Critical Exposure

by Ann Voss Peterson

  “It went to you. Not Beech Grove. The clinic’s own records show you also contacted Darnell’s and Vanderhoven’s insurance companies. That’s double dipping, Doctor. And a very healthy double dip at that.”

  Nurse Dumont blew a stream of air through her nose. She glared at the doctor.

  “It was an administrative mix-up. Nothing more.” He popped another mint.

  “In addition, Echo had an interesting discussion with Ashley Kromm.”

  Nurse Dumont folded thick arms across her chest. “Ashley was fired for inappropriate and unprofessional behavior. She obviously would say anything to strike back at the clinic.”

  “Perhaps. But it’s exactly what she said that’s interesting to me. It seems she corroborates Gage Darnell’s story.”

  Dumont shook her head so hard, she nearly lost her glasses. “She never took care of Darnell.”

  “Or Vanderhoven?”

  Dumont lowered her chin.

  “According to Ms. Kromm, both patients were tied down. Even when they were sleeping.”

  Morton scoffed. “You saw Vanderhoven. Did he look tied down to you? Did he look like he was being kept prisoner?”

  “No. Not by the time I saw him. But I’ll get to him in a minute.” Rand paused for what he hoped was dramatic effect. “Ms. Kromm also admits to feeling unnaturally strong emotions. The possible effects of some kind of drug being tested on her.”

  “This again?” Morton slammed a fist on his desk. “I don’t know anything about a drug that intensifies emotions. I never experimented on anyone. She’s lying.”

  “Isn’t it true that’s what the money from Cranes brook was for? They developed a chemical weapon that amplified people’s emotions, and you tested it on your patients?”

  “No, it isn’t true.” Morton’s complexion deepened to a dark pink.

  “Then how do you explain the two million dollars?”

  “That wasn’t for experimentation.”

  “What was it for?”

  He sucked hard on his mints and said nothing.

  “I have enough to shut down your clinic, Morton. It’s not just Gage Darnell now. Now I have other witnesses. Money transfers. You’re looking at time. But if someone else is involved, you can do yourself a favor with the state’s attorney if you name names.”

  Morton stared at the floor, his scalp red through his thinning hair.

  Rand shrugged a shoulder, portraying a nonchalance he didn’t feel. “Up to you. I’d rather you didn’t roll over, to tell you the truth. I can’t tell you how disgusting I find people like you. People who get their kicks from rummaging around in a man’s mind, stirring up his emotions, until he doesn’t know up from down.”

  Echo put a hand on his arm.

  He didn’t need her reminder to realize he wasn’t only talking about Morton anymore. But he appreciated her touch all the same. Her support. Her caring.

  “I didn’t test anything on anyone,” Morton said. “You can talk to my lawyer. He’ll explain it to you. I’m done wasting my breath.”

  The cold ache of failure sank into Rand’s bones. Damn. He’d known he would run the risk of badgering Morton into lawyering up. He’d hoped the doctor would crack first. Now with a lawyer onboard, merely the threat of evidence would get Rand nowhere. Damn lawyers tended to insist on the evidence itself.

  He glanced at Echo. He’d hit another dead end. If he couldn’t get more information out of Morton, he was no closer to finding Zoe than he had been last night.

  “I can answer your questions.” Nurse Dumont’s sharp voice cut through the office. “But I want a deal from the state’s attorney. A plea bargain.”

  Morton glared at her. “Shut up.”

  She looked at him as if his words meant as much to her as the buzzing of a bug. “No jail time. Not if you want me to say what I know in court.”

  Rand nodded, trying not to seem too eager, too desperate. “I’ll recommend it.”

  The two St. Stephens officers stepped into the doorway.

  Rand nodded to them and then to the nurse. “Go on.”

  She peered over her glasses at Morton. “He forced me to help him. If I didn’t go along, he told me I’d lose my job.”

  “You lying bitch.” Morton shifted his weight as if itching to run away. “I paid her. She made good money to keep that damn trap shut.”

  “I sure didn’t make any two million dollars.” She turned back to Rand. “Sid Edmonston paid him to keep them here. Make sure they wouldn’t tell what happened.”

