Hidden Entity

by Wendy Meadows

  Grady had been allowed access to the internet under supervision in the mental hospital’s small library. Later, one of the attendants admitted he perhaps wasn’t watched closely when it came to his searches. They discovered many of his search inquiries included his daughter Lauren around the time she first met Seth Hill, and later at the time of her marriage to Ryan Meyers. He apparently had knowledge of her career, but more importantly, of her travels and adventures with Ryan.

  “How did he get into that wall from outside?” Mac asked Brenda. “We haven’t found him or a doorway.”

  “It has to be in the rock walls. Let’s take a look downstairs near the kitchen area.” Brenda told Mac about their chef’s concerns. “He has heard scratching and we both thought possibly a small animal had gotten in. There has to be a place in the wall that leads to some stairs to access the other floors. Jolene King mentioned the first evening she heard noises from behind the wall. No one thought it was real and chalked it up to excitement about the Halloween spooks and ghost stories.”

  They left their unfinished coffee cups on Brenda’s desk and headed for the kitchen. The detective asked specific questions of Pierre, who told him he had been hearing sounds on occasion for the past two days. Mac and Brenda stopped at the wall Pierre pointed to. Brenda began tapping against it in several places. When she heard a different sound behind it, she turned to Mac in surprise.

  “It’s here.” She tapped again more aggressively, and the door slid open. She and Mac pushed it further until it was approximately as wide as a small closet door, then it stopped. Pierre’s mouth gaped. Brenda glanced at him and told him to remember the area in case it locked behind them. She and Mac felt along the stone walls. Brenda turned her flashlight on, and, a few yards farther, they saw the narrow stairs they knew must lead to the second floor.

  The silence enveloped them. The detective cleared his throat and stated he doubted anyone sinister was in the building now. Brenda whispered a reminder of how the man had blocked her in an instant. They crept to the top of the stairs until another wall stopped them. Brenda tapped until she found the metal bar that opened the narrow doorway into the second-floor passageway. Her flashlight shined ahead of them on full beam. It showed an empty hall.

  “He must have snuck in during the daytime and hid in here,” Mac surmised.

  “If he was hidden in here for a long period of time, he could have become familiar with the house routines,” Brenda said. “Perhaps he knew when no one was up here. But that doesn’t explain how he got into one of the guest rooms?”

  “He is smarter than we’re giving him credit for,” Mac said.

  “Do you really think it was Lauren’s father?” Mac stopped at her question. Brenda continued. “If Grady Fisher did kill Ryan, he knew exactly where he and Lauren would be this weekend and made his way here, from Colorado to the east coast.”

  “Then there is the question of how he knew about the secret passageway. I must check on the manhunt now, Brenda. Let’s go back the way we came.” Mac paused. “And why kill Ryan? Was it to punish Lauren?”

  “That’s what Lauren seems to think. But the true answer should be found in due time, Mac. Let’s get out of here.”

  It was a relief to see bright sunlight again when they emerged into the kitchen, startling Pierre. Brenda apologized and began planning to seal all entrances to the hidden passageway as soon as this ordeal ended.

  Deep in his hidden place, Grady Fisher thought back on everything that had brought him to this place. He had always assessed himself as the brightest person in the Rocky Mountain Medical Facility. He scoffed at the name of the place. Why didn’t they call it what it was? He had been incarcerated in a true loony bin. The screams, night and day, drove him up the walls. Twice he tried to smuggle something sharp from the dining room after meals, and twice he was caught and watched closer than ever. If he could search for the screamers and kill them, he could be assured of sound sleep at night. Once he almost got away with it. Under the pressure of the watching nurses, Grady realized he needed a better plan, one that could get him out of that hateful place for good.

