith back. “Hey, where are you?”
“I’m down in the basement, sorting through laundry,” he replied in disgust. “I don’t think anybody put any laundry on, and the linens are low. We’re trying to get the beddings changed, but, at this rate, good luck with that.”
“Why are you changing beddings at this hour?”
“Because we didn’t get done earlier,” he noted, with a growl. “It’s not my job either.”
“No, I know,” she stated. “I presume we’ve had accidents.”
“After a day like today, several of them,” he snapped. And then he groaned. “Not trying to snap at you. Where are you?”
“I just walked in the front door, and I’m heading down to Sadie’s room.”
“Good, she’s a nice lady, and I’m not sure she should even be here.”
“Maybe not. She could be one of the patients that I try to get moved.”
“Yeah, I did hear somebody saying that one of the reasons they were upset with you was something about moving patients out who were paying bills.”
“Yeah, but, if they don’t belong here, they shouldn’t be here,” she protested.
“Oh, I agree with you. I was just reminded of the conversation I’d overheard.”
“Do you remember who it was?”
“Hmm, I think it might have been Dr. Guidry, but you can’t ask her right now because she went home sick. She was pretty stressed out and frustrated.”
“Any idea why?”
“She got into it with the board today. I’m not sure what was going on with that either, but we had three board members doing a tour, and there was quite a confab over it all. I think she got the backlash.”
“Great.” Cressy groaned. “That just adds to my not wanting to stick around.”
“I don’t think anybody here cares. As long as they can keep the budgets down, they’re happy.”
“Yeah, I think you’re right there,” Cressy agreed. “Anyway I’m just coming up on Sadie’s room. I’ll talk to you in a bit.” With that. she hung up and pointed the way to Sadie’s room, for Gray’s benefit.
“Why are we here?” he asked.
“Because Sadie was involved in quite a fight and had to go to the hospital today. I just want to confirm she’s okay.”
He watched as she approached the door, but, instead of opening it, she just leaned up against the wall and closed her eyes. “What are you doing?”
She held up a finger to her lips and whispered, “Just a minute.”
He watched in amazement as her face calmed, and it seemed every expression possible just faded, giving her a slack look. He hated that. It made him think of some of the people lying in comas in these rooms. And then she opened her eyes, but something was off about that look on her face too. She turned and looked down the hallway and smiled. He stared at the hallway, wondering what she was seeing. Then her body slumped against the wall, and, damn, if it didn’t look as if she had stepped out of it. He watched as this weird smoke headed down the hallway. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. “Jesus,” he whispered.
Just as he saw more smoke in the hallway, he felt a pat on his shoulder, and then he realized he was holding her hand. When he dropped her hand, all of it disappeared. Immediately he picked up her hand and stared. “Good God.”
Being in contact with her was letting him see things, whether he wanted to or not. What he saw was an older woman, at least the form, somewhat of a form, in what seemed like a playground. She was doing cartwheels and laughing and running, and, when she saw Cressy’s spirit, she raced up and gave her a big hug. The two women talked for a bit, and then her ghost-like figure returned to him and patted his cheek gently. Suddenly she was squeezing his fingers. He looked from his hand to her face to see the slack-jawed look now gone and the normal Cressy back again.
“Oh my God,” he whispered. “I am not sure I want to know what you just did.”
“Good.” She smiled. “That’s probably easier.”
He whispered, his voice low, “Did you just leave your body and play with her in some kind of playground here? That is mad.”
She laughed. “I didn’t really play with her, but I was talking to her because this is her favorite playground.”
“In the hallway?”
“It’s not so much in the hallway, as she doesn’t see the hallway. She sees open fields, blue skies, and sunshine. She sees what she would want for a playground. And she could leave this area for a real playground, but we are limited, or she is limited,” Cressy corrected, “by the geographical location around her.”
“And so that’s what she’s doing?”
“It is, and she’s quite capable at doing it, which is one of the reasons why I was hoping we could get her some help.”
“And yet,” he noted, a thought coming to him, “with somebody like your Rodney guy around, who is so dangerous, what are the chances that he could attack somebody like Sadie, who is innocent and open and just playing because she’s happy, then using her energy or her body to cause hell for other people?”
“That’s actually one of the reasons I came here,” she admitted. “I need to ensure that Sadie was okay and to see who else was involved in the altercation and how she felt about it all.”
“What did she have to say?”
“It was another patient, and she’s okay, but she doesn’t like that patient and wants to stay away from him.”
“Great, but she probably couldn’t identify the patient then.”
“No, but she hasn’t been here very long, which adds to the problem. Since she’s new here, she doesn’t know many names.”
“But it would have been a patient that she would have seen somewhere along the lines of this wing?”
“Not according to Sadie,” Cressy corrected, her tone turning soft and even more serious. “According to Sadie, it was somebody she’s never seen before, and he wasn’t very friendly. She doesn’t like him, doesn’t want anything to do with him, and asked me to keep him away.”
