Castle on the Edge

by Douglas Strang

  “Well, it was like something being dragged…dragged along the floor, I believe. Then there was another thump and then the dragging sound again. In other words, I heard a thump, a drag, a thump, a drag. I heard it three times like that; then it stopped. I waited for about thirty seconds then I knocked on the door; there was no answer. Then I called out—still no response. Then I turned the doorknob, and as I was about to push it in, Nurse Jenkins ran up to me. She said Miss Hopkins was having another violent encounter with Mister Strutmire, in the recreation room and she needed my assistance at once. So I stopped what I was doing and attended to the immediate crisis.”

  “Wait…wait, you said you were ‘pushing it in,’ was the door unlocked?” I asked with focused attention.

  “Yes. I was about to go in when Nurse Jenkins approached me.”

  “And what time did this happen?”

  “Not long ago. When I heard it—you’ll have to excuse me now, Alex, this battle between Miss Hopkins and Mister Strutmire is still smoldering and…”

  “That’s all right, Mary. I’ll talk to you later,” I said and hung up the receiver.

  I told Doctor Lederer the latest developments. Then we hastily made our way upstairs to the previously locked, but now apparently opened green-room door on the third floor. As I was about to open it, Doctor Lederer grabbed my hand, put his finger on his lips and whispered, “Wait, Alex, I think you should listen at the door first…very quietly, very attentively and don’t talk. Listen.”

  I put my ear on the door. I couldn’t hear anything inside. I waited for a minute. Doctor Lederer was looking up at the transom. Then he pointed his finger and again whispered to me, “Alex, it seems to be lighter in there now, more than when we were here earlier. Isn’t that strange? I mean, I take it that this room has a window?”

  “Yes,” I answered. Why do you ask that now?”

  “Well, since the room faces east, there would be a window on the east side, right?”

  I got what Doctor Lederer meant when I looked at the transom. Since the sun rises in the east and sets in the west and the fact that the window was on the east side, so normally, it would indicate that there should have been more light in there this morning, and less light in there now but it was lighter in there now.

  “There must be a light on in there,” I said.

  “That would be my guess, Alex.”

  I put my hand on the doorknob, turned it and pushed it open. This time it was unlocked. Upon entering the room it looked quite normal except that the lamp on the nightstand by the bed was on. It accounted for the light Doctor Lederer had seen through the transom. Obviously someone had been in this room since we were standing on the other side of the previously-locked door. The question is who? The room had been vacant since Mister Lunsford left three months ago. Nevertheless, we looked around the room and there was no sign of anybody having been in it. While I looked in the closet, Doctor Lederer was going through the chest of drawers and the dresser. Except for several clothes hangers, the closet was empty. Doctor Lederer found nothing in the dresser drawers either. I opened the two drawers of the nightstand; there was only the Gideon Bible in the top drawer, which all the rooms have. We even looked under the bed—nothing, save for some dust.

  After our thorough combing of the room, Doctor Lederer looked at me and said with concern. “Alex, something bizarre is happening and I think it’s going to be dangerous.” Now, I was really getting unnerved because for the first time I saw in Doctor Leader’s eyes, the frozen look a deer has when it stands in the middle of the road, not moving away from an oncoming car.

  Trying to rationalize the situation, I said to Doctor Lederer, “Mary heard someone in here within the last half hour and whoever it was, left the light on. And the door that was locked before is now open. There has to be an explanation about this room, the missing keys, and the new patient and Doctor Calloway’s evasiveness and disappearance.

  Doctor Lederer looked me straight in the eyes, almost hypnotically, and murmured, “Don’t you feel it, Alex?”

  “Ah…feel what, Doctor Lederer.”

  “The atmosphere, Alex, the heavy, quiet atmosphere like the silence before a great earthquake, or storm.”

  “I know I’m very distressed. So I’m going to search every corner of this sanitarium, inside and out.”

  Doctor Lederer responded affirmatively, “Yes, we must do that, Alex,”

  Pointing to my wristwatch, I said, “Look, Doctor Lederer, it’s almost four o’clock. It will be dark in an hour. I think we should go outside and search the grounds—now, while we still have some light left.”