  The nurses seemed to keep syringes handy and used them freely. After his attempts to steal table knives from the dining room, he learned firsthand just how freely syringes were plunged into unruly people. Grady often regretted instructing his lawyer to keep him out of the mainstream prison. He decided perhaps he should begin to act sane again. Over the years, he decided that in a regular prison, at least he would have a chance of appeals. He was sure he could convince a new judge and jury to discount the evidence of a deluded, angry fourteen-year-old teenage girl who thought she could get petty revenge on her father by throwing accusations around that she didn’t understand. More than once, he wished he had turned her over to her aunt and uncle from the start. They’d wanted her from the beginning after his wife’s accident. If he had relented, he wouldn’t be where he was today.

  He made up his mind to display only an even-tempered disposition and pretend to accept his living conditions, in hopes of gaining more freedom. It had taken several months and there were times he almost reverted to showing his deep-seated anger, but in the end, he managed to curb his instincts.

  He knew when he won. It was the day the orderly in the library didn’t hang over his shoulder watching his computer searches anymore. He pretended to be caught up with information about the Atlantic Ocean and its bountiful sea life. After a boring hour scrolling through hideously detailed pages about fish, the orderly left to take a snooze in the corner of the library, leaving Grady to his own devices.

  If Grady Fisher had learned anything at all during his years in the hospital, it had been patience in order to get what one wanted. After a few weeks, he had full rein to search for whatever he wanted. He wanted to track his daughter most of all. He almost snapped when he discovered her Facebook page and read that she and her new husband Ryan were planning a trip to the eastern seaboard, a subject he now knew very well.

  His distorted grin was a pleased one. He knew Sheffield Bed and Breakfast well by the time the day was out, having spent time looking up the historical blueprints online.

  After the information about his daughter surfaced, he figured it wouldn’t be hard to walk off the premises. He told a nurse that he wanted to take a walk outside. At first, she hesitated. If she didn’t allow him to go alone, he planned to invite her along and kill her when they got to the wooded area that opened to his freedom. As it turned out, she agreed he could walk alone. She told him to be back in thirty minutes for lunch, but he knew that no one would check if he was there for lunch.

  Grady had simply walked away through the woods, where he changed into stolen clothes. He caught a bus in the nearest town, using stolen money, and headed to the east coast before the mental hospital even knew he was gone. He would be out of the state before they thought to come looking for him. He would find his daughter before anyone could stop him. He would put everything to rights.

  At that, Grady had smiled his first real smile in a long, long time.

  Brenda headed upstairs to find Lauren. The officer outside her door told her he had not heard any sounds from the room in a while and he assumed Lauren still slept. Brenda knocked lightly on the door and called Lauren’s name. The door was locked, so she slipped the master card into the slot, planning to simply retrieve the breakfast tray and check that the woman didn’t need the sedative medication after all.

  As soon as Brenda stepped inside, she sensed something was wrong. The muffled sounds coming from the bed caused her to hurry to Lauren’s side. Tape had been tightly secured across her mouth and Lauren’s arms and legs secured with zip ties.

  That was when Brenda heard the security lock on the door click behind her. The odor of stale cigarettes permeated her nose. The panic in Lauren’s eyes told Brenda who the third person in the room was.

  “You have confused my situation, Brenda,” the low voice said.

  When Officer Swenson heard the security latch c
lick, he wondered why Brenda had locked the door behind her. The more he thought about it in the split seconds that followed, the more he felt certain something was amiss. He called out to Brenda and asked if everything was all right.

  Grady Fisher flashed the sharp knife and stepped closer to the door. Menacing eyes told her not to make any false moves.

  “We’re fine in here, officer. Let Mac know Lauren is getting over her flu, please.”

  Grady took three steps toward Brenda and raised the knife in warning. She jerked back and bumped against the footboard of Lauren’s bed behind her. Grady’s low chuckle sent shivers through her.

  “Unfortunately, I’m short on zip ties. Go to the closet and find a couple of wire hangers. I’m sure in a place like this you still keep wire ones like the old days.” He pushed Brenda toward the closet and she numbly grabbed two thick wire hangers. She handed them to Grady. He sneered. “Pick again.”

