“There’s a lovely assortment of cold cuts, breads, salads and cakes over at the buffet table; don’t forget to partake,” Mrs. Dudley said. Then she moved on to another group of people engrossed in conversation.
“You and Mister Morgan and Mister Duncan put on a spectacular show,” Mary said to Miss Hopkins.
“Thank you, Nurse Holden. We gave our hearts and souls to this project, you know.”
Then Doctor Lederer said, “You know, Miss Hopkins, when people’s passions harmonize…not just on the surface but down deep, to the core of their very essence, and when they collaborate on an endeavor…eh…as was obviously the case with you, Mister Morgan and Mister Duncan, the end result of any such project can only be nothing short of spectacular.”
She paused and reflected for a moment on the lofty words, then humbly commented by saying, “You make me feel superhuman, Doctor Lederer.”
At that juncture I looked up and saw Mister Morgan and Mister Duncan approaching our group; now we were six.
“Look, Nurse Holden and Doctor Lederer, we have the whole company before us…and a dynamic lot indeed.” I said enthusiastically.
“Thank you, Doctor Ramsey. I must say it was grand working with Miss Hopkins and Mister Duncan. They’re real people, not like those phonies in Hollywood,” remarked Mister Morgan.
Then Miss Hopkins added, “Don’t think the theatre world is free from phonies, Mister Morgan; we have a plethora of them. By the way, Mister Morgan…and Mister Duncan, it was grand working with you, too.
Mister Duncan responded by saying, “I never thought of myself as an actor or entertainer, but it was jolly good fun working with two professionals in the business. I mean, you were both like beacons of light guiding me through uncharted waters.”
“Ah,” bounced back Miss Hopkins. “Your superb timing and wonderful model-clay props were the buoys that kept the whole show afloat, Mister Duncan. So you see, you’re both an actor and an engineer.
“I second that,” said Mister Morgan.
As our three-team theatre company was gaily conversing, Mary looked at me with a beckoning gesture to step out into the hall. I could tell by the somber expression on her face, I was about to learn some new information…not the kind of information I wanted to hear. So we excused ourselves while Doctor Lederer remained there with the others.
“Alex,” Mary said in a low shaking voice, “I know I should have told you this before, but the watchman at the main gate is missing; he’s been missing for over a half hour now.”
Again, I was beside myself. I felt so helpless. Thoughts were furiously swimming in my head. I was like a fish caught in a whirlpool. Mary was right when she‘d said earlier, this is building into something evil. We were all like fish being sucked down into some kind of hell with no chance of finding a current to swim upstream.
I pulled myself together and looked at my watch, then said to Mary, “It’s just past ten-thirty. Was the watchman still at his post up to nine-thirty?”
“Yes, because I called the front gate and spoke to him before the show ended. I wanted to check and see if he might have seen Doctor Calloway, or Harper...or anything. He was still there, Alex. Now he’s gone.”
“How do you know? Did you go out and look?”
“Yes. Just before the party started I called. Oh, Alex, I forgot, that’s the other thing.”
“What other thing, Mary?”
“Well, as I said, I called, or I tried to call the outside gate again, but the line was dead.” “The in-house line is dead too, now?”
“Yes. And there’s more, Alex. I went out to the gate to talk to the watchman and he wasn’t there in his booth…this was shortly before ten. Then I started to look around a bit. It was creepy, Alex. The whole area was filled with a weird heaviness. The air was so thick with it I could hardly move. It was like those dreams where you try to move, but you can’t. It was surreal. I couldn’t see anything but I had a feeling I was being watched…watched by someone, or something…evil. And then there was the smell.”
“What smell, Mary?”
“Well, it was a…how shall I say it, a sick kind of smell…not the usual kind you would smell in a hospital. I’ve never smelled anything like it before in all of my experience as a nurse. The closest thing I could compare it to would be…it was like… a very pungent vomit, but again, not like any vomit I’ve ever smelled in all my nursing experience.
“It was….like it was…decomposing. And get this, the odor, well, this is unbelievable, but it kept getting stronger. It was almost to the point where I couldn’t breathe. It was as if the air were being consumed by the smell. The smell, believe it or not, was getting its power from eating the air. I know it sounds fantastic. I would have suffocated had I not left that place.”
