Hand Me Down Evil (Hand Me Down Trilogy) (14 page)

Edgar stood as still as a statute, tilting his head to the side to listen to sounds in the woods. The old man pivoted halfway to glance in my direction although did not seem to notice my presence, and then turned to focus his attention on the woods again. Cautiously, he took two steps forward toward the thickets, cupping his hand to his right ear.

“Who is it?” Edgar yelled to no one in particular. “Why are you coming after me?” His voice was faint, but I could hear him just as well.

Silence.

Was Edgar aware that the police were looking for him? Could he possibly be paranoid because he knew that his photograph had been broadcast over hundreds of television screens while the announcer told the viewing public that if anyone had seen Edgar, they should call the police? Or was Edgar hearing voices in his head?

I peered in the direction of the woods. Something caused the tree leaves to rustle in a vigorous manner and threw a shadow unswervingly on the small trail that wound deep into the underbrush. Edgar took one step back, startled, and slowly moved sideways while keeping his gaze on the dirt path.

With deliberate caution, Edgar glanced in my direction again as he breathed a sigh of relief when a deer appeared from behind an aspen tree and scampered through the thick bushes.

A ripple of thunder cracked through the sky, and steady drops of rain began to fall. Edgar moved slowly toward the hospital. He did not seem to notice the rain, the ambulance, or any of his surroundings. Eccentric and obviously preoccupied, he was deep in thought.

The paramedic started to roll me toward the emergency room entrance, but I did not want to leave the parking lot as long as Edgar was still out there. The scruffy old man was my only connection to Amber, to Tally, to what had happened to them. When I had been dealt a bad deck of cards, when I got stumped by dead ends and felt bewildered and exhausted, he had appeared. And now I did not want to lose sight of him.

I had to know if Edgar’s female personality kidnapped Amber and Tally. The best way to find that out was to follow him, learn where he hung out, hoping that I could find the girls.

Slowly, Edgar made it to the hospital entrance. He stood in front of the double doors just as the paramedic wheeled me onto the sidewalk a few yards away. When he was only a couple of yards away, Edgar stood alert, cupped his hand around his right ear again as if though straining to listen, and then he started laughing.

The laugh was loud, shrill, and odd. It was the disruptive exclamation of a madman.

“The bad guy is me!” Edgar said in a disdainful tone. He appeared to be talking to himself. “They think it’s me, but how do they know it’s me? Maybe it is someone else, and the police are trying to frame me?” he said. He threw his head back and started snickering again as he stood in front of the double doors. His voice had changed. Now it was deep, hoarse.

The paramedic glanced briefly at him, shook his head, and muttered, “He must have mental issues.”

Still absorbed in his thoughts, Edgar pressed his face to the glass door, peeked inside, and then turned and faced the bench on the other side of the entrance just past me. No one was sitting on the bench, but Edgar waved his hand and smiled at the bench.

“Hi, Harvey. What are you doing here? I’m coming to visit my father in the psychiatric ward,” he said. “What? What did you say, Harvey?” Edgar tilted his head as if though listening to someone.

“Man, that guy is nuts,” the paramedic said, as he rolled me through the double doors and into the hospital.

Just before the doors closed, I heard Edgar burst out into a fit of laughter while looking at the empty bench. Then he said bye to the bench and followed us inside. Edgar was laughing so hard that tears rolled down his face. It was at that moment that he seemed to suddenly become aware of his surroundings. Edgar glanced at his wet clothes and said, “Why, it’s raining out there,” in a disapproving tone.

Once inside the lobby, Edgar’s expression became serious.

The paramedic helped me slip out of the stretcher and onto a chair before he introduced me to a heavy set nurse with short curly brown hair and a light complexion. Just when the nurse started taking my vital signs, Edgar approached the information desk and requested to be permitted to visit his father in the psychiatric ward.

“The visiting hours for the psychiatric ward are over,” the clerk, a thin, professional looking man with short brown hair in his early twenties explained.

