by H. P. Bayne
“.357 Magnum,” Emily said. “And I’m not particularly fond of guns either, my dear. But when you’re a smaller woman, and you’ve been the subject of an attempted murder, you rethink things in a hurry.”
Dez watched his mother, saw her eyes narrow slightly at Emily. “It’s loaded, I hope,” Mara said. Dez’s jaw dropped even before Emily had provided the answer.
“Fully loaded with .38 Special. And I’ve got a box of extra rounds in my purse.”
“And you’re prepared to use it?”
“If it comes to protecting Sullivan or anyone else, I certainly am.”
Mara nodded, a grim smile painting her expression. “Atta girl.”
Dez coughed. “Mom?”
Mara pulled into a spot behind a half-ton truck and parked before turning to Dez. “I’m not ordinarily a fan of guns or violence, but I’ll happily condone either if it keeps my family safe.”
They climbed out of the car, waiting the few minutes until Lachlan pulled up behind them in his borrowed minivan. Dez approached the open driver’s window and stuck his head into Lachlan’s space, catching a glimpse of Sully poking his head up from the floor area in front of the rear-most seats.
“Anyone know about cameras around here?” Dez asked.
He expected an answer from Sully, so was surprised when Lachlan replied instead. “Besides the front gate, there are a couple on the grounds. More are over each of the main doors and there are multiple inside the main institution. Nothing inside the old wing, though. Would defeat the purpose, no doubt, if the demented doctor and his cronies were caught on candid camera.”
“How do you know all that?”
“Hey, I checked,” Lachlan said. “If I’m going to be sneaking around the place with a guy who’s supposed to be dead, I’m going to cover my bases first. A coroner’s investigation happened here a few years back after a patient suicide. Lockwood had to provide a list of its cameras and their locations to the coroner’s office.”
Dez didn’t bother asking how Lachlan had gotten his hands on the coroner’s file. It was enough that he had it, and this was one gift horse Dez was happy not to look in the mouth.
Lachlan checked the sideview mirror, eyes studying the proximity to the front gate some distance behind them. “Camera was pointed down as we drove in, and it doesn’t seem to have moved. And we’re far enough it won’t be able to make out any distinguishing features even if it does spot us. I’m thinking Sullivan and I will make our way toward the building through the woods. Won’t be any cameras that way.”
“Emily said the same thing,” Dez said. “She’s going with you. She’ll be able to show you the best way in.”
“Good,” Lachlan said. Then, angling his head toward the back of the van, “Ready, kid?”
Dez circled the van and opened the side door.
“As I’ll ever be,” Sully said as he un-burrowed himself stepped into the small ditch next to the lane.
Dez searched for some last-minute advice as Mara pulled Sully into a hug. “Be careful,” she said. “Don’t force yourself into situations if you aren’t certain you can handle it. And call or text Dez or me if you need us.”
Dez smirked as he ruffled Sully’s hair. “Yeah. What she said.”
Sully smiled, but the expression didn’t come close to approaching his eyes. “I will. Thanks.”
“You okay?” Dez asked.
Sully nodded before taking a deep breath and exhaling in a heavy whoosh. “Let’s just do this, okay? The sooner we get in, the sooner we can leave. Text me if you can’t find Gerhardt or if it looks like he might be headed in our direction.”
Dez agreed, then reluctantly allowed Sully to head off without him, Lachlan and Emily taking up Dez’s usual spot at his brother’s side. Sully pulled the hood of his coat over his head, and Dez knew it would stay there, his brother’s defence mechanism in this place.
Dez stepped up to Mara, crossing his arms as he continued to watch Sully’s back. “I don’t like this.”
Mara settled a calming hand on his arm. “Me neither. But here we are.” She paused, long enough Dez redirected his gaze to meet her eye. She smiled grimly. “What say we get this over with, hmm?”
Dez forced himself to keep his eyes from drifting to the woods to the west, not wanting to give anything away as he and Mara walked up the lane toward the psychiatric hospital’s grounds. As it happened, he and his mom had plenty to hold their attention, the front gardens swarming with games, tables, food vendors and more people than he’d expected, even based on the number of cars parked on the lane.