  7

  Lauren Meyers tried to draw her body into a protective ball. The restraints prevented this. She realized she had no choice but to remain in the position she was in. She tried to think of other things to still her heartbeat. Lauren was positive she would be her father’s next victim. Thoughts of exactly how she would die weren’t allowed in her mind. She felt lost in a fog of old memories, old grief and new grief, so that the fear of her own death was like a barely audible scream over the top of a cacophony of madness.

  Brenda knew she had to stall Grady for as long as possible. She kept fit enough to think she could ward him off when the right moment arrived. He couldn’t keep the knife in his hand and bend the wire hangers to secure her hands at the same time. Unfortunately, he had already thought about that.

  “Now take the hangers apart, and make it quick.”

  Grady kept his eyes on Brenda and edged backward toward Lauren. With his back to his daughter, he gave her his message.

  “I’ve waited for this day for a long time, Lauren. You threw your own father under the bus the day I killed Randy. You shouldn’t have done that. Ryan didn’t have to die. He didn’t do anything to me, but you did. It’s your fault the two of you switched sides in bed. I would never have stabbed him like I did.”

  Brenda slowly straightened one hanger. She read Grady’s intentions. He planned to take care of Lauren first. The longer she stalled him, the better for Lauren, and herself. “How did you know which side either of them slept on?”

  “I was in the room during the big shindig that evening. I smelled the pillows. She always used that perfume her mother liked.” He became silent as if reminiscing on the past when times were better in the family. He gestured toward Lauren and the hard glint in his eyes returned. “Her mother’s accident was her fault, you know. Did she snivel about that part to you too? Or only the part where her poor papa is the big bad villain?” He sneered again. “That’s right. She begged her mother to let her go to some concert until her mother relented. She knew how to wear her down. She was on her way to pick Lauren up when the accident happened.” He raised the knife above his head and waved it around. “My wife died! Lauren was the cause of it, it’s true! She caused my life to reach rock bottom. Lauren caused everything bad that happened. She has to pay.”

  Lauren was trembling silently from her spot on the bed, terrified tears leaking from the corners of her eyes as she shook her head wildly in the negative.

  Grady didn’t seem to notice that Brenda had stopped unwinding the first hanger. Her only hope was to keep him talking and hope that her mention of Lauren’s “flu” was suspicious enough to get the officer outside thinking. Also, Mac knew of the back door to this room that was always kept locked. She hoped it wasn’t bolted with the double lock from inside. For the moment, she couldn’t recall if it was or not, but knew if they had to shove through it, they could do so.

  “What will you gain by killing Lauren? They’re just going to put you away for murder. Haven’t you killed enough people already?”

  Grady seemed to realize Brenda was in the room, tearing his eyes away from his daughter. “After the first time, I knew it would be easy to keep at it until I killed the one who ruined my life. No one’s life is of any value if it’s possible to ruin a life the way my life has been ruined. We’re all going to die one day. I merely hurry souls along. I’ve waited to come face to face with my betrayer, and here she is at last.”

  Lauren’s eyes begged him to no avail. His attention was now fully on Brenda. “You’re going too slow. Hurry it up or you’ll be first in line.” The knife blade glinted. “I let you go once, but don’t count on my generosity a second time.”

  Brenda handed him the first straightened hanger. He ordered her to place it on the foot of the bed and hurry up with the second one.

  Officer Swenson realized things were not going to plan inside the guest room. Until now, he’d heard only Brenda’s voice. Then he was sure he heard a man’s voice, which went up and down in volume. There was no doubt in the officer’s mind that the voice was threatening…then there had been Brenda’s curious mention of Lauren’s flu. He could not remember anything being mentioned about the young woman taking ill, though he knew she had trouble sleeping. He called Detective Mac Rivers and told him quickly about his suspicions.