“Nonsense,” Edgar shrieked, slamming his hand down on the desk. “You’re interfering with my right to visit my father. I’ve been searching for him for two years, and I finally tracked him down to the psychiatric ward in this hospital.” Edgar’s voice rose as he spoke.

There were only about four men and two women in the emergency waiting room, and they all turned to stare at the eccentric man.

When Edgar started to speak again, his speech sounded slurred, like he was drunk. “Young, man, I must see my father. You see, the authorities took me away from my dad when I was a young child. The Humphries family adopted me, took me in. You know what that means, young man? The Humphries family gave me a chance in life. But I want to know my biological father, the man responsible for bringing me into this world.” Edgar leaned forward and threw the clerk an intimidating glare.

The clerk shook his head. “Sir, I can’t let you into the psychiatric ward. It’s closed. Visiting hours are over.” He enunciated his words very carefully.

“But I need to see my father,” Edgar pleaded. “Don’t you understand? I finally found my biological father. Don’t turn me away. Don’t do it,” Edgar begged.

The clerk glanced down at the papers on his desk and pressed his lips together. “Well, ok, I’ll have them take you to the psychiatric ward, but you can’t stay long.” He motioned for the security officer to take Edgar down the hall.

The nurse finished taking my vital signs and my personal information and told me to wait in the lobby with the rest of the patients. “Your vitals look good. I’m sure it’s nothing, but we need to take an MRI to make sure you don’t have any internal bleeding,” she said.

The security guard ushered Edgar through a door to the left of the hallway.

I
hopped out of the chair and studied the lobby and the hall where Edgar was being led by the guard. Mark had said that if we find Edgar, we should follow him and observe what he does.

Where was Mark now that I had accidentally run into Edgar? I considered the possibility of just waiting in the lobby with the rest of the patients, but I could not miss the opportunity to keep a close eye on Edgar. While the clerk was busy shuffling through some files on his desk, I tip toed down the hall. Then I slid through the door on the left of the information desk which lead to a long, dark empty hallway. I could hear Edgar and the security guard talking, and so I turned right and started walking briskly in the direction from which the voices came.

When I reached the end of the corridor, I caught a glimpse of Edgar going through another door. A sign on the door read, “Secured Area- Psychiatric Ward”. Just as the door was ready to slam shut, I lunged toward it and held it open with my foot and then made my way inside. That door, too, lead to another hallway. There was a staircase straight ahead and another door just in front of the stairway. I looked through the small window in the door and saw Edgar talking to a woman at the front desk. The security guard was walking back toward the staircase, toward me.

What would I do if I got caught? I could just say that I lost my way in the hospital, and then ask the guard to show me the way to the lobby. Perhaps no one would believe me, though. Maybe they would consider me a trespasser. And if I exited through the door behind me, the security guard would catch me for sure in the hallway on the other side. I bit my lip and ran up the stairs and hid in a landing where the stairway curved just before the second floor entrance door.

When I was sure that the security guard had gone back down the hall toward the emergency room, I decided to go through the door leading to the second floor. My plan was to try and find some way to come back down a flight of stairs at the other end of the hall, if there was a stairway on the other side. I could not go back down the flight of stairs below my hiding spot. There was a good chance that someone would spot me there since the first floor door was so close to the front desk.

There was no one on the second floor which housed mainly doctors’ offices. The patients’ rooms must be downstairs, I thought. Quietly, I sprinted past a row of unoccupied offices all the way down the hall to the other end.

Luckily, another staircase was located at the other side of the hallway, and I tiptoed down the staircase until I reached the first floor. As I made it to the third step from the bottom, I could hear Edgar’s loud, disruptive voice. He was arguing with a nurse. As I peeked from behind the staircase, I could see Edgar waving his arms, threatening a nurse.

I took a step forward and peered down the hall. A middle aged, overweight woman with dark straight hair that was pulled back and tied neatly into a braid sat at the information desk. She had dark round eyes and thick arched eyebrows that complimented her face. Her arms were folded across her chest.