“That’s great. What now?”
“That’s what I don’t know. I don’t know who it was.”
“But you’re afraid it was Rodney, aren’t you?”
She hesitated, then winced. “I’m not sure who it was, but I’m starting to get an inkling of something.”
“Yeah, you think so? What gave you that impression?”
“Because she said he was young. Very young.”
He stared at her and shook his head. “But you don’t have young patients here.”
“I have one,” she stated, her gaze steady on his face.
His eyebrows shot up. “What?”
“That’s the trick. I’m not saying that it was him. It could also be somebody trying to make it look like him.”
“Jesus, this is like man’s worst nightmare.”
“The problem is, we don’t know who’s involved.”
“I can’t have anything happen to that boy,” Gray muttered, staring at her in shock. “That won’t be allowed.” And he raced toward Adam’s room.
“Wait,” she cried out urgently. But Gray wasn’t listening, and, when he got to the door, he motioned at it. “Open it.”
“Not yet,” she said. “Stefan also put a guard on this room, so I need to check in with him first.”
“Check in with him? What?” he snapped, glaring at her. “My job was to keep this boy safe and to find out what he knows about the family annihilator.”
“I get that,” she replied. “That’s a large part of what we’re doing here right now.”
“I don’t understand.”
“No, but I’m afraid I’m starting to,” she declared. She pulled out her phone and called Stefan. “Were there any changes to Adam’s energy guard?” she asked.
“Yeah, a couple glitches earlier, and I figured it was when you were at the hospital,” he replied. “Why?”
“One of the other patients had a meeting with somebody in the playground,” she explained. “Sadie said it was a young patient.”
“You think it was Adam?” Stefan asked in astonishment. “You also know that we see patients as younger in this form.”
“I know, so I don’t know whether it was Adam or if it was somebody else. But I’m outside Adam’s door right now.”
“Good. Go on in,” Stefan said. “Let me know what kind of condition he’s in. I’ve kept the guard up all day, the same as you have. However, as I mentioned, there were a couple glitches, and I just figured it’s when you were recently attacked, and things shifted.”
“Right, talk to you in a few minutes.” And, with that, she hung up and nodded. “Let’s go in and check.”
She quickly unlocked the door and moved in. It was evening, nine o’clock, and, in theory, Adam should be asleep, but she didn’t know how much care he’d had all day.
As she walked closer to the bed, Gray warned her, “Stop.”
She froze, turned, and looked at him. “What?” she asked.
He motioned at the bed.
She stared through the darkness, her eyes finally adjusting, and then she said urgently, “Turn on the lights.” He flicked on the lights, and she spun around, staring at the room. “Good God, where is he?”
The bed was empty, and so was the room. She immediately raced toward the front area, where the security station was, and told the single guard to put out the alarm that they were missing a patient, and it was the boy. He stared at her in shock and hit the alarm. Immediately the doors were locked and exits were sealed up. She turned to Gray. “You need to get backup in here, now.”
He was already on the phone.
She faced the guard again. “Cameras, I need to see that hallway from Room 212,” she stated.
“For what hour?” he asked.
“The last four hours,” she replied. “At least let me see that, and we’ll go from there.”
He quickly brought up the video for the time frame she’d requested, and, with it playing at a much faster speed, they raced through the hours of tape, watching the cameras to see what happened. About an hour ago came a glitch in the system. He shared that they had a power outage, and it took a moment before it went to the backup generators.
“Right.” She stared at the footage, shaking her head. When there was absolutely nothing from that time forward, he asked her, “Now what?”
“It’s that glitch,” she snapped. “Goddammit. I need to see the maximum-security wing.”
The guard winced and brought up the cameras on that hallway too. At the same time frame came the same glitch.
“Okay,” she declared, “I’m going down there myself.” She looked over at Gray, who was on the phone. She told the guard, “Tell him where I am, when he gets off the phone.”
“Will do,” he confirmed.
And, with that, she raced down to the max security wing. Behind her, Gray called out to her. And then she heard footsteps, as he ran behind her.
“Jesus,” Gray snapped, “you’re definitely not going down there alone.”
“Maybe not,” she agreed, “but some things are just not that simple.” As she pulled into the wing, no security was around at all. “So much for security,” she muttered.
“How much would you typically have at this time of night?”
“There should be somebody at that desk over there.” She pointing to an obviously empty desk that had been empty for quite a while. “And a second one close by.”
“But that’s insane,” he muttered.
“I know, absolutely insane.” As she turned and headed back to face the door that hid the monster, she took a deep breath, then unlocked it and stepped inside. With Gray crowding in behind her, she turned on the lights to see Rodney staring at her, with a big fat smile.
“Hello, Dr Cresswell.”
