All Acts Of Pleasure: A Rowan Gant Investigation (38 page)

“Think about what I did to you last night,”
she finally said.

“We’ve already established that you
didn’t…”

“Aye, I know,” she interrupted. “Miranda did
it, not me. You say that, but you also know Miranda was inside me.
Controlling me. And, this wasn’t the first time.”

“Yeah, and your point?”

“You’re afraid she could do it again. So am
I.”

“I wouldn’t say I’m afraid…”

“You are. I can feel it.”

“Okay, so maybe a little, but that’s my
problem.”

“No, it’s our problem.”

“
You know, I’m working really hard on
making it not happen again.”

“I know you are, but until we’re certain it
won’t, you would be safer without me around.”

“Dammit, Felicity, that’s a load of crap and
you know it.”

“No, Rowan, it isn’t, and
you
know it.”

“Felicity…”

“No. Stop it. You know I’m right about
this.”

“So, what if you are? What am I supposed to
do, honey? Come out here daily and play Parcheesi with you in the
rec room?”

“You could,” she said with a nod. Then, for
the first time during the entire drive here, she looked over at me.
“But, I’d much rather you do something more constructive with your
time.”

“And what’s that?”

“Find her,” she choked, her voice starting to
crack as her eyes moistened with fresh tears. “Find Miranda and
make her leave me alone.”

* * * * *

“No, Maggie, just slow down for a minute and
listen to me,” I said into my cell phone, trying to stay calm while
making my voice as stern as I could without losing control. “No one
has been hurt. It’s a psychiatric hospital.”

Of course, I was lying about no one being
hurt, but since it was only me, I doubt it would have mattered.
Besides, that wasn’t something she needed to know about anyway.

I had spent several minutes laying out the
story in my head, selectively removing unnecessary details, before
making the call to tell my wife’s family we wouldn’t be making it
to the gala holiday dinner. I hadn’t even been able to get half of
it out yet, and we’d been on the phone for almost ten minutes.

I listened for a moment as she gibbered
excitedly on the other end, asking a mouthful of questions while
not bothering to stop long enough for me to answer even one. I had
been slowly pacing along a six foot or so stretch of the waiting
area during the call, just to work off the nervous energy, but now
I was feeling tired all over again. I stopped mid-step and planted
myself on a plastic chair, leaning forward and resting my elbows on
my knees then I closed my eyes as I continued to listen.

When she finally stopped to take a breath I
said, “Your daughter is not insane, Maggie, no one is saying that.
Helen told me it looks like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.”

She immediately asked, “Who is Helen?”

“Her doctor,” I replied. “Doctor Helen Storm.
It just happens that she’s also a good friend of ours, so I tend
not to be overly formal.”

I could hear Shamus in the background,
cursing and making demands. He wasn’t helping my mood at all, but
at least it was Maggie doing the actual talking. She was a far cry
from being a fan of mine herself, however, she always went out of
her way to remain civil and try to tolerate the “damned and hell
bound son-in-law”, which was more than I could say for her husband.
In my book, whether she hated me or not, she still showed me a
graceful courtesy and I appreciated it.

“What is her room number, Rowan?” she
asked.

“One twenty-one,” I replied. “But she’s not
in there yet.”

“Why not?”

“Paperwork and the like,” I said, shrugging
out of reflex. “They’re supposed to get her settled in pretty soon
though. They gave me a list of what she’s allowed to have, so once
she’s in the room for a bit I’m going to run home and pack some
things for her because we came straight here from Helen’s
office.”

“Why? Why is this happening so suddenly?”

“It’s a long story, Maggie. All I can…”

My sentence was interrupted by a click, and
the phone suddenly adopted a hollow tone that told me an extension
had just been taken off hook. Confirming my suspicion, a fresh and
much less pleasant voice joined the conversation.

“Aye, what have you done to her now?!” Shamus
barked.

“I’m not going to argue with you today,
Shamus,” I replied.