  “What did happen?” Echo prodded.

  Dumont shook her head. “All I know is Edmonston didn’t want anyone to know about the accident. Or its effects.”

  Rand narrowed his eyes. Effects? Except for the nausea, confusion and headaches in the first days after the explosion, Darnell didn’t seem permanently damaged. Vanderhoven seemed to have a few additional issues. But were those due to the explosion? Or was he just enjoying being able to reduce cops and citizens alike to emotional wrecks with his chemicals? “What were the effects, Nurse Dumont?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You didn’t observe any of the effects?”

  She looked around the room, confused. “I…I don’t know.”

  “What about Ashley Kromm?” Echo asked.

  Rand focused on Echo. He could see where she was going. Why hadn’t he thought of that before? Because it was preposterous, that was why. Still…

  Echo continued. “Was Ashley experiencing some of those effects during the time she spent with Wes Vanderhoven?”

  The nurse’s face reddened. “No. Ashley was fired because of…unfortunate behavior on her part.”

  Unfortunate. Rand would have to remember that one. “There was a lot of unfortunate behavior going on surrounding Wes Vanderhoven, wasn’t there?”

  The nurse pursed her lips. “I suppose.”

  “And what was the cause of that?”

  “I’m sure I don’t know.”

  “I’m not so sure.”

  “It wasn’t any experimentation, if that’s what you’re thinking. I wouldn’t have abided that.” She glared at the doctor.

  Right. Dumont was a regular saint. “Not unless you were better paid, at any rate.”

  The glare lifted to Rand.

  “When did the ‘unfortunate’ things start happening?” he asked.

  “Several days after the two arrived from Cranesbrook.”

  “And when did they stop?”

  “When Wesley Vanderhoven left this building.” Nurse Dumont let out a heavy breath, her normally rigid posture sagging as if she couldn’t hold out any longer. “He was causing those things, detective. The sex. And other things too. I have no idea how, but he was. He was like a kid playing practical jokes. Having his fun humiliating others.”

  “However he was doing it, he used his ‘practical jokes,’ as you call them, to kidnap a child. A baby girl. Do you know anything about that?”

  “I’m sorry, I don’t. He never brought a baby here.”

  Echo stood stoically in the corner, even though her heart had to be breaking all over again.

  The need to touch her, to hold her, to promise everything would be okay pulled at him. But how could he make a promise he didn’t know he could keep? A promise that might just end up hurting her more?

  Frustration chomped at the back of Rand’s neck like a damned rottweiler. Nobody seemed to understand anything about this accident, its effects, or what was going on with Wesley Vanderhoven. Least of all him. His only hope seemed to be sewing up the case against Morton and hoping additional search warrants for the doctor’s home and finances would yield solid answers.

  Rand brought his focus back to the nurse. Once he got her on record, he could get the arrest underway. “Did you keep Gage Darnell tied to his bed?”

  “Twenty-four hours a day. Doctor’s orders.”

  Morton slumped into his chair and buried his face in his hands.

  Rand continued. “Did the doctor tell
you why?”

  “Dr. Morton said we had to keep Mr. Darnell from leaving the hospital.”

  “So you held him against his will and didn’t inform his family.”

  “That’s right.”

  That should be enough to get the warrants he needed. At least there was still a chance that he’d get some answers. But one last question hung in his mind. One detail that didn’t add up. “If Darnell was tied to his bed twenty-four hours a day, how did he get away?”

  “I don’t know. He shouldn’t have been able to.” Nurse Dumont raised her chin. “No one let him go, that much I know. My nurses never cared for him unsupervised.”

  Another question unanswered. At least he could go to the source this time. Gage Darnell had some explaining to do.

  Rand motioned to the cops in the doorway, then turned back to face Morton and Dumont. “These officers will write up a statement for you to sign, then they’ll take you to the county jail and book you. The two of you are under arrest.”

  Morton groaned.

