Maddy's Floor (34 page)

***

Gerard hung up the phone, still in shock. "Dr. Lenning has been stabbed while in ICU. Unbelievable." He repeated it several times aloud, not sure when it would register. The police were all over The Haven, searching for the suspect and questioning the staff, patients and visitors.
God, what a PR mess.
This was a busy place. Surely, someone had seen something. The attacker had to be nuts. There's no way they'd get away with this.

He'd needed to call the Board. Containment was a priority.

A horrible suspicion preyed on his mind. He knew one person who was crazy. Could she have done this? No, not possible. His mother was neither mentally nor physically capable.

It made him think though. He'd hidden for so long. If there were even the slightest possibility that she was a danger to anyone – well, the new Gerard wanted to make sure he told someone so they could decide if she was dangerous or not.

Drew was the most likely person. Although finding out they were family would be a shock. Not that he thought of either John or Drew in that light. He'd removed himself as far from that family line as he could. He knew it was to time to clear the air and start fresh, without secrets.

Sandra walked into his office. "Gerard, did I hear correctly? Adam was attacked in his hospital room?"

"Stabbed in bed."

Her hands automatically covered her mouth in shock. "Oh no! That's unbelievable. Is he going to be all right?"

Gerard stood up. "He's in surgery now." He walked to the window then turned back to face her. "I have to go speak with the detective downstairs. I should have done something about this a long time ago."

She stared at him. "About what?"

"I don't have time to go into it now. I want you to stay here. Lock yourself in after I leave. I'll call when this is over."

He walked back to his desk, picked up the phone and punched in the numbers. "Hey, are you downstairs? Good, I need to speak with you. I'll be there in five minutes."

Gerard hung up. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

"You can explain afterwards. Please be careful."

"I will." A man had to stop running sometime. He walked out to face his past.

***

Maddy waited until Nancy completed the lockdown procedure. She couldn't get her mind wrapped around the attack on Adam. She desperately wanted to believe he'd survive. The knife had been high, but…

"All I can think about is what Dr. Lenning might have wanted to tell me."

"And there's no answer to that question for the moment. That's why you need to stay busy. Get at that paperwork on your desk. I'll head back to the nurses' station, get some of my work done, and we'll see how we're both doing in an hour or so." Nancy smiled at Maddy as she stood up. "This will work out; you'll see."

"I hope so." Maddy watched the door shut behind her friend. She hoped the police were efficient. That type of energy swirling around down there would be destructive if it made its way up here. As it was, she was certainly going to need Stefan's help to restore the balance once this was over.

Ignoring the confusion in her mind, she reached for the stack of work. An hour later, she'd worked her way through a good half of it. The stack continued to dwindle until she reached the last piece of paper. It was information that needed to be added to Jansen's file. She brought up the file on her computer. Sadness swept through her. This wasn't an easy thing to do on a day like this one. At least she wouldn't have Dr. Lenning's file to deal with. That would be Dr. Cunningham's job.

Maddy sifted through every bit of information there was. She'd had Jansen as a patient for over a year and the information was vast. Starting at the back, and slowly moving forward she read the notations, went over lab results and charts, wondering if she'd missed something.

It took an hour before she came to the night of his death. In a somber mood, Maddy realized guilt still plagued her, even though she had no idea what else she could have done.

A piece of something out of place niggled the back of her mind. Something didn't jibe. What? She wandered through the pages, looking to confirm a simple piece of information. There. In one conversation, she'd noted that Jansen had admitted to having had several affairs and quietly requested tests for STD because he hadn't wanted his wife to know. The tests had proved negative.

Except he'd had affairs. He'd been particularly worried because an old flame was on another floor and she hadn't been concerned about keeping her affairs private. Had Doris and Jansen been involved at one point? When sexual intercourse took place, energy, as well as body fluids, was exchanged. It would have been easy enough for her to recognize that energy and follow the pathway upstairs to Jansen. And with his bed shifted due to the renovations, Doris might well have had something to do with Jansen's death.

However, she wasn't getting out of her bed to walk the hallways and stab people, certainly not without someone noticing. So, just because Dr. Lenning had been on the same floor as Doris's room when he was stabbed, that didn't mean his attack had anything to do with her.

Adam had made plenty of enemies on his own over the years. She frowned. However, if he died, that did free up another bed on her floor. According to Drew and Gerard, the competition for beds could lead some people to commit murder, which meant everyone in The Haven was suspect. How many patients had applied for a transfer, and how many staff members knew someone who had put in an application form?

That included Doris again. She apparently wanted the transfer very badly. If she weren't capable of doing something like that herself, did she have someone who'd have done this for her?

Either the two crimes weren't connected and there were two perpetrators, or they were connected and Doris had someone helping her.

Yet, nothing explained why Dr. Lenning had been attacked. There'd been no attempt to suck his life force. That knife stabbed into his chest had panic written all over it.

So, why him?

How could she find out? She picked up her cell phone and called one of the nurses she knew well downstairs. "Jenny, this is Dr. Maddy. I have an unusual question. Your patient Doris – does she ever talk about her past relationships?"

Jenny laughed. "Are you kidding? I think it's those memories that are keeping her alive, maybe even healing her. She's something, that one. Now, of course, she's a bit touched in her head, so I wouldn't be listening to everything she said. Still, she apparently has a taste for men in uniform. You know, doctors, police officers, and firefighters. Men like that."

Maddy frowned. Jansen had been a shipyard worker.

"Oh, and that sailor man, apparently he'd been a hot number, too."

