Castle on the Edge (7 page)

“That one goes out about two hundred feet east of the Castle then breaks off all together. The area is very dangerous, even for the most experienced hikers, because it’s densely inundated with trees and bramble bushes that have intermeshed branches with very sharp thorns; what’s worse is, they camouflage the many deep crevices and fissures that scatter the terrain. I can’t imagine Doctor Calloway going there.”

“He has been known to take the west path to the cliff, Alex?”

“Oh yes. In fact, Doctor Calloway, Mary and I have walked to the cliff many times,” I answered. “But now we have to get the Sheriff.”

“What about the Halloween party, Alex?” Mary asked, “I don’t think we should cancel it, do you?”

While trying to gather my thoughts, I said, “No, no, there’s no need for the residents to share in our distress. It will go on as planned.”

Doctor Lederer agreed. He went on to say, “It wouldn’t be a good idea to inform the patients of this situation, or exhibit any signs of anxiety or concern; after all, they are paying good money to be here in order to work out their own problems. It would also be unprofessional on our part indeed, to disclose such information.”

Looking at my watch and noting that it was already past six, I told Mary, “I’m going to take the car into town and get the Sheriff right now. By the way, did you see Harper?”

“No. I didn’t even know he was back,” she answered.

“He has to be. I saw the car in the garage on our way in here; he left the doors open and…”

“Never mind, Alex,” Doctor Lederer interrupted. “You had better get going. I’ll stay here and help Miss Holden take charge of things.”

“You’d better discreetly inform all of the medical staff, as well as Mrs. Dudley and her husband about this situation; maybe some of them can tell us something,” I told Mary.

As I was making my way to the garage, I could see both doors were opened again; therefore, I thought Harper was surely inside now, but when I entered, he wasn’t. The carport was full with the usual eight vehicles, the hospital car, Doctor Calloway’s car, Miss Hathaway’s car, Mary’s car, Mister Dudley’s car, two cars that belonged to other medical employees and mine. It hadn’t run for two weeks because of some kind of an electrical short, I hadn’t had time to get repaired.

I got into the hospital car, put the key in the ignition and when I turned it, the motor wouldn’t start. After trying several times, I opened the hood only to see that the wires had been cut. I ran back into the Castle and saw Mrs. Dudley going up the stairs.

“Oh, Mrs. Dudley, wait,” I called out and approached her. “Did Mary tell you about Doctor Calloway’s disappearance?”

“She informed me a couple of minutes ago, she did. Oh Jesus, Joseph, Mary, it’s been a terrible day, it has. She said you were going to get the Sheriff and…”

“The hospital vehicle is disabled,” I quickly interrupted. “I’ll have to take Mary’s car.”

“Oh my, oh dear. She’s in the recreation room with Doctor Lederer, Miss Hopkins Mister Morgan and Mister Duncan…getting things ready for the Halloween party, you know.”

I ran down to the other end of the long ground-floor corridor, entered the spacious room and saw the group together in conversation. I caught Mary’s attention and with a discreet gesture, I motioned for her to come out into the hall.

“Mary,” I said in a low voice, the hospital car has been disabled; the wires were cut, deliberately, I think. I’ll need to use your car.”

“Oh Alex,” Mary said in a shaking voice that was almost a whisper, “Something’s wrong…something’s very wrong. I’m frightened. This whole day has been building into something evil.”

“I know. But I’ve got to get the Sheriff now, and we don’t want the patients to know about it. Get me your car keys, Mary,” I said calmly and quietly, so I wouldn’t draw any attention to us.

I ran back to the garage with Mary’s car keys. I got into her car, turned the key and the motor wouldn’t start. I looked under the hood, I was beside myself. The connecting wires were cut, like the hospital car. A feeling of paralysis took over my whole body. I stood there, gazing at the severed wires under the hood in a locked state of helplessness, for several minutes. It seemed I was a prisoner, as it were, in my own body. Then I managed somehow to muster all the willpower I could to pull myself out of my mental undertow. I was about to go back to the Castle and get the keys to another car, but a thought occurred to me. I should first look under the hoods of all the cars, including my own disabled machine. One by one as I looked, the wires of all the automobiles were cut…all of them. Sabotaged.