  Dumont thrust out her chest. “I told you everything I know. You said you’d recommend—”

  “You’ll get your plea bargain. But first you can spend the night tasting a little of what you put Gage Darnell through.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Less than an hour’s drive later, Rand and Echo strode up the front walk of the Sunrise Bed and Breakfast in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. A three-story white house with a sprawling, columned veranda, the place was fully decked out with containers of flowers and rocking chairs inviting guests to step back into an infinitely more simple and easily understandable past.

  Too bad that wasn’t part of the afternoon’s plan.

  Rand led Echo inside. A brunette wearing what looked to be an expensive sweater headed them off in the foyer. “Welcome to Sunrise. Do you have a reservation?”

  Despite her smile, Rand got the feeling she was not about to allow anyone past her without a damn good excuse. He pulled out his badge. “Detective McClellan with the Maryland State Police.”

  She stood a little straighter, as if worried he’d give her a ticket for slumping. “What can I help you with, Detective?”

  “We need to speak to one of your guests. Gage Darnell.”

  “Yes. I believe he and his wife are in their room. I’ll give him a buzz.” The brunette scurried to the phone and punched in the call.

  A moment later, the security expert Rand had once mistaken for a murderer appeared at the top of the grand staircase, his wife at his side. “McClellan? Echo? Come on up.”

  They followed the couple to a quaint room overlooking the water sparkling in the late-afternoon sun. The view rippled through old, wavy glass, as if it were a mirage too idyllic to be real.

  Darnell and Lily sat on a love seat next to a fireplace. Echo perched on the edge of a chair, and Rand stood behind her. There wasn’t a chance he could sit. Not with the questions buzzing through his mind.

  Darnell focused on Rand. “I assume you didn’t drive up here for a leisurely chat. What did you find?”

  Rand knew what he was afraid to hear. “We still haven’t located Sloane.”

  “The baby?” Lily said.

  Echo shook her head.

  Darnell let out a heavy breath. “What is it, then?”

  Rand searched his mind for a way to ask. Problem was, he wasn’t sure what he was asking. “How did you escape Beech Grove?”

  “I told you, I ran into the janitor and had to—”

  Rand held up a hand to cut him off. “You were tied to the bed frame. How did you get your hands free?”

  Darnell looked at his wife. He pressed his lips into a worried line.

  The last thing Rand wanted was to field lies from Darnell. Better to not give him the chance to tell any. “I know you didn’t have any help from the clinic staff. I also know it’s not possible for a man to get out of those restraints on his own.”

  Echo leaned forward in her chair. “Please. We need to know the truth. Strange things have been happening with Wesley Vanderhoven. We think he might be the one who took Zoe.”

  Darnell’s complexion drained to white. “Vanderhoven? What strange things happened with Vanderhoven?”

  “Not with him, actually. With the people around him.” Echo glanced up at Rand, as if looking for help explaining the unexplainable.

  As if he’d fare any better. “He seems to be able to amplify people’s emotions.”

  Darnell’s brows dipped low over dark eyes. “Amplify emotions?”

  Rand nodded. “I first experienced it three days ago in Vanderhoven’s room at Beech Grove. Fear. Grief. Depression.”

  “That’s what you were asking about when you came to see me at my office?” Darnell said.

  “Yes. I thought it was all in my head. I’d feel an emotion, however slight, and suddenly it would take on a life of its own. It would grow so strong I had a hard time controlling it. Then it started happening to others. Echo, her babysitter, another cop.”

  “And you think Vanderhoven was causing this?”

  Echo nodded. “We know he is. We just don’t know how.”

  “What makes you think I have your answer?”

  “You were in the explosion at Cranesbrook. Do you think Vanderhoven might have gotten access to some of the chemical from that explosion? Do you think that’s what he’s using to cause these emotional effects?”

  Darnell looked down at Lily’s hands covering his.

  Lily tilted her head and gave him a troubled look, her blond hair swinging against her cheeks. “I don’t think you have a choice, Gage.”

  So he did know something. Rand gripped the back of Echo’s chair. “You have to tell me everything you know, Darnell. Is Vanderhoven using Project Cypress?”