“Shamus William O’Brien!” Maggie barked, then
her voice grew slightly distant as she pulled away from the
mouthpiece on the phone. I could still make out enough of the
one-sided conversation to discern the fact that she was calling for
Austin to go occupy his father.

A moment or two later, some muted voices and
a few curses filled the earpiece but were finally silenced by a
second click as the extension was hung up.

“I apologize for that, Rowan,” Maggie said.
“Please understand that he is concerned for Felicity.”

“Yeah, Maggie,” I replied, surprising myself
at being able to remain unruffled. “I know he is. So am I.”

She paused for a moment then said, “I’ll get
Shamus calmed down, and we’ll be there a little later. Is there
anything we can bring her, or anything else we can do?”

I dropped my forehead into my hand and
sighed. I really wasn’t relishing the thought of dealing with the
family face to face given this new turn of events. However, I
couldn’t very well tell them not to visit their daughter. Something
like that would definitely give my father-in-law a fresh load of
ammunition.

“I can’t think of anything,” I said. “But I’m
sure she’d love to see you.”

“What about you?” she asked.

“No, Maggie, I’m fine. As I can be under the
circumstances, anyway.”

“Have you eaten?” she pressed.

“Not yet, but I’ll grab something later.”

“Nonsense,” she replied. “I’ll bring you a
plate.”

“You don’t have to do that, Maggie.”

“I know I don’t have to, Rowan. I want
to.”

I wasn’t going to argue. My mother-in-law was
a fantastic cook, and now that it had been mentioned, I took notice
that my stomach was actually grumbling.

“Thanks,” I said. “I appreciate it.”

“Do you think they will let me bring a plate
for Felicity as well, then?”

“I can ask, but I doubt it will be a problem.
I’ve seen a few visitors bringing stuff in.”

“Good,” she replied then asked again, “Now,
you’re certain there’s nothing else we can do?”

I answered her in a tired voice. “I suppose
that when you get here, you could convince your daughter that she
doesn’t have a sister.”

Why I said it was anybody’s guess. I suppose
it was just an aberration born of fatigue, concern, the situation,
and everything that I’d been told over the past few hours. Either
way, the words tumbled out at a nonchalant cadence, and even after
I’d spoken them, I didn’t pay the comment any serious regard.

I sat for a moment and realized that Maggie
had not responded at all.

“Maggie? Are you still there?”

“Why did you say that, Rowan?” she finally
asked, a thin tremor in her voice.

“What?”

“Why does Felicity think she has a sister?”
she pressed, her tone still off key.

“It has something to do with the DNA tests
the police did,” I replied, intrigued by the trepidation I was
detecting. “The sample from the killer matched so closely with
hers, the lab says she must have a sister.”

The charged silence continued on the other
end.

I finally asked, “What’s wrong, Maggie? Is
there something we should know? Does Felicity actually have a
sister?”

“I’ll be leaving Austin and Shamus here,
then,” she replied slowly, the vocal tremor still in full force. “I
should be there in thirty minutes or so. We need to talk.”

“Fourteen days?” I asked, the tone of my
voice betraying both my confusion and surprise.

“Yes, Rowan,” Helen replied. “A seven to
fourteen day observation is fairly standard. I would rather err on
the side of caution, hence fourteen.”

My mind had been churning ever since getting
off the phone with Maggie, and I had once again been checking my
watch far too often in anticipation of her arrival. I actually
welcomed the fistful of mundane paperwork as a distraction when
Helen presented it—right up until I read this most recent
paragraph.

I shook my head and raised an eyebrow as I
looked back at her. “So you’re telling me that if I sign this, my
wife is stuck here for a minimum of two weeks with no way out?”

“No,” she replied. “I am saying that you are
admitting her for fourteen days of therapy and observation within
the confines of the hospital.”

“You see it’s that word ‘confine’
that’s giving me the problem.” I stroked my finger beneath a
paragraph on the sheaf of papers. “And, then there’s this legalese
about not being able to leave the hospital grounds? Not to
mention…Wait a minute, what do you mean
I’m
admitting her?”