"She never mentioned any names, did she?"

"Well, a lot depended on her mental state on any given day. I can tell you that she's been passing around quite freely that there are several of her old flames here in the hospital with her right now."

"Really? That might be a lot of people, considering the population of The Haven."

"True enough. I can't remember any other names, though."

Maddy smiled. "Right, thanks. You've been a big help." Maddy intended to ring off, but remembered something else at the last minute. "Are the police still crawling all around the place?"

"The hallways are blue with them."

Maddy rang off and quickly called Drew. "I'm in the process of closing Jansen Svaar's file and it started me thinking. I think Doris might have been one of Jansen's lovers. And now I'm wondering if Dr. Lenning might have been one as well."

"Not likely. Adam is gay. He had a thirty-year relationship until his partner passed away five years ago. Besides, she's not up to getting out of her bed and stabbing Adam. She's just not capable of that."

Maddy blinked.
Adam was gay?
She shrugged. "So maybe not." She paused. "Not without help anyway," Maddy added as an afterthought.

"Help? As in a partner?" Drew's voice took on a brisk tone. "Let me check a couple things and call you back."

The phone went dead.

Her door opened. She looked up. "Hey, stranger. Good to see you."

FRIDAY NIGHT

D
rew put away his cell phone. He'd considered the concept of a partner, only hadn't been able to put one in the right place to make sense. Nothing about this case made sense.

"Damn it." Now he had to contend with Gerard. He spotted him weaving through the crowded hallway, determination written on his features. Once Gerard saw Drew, his gaze locked on him as he made his way over.

As he approached, Drew studied him for family features. Was this man part of his family? Gerard strode determinedly forward…on a mission, a little bit like himself.

"Drew, thanks for waiting." Gerard came to a stop, his eyes a little wild and his hair presenting the opposite of his usual CEO-slick appearance.

"No problem. What did you want to talk about?" Drew crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, waiting. He'd learned a long time ago to make others speak first. Gerard took a deep breath, opened his mouth as if to speak, and then closed it again.

"I'm sorry. This is a little hard."

Drew pursed his lips. "Go ahead when you're ready."

Gerard stared past his shoulder, his eyes unfocused as if looking inward. "Well. It's just…I mean…like, I don't know if this is relevant or not."

"You let me decide that."

Gerard slipped his hands into his pants pocket and leaned against the wall facing Drew. "The thing is, my mom is a patient here on the second floor, and she's a little touched in the head."

"Right, my Aunt Doris."

Astonishment swept across Gerard's face. "Oh, you know already?"

Drew snorted. "I know she's your mother and my Uncle John's stepsister, making us cousins of a sort, and that there's a possibility that my uncle might even be your father." Drew watched as the information filtered through Gerard's mind.

Gerard's mouth opened. No sound came out. 

"What?"

Interesting. Drew grinned. "Oh, you didn't know that part? How typical of Uncle John."

Raising his brows, Gerard calmly said, "As far as I knew, my dad was Roger Lionel, and he died over thirty years ago."

"And that may be."

Drew tossed off the information as if it were of no importance.

"I didn't know my real father, so another unknown father hardly makes any difference." Gerard stared off in the distance before continuing. "My childhood was tough. I almost died when I was nine or ten, and I spent months, even years, getting back to normal health. The thing is, back then…." He took a deep breath. "Back then, my mother kept saying some pretty creepy stuff."

Gerard searched the area to make sure no one was listening. He bent his head closer. "She kept saying that she'd sacrifice anyone and everyone if it meant I'd live."

Drew straightened. That in itself wasn't unusual. "That's not uncommon when a parent is faced with a dying child."

"True. She used to rock back and forth, sitting cross-legged at the end of my bed and whisper stuff like that all the time. She tried everything from healers to meditation to all different kinds of weird New Age stuff. At first, I was too sick to care, but as I improved, I realized the more I healed, the worse she seemed to get. The only way I could cope was to ignore her, block out everything she said. Some of it was beyond creepy." He shuddered once before appearing to get a grip on his emotions. He continued, "Since then, she's been in and out, stable and unstable. Certain medications seemed to help her stabilize for several years. Then they'd stop working and she'd deteriorate."

He slumped against the wall and stared at Drew glumly. "I'm not proud of it, but back then I didn't want anything to do with her and her freaky statements. One phrase in particular stuck in my mind. She kept repeating in this eerie monotone voice, 'Sissy had to go' and then Sissy, a school friend of mine, died along with those other five kids."

Drew stiffened. "Sissy? She actually said that name?"

Gerard's face shadowed with the memory. "Yes. Sissy used to come to the house for piano lessons twice a week. Then I heard Sissy had died. I tell you, it freaked me out. Hell, I don't even know if all these bits are just the twisted memories of the scared, sick kid I was back then." He rubbed a hand over his face.

"Six kids died within a few months. We knew them all. At the time, I couldn't believe she'd had anything to do with their deaths. I wouldn't believe. Then I couldn't get the possibility out of my mind. I went into foster care not long after I got out of the hospital. I was terrified I'd be next." Gerard stared moodily down the hallway. "Then Dr. Miko said there was something odd recently, about Jansen's death that sounded all too familiar. Unexplained bruises at the base of the spine." Gerard came to an abrupt stop, pain crinkling his features.

That made sense. Gerard was the CEO of The Haven, so it was likely he would be in touch with Dr. Miko over this. "Okay. As an adult looking back, can you see what, if anything, your mother might have had to do with those deaths?"