Chapter 19
“Where’s Adam?” Cressy asked Rodney urgently, Gray right at her side, frowning at the occupant in the bed.
“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” Rodney replied, with that same smirk.
“Yes, you do, and you better tell me now.”
“What if I don’t?”
She stared at him, trying to figure out what her options were, while Gray frowned at her, clearly confused, wondering who she was speaking to. She understood his confusion.
Rodney looked at the man behind her. “Interesting that you brought somebody with you today.”
“Yes, but we need Adam. Don’t you hurt that little boy.”
“Why would I hurt him? That boy is very special to me.”
At that, she tilted her head and studied him. “Why?”
He grinned. “You really don’t know anything, do you?”
“We’re getting there, but we’re still behind.”
“Ah, and information is everything to you, isn’t it?”
“Not necessarily, but it certainly helps.”
“But that’s because you don’t really know who he is.”
“Where is Adam?” she asked again.
At that, Gray looked at her. “Who brought Adam to this facility?” he asked Cressy.
She shrugged. “I didn’t have anything to do with that.” But she held out her hand.
And Gray took it, startled at what he saw.
Cressy nodded at him, letting him know she understood what he was going through.
Gray stared at Rodney. “It wasn’t your aunt by any chance, who brought Adam here, was it?” he asked.
“Maybe,” he replied cheerfully. “I do like to have kids nearby. It makes me feel good.”
“Jesus,” muttered Gray.
Cressy asked Rodney, “What did you do with him?”
“I didn’t do anything with him,” he protested. “I have no intention of hurting him. I just wanted to see you again. Just you.”
She took a deep breath. “Right. So, to see me again, you had to go kidnap a little boy?”
“But not just any boy,” he stated. “That’s a very special boy. I’m really happy you guys brought me a playmate.”
She stared at him. “What did you do to him?”
“I didn’t do anything to him,” he snapped. “I told you. I don’t want to hurt him. He can be very useful for me.”
“No, he doesn’t need to be useful for you at all,” she snapped back. “He needs a chance to live a life on his own.”
“We all do,” Rodney muttered. “Yet all of us don’t get what we want.”
“Says you,” she replied, glaring at him. “I want Adam back, and I want him back now.”
He shrugged. “As I said, I’m not trying to hurt him. I just need a little time with him.”
And then she knew what he was doing. “Get out of his mind,” she ordered. “Get out of his mind! You don’t get to control him.”
“What do you mean, get to control him?” he asked, still smiling. “What makes you think that Adam and I didn’t know each other from before?”
She stared at him in shock and turned to look at Gray. “You need to find out if that’s true,” she muttered, releasing Gray’s hand so he was free to text and do whatever he needed to do.
“Search is already on,” Gray replied. “We’re trying to run down everybody in his known world. Particularly now that his aunt’s calling the shots on the board.”
“She’s calling some of the shots,” Rodney declared, “or, at least, she thinks she is.”
At that, Cressy pinched the bridge of her nose. “You’re controlling your aunt too, I suppose.”
“Partially, at least when she can do things that are helpful. Otherwise I leave it up to her because she’s got a great brain anyway.” Rodney chuckled. “There’s only so much that she can do. I really need people more like you under my control. My aunt makes my life comfortable, but she can’t get me out of here.”
“No, not without a doctor’s help,” Cressy declared. “But what can Adam do?”
“Adam has the ability to do all kinds of things,” Rodney replied. “And some of those abilities are very special.”
She nodded. “That’s what you really want, isn’t it? You want to study him. You want to learn how he does what he does.”
“I do,” Rodney agreed. “I mean, being free of this place is one thing, but having the kind of abilities that Adam and I have? … That’s what makes our lives special,” he said menacingly. “I don’t want to lose that, but I do want to enhance it.”
“So, you’ll take over a boy’s world, so that you can do more damage?” she asked cautiously.
“Sure, why not?” Rodney asked. “Do you have any idea how much fun it is to play in this world, to know that people can’t stop you, that nobody even understands what you do?”
“And you do? Understand it?”
“You’re the one who spent all this time trying to make believe it’s a happy place for the people here. Yet you don’t even get anything out of it. I mean, they’re even trying to squeeze you out of your job here,” Rodney snapped, his anger bubbling in his tone. “I needed you to come back. I needed you back here for me.”
“Who changed your medications?” she asked, and he just gave her a flat smile. “Goddammit, that was Mendelsohn,” she noted, studying Rodney closely. “And then you put him in the hospital, with a heart attack.”
“I had to make the place a little easier on me, didn’t I?” Rodney explained, with a big fat smirk. “I needed to get you out of hiding, and, if that meant hurting Mendelsohn, then I was okay with it. Besides, he was getting a little flaky anyway, and that flakiness is dangerous. I don’t understand why people can’t handle this kind of stuff,” he stated in frustration. “I mean, if I can handle it, why can’t they?”