“It is simply a legal formality for her own
safety.”

“Break it down for me,” I urged, placing the
pen carefully on top of the pages and folding my hands. “Because
now I’m definitely not sure I care for the way it sounds.”

“It is very simple, Rowan,” she explained.
“By admitting Felicity in this fashion, she will be unable to sign
herself out of the hospital. That can only be done by you, or by
me.”

“Me alone or you alone. It doesn’t take both
of us?”

“No. Either one of us can sign her out
individually; although I would prefer you speak to me before doing
something rash.”

“Uh-huh. So, she can be signed out at any
time?”

“Yes, Rowan, at any time.”

“Like, if I want her out of here tomorrow, I
can come get her and we’re done. Finished. No ambulance with men in
white coats chasing after us?”

“I would not recommend that you do so, but
yes, that is how it works. If you or I sign her out, she is free to
leave. Rowan, stop being paranoid, this is not a prison, you know
that.”

“Yeah, I heard that somewhere before.”

I stared back at her for a moment, not saying
another word. I knew that she, of all people, wouldn’t lie to me
about something like this, but I felt like I was perched on a very
unstable precipice right now. I didn’t want Felicity to do this to
begin with, but there was no talking her out of it. And, now it was
somehow becoming my personal responsibility. The thing that kept
going through my mind was that I was standing here committing my
wife to an asylum. Though I knew that to be a somewhat archaic take
on the situation, I guess I needed all of the assurances I could
get.

With a heavy exhale, I finally picked up the
pen and scrawled my name on the admitting form, effectively placing
my wife in the hospital’s hands for the next two weeks. I had a
definite feeling that my notebook computer was going to be logging
some serious hours because I was going to have work to do, but I
also didn’t plan on straying far from this place if I could help
it.

“By the way,” I offered as I slid the papers
along the countertop toward her. “My mother-in-law should be here
any minute.”

“Do you feel like that is going to be a
problem?” she asked.

“No, not necessarily. The reason I mentioned
it, though, is that I was on the phone with her a little while ago,
and she started acting weird when I brought up the sister issue. In
fact, she is purposely coming down without the rest of the family
and ended the conversation with something like ‘we need to
talk’.”

“Really?” she asked, her tone thoughtful. “Do
you think there might be some family history that Felicity has
somehow repressed?”

“Maybe. I don’t know,” I said with a shake of
my head. “Or maybe some she never knew about at all. All I can say
is Maggie is a fairly unflappable type unless she thinks something
dire has happened, but she started getting seriously flaky the
minute I told her about the DNA tests. In fact, the sister thing
was obviously what prompted that last ominous comment about needing
to talk, so there’s something that’s been hidden away in a closet
somewhere. I’m sure of that.”

“So, is that all she said?”

“Yeah, I’m afraid it was.”

“Well, even if there is some sort of
revelation regarding a female sibling, I do not believe it will be
a panacea for Felicity’s mental state. She has been through far too
much.”

“It might help, though, right?”

“It might,” she said with a nod. “But, then
again, depending on what is divulged, it could be harmful
instead.”

“Not what I wanted to hear, Helen.”

“You would prefer that I lie?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Then stop complaining.”

“Yeah, right, and you believe that miracle
will happen when?”

She offered a thin smile. “Never.”

“Uh-huh. Well, at any rate if we’re talking
about a living, adult sibling, then I’m sure the police would be
interested too.”

“Undoubtedly, given what you have told
me.”

“Either way, I thought maybe I would see if
she’d be willing to talk to both of us when she arrives.”

“That certainly would not hurt.”

“To be honest, I’m not sure if she will, but
I’m going to try to talk her into it. Just do me a favor?”

“What is that?”

“If she agrees, try not to mention
anything about the
Lwa
possession or anything else that went on last night, okay? It
probably wouldn’t be a real good thing to lay on her.”

She gave me a knowing nod. I knew that from
my own sessions with her, at the very least, she was fully aware of
the score when it came to my in-laws.