The Party

The show started at eight-thirty and lasted until nine forty-five. The delivery and timing of the comic skits made quite a hit with the audience. The stage-trained Miss Hopkins, with her versatility and assortment of colorful costumes, plumes and vocal projections, was very popular.

Mister Morgan, with his successful motion-picture background and physical attributes and Mister Duncan, with his impressive array of model-clay props, arrangements of backdrop scenery, as well as his British sense of humor, blended harmoniously into a perfect mixture of entertainment and delight. We all gave our performers rave reviews. They also gave me a temporary avenue of escape from the very real trapped situation we were all in.

All the residents, except for Mister Strutmire, were there. An assortment of guests, as well as most of the staff personnel were in attendance. Everyone except the residents and guests knew the present state of affairs. The new ‘mystery’ patient that nobody could find, Doctor Calloway’s disappearance, doors that should have been opened, locked, doors that should have been locked, opened.

The missing keys, the strange thumping and dragging sound in the green room, the outside telephone line not working, Harper’s disappearance, and the deliberate severing of wires to all the automobiles rendering them inoperable. Nevertheless, our Halloween party commenced at ten o’clock, when Mrs. Dudley and two of her staff served refreshments.

“I’m so glad you all loved the show, Doctor Ramsey,” Miss Hopkins said with her usual theatrical gusto.

“Yes, I did, Miss Hopkins. You know, when you can make an hour and fifteen minutes seem like only several minutes to an audience, that’s the mark of a true artist…and one who loves his or her craft,” I responded.

“Mister Morgan and I enjoyed putting it on. I know it was a joy for Mister Duncan too—at least a temporary one, from his constant malaise over the European situation, you know, Hitler and company.”

“There are many dangers in the world…far and near,” I said, as I was brought back to thinking about all that had happened today, and the situation we were in now.

Miss Hopkins looked at me with a perplexed expression on her face and paused. It was as if she were thinking, I wonder what he means by ‘far and near?’ Instead she went on to say, “I only wish Doctor Calloway were here also, not that old Strutmire, mind you. I’m glad he stayed in his room, huh, the old grouch. Lock the door and throw away the key, I say. But enough of him. You said…Doctor Calloway was suddenly called away this morning?”

“Yes,” I answered, “and he sent his regrets.”

I had made up a story that Doctor Calloway had to go to San Francisco, and meet with the hospital board of directors there with regard to operation policies and procedures, and he probably wouldn’t be back in time for tonight’s show and party.

“Oh well, business before pleasure and all that, I suppose,” she responded tersely.

Then Mary and Doctor Lederer approached us, followed by Mrs. Dudley with a tray of refreshments.

“We bring liquid sustenance,” Mary said.

Mrs. Dudley handed each of us a glass of red punch.

“There’s a lovely assortment of cold cuts, breads, salads and cakes over at the buffet table; don’t forget to partake,” Mrs. Dudley said. Then she moved on to another group of people engrossed in conversation.

“You and Mister Morgan and Mister Duncan put on a spectacular show,” Mary said to Miss Hopkins.

“Thank you, Nurse Holden. We gave our hearts and souls to this project, you know.”

Then Doctor Lederer said, “You know, Miss Hopkins, when people’s passions harmonize…not just on the surface but down deep, to the core of their very essence, and when they collaborate on an endeavor…eh…as was obviously the case with you, Mister Morgan and Mister Duncan, the end result of any such project can only be nothing short of spectacular.”

She paused and reflected for a moment on the lofty words, then humbly commented by saying, “You make me feel superhuman, Doctor Lederer.”

At that juncture I looked up and saw Mister Morgan and Mister Duncan approaching our group; now we were six.

“Look, Nurse Holden and Doctor Lederer, we have the whole company before us…and a dynamic lot indeed.” I said enthusiastically.