I wondered if she would recognize Edgar and call the police. She must have seen the television announcements that the Crawford County Sheriff had aired about Edgar. Or was it possible she would just let him pass by without the slightest hesitation?

Edgar stood there for a moment glaring at the woman. When she threw a disapproving glance back at Edgar, his expression softened a bit, and he began talking in a more moderate tone of voice.

“Look. I want to meet my biological father. I have to find out if he suffers from a multiple personality disorder like I do. If my biological father had another personality that killed others, then it’s quite possible that I am like my father and have the same type of problem,” he explained.

The woman said nothing.

Edgar continued. “I’m being perfectly honest with you. I know my father is mentally disturbed, and I need to know if his alter personality was a kidnapper so that I can figure out if I am abducting young girls. Get it? If this, then that. That’s what we call deductive reasoning.” Edgar started chuckling in a high pitched, shrill tone of voice.

Edgar spit on the floor but kept his gaze on the woman.

The woman shrank back in disgust.

Two other nurses had joined the lady with the braid at the front desk. One was a young thin attractive nurse in her early twenties with shoulder length brown curly hair and hazel eyes that looked cold even when she was smiling. The other one was a short blond nurse who wore too much makeup.

The woman with the braid narrowed her eyes into slits as Edgar approached the desk. She did not seem friendly at all. And why should she be friendly to Edgar? He looked like a bum who had not taken a shower in months, and he needed a haircut and a shave. Besides, he just confessed to her that he suffered from a mental disorder and that he might be kidnapping girls and was wondering if his father suffered from the same disorder. That confession was not likely to help Edgar make friends and influence people, especially a nurse in a psychiatric ward.

My heart raced as I realized that I was breaking every rule in the hospital by eavesdropping in a restricted area. But my sisters’ lives hung in the balance, and I had to find out if Edgar had something to do with their disappearance. Just listening to him for these few minutes actually convinced me that he was a lunatic and that he knew he was a lunatic. But he did not know if he was a kidnapper. Actually, he seemed to have a conscience because he wanted to find out if his other personality was the abductor. I saw the simple logic of his reasoning. He wanted to learn about his father’s multiple personality disorder so that he could gain some knowledge as to his own demons.

Edgar really does not know if he is the kidnapper
, I thought. Mark’s suggestion that we follow him to see what he does was right on target. If only I had the luxury of being invisible, a fly on the wall.

When the nurse with the braid continued to stare disapprovingly at Edgar, he unconsciously ran his hand across his chin, apparently becoming self-conscious of his grubby appearance.

The three nurses by now had gathered at the desk ready to confront Edgar. They had to have realized that he had a severe mental disorder as soon as he opened his mouth to speak. Nurses deal with so many sick people that they become very proficient at figuring out what is wrong with an individual. I hoped they would not turn Edgar away simply because he harbored a chemical imbalance. I needed them to help him.

“What exactly do you want?” the woman with the braid asked. “By the way, my name is Sarah,” she said, unaware that she was pointing to the name tag on her white blouse.

Edgar cleared his throat. “I’d like to see my father.”

“Your father? And who might that be?”

“Travis.”

“Travis Benton?”

“Yes, Travis Benton,” Edgar said. His voice became loud, belligerent.

Apparently, Sarah knew his father. Sarah rose from her seat but did not take her gaze off of Edgar. She threw a quick glance at the other two nurses, who were whispering to each other and pointing at Edgar.

The scruffy man pursed his lips and retreated, stepping backwards. He hesitated for a moment, appeared to be weighing his options.

I could almost hear him thinking. He seemed to be considering whether or not to run out of the hospital now before they grabbed him and called the police.

No, no. Don’t leave
, I thought. I was interested in learning what had happened to Edgar’s father, probably more than he was.

Edgar stuffed his hands into the pockets of his blue jeans.

Sarah took one step toward Edgar.

“I’m going to see my father tonight, and nothing is going to stand in my way. Do you understand?” Edgar asked.

The blonde, short nurse moved toward the front of the desk and bluntly told Edgar that visiting hours were over.