  Darnell raised his gaze to Rand’s face. “No. Project Cypress doesn’t cause emotional effects like you’re talking about. At least I didn’t feel them.”

  “What is it, then?” Echo asked. “What kind of chemical does Vanderhoven have?”

  Darnell shook his head. “I don’t think it’s a chemical at all. And it’s not Project Cypress. But if I’m right, it was caused by the chemicals in Project Cypress.”

  Rand had enough of these damn riddles. “Out with it, Darnell.”

  “I don’t know how to explain.” Darnell shook his head. The man was so pale, he looked as if he’d keel over. “After being exposed to those chemicals, I was able to do things. Things I could never do before. Things normal people can’t do.”

  Rand was getting a headache, a throb of frustration behind his right eye. “What things? What are you trying to say?”

  Lily squeezed Darnell’s fingers. “I think you’re going to have to show them, Gage.”

  Darnell nodded.

  Lily focused on Rand. “But you can’t tell anyone, Detective. All right? No one. I don’t want some agency deciding it would be beneficial to humanity to cut my husband open and study him like a lab rat.”

  A tremble lodged in Rand’s gut. He didn’t like the sound of that. He didn’t like it at all. But he had to have the truth. Whatever it was, he needed to know. He nodded to Lily. “It’s between us. You have my word.”

  Lily turned back to Darnell and gave him a supportive smile.

  Darnell leaned back in the love seat. Focusing on the fireplace tools, he slipped into what looked like a deep concentration.

  The fireplace poker clanked against the holder. It started to lift.

  Rand blinked, but the vision didn’t change.

  The poker floated up into the air.

  “You’re moving that? With your mind?” He’d never have believed it without seeing it. He hardly believed it now.

  Darnell kept his focus on the poker. “That’s not all I can do. Watch.”

  The poker started to warp, to bend. It twisted into a pretzel shape, then slowly lowered to the fireplace’s brick apron.

  Darnell returned his gaze to Rand. “That’s how I escaped Beech Grove. I didn’t even know
it was happening at first. I’d just think of getting those damn restraints off, and suddenly the things were unbuckled. Same with the locked door. When I reached the security fence in the forest, I finally figured out I could bend it, then bend it back so they wouldn’t know I had gotten out.”

  Rand thought back to Darnell’s appearance beside Rand’s bed despite the fact that he always kept his doors locked. “That’s how you got into my apartment.”

  “Yes.”

  “And the vase in Edmonston’s office, the one that broke and distracted him.”

  Darnell nodded. “That was me.”

  Rand shook his head. “How? It seems impossible.”

  “Project Cypress. I don’t know if that’s what it was supposed to do to me. All I know is that’s what it did. It gave me powers no normal man has. It gave me superpowers.”

  “And if that’s the case,” whispered Echo, “it might have given Wesley Vanderhoven superpowers of his own.”

  NEITHER RAND NOR ECHO said a word until his Crown Vic was speeding down the Lewes-George-town Highway on the way back to St. Stephens. The first words to pull Rand from his thoughts were a soft “Oh, God,” from Echo’s lips.

  “My sentiments exactly.”

  “I guess we know for sure Vanderhoven is the one who took Zoe.”

  Rand nodded, his stomach tight. “I don’t think superpowers are transferrable.”

  “The ability to amplify emotions. I can’t believe it. It’s like something out of a comic book.”

  It was unbelievable. But they’d seen the evidence. He could still picture that fireplace poker, hear the iron creak as it bent. Hell, with Vanderhoven, he’d felt the evidence, too. He’d been teetering on the edge of an emotional abyss since he’d first spoken to the lab tech.

  “What about Bray?” Echo’s voice faltered. “He was in that accident, too. Do you think he developed some kind of power?”

  “Hard to tell.” Rand glanced at Echo out of the corner of his eye. If her brother’s fate was hard for her to accept before, this twist really complicated things. Now not only might Sloane be guilty of causing the explosion, he might be walking around with some sort of power himself.

  And if he had a special mental ability like Darnell and Vanderhoven, why hadn’t he used it to help himself out of this jam? Unless, of course, his power was invisibility.