“Thank you, Doctor Ramsey. I must say it was grand working with Miss Hopkins and Mister Duncan. They’re real people, not like those phonies in Hollywood,” remarked Mister Morgan.

Then Miss Hopkins added, “Don’t think the theatre world is free from phonies, Mister Morgan; we have a plethora of them. By the way, Mister Morgan…and Mister Duncan, it was grand working with you, too.

Mister Duncan responded by saying, “I never thought of myself as an actor or entertainer, but it was jolly good fun working with two professionals in the business. I mean, you were both like beacons of light guiding me through uncharted waters.”

“Ah,” bounced back Miss Hopkins. “Your superb timing and wonderful model-clay props were the buoys that kept the whole show afloat, Mister Duncan. So you see, you’re both an actor and an engineer.

“I second that,” said Mister Morgan.

As our three-team theatre company was gaily conversing, Mary looked at me with a beckoning gesture to step out into the hall. I could tell by the somber expression on her face, I was about to learn some new information…not the kind of information I wanted to hear. So we excused ourselves while Doctor Lederer remained there with the others.

“Alex,” Mary said in a low shaking voice, “I know I should have told you this before, but the watchman at the main gate is missing; he’s been missing for over a half hour now.”

Again, I was beside myself. I felt so helpless. Thoughts were furiously swimming in my head. I was like a fish caught in a whirlpool. Mary was right when she‘d said earlier, this is building into something evil. We were all like fish being sucked down into some kind of hell with no chance of finding a current to swim upstream.

I pulled myself together and looked at my watch, then said to Mary, “It’s just past ten-thirty. Was the watchman still at his post up to nine-thirty?”

“Yes, because I called the front gate and spoke to him before the show ended. I wanted to check and see if he might have seen Doctor Calloway, or Harper...or anything. He was still there, Alex. Now he’s gone.”

“How do you know? Did you go out and look?”

“Yes. Just before the party started I called. Oh, Alex, I forgot, that’s the other thing.”

“What other thing, Mary?”

“Well, as I said, I called, or I tried to call the outside gate again, but the line was dead.” “The in-house line is dead too, now?”

“Yes. And there’s more, Alex. I went out to the gate to talk to the watchman and he wasn’t there in his booth…this was shortly before ten. Then I started to look around a bit. It was creepy, Alex. The whole area was filled with a weird heaviness. The air was so thick with it I could hardly move. It was like those dreams where you try to move, but you can’t. It was surreal. I couldn’t see anything but I had a feeling I was being watched…watched by someone, or something…evil. And then there was the smell.”

“What smell, Mary?”

“Well, it was a…how shall I say it, a sick kind of smell…not the usual kind you would smell in a hospital. I’ve never smelled anything like it before in all of my experience as a nurse. The closest thing I could compare it to would be…it was like… a very pungent vomit, but again, not like any vomit I’ve ever smelled in all my nursing experience.

“It was….like it was…decomposing. And get this, the odor, well, this is unbelievable, but it kept getting stronger. It was almost to the point where I couldn’t breathe. It was as if the air were being consumed by the smell. The smell, believe it or not, was getting its power from eating the air. I know it sounds fantastic. I would have suffocated had I not left that place.”

“And did you see anything out of the ordinary, aside from the watchman missing?”

“No, but I heard something out of the ordinary. In fact, it was the same sound I heard earlier…in the green room. You know, the thumping-dragging sound I told you about. Then I really got frightened and made a dash back here.”

Doctor Lederer came out, looked around and said to Mary in a soft guarded tone, “I could sense there’s more peril added to our predicament, when you motioned Alex to come out here. So after Miss Gould and Mister Lipton came over and joined our conversation, I expressed a polite departure and stepped out here to learn the current status, as it were.”

“The current status is bad, Doctor Lederer,” I declared. “Mary just told me that the in-house line is also down; so we not only can’t call out, but we can’t even communicate within the premises of the Castle. Not only that, but now we can add the watchman to the missing Harper and Doctor Calloway.”