Maddy's Floor (35 page)

"I don't know that she had anything to do with them. Just little things she said at the time made me think she had. I don't even remember exactly what she said. But…" He stopped again. "She used to say that no one would know what she'd done. That the tiny mark told no tales and soon with a little more practice, she wouldn't even leave that." He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I don't know if that makes any sense. It certainly didn't to me."

Comprehension hit Drew. He stared down the hallway, trying to work through the information. People were coming and going with purpose all around them. As unbelievable as it sounded, Gerard had just confirmed what he and Maddy had already worked out. He just couldn't get his mind wrapped around it. Was it possible, that Gerard's mother, his Aunt Doris, could have caused all this?

"I hate to think that she hurt others to save me." Gerard stared past Drew's head toward the other end of the hall. "I don't even understand what she might have done. But then, I didn't believe in Maddy's skills before either, and look at some of the things she's achieved."

"If your mother did this and saved you back then, why wouldn't she have healed herself before now?"

A puzzled frown settled on Gerard's face. "I'm not sure. Her new medication may have been a factor. She's been much more alert this last year."

"That makes sense. And you're right, I've noticed some improvement too." Drew shrugged. "It's not easy visiting with people who don't always recognize you." He pulled out his notebook. "Who is her doctor? How long has she been in his care?"

"Dr. Cunningham is now. He's helped her a lot."

Drew wrote the name down in his booklet. "Why did she change doctors?"

"Her old doctor died…about two years ago, I think."

Drew raised his eyebrows. Another death? "There're a lot of deaths strewn around in this mess."

"This one died naturally in his sleep."

A natural death in this mess? Not likely. "I'll look into it. What was his name?"

"Dr. Michaels."

"How old was he?"

"Somewhere in his early sixties, I think. He retired. She was moved to Dr. Cunningham's care and Dr. Michaels passed on a few months later, I believe." Gerard's face twisted, as if finally comprehending Drew's train of thought. "Oh, no. She wouldn't have had anything to do with that. No, I don't think so."

"Depending on her mental state now, we may never know the answer to that question." Drew leaned back against the wall, realizing his cousin had to be a good eight or nine years older than he was. "It's so hard to contemplate this stuff. It's like the 
Twilight Zone
meets the 
Ghost Whisperer.
"

The two men stood in silence.

"Is there anyone in her life that's close enough they'd help her do this stuff?" Drew had a hard time seeing his aunt as Gerard's mother, let alone a murderess. When Doris entered his own life in his late teen years, he'd had a hard time calling her aunt, to begin with. He'd only done it for her sake. Since his graduation they'd gone their own ways, touching base occasionally. It's only after his uncle had fallen so sick that Drew realized he was in danger of losing both of them and had tried to reconnect with her. It had been a little too late, considering her mental state.

Gerard shook his head. "I don't think so. She doesn't have many people in her life." He half-laughed, a dry bitterness to his tone. "That's not quite true." He fisted his hands on his hips. "She's had so many men that I didn't bother to keep track of them.

"Of course, Dr. Cunningham's been there most of my life. He's been the stable uncle in the background. It's one of the reasons I offered him the job here. Then there's John. He's been even more of a background shadow."

Drew narrowed his gaze on Gerard's face. Along with an awful lot of deaths, Dr. Cunningham's name kept coming up in the conversation. "Do you know how long Dr. Cunningham has been in 
her
 life?"

"Oh, easily decades. If you'd told me he was my father, I would have believed you in a heartbeat. He's been around forever."

"Would he know about what she might have done for you?"

"Probably. He's been into this New Age stuff for as long as I remember. They used to get into these weird conversations and I'd walk away. It was easier not to know. Of course, that's also what made him perfect for the Maddy's Floor Project."

Drew straightened slowly. That clinched it. Of course he was. He had to have some special qualifications or interests to be part of the project with Maddy. Drew wasn't sure he'd ever seen the man. "You know, I think I'd like to speak with Dr. Cunningham."

"He spoke to the police a while ago. He's probably gone home by now."

Drew started walking toward the police who were still talking to the staff. "Why did the police want to talk to Dr. Cunningham?"

Hurrying to catch up, Gerard said, "Procedure. He was the last one to see Dr. Lenning before the attack."

"He was Dr. Lenning's doctor?"

"Sure, that was Dr. Maddy's way of getting around having Adam on her floor. Talk to Cunningham. I doubt he has anything to hide."

Drew walked up to the first uniformed officer he saw. Pulling out his own badge, he asked the officer if Dr. Cunningham had been questioned.

"Briefly. He's gone upstairs to deal with an emergency."

"You won't be seeing him about this?"

"Him? No. He had every right to be there. Besides, why would he kill anyone that way? Easier to slip them an overdose or an air bubble, and no one would ever know."

Drew thanked him and stepped back out of the way. Dr. Cunningham wouldn't stab anyone, unless he didn't want anyone to suspect him…for just that reason. Turning back to Gerard, he muttered. "Let's go and speak with your mother." It was easier to call his aunt Gerard's mother – it helped him dissociate from his own relationship with her. The thought of Gerard being his cousin was still something he'd have to wrap his mind around at this point.

Gerard led the way down one of the hallways on the left. Drew had never approached his aunt's room from this direction. It was a bright, happy area, although not anywhere near as nice as on Maddy's floor.

They stopped at the bed number 232. The curtains were closed, giving her some privacy. Drawing it back, the men stepped forward. Drew's lips twitched at the knickknacks his aunt had on the night table and hanging on the wall. The full-length mirror stood as it always had, by the side of her bed. His aunt loved that mirror. It had gone everywhere with her.

"Doris, it's Gerard. How are you?"