“And did you see anything out of the ordinary, aside from the watchman missing?”
“No, but I heard something out of the ordinary. In fact, it was the same sound I heard earlier…in the green room. You know, the thumping-dragging sound I told you about. Then I really got frightened and made a dash back here.”
Doctor Lederer came out, looked around and said to Mary in a soft guarded tone, “I could sense there’s more peril added to our predicament, when you motioned Alex to come out here. So after Miss Gould and Mister Lipton came over and joined our conversation, I expressed a polite departure and stepped out here to learn the current status, as it were.”
“The current status is bad, Doctor Lederer,” I declared. “Mary just told me that the in-house line is also down; so we not only can’t call out, but we can’t even communicate within the premises of the Castle. Not only that, but now we can add the watchman to the missing Harper and Doctor Calloway.”
Doctor Lederer responded by saying, “Not to mention the stowaway patient, obviously, some well-planned scheme is being perpetrated here. The question is, for what reason?”
Mary was trembling and then emotionally added, to the point of almost crying, “I don’t know what the reason is. All I know is I’m very frightened, especially after going out to the watchman’s booth a few minutes ago. I knew someone was watching me…I knew it.
“Mary,” I attempted to say with assurance, an assurance I really didn’t have myself. “Try and stay calm, get a hold of yourself. Listen, go back in and rejoin the party…like nothing’s happened. We don’t want the residents, or guests for that matter, to know anything about this. We don’t want to cause a panic.
“When you can, very discretely tell Mrs. Dudley and her husband and each of the staff personnel the latest events. Doctor Lederer and I will go out to the watchman’s booth and look around. We’ll get to the bottom of all this. There are more of us than whoever is responsible for the sabotage taking place here…I hope.”
“Or whatever it is. Be careful, Alex,” Mary said as she looked at me with those intoxicating green eyes, and then turned back to enter the happy party recreation room.
Doctor Lederer and I immediately went out to the watchman’s booth at the main gate. Mary’s assessment was right about the watchman not being at his post. As we looked around though, everything appeared to be normal. Neither one of us felt we were being watched. The only noises we heard were the rustling of tree boughs caused by wind and a hooting owl. We should have heard the fountain too. It was off. Normally Mister Dudley turned it off when it was dark, but he had instructions to leave it on tonight because of the party. We didn’t smell anything out of the ordinary either. There was only the pleasant odor of pine trees that blended with the salt air, blowing east from the Pacific Ocean to the west. After a closer examination of the watchman’s booth, I noticed that the connecting cord to the telephone box under the counter was cut, rendering it completely useless. Then I followed the cord up to the telephone itself. I felt a damp crusty substance on the speaker part of the receiver. As I was about to take a close look at that moisture, the light in the booth suddenly went out. Fortunately I had my small medical flashlight with me so I shone it on the spe
aker; it had the appearance and smell of blood.
I looked at Doctor Lederer and said, “You’re right, some kind of an evil scheme is being perpetrated here…and it’s happening with deliberate increment. It all started last night when Doctor Calloway wasn’t here when we arrived from San Francisco. Then there was his strange behavior during breakfast this morning, and this business about a new patient he said he’d brought in some time last night. Someone none of us have been able to find. Then Doctor Calloway himself disappeared some time after ten o’clock this morning, and is still missing. There was the strange thumping-dragging sound that you and Mary heard inside the ‘locked’ green room door on the third floor.
“Harper the handy man brought the car back from San Francisco, and he vanished; the outside telephone line is down so we can’t call out. The connecting wires to each of the automobiles have been severed so we can’t operate them. The in-house line is not working now, so we can’t call any of the stations or rooms in or around the Castle, and now the watchman at the gate has gone missing; and on top of that, the light in this booth suddenly, and rather conveniently, goes out. From the looks and smell of this phone receiver, he may have been hit over the head with it.”
Were it not for the limited luminance of my small medical flashlight, we would have been completely swallowed up in the stark blackness of the night. Suddenly Doctor Lederer put his index finger across his mouth and whispered, “Listen, Alex, I think someone is approaching.”
I turned toward the direction of the Castle and also heard, but could not see, what seemed like someone stumbling through the surrounding shrubbery in the pitch-blackness, and clumsily moving toward us at the watchman’s booth. My flashlight wasn’t powerful enough to cast a beam more than a couple of feet. I also noticed there was no light emitting from the Castle. In fact, there was no light anywhere. “Who’s out there?” I said as I pointed my light toward the awkward-sounding oncoming movement.