“Keep your eyes peeled for Gerhardt,” Dez said.
Mara chuckled. “Honey, you’re six-and-a-half feet tall. If one of us is going to spot someone in this crowd, it’s you.”
Dez was still looking for the chief psychiatrist when he turned at the feel of a tap on his back and found Forbes.
“Where are the others?” he asked.
“Walk back to the lane and head into the woods to the west. Text Sull and let him know you’re coming. They’ll wait for you. And for God’s sake, don’t let anyone see you going in there.”
Forbes narrowed his eyes. “I think I can avoid being followed, thanks.” He met Mara’s eye and extended a hand. “Ma’am.”
Mara met the handshake, but her expression remained cold. “Sergeant.”
Dez waited until Forbes had scuttled off before asking the question. “Not that I fault you for it, but what’s your issue with Raynor?”
“He was a real jerk to Sully after your dad died. It was all I could do not to pop him in the mouth.”
Dez couldn’t resist a laugh. His amusement died an abrupt death as his gaze returned to the crowd and settled on a figure bobbing slowly through on the side closest to the imposing Victorian structure making up the main institution. Dr. Roman Gerhardt walked with a cane due to his old injury.
Dez had never before been grateful for another person’s permanent injury.
Gerhardt had turned on the charm, smile settling on visitor after visitor, going so far as to embrace an elderly woman who approached him.
“I see him,” Dez said for his mother’s benefit. “He’s busy glad-handling.”
“Perfect. He’ll have a harder time telling us to go to hell if he’s trying to charm reunion attendees.”
Dez took a breath and released it through pursed lips. “Okay, let’s do this. Stay close. I might need you to yell at me if I try to clobber him.”
Dez wove a path through the crowd, glancing back every few seconds to ensure his mom was still with him. After the tenth check, Dez returned his view to the front in time to catch Gerhardt’s eyes settling, saucer-like, on his.
For a moment, it seemed to Dez that Gerhardt didn't know where to look, or whether he should stay where he stood. The psychiatrist's eyes darted first to one side, then the other before finally settling on the massive building behind him. Dez pressed forward, eyes locked on his target, noticing the moment Gerhardt recognized fleeing was futile.
Gerhardt extricated himself from an impending conversation with another visitor, resignation on his face as Dez closed the remaining distance.
Crossing his wiry arms over his chest, Gerhardt levelled a glare at Dez. “What are you doing here? I ordered you off this property, and I intended the order to be a permanent one.”
“You’ll want to hear us out,” Dez said.
Only then did Gerhardt have the opportunity to see Dez’s companion, Mara appearing from behind her son’s significant form.
Something between surprise and confusion formed on the psychiatrist’s face. A smile plucked at the corners of his mouth, the sort of grin that didn't know what it wanted to be when it grew up. “Mrs. Braddock. This is a pleasant surprise. What can I do for you?”
Mara Braddock had years of experience behind her as a family counsellor. She knew her way around conflict: how to avoid it, how to extricate oneself from it, how to use it to solve problems. The tension in her jaw and foreh
ead and the way her lips mashed together told Dez she was struggling to remember everything she’d spent a lifetime teaching.
“Dr. Gerhardt,” she said at last. “How are you?”
Dez could hear the anger in her voice, the clipped way she’d addressed the man. But Gerhardt didn’t know her well at all. From the way Gerhardt’s smile broadened just a little, it was clear he’d mistaken Mara’s phoney niceties for ignorance. Gerhardt would know Dez had been told of Sully’s allegations, but the fact they were here two years later—the doctor still very much employed and the recipient of unearned respect—would suggest to Gerhardt that Sully’s claims had gone nowhere and never would.
Dez couldn’t wait to show the man exactly how wrong he was.
Gerhardt’s hand lifted a couple of inches and hovered there a moment before dropping, a handshake he appeared to have thought better of. “I’m well. And you?”
“Well, I’m sure as a mental health professional, you can imagine,” Mara said.