  Doctor Lederer agreed and we were on our way to search the grounds. The Castle was completely surrounded by a silver-barred metallic fence with an ornate Victorian design, which stood eight feet tall and was fifty feet out from the structure itself.

  The main gate was on the west end and always posted with a watchman.

  It was killing two birds with one stone, because Doctor Lederer and I were not only looking for Doctor Calloway, but I was giving him the tour of the outside grounds that the now missing Doctor Calloway, was supposed to do this morning. We exited the building and walked fifty feet west to the front gate. I asked the watchman if he had seen Doctor Calloway today and he replied that he hadn’t. I told him if he should see the doctor to call the switchboard, immediately.

  Then Doctor Lederer and I began our search in a clockwise direction around the fenced-in section. The area itself was filled with an impressive array of foliage. Shrubs, vines, flowers of many varieties, sheltered by an evergreen hedge with a maze design, which snaked around the grounds. Although high, Mrs. Dudley’s husband kept the hedge well manicured.

  Along the circular path, and placed all the way around the Castle, was an assortment of benches, for patients and visitors to sit on.

  The adobe-walled carport with its two dark-brown wooden doors and red-tiled roof was adjacent to the Castle’s north side. The Moorish-style fountain was situated between the front of the structure and the main gate. It had three jets that spouted up geysers to a fleur-de-lis-shaped fall. It crowned the idyllic atmosphere with serene trickling, as it was competing with the wind rustling the boughs of the tall scented pine trees, which stretched up and out one hundred and fifty feet west to the precipice that dropped to the sea below.

  There was no sign of Doctor Calloway and it was starting to get dark. Doctor Lederer could see I was beginning to panic when I said to him, “I think I’d better call the Sheriff.“

  “Wait, we still have some light left, Alex. I think we should take a quick look around the area on the outside of the gate before you call the Sheriff. We might find something. I should also like to walk to the cliff...it’s only one hundred and fifty feet from the gate, you said?”

  “Yes, one hundred and fifty feet. Maybe Doctor Calloway is injured somewhere out there. This path leads to the cliff.”

  Much of the landscape outside the gate was inundated with all kinds of wild shrubbery. The intertwining moss and close-grouped live oaks and pines, would make it easy for someone to get lost. There were only two hikers’ paths on either side of the narrow main road and one led west to the cliff. Since we had less than a half hour of daylight left and Doctor Lederer wasn’t familiar with the area, we proceeded on the rough path to the cliff, staying together. I called out to a possibly injured Doctor Calloway, which yielded no response. When we got to the end, there was a vertical drop of three hundred feet down to the sea below.

  The waves were brutally attacking the jagged rocks and quickly climbing higher as the tide came in. My high state of fear was now competing with the high tide of the ocean below. If Doctor Calloway had gone over the edge, he would surely have perished. Even if he’d landed on the rocks, his body wouldn’t have lain there long, because of the powerful force of the waves. They constantly washed over the rocks and would have taken him out to sea in a manner of minutes, if not seconds.

  I looked at my watch, then sa
id frantically, “It’s almost five o’clock and Doctor Calloway has been missing since eleven, six hours, at least…maybe seven because we last saw him at ten. And if he did go over the cliff, it could have been anytime after ten. It’s almost dark. We must get back to the Castle so I can phone the Sheriff.”

  “You’re right, Alex, we’d better move before it becomes pitch black.”

  Doctor Lederer and I raced back toward the Castle and because caution was sacrificed for time, we both received an abundance of bumps and scrapes from the many trees and branches overlapping the path. As we approached the west gate, I could tell by the anxious expression on the watchman’s face, we were about to learn some new development.

  “Any news about Doctor Calloway?” I asked the watchman, with a focused anticipation for his response.

  “No news about Doctor Calloway but our outside telephone communication is out. It went out about half an hour ago, after you and Doctor Lederer went out the gate.” He went on to tell me, the in-house line was working and Miss Holden had left word for me and Doctor Lederer, to go to Doctor Calloway’s office as soon as we returned from our search.

