True Deceit (Blindsided Book 1)

by A. J. Carella

  Eighteen

  The state mental hospital was a couple of hours’ drive away so they’d decided to leave early the following morning to go and see Samantha.

  “Do you know where this place is?” Sarah asked, sipping on the hot coffee she’d bought when they’d stopped for gas before leaving town.

  “Roughly, but don’t worry, the satnav will get us there.”

  “God, how did we ever manage before we had all this technology?” she chuckled.

  “I know, it’s making us all far too lazy.”

  “Ain’t that the truth.”

  They fell into a companionable silence and it wasn’t until they had nearly arrived that Sarah spoke again.

  “Have you ever been to a place like this?”

  “An asylum?” he asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “No, not exactly the kind of place you visit unless you have to.” He looked over at her. “You’re not worried are you?”

  She shook her head. “No, not worried exactly, more that I don’t know what to expect.”

  “I get that.” He nodded.

  “And scared a bit too,” she admitted.

  “Scared of what?”

  “Scared that she won’t be able to tell us anything and we’ll be right back where we started.”

  Michael didn’t reply. He didn’t want to tell her that it was exactly those thoughts that had kept him awake all night. The fact that his wife was out there somewhere, very possibly still alive, was torturing him. God only knew what she was going through and the fact that he couldn’t do anything about it was killing him.

  “We’ll find her, Sarah.” His hands tightened on the steering wheel. I won’t rest until we do, one way or another, he thought as the outline of the hospital rose from the horizon.

  ***

  The hospital was everything she’d imagined. Unfortunately. It seemed the sky got darker the closer they got, reinforcing the feeling of foreboding that crept over her as soon as she saw the building itself. If these places are supposed to help people, they could try and make them a bit more cheerful she thought taking in the box-like shape and the walls painted in battleship grey. As her eyes travelled up she saw that the windows were small and many were covered with iron bars.

  “Not exactly a resort hotel is it?” she asked wryly as they checked in with the guard at the gate before being directed to a visitor parking spot.

  “I think most of the guests are not here of their own choosing and, to be honest, I’m not sure how many of them even take in their surroundings.”

  He had a point.

  “Come on, let’s get this over with.” He climbed out of the car and waited for her to join him before they turned and walked towards the main entrance.

  There was nothing welcoming about the reception area, no comfortable chairs, no cheerful paintings on the walls. Rather it was completely sterile with a grey tiled floor and walls that were painted off white. Sarah immediately felt cold and was glad she’d brought her jacket.

  Along one wall was a reception desk, behind which sat a lone nurse who looked up as they approached.

  "Hi, we'd like to see Samantha Hathaway." Mike told her.

  "And you are?" The nurse smiled warmly.

  "We are old school friends. We went to see her father yesterday and he suggested she might enjoy a visit."

  “Ah, Mr Hathaway. That poor man has been through so much.” she gave a sad smile. “So, you’re aware of her condition I take it?” she asked.

  "Condition?" Mike asked, confused.

  "Well, rather, how unwell she is. Her behaviour can be quite extreme and quite disturbing if you’ve never seen it before.”

  “Yes, her father explained.”

  “Okay, good. Well if I could take both your full names I’ll issue you visitor passes and then get someone to take you through.”

  Taking turns they each gave her their details before clipping their passes to their clothing and taking seats on the hard chairs in the waiting area. Before long, a male nurse appeared. "You're here to see Samantha?" he asked coming over to them.

  They both nodded.

  "Follow me." They both stood and followed him to a door that led from the lobby into the main building. They waited while he tapped in a security code before holding the door open for them to pass through.

  “It will be nice for Samantha to have some visitors.” He smiled at them over his shoulder. “She sees her father regularly but she never gets any other visitors.”

  “How is she doing?” Sarah asked as they passed through a brightly lit corridor.

  The nurse shrugged. “She has good days and bad days. Mostly bad if I’m honest.”