Dez held his smile in check over his mother’s burn.
Gerhardt offered an apologetic nod to match the sudden, slight flush of his cheeks. “Of course. Forgive me.”
Mara returned a tight smile, polite rather than conciliatory. Truly forgiving Gerhardt was not something she, any more than Dez, was prepared to do. “We heard about the reunion today, so we took advantage of the opportunity to come out,” she said. “It’s been over two years, and I thought it was important to take another step toward healing. This was the place I’d hoped Sully would find his own healing. It didn’t turn out that way, so now I’m here to try to find a way to put the past behind me.”
Gerhardt took a step forward, all kind eyes and warm smile. Fake though they were, they presented enough of a sense of reality as to fool the unwary. “I’m so sorry, ma’am. I wish things could have turned out differently. I will never stop regretting it, that the situation didn’t turn out better. I know you likely won’t believe this, but I did my very best to do right by Sullivan.”
“You’re right,” Dez said. “We don’t believe it.”
“Dez,” Mara’s voice cut in, characteristically gentle, yet with the edge Dez recognized as her “watch it” tone.
He bit back further response, opting to allow his mother to play this through.
She returned her attention to the doctor. “Dez has never stopped being angry about what happened to Sully. I can't blame him, but at some point, I would like him to let go of the anger. I have my own to deal with. That’s why I’ve come. I thought if I could find a way to forgive you, I might be able to find some sort of peace within myself again. Does that make sense?”
“It makes plenty of sense, and I want to thank you for that.” He looked back at the institution. “Shall we go inside to talk more privately?”
Mara nodded slowly. “I think that would be a good idea.”
With Gerhardt leading the way, Dez walked at his mother’s side up the steps and through Lockwood’s main entrance. He’d come through these doors so many times in the past to visit Sully, had left feeling hopeless and helpless. This time, he reminded himself, Sully was okay and was very much in control of his own fate. With any luck, he was on the verge of finding the evidence to seal Gerhardt’s and Lowell’s.
Gerhardt guided Dez and Mara through the building until he reached the keycard-coded door leading to the main offices. Dez had been through here once, and the only thing that appeared any different to him was the fact the secretary wasn’t on duty—no big surprise given this was a Saturday.
Gerhardt’s office was right near the secretary’s, a large, wood-panelled room, likely unaltered much since the place was built in the eighteen hundreds. He used a key to enter the room and flicked a switch to turn on the wall lamps. While Mara followed, Dez hung back a few seconds, just long enough to turn on the record function on his phone’s notes app. Only once it was recording did he follow the others.
The wall lamps, Dez noticed, didn’t do much to brighten the room, a reality that accorded with his last memory of the place. Gerhardt pulled a cord on a large desk lamp, the light cutting into a little more of the darkness in the process. Plenty more shadows remained in the room’s corners, and Dez repressed a shudder as he contemplated the ghosts who might be lurking there even now, revenge on their minds as they regarded the doctor who was far more unhinged than virtually anyone who’d ever lived or died in this place.
Gerhardt slid in behind his desk, waving grandly at a pair of leather chairs reserved for guests. Dez lowered himself into one while Mara took the other, leather creaking as they sat.
“I have to admit,” Gerhardt began, “I’m surprised to see you here. After everything that happened, I had reason to believe you might never find it within you to forgive me for being unable to help Sullivan.”
“I wasn’t sure I’d be able to,” Mara said. “But then I learned something about you, something Dez said you told him a couple of years ago. You said you’d lost a son yourself. I know the pain of that sort of loss. Twice-over, I’ve known that pain. I realize nothing I do or say can cause you any greater harm than what you already suffer every day.”
“Well, yes, that’s—”
But Mara wasn’t done. Nowhere near, as it turned out. “Sully told Dez you took him to a place he called the Blue Room, that you drugged him and forced him into communicating with murdered spirits.”