Doris beamed at them, her face full of rosy health…and vacant eyes.

"Hi. How nice of you to visit."

Drew studied her face. There were no signs of recognition at all. She didn't know Gerard. She didn't appear to recognize him, either.

"Aunt Doris?"

His aunt's face wrinkled in confusion, her gaze going from Gerard to Drew and back again.

Gerard sighed heavily. "I'm your son, Mom, and this is your nephew, Drew. We both visit you regularly."

She beamed at him. "Such nice boys." She reached out a hand to the side. "Have you met Sissy? She's a lovely lady, isn't she?" She leaned forward and whispered. "She's getting so much better here. It's not fair." Then Doris leaned back, shot her friend a smile and turned back to face them.

It took a moment to sink in.

Then Drew didn't believe what he was seeing.

Aunt Doris was speaking to the woman in the mirror.

She was speaking to her reflection.

Sissy was her reflection.

This was one of her bad days. She'd have recognized him for sure if it had been a good day. He'd heard her say Sissy a few times over these last months, only hadn't connected the name to the first dead girl in his cold case files. Who would? Even now, it didn't make any sense.

Drew changed course. "I'm going to find Dr. Cunningham. Maybe I'll have better luck there."

They wished her a good day and closed the curtain again. Walking away, Gerard said, "Sorry, sometimes she's fine and the next, well, she's Sissy. It's like a complete split personality. I never know what to expect."

The two men walked toward the stairwell. "I haven't seen her this bad in a while myself. I stopped in to visit several times this last week, but never managed to connect for one reason or another. Is she failing or has her medication been changed?"

"I'll come up with you. Paul will be more comfortable speaking if I'm around." Gerard disarmed the doors to the stairs, arming them again once they were through, then repeated the process once they stood outside Maddy's floor. The main hallway had the overhead lights turned down as if it were sleep time for patients.

Gerard walked over to the light switch and flipped it back on. Nothing happened. He frowned.

"Now this is weird."

"Nothing weird about it. Something's wrong." Drew pulled his weapon. "There are no nurses at the station, and there's nothing but silence here." He scouted the long hallway and the open patient areas. His eyes adjusted to the nighttime light settings. The small lights along the hallway at knee height were still on.

"Gerard, what's around the corner?"

"There's a nurses' supply station, lunchroom, a conference room and several clinical rooms."

"So if there's a problem here and someone has taken over the floor, where would the staff be locked up?"

Gerard blinked. "Chances are in the lunchroom or the conference room. Depends on how many staff are still on. It's not that late, so there might be visitors on the floor too. With the lockdown in effect, no one is allowed to leave."

Walking stealthily down the hallway past the nurse's station, Drew peered around the corner. Empty. He frowned. With Gerard on his heels, he walked through the main areas. Patients were in their beds. No one appeared to be bothered. Televisions were playing, radios on –  only there were no nurses, orderlies, or aides. All the staff on duty for this shift were missing.

Drew considered that. Maddy's office was at one end of the floor. His uncle was at the other. Undecided, he searched from one end to the other. Then he motioned in the direction of his uncle. "Let's try the new wing."

Closer to John's bed, he heard voices. He held up a hand to stop Gerard's forward movement. "Shh."

A muffled murmur.

He moved another couple of feet and slid along the side wall. He could almost make out the words.

"You didn't think I was going to walk away from all this, did you?" The deep masculine voice destroyed the hope in Drew's heart.

***

Her world had taken a left into chaos. Dr. Cunningham held that damn gun as capably as he held a surgeon's knife. There wasn't even a tremor to indicate nervousness. He'd walked into her office and had taken control of the floor. He'd forced her staff into her office and with the gun at her back, he'd walked through the floor checking to make sure there was no one else.

Where the hell was Drew? Even to have Stefan stop in astrally would be a huge help. She's sent him several messages mentally, but outside of an acknowledgement from him a few seconds ago, there'd been nothing. At least, she knew the cops would be alerted.

In the meantime, she had to deal with one of the worst betrayals possible. The other person, who'd invested so much time and effort into her healing project, was…a killer. It did explain so much though. Like why she'd never noticed any sense of 'alien' energy at work. It hadn't been a stranger. Paul Cunningham had been working here since her project had started. His energy belonged here.

Somehow, she needed to buy them all more time so Drew could come rescue them. And she needed John to continue to stay calm and quiet. Not to mention her other patients. Damn Paul, anyway. How dare he put these people in danger like this?

Maddy strove to keep her voice calm and neutral. "I don't suppose so. Still, it's not as if anyone would be able to find you if you disappeared. Not with what you know how to do."

"You would."

She stalled. Of course, she would, but he didn't need to know that. "Possibly. Still that doesn't mean I'd do anything about it. You know the patients and this project mean everything to me. I'd hardly do anything to jeopardize them."

"You wouldn't be able to help yourself. You're a sanctimonious do-gooder."

She tried for a light laugh. "I won't be able to prove anything. Just walk away. Right now." She hoped she'd injected the right amount of reasonable eagerness. She was no actress, and she'd always been a terrible poker player.

"I plan on it. Just like I plan on getting younger – no lying around waiting to die for me." Dr. Cunningham laughed. "How's that for a goal?"

"Not bad, if you can do it." She winced. Doubting him wasn't the best way to keep him amiable.

"Oh, I can, and you know it. It took me years to figure out what Doris had done, and then years of befriending that whore to figure how to get her to tell me and teach me. I don't even want to think of the years practicing how to get deep enough into someone's main energetic system to the point I could siphon off their energy like she could. What wasn't fun was getting her stable enough to do the practicum. I only needed her stable for a little longer."