  He slowed down and stopped outside a closed door. “This is her room. If you’d just like to wait here, I’ll go in and tell her she’s got visitors. He gave them a small smile. “She has to be handled very carefully and she doesn’t react well to surprises.”

  “Is this a good idea?” Sarah turned to Mike as the nurse entered the room and closed the door.

  “What do you mean?” Mike raised an eyebrow.

  “I’m just not sure this is right. You heard her dad, and the nurse, she’s in a bad way, Mike,” she sighed. “What if we make her worse? Hasn’t she suffered enough?”

  “What choice have we got?” He looked her in the eye. “If there’s the slightest chance that she can help us find Jennifer we have to do it.”

  “And if we tip her over the edge?”

  Mike’s jaw clenched. “She’s already over the edge Sarah, and I’m for damn sure not sacrificing my wife to preserve her last bit of sanity.

  Sarah was taken aback by Mike’s harsh tone but didn’t have the chance to comment as just then the door opened and the nurse waved them in.

  “Samantha, these are the guests I was telling you about.” He went and stood next to her chair and patted her on the hand. “I’ll be just outside if you need me.”

  Sarah was touched by the gentle way he spoke to Samantha.

  “Thank you,” She smiled at him as he left the room before turning her attention to the woman in the chair. She tried not to let her surprise show on her face, but it was hard. Samantha was about the same age as she seemed much older. Her long hair, which had been dark at school, was now completely grey and hung limply around her shoulders and down her back. It only served to enhance the paleness of her skin which seemed wafer thin where it stretched over her cheekbones and the hollows of her cheeks. It was her eyes, though, that affected Sarah the most. As they met hers she saw nothing. No life, no spark, they seemed completely empty.

  Swallowing a lump in her throat she approached the chair. “Hi Samantha, I’m Sarah.” She pulled up the only other chair in the room and sat down, her knees almost touching Samantha’s. “And this is Michael.” She looked up at where Michael stood with his hands in his pockets. “You probably don’t remember us, but we went to the same high school as you.”

  “School. I liked school,” Samantha whispered.

  “I liked school, too,” Sarah smiled at her, trying to put her at ease. “Thank you for letting us visit you.” She reached forward and took Samantha’s hand in her own. It was limp and so thin she felt that if she squeezed too hard the bones might actually snap. “We saw you’re dad yesterday, he says you’re doing really well.”

  Samantha smiled and Sarah saw a flicker of light in her eyes. “Dad,” she said.

  Sarah nodded. “Yes.” She took a deep breath. “He said you might be able to help us with some questions we have. You see,” she looked up at Michael again who nodded at her to continue. “Mike’s wife has gone missing.”

  As soon as the words were out, Samantha immediately tensed and pulled her hand away. Wrapping both her arms around herself she broke off eye contact and dropped her chin to her chest.

  “Samantha,” Sarah continued, knowing she had to push. “We think what happened to her might be the same that happened to you.”

  “No. No.” She started rockin
g herself backwards and forwards gently in the chair.

  “Please, I know this is hard, but we need to find her. Is there anything that you can tell us that can help us?” Sarah hated what she was doing to her but knew it was necessary.

  She started rocking faster now and brought her hands up to her face, digging at her skin. “No, I won’t. No. No.”

  Sarah was shocked to see that she’d started drawing blood on her face and reached forward to try and pull her hands away. “Samantha! Please, don’t hurt yourself.” She was deceptively strong though and pulled her hands out of Sarah’s grasp.

  “Mike, we can’t do this, look at what it’s doing to her.” Sarah pleaded, she just wanted to wrap this woman in her arms and tell her everything was going to be okay. “There’s got to be another way.”

  Mike frowned and approached the chair, crouching down so she could see his face. “Samantha, my wife is missing and whatever happened to you, you’re safe now. She isn’t. So tell us what we need to know.”