Gerhardt blanched. “Now, I wouldn’t say—”
“Let me finish. I understand your purpose in doing so was to try to discover something about what happened to your own son. Please don’t deny it, Doctor. Sully was my son, and I never saw him as terrified as he was during the short time I spent with him between his release from Lockwood and his death in that cave. What’s more, I saw the restraint marks and bruises.”
“You don’t understand,” Gerhardt cut in quickly. “Your son was very unwell. He was suicidal when he came to us. He was—”
“Possessed by someone. My son wasn’t suicidal, Doctor. He had come under the control of a spirit. And I think you believed that every bit as strongly as I did. You thought maybe, with his gifts, he could help you find your missing son, and you were prepared to do whatever you had to do to tap into that.”
“Ma’am—”
“Here’s the thing, Doctor. I hate you for what you did to my son. I can’t think of many people I’ve hated more. But I’m torn, because a part of me—a part I wish I didn’t have to admit exists—can’t blame you for it. I’d like to be able to say differently, but if I had been in your shoes, I might have done the same thing. I don’t know what kind of person that makes me, but I do know being a parent comes first. It comes above every other thing. I would do anything, say anything and become anything if it meant protecting my children. I have to believe you are the same.”
Gerhardt cleared his throat. Shifted a little in his chair. Cleared his throat again. Finally, he spoke. “What do you want me to say?”
“You could begin with the truth.”
“You want me to tell you what Sullivan said was what actually happened. But he was a very disturbed young man, suffering from repeated episodes of psychosis in the time immediately prior to his death. What you’re saying, it’s—”
“Don’t insult our intelligence,” Dez said. “We know what happened, and we know why. We didn’t come here looking for you to deny or confirm anything. We came for another reason entirely.”
Gerhardt’s jaw tightened, teeth working invisibly within his mouth until he finally answered. “Which is?”
“I’m involved in an investigation into the disappearance of your son,” Dez said. “I wanted to ask you a few questions.”
Gerhardt narrowed his eyes at Dez. “Why would you do that?”
“Why wouldn’t I? We’re talking about a young child.”
“A young child who was my son. You hate me. Why would you help me?”
“It’s not about helping you,” Dez said. “It’s bigger than that. A lot bigger. My b
oss, Lachlan Fields, and I received information from a psychic, someone who said they saw Eloise inside your old house in The Forks.”
Gerhardt shot forward in his chair. “Eloise? When?”
“Recently.”
“But she… I was certain, after all this time, she had to be dead.” The dim lighting did not hide the pallor of his face.
“She is dead,” Dez said. “It was her spirit the psychic saw. He said she appeared to have been the victim of a homicide.” Dez described the injuries Sully had detailed, signs of both a beating and a stabbing. “The psychic said she wasn’t much older than she would have been at the time of David’s disappearance. That suggested to him she’d died shortly after. Which tells me this whole thing is larger than just your son. Whatever happened to him, it could very easily be connected to the murder of your wife. That leaves me with some questions, such as what role you might have had to play in all of it.”
With the pronouncement of the accusation, the psychiatrist reddened.
“How dare you?” he demanded. “How dare you sit there and suggest I had anything to do with what happened to my family? You might not believe this, Mr. Braddock, but I loved them. Whatever befell them, and whatever you might think of me, I would never have caused them harm.”
“I’m a former cop, Doctor,” Dez said. “Every investigation begins with those closest to the victim. You and I have a pretty shitty history, but I assure you, there is nothing personal behind my questions.”
“No?”
“No. So I’m going to ask you right out, and I expect an honest answer. Did you have any reason to make either your son or your wife disappear?”
Gerhardt levelled a glare at Dez, his lips forming a tight line that broke only when he opened his mouth to answer. “No. I did not.”
Gerhardt had held Dez’s gaze. He hadn’t wavered in his reply and he hadn’t said more than was absolutely necessary. None of the usual lying tells were present. And yet, Dez couldn’t shake the feeling Gerhardt knew far more than he was letting on.
There was, of course, every chance Dez’s suspicion was based on nothing more than his hatred of the psychiatrist. But it might also be his read was accurate, and that his biggest mistake would be to ignore his instincts.