  As we were heading toward the Castle, I looked through the open doors of the carport and could see the hospital car parked inside. Harper must have returned and still be in there, I thought, so Doctor Lederer and I went in, no Harper.

  As we looked around, everything appeared normal, although it was very curious that Harper would leave the doors wide open like that. We left the carport and I closed and locked the large double doors, then the two of us went directly to Doctor Calloway’s office, where Mary was waiting.

  “Did you find Doctor Calloway?” Mary said to me as I was about to ask her the same thing.

  “No sign of him anywhere. Doctor Lederer and I searched the inside grounds and then we took the west path to the cliff. I fear he might have fallen over the edge. I wanted to call the Sheriff but the watchman told me the outside phone line is dead.”

  “Yes, it’s been out for over half an hour; and some other strange things have been happening all day and…”

  “I’ll take the car into town and get the Sheriff myself.” I interrupted.

  “Wait, Alex,” Doctor Lederer, said, “what about the other hiker’s path, where does that one lead to?”

  “That one goes out about two hundred feet east of the Castle then breaks off all together. The area is very dangerous, even for the most experienced hikers, because it’s densely inundated with trees and bramble bushes that have intermeshed branches with very sharp thorns; what’s worse is, they camouflage the many deep crevices and fissures that scatter the terrain. I can’t imagine Doctor Calloway going there.”

  “He has been known to take the west path to the cliff, Alex?”

  “Oh yes. In fact, Doctor Calloway, Mary and I have walked to the cliff many times,” I answered. “But now we have to get the Sheriff.”

  “What about the Halloween party, Alex?” Mary asked, “I don’t think we should cancel it, do you?”

  While trying to gather my thoughts, I said, “No, no, there’s no need for the residents to share in our distress. It will go on as planned.”

  Doctor Lederer agreed. He went on to say, “It wouldn’t be a good idea to inform the patients of this situation, or exhibit any signs of anxiety or concern; after all, they are paying good money to be here in order to work out their own problems. It would also be unprofessional on our part indeed, to disclose such information.”

  Looking at my watch and noting that it was already past six, I told Mary, “I’m going to take the car into town and get the Sheriff right now. By the way, did you see Harper?”

  “No. I didn’t even know he was back,” she answered.

  “He has to be. I saw the car in the garage on our way in here; he left the doors open and…”

  “Never mind, Alex,” Doctor Lederer interrupted. “You had better get going. I’ll stay here and help Miss Holden take charge of things.”

  “You’d better discreetly inform all of the medical staff, as well as Mrs. Dudley and her husband about this situation; maybe some of them can tell us something,” I told Mary.

  As I was making my way to the garage, I could see both doors were opened again; therefore, I thought Harper was surely inside now, but when I entered, he wasn’t. The carport was full with the usual eight vehicles, the hospital car, Doctor Calloway’s car, Miss Hathaway’s car, Mary’s car, Mister Dudley’s car, two cars that belonged to other medical employees and mine. It hadn’t run for two weeks because of some kind of an electrical short, I hadn’t had time to get repaired.

  I got into the hospital car, put the key in the ignition and when I turned it, the motor wouldn’t start. After trying several times, I opened the hood only to see that the wires had been cut. I ran back into the Castle and saw Mrs. Dudley going up the stairs.

  “Oh, Mrs. Dudley, wait,” I called out and approached her. “Did Mary tell you about Doctor Calloway’s disappearance?”

  “She informed me a couple of minutes ago, she did. Oh Jesus, Joseph, Mary, it’s been a terrible day, it has. She said you were going to get the Sheriff and…”

  “The hospital vehicle is disabled,” I quickly interrupted. “I’ll have to take Mary’s car.”

  “Oh my, oh dear. She’s in the recreation room with Doctor Lederer, Miss Hopkins Mister Morgan and Mister Duncan…getting things ready for the Halloween party, you know.”

  I ran down to the other end of the long ground-floor corridor, entered the spacious room and saw the group together in conversation. I caught Mary’s attention and with a discreet gesture, I motioned for her to come out into the hall.