  Sarah stared at him as he barked the question. “Michael, there’s no need for that.”

  “If you don’t like it, go and wait outside but I’m not leaving here without some answers.” He snapped at her, not taking his eyes off Samantha. “What happened to you Samantha? Tell us.” He crouched down in front of her chair, bringing his face to her level. “Look at me.” He was stronger than Sarah and managed to pull Samantha’s hands away from her face. “You can help us save her. Please.”

  Samantha suddenly stilled in the chair. “The kings have her,” she started to giggle. “The kings have her and they’ll never let her go.”

  “What? Who are the kings?” Michael pressed.

  Samantha was laughing out loud now and the sound was making the hairs on the back of Sarah’s neck stand up.

  A knock on the door interrupted them and Sarah looked up to see the same male nurse who let them in. “How’s it going, everything okay?” He smiled.

  Sarah nodded. “Yes, everything’s fine.”

  “Okay well I can only let you have another five minutes. Samantha has a therapy session after that.”

  “Okay, thanks.”

  She waited until the door closed once again before turning back to Samantha, immediately noticing a change. “Samantha, are you okay?” The laughing had stopped and now she looked utterly terrified.

  “I won’t go,” she shook her head. “Help me please, they hurt me.”

  "Who hurt you?"

  "They hurt me. I won't go," she repeated.

  "Samantha, you were telling us about the Kings, what about the Kings?" Michael tried to pick up where they left off.

  But she wasn't listening, she had her hand down between the cushion and the side of the chair. "Look.” she smiled victoriously as she held up a razor blade that she’d had hidden there. She leaned forward conspiratorially. “Shhh,” she held up a finger to her lips. “Don’t tell.”

  Sarah was shocked. “Where did you get that?” She reached forward to take it from her.

  “No.” Samantha recoiled and pulled it from her reach. “I won’t let them hurt me anymore,” she started giggling again.

  “I’ll call the nurse.” Michael stood up.

  “Don’t!” Samantha sprang to her feet and went to stand with her back to the window, as far away from them as she could get. “I’ll help you, just don’t tell.” Her eyes were darting around the room frantically and Sarah knew that they’d lost her to her madness.

  “Okay folks, time to go.” The door opened and the nurse reappeared. “What the hell’s going on?” he asked taking in the situation with a glance.

  “Samantha, honey, what are you doing with that? Give it to me.” he addressed her softly, keeping his voice low. To Mike and Sarah he muttered, “You two need to leave. Now.”

  Sarah nodded and stood up to go.

  “No!” Samantha shouted, holding the razor up to her neck. “Don’t let them take me.”

  “She keeps saying you’re going to hurt her?” Sarah spoke to the nurse. “What does she mean?” Something about the way Samantha was reacting made her think that this was more than just another delusion.

  The nurse sighed. “She’s getting electroshock treatment. It can be quite painful.”

  Sarah was shocked. “Well no wonder she’s scared, can’t you just leave her be?”

  “Look, this is part of her treatment. Treatment that’s been agreed with her father. So you guys need to leave and just let us do our jobs okay?” He dismissed them with a wave of his hand and took a step closer to Samantha.

  None of them were fast enough to stop what happened next. In a flash Samantha drew the blade across the side of her neck and then time seemed to stand still. Sarah watched as a thin red line appeared, following the track of the blade. It seemed to stay like that for an eternity before the wound suddenly burst open and blood sprayed across the room. She could hear someone screaming hysterically in the background and felt some of the warm blood land on her face as Samantha slumped to the floor.

  The nurse immediately hit a panic button mounted on the wall of the room and dropped to his knees, grabbing a sheet off the bed in an attempt to stop the arterial bleed. It didn’t work though and a pool of blood quickly appeared, spreading rapidly.

  Sarah couldn’t drag her eyes away for the terrible scene unfolding in front of her. She felt a strong arm around her shoulders and felt herself being pulled out of the room into the corridor as other staff arrived and pushed past. She could still hear the screaming and realized that it was coming from her.