  “I’m down at the waterfront, but I’ll be there as soon as possible. I know Lauren doesn’t have the flu. It must be Brenda’s way of signaling something is wrong.” Mac’s heart beat fast as he raced back to Sheffield Bed and Breakfast with three officers trying to keep up with him. He still had Officer Swenson on the call and told him to go to the end of the short hallway and find the back door into the guest room. “There is one we keep locked that goes into a small storage area. It then connects to the room. Use your tools and get it unlocked. Break it down if you have to! My wife is in there with that madman, and so is Lauren! I’m almost there. Wait for me before you go inside.”

  Officer Swenson found the door to the guest room through the storage closet and turned the knob slowly. It was locked as Detective Rivers told him. He pulled out his multi tool and slipped it in to pick the lock. He heard the soft click that told him it was unlocked. After a few minutes, Detective Rivers reached him and motioned for him to stand back. He quietly turned the knob and opened the door. The others followed him inside the small cluttered storage room.

  He heard Brenda’s voice first. “Don’t kill her. We can work things out.”

  “How will you do that? Do you think I want to go back to that loony bin? It’s worse than prison. Someone is always hovering over you with a syringe, just waiting.”

  “It can’t be too bad. Among other things, you are allowed to use the internet. Isn’t that how you knew exactly where Lauren and Ryan would be this weekend? You had the opportunity to keep up with world events, too. You were fed three meals a day and had a bed to sleep in. You even got out enough to escape. It seems to me you had plenty of freedom.”

  He moved forward close enough that Brenda almost choked when the foul cigarette breath swept her face. “You call that freedom? I’d like to see you sleep while mad screaming goes on around you night and day. I’d like to see you sleep easy when a nurse can come by with no reason and stick you with a syringe full of who-knows-what.” He gestured around the modest room with its single bed which wasn’t often rented out to guests, being more often used for extra storage. “Believe me, these accommodations are like a palace compared to where I’ve been living.” The now familiar low growl turned sharper. “They watched me like a hawk until I made friends with one of the orderlies in the library. It took a while, and I knew I had to keep her on my side. She was gullible, and I won her over. She started trusting me and didn’t look over my shoulder every time I got on the computer.” His short laugh was hoarse. “She didn’t follow the rules. Lazy. All of them were lazy, if you gave them enough time.”

  Mac edged closer to the unlocked door that led directly into the bedroom and listened. His body tensed as he waited for the right moment, trying to figure out the exact sit
uation going on inside.

  Brenda tried to disguise her footsteps as a stumble, using the move to inch toward the door that led out into the hallway. When Mac arrived, she wanted to be as far away from that storage door as possible. She only hoped and prayed the officers were actually waiting there to burst in. She was surprised they hadn’t arrived yet.

  “How did you know about the secret hallway?” Brenda asked. Her curiosity took over in the middle of the tension.

  “I know every nook and cranny of this place. Years ago, it was an empty building with no purpose other than to fall apart. I was young then and free to do what I wanted. I had friends then.” He jerked his head sharply toward Lauren. “She made sure no one wanted to be around me any longer.” He focused on Brenda again. “I was young and single. A bunch of us decided to hitchhike out here and find an abandoned building to stay in while we had fun on the beach. We found this place.” He chuckled and shook his head as if back in his youth. “We explored every nook and cranny of it. Jimmy, the oldest one of us, leaned against a wall downstairs and it opened up just like that. It was flimsier than it is today. We found that hallway and knew where it went. We stayed out here longer than we expected. It took a while to learn the whole place.”

  Brenda put the pieces of the puzzle together quite well after she heard his story. She took a short step backward and stopped. A few seconds later, she did the same until she was a few feet from the door to the hall. So far, Grady didn’t seem to have noticed until he saw the near-intact hanger in her hand.

  “Finish that hanger and then come back over here. Don’t think you can escape out of here. I’m quick on my feet.” He raised the knife over his head. “I could kill her as soon as light came through the door and be out of here.”