  “Mary,” I said in a low voice, the hospital car has been disabled; the wires were cut, deliberately, I think. I’ll need to use your car.”

  “Oh Alex,” Mary said in a shaking voice that was almost a whisper, “Something’s wrong…something’s very wrong. I’m frightened. This whole day has been building into something evil.”

  “I know. But I’ve got to get the Sheriff now, and we don’t want the patients to know about it. Get me your car keys, Mary,” I said calmly and quietly, so I wouldn’t draw any attention to us.

  I ran back to the garage with Mary’s car keys. I got into her car, turned the key and the motor wouldn’t start. I looked under the hood, I was beside myself. The connecting wires were cut, like the hospital car. A feeling of paralysis took over my whole body. I stood there, gazing at the severed wires under the hood in a locked state of helplessness, for several minutes. It seemed I was a prisoner, as it were, in my own body. Then I managed somehow to muster all the willpower I could to pull myself out of my mental undertow. I was about to go back to the Castle and get the keys to another car, but a thought occurred to me. I should first look under the hoods of all the cars, including my own disabled machine. One by one as I looked, the wires of all the automobiles were cut…all of them. Sabotaged.

  The Party

  The show started at eight-thirty and lasted until nine forty-five. The delivery and timing of the comic skits made quite a hit with the audience. The stage-trained Miss Hopkins, with her versatility and assortment of colorful costumes, plumes and vocal projections, was very popular.

  Mister Morgan, with his successful motion-picture background and physical attributes and Mister Duncan, with his impressive array of model-clay props, arrangements of backdrop scenery, as well as his British sense of humor, blended harmoniously into a perfect mixture of entertainment and delight. We all gave our performers rave reviews. They also gave me a temporary avenue of escape from the very real trapped situation we were all in.

  All the residents, except for Mister Strutmire, were there. An assortment of guests, as well as most of the staff personnel were in attendance. Everyone except the residents and guests knew the present state of affairs. The new ‘mystery’ patient that nobody could find, Doctor Calloway’s disappearance, doors that should have been opened, locked, doors that should have been lo
cked, opened.

  The missing keys, the strange thumping and dragging sound in the green room, the outside telephone line not working, Harper’s disappearance, and the deliberate severing of wires to all the automobiles rendering them inoperable. Nevertheless, our Halloween party commenced at ten o’clock, when Mrs. Dudley and two of her staff served refreshments.

  “I’m so glad you all loved the show, Doctor Ramsey,” Miss Hopkins said with her usual theatrical gusto.

  “Yes, I did, Miss Hopkins. You know, when you can make an hour and fifteen minutes seem like only several minutes to an audience, that’s the mark of a true artist…and one who loves his or her craft,” I responded.

  “Mister Morgan and I enjoyed putting it on. I know it was a joy for Mister Duncan too—at least a temporary one, from his constant malaise over the European situation, you know, Hitler and company.”

  “There are many dangers in the world…far and near,” I said, as I was brought back to thinking about all that had happened today, and the situation we were in now.

  Miss Hopkins looked at me with a perplexed expression on her face and paused. It was as if she were thinking, I wonder what he means by ‘far and near?’ Instead she went on to say, “I only wish Doctor Calloway were here also, not that old Strutmire, mind you. I’m glad he stayed in his room, huh, the old grouch. Lock the door and throw away the key, I say. But enough of him. You said…Doctor Calloway was suddenly called away this morning?”

  “Yes,” I answered, “and he sent his regrets.”

  I had made up a story that Doctor Calloway had to go to San Francisco, and meet with the hospital board of directors there with regard to operation policies and procedures, and he probably wouldn’t be back in time for tonight’s show and party.

  “Oh well, business before pleasure and all that, I suppose,” she responded tersely.

  Then Mary and Doctor Lederer approached us, followed by Mrs. Dudley with a tray of refreshments.

  “We bring liquid sustenance,” Mary said.

  Mrs. Dudley handed each of us a glass of red punch.