  “Sarah, look at me.” Mike had his hands on her shoulders and was shaking her. “Sarah.”

  “What have we done?” she asked, looking at him.

  “Come on, let’s get you out of here.”

  He kept his arm around her shoulders as he turned to lead her down the corridor.

  “Excuse me,” a voice stopped them. “We’re going to need to talk to you about what happened here.” The nurse had stepped out of the room.

  “Samantha? Is she going to be okay?” Sarah asked but one look at his face told her what she needed to know.

  “I’m sorry, there was nothing we could do.”

  She felt her knees give way and it was only Michael’s arm that held her up.

  “You’ll have to talk to us another time, you can see she’s in shock.” Michael snapped.

  The nurse seemed to think about this before giving a short nod. “Okay, we’ll be in touch.”

  “What about her father? Oh my God, he’s going to be devastated. Who’s going to tell him?”

  “Don’t worry about that now,” Michael answered.

  “We’ll take care of it.” The nurse chimed in.

  With a nod in the nurse’s direction Mike led Sarah back through the lobby and out to the car. Opening the car door for her he gently helped her into the seat and reached across to push the seatbelt into place.

  “Sarah? Are you going to be okay?”

  “I’ll be fine.” She had no idea how she got the words out without throwing up.

  Mike crouched down beside her. “It’s not our fault, she was a time bomb waiting to go off.”

  “And we pressed the button!” she snarled at him as she reached passed him for the door handle pulling it closed, making him stand and move out of the way.

  She couldn’t bring herself to look at him as he drove the car out of the parking lot. She knew it wasn’t their fault, but what they had done was wrong. They’d pushed her too hard and she didn’t know if she’d ever be able to forgive herself.

  ***

  Sarah didn’t speak all the way back to the house, just sat and stared out of the car window. Mike was sure that it wasn’t just the shock of seeing what Samantha did, it was the realization that whatever happened to her must have been truly awful and that the same thing could be happening to Jennifer.

  “Drink?” Mike asked, going to the liquor cabinet and taking out a bottle of whiskey as soon as they got back.


  She nodded. “A large one.”

  He handed her a glass full almost to the brim. “My mother always had liquor in the cabinet in case of visitors but she hardly drank herself.” He gave her a small smile as he sat down next to her on the couch with his own glass.

  She took a sip and grimaced as the liquid burned a track down her throat. The first mouthful was the worst but after that, she quickly drained the glass. “Another,” she said, holding out the glass for a refill.

  “Are you sure? That was a big glass.”

  “Can I just get another drink please?”

  Mike held up his hands in mock surrender. “You’re the boss.” He quickly finished his own drink and stood up to refill the glasses.

  “You’re not that bad you know.” Sarah slurred as he sat back down next to her and handed her the drink.

  “You’re drunk,” he laughed.

  “I can’t be, I’ve only had one drink,” the slurring was getting worse.

  He had to admit he was starting to feel the effects of the large measures too and it was a nice feeling after all the stress of the last few days. Sitting back, he rested his head on the back of the couch and closed his eyes, letting the whiskey work its magic. He heard Sarah sigh and then felt her head on his shoulder. Opening one eye he saw that she’d got closer and was now resting against him with her eyes closed.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

  She lifted her head and looked at him, confused. “Sorry about what?”

  “About what we did to you. Jennifer and I.”

  She gave him a wry little smile. “You can’t help who you fall in love with.”

  “No, but we didn’t handle it very well and you deserved better.” The whiskey was making him maudlin. “I don’t think I ever said sorry properly before.”

  “I lied the other day you know,” Sarah looked away from him and took a sip of her drink. “When I said I never thought of those times.”

  “Oh.” He didn’t know what to say.

  “I still think of them sometimes.” She gave a little laugh. “I thought you were going to be the love of my life. How wrong was I!”