“Alex,” Mary shouted out frantically, “all the lights in the Castle are out. It’s so dark and I was trying to find you. I almost got lost.”
“Mary, it sounds like you’re only about fifteen or so feet from me. I can’t see you because this light isn’t very strong and it doesn’t project out more than two feet; can you see it?”
“Yes, I do see it.”
“Keep walking slowly toward it. I’ll keep talking and remain stationary so you have a point of reference.
Mary walked about another twelve feet or so and met me nose to nose. She could hardly breathe when she grabbed me and said, “Oh, Alex, I’ve never been so frightened in my life. All the lights in the Castle went out about ten minutes ago. Mrs. Dudley got some candles and while Miss. Hathaway was gathering everyone into the recreation room, I made my way out here to find you…oh, Alex. I…”
“Try and calm down, Mary, let’s take it one step at a time. The lights must have gone out while I was in the watchman’s booth with Doctor Lederer. I was looking at the telephone receiver and the light suddenly went out; that was about ten minutes ago too.”
“Why were you looking at the receiver, Alex?”
“Because when I noticed that the box cord was cut, I looked at the phone itself. That was when I felt damp sticky moisture on the speaker part of the receiver; also, it had the smell of…actually, I’m not sure what it was.”
As I shone my flashlight on Mary’s face, I could see she was very scared, as was I and I didn’t want to add fuel to the fear flames. I was trying to mentally reassure myself, that maybe the sticky substance was something other than blood. I rationalized there are many types of moistures in this world that are sticky besides blood, but in my heart of hearts I knew it was blood. Lord knows I’ve been around enough of it in my line of work.
“You were going to say ‘blood,’ weren’t you, Alex?”
“Well, yes, Mary. However, we couldn’t find the watchman…anywhere.”
“Where is Doctor Lederer, Alex?”
“Doctor Lederer is…Doctor Lederer. Where is Doctor Lederer?”
“Oh, Alex.”
Now, Mary and I started frantically looking around for Doctor Lederer with the aid of my small flashlight. He was nowhere to be found. I could tell the battery was getting weaker because the already limited lighting was growing dimmer.
“Maybe he went back to the Castle, Alex.”
“Possibly, but it’s very strange he would do that without telling me…not to mention the fact he didn’t have a flashlight on him…as far as I could tell anyway.”
“But if he did, Alex, we would have seen a second light.”
“Unless…maybe…he lost his bearings and went toward the cliff instead…while I was guiding you to me. Oh my God, I hate to think that.”
“I don’t feel safe here, Alex; I think we should get back to the Castle before your light burns out.”
“Yes, Mary, there’s really nothing we can do out here. When we get back to the Castle though, we had better gather everyone, and I mean everyone in the whole place, into the recreation room for safety. Of course we’ll clue in all the personnel and Mrs. Dudley and her husband; but I think we should try and come up with some other reason to tell the residents and guests why we’re doing what we’re doing.”
“You’re right, Alex. And I hope we’ll find Doctor Lederer there as well.”
“I hope so too, Mary, I hope so too.”
Mary and I cautiously proceeded back to the Castle.
The Discovery
Mary and I combined our resolve to discretely inform Mrs. Dudley, her husband, and all the staff personnel of the dangerous predicament we were in, and that Doctor Lederer had disappeared too. We told the residents and guests the power simply went out and for safety concerns, it would be better if everyone would remain in the recreation room until we were able to get a handle on the situation. All the residents, except for Mister Strutmire, were in attendance and truly enjoying themselves at the Halloween festivities and not suspecting anything out of the ordinary…other than what Mary and I had told them.
Besides, I thought to myself, it’s past eleven and since the atmosphere in the rec. room was filled with such gaiety and mirth, why not keep the party going? After all, it would last for at least another hour or so under normal conditions. Also, it would allow us a little time, maybe, to get a grip on what was happening.
Mrs. Dudley gathered all the candles she could find to have on hand in the event of it being necessary to replace the ones currently burning. The long tapers gave off a sinister glow that was most conducive to a Halloween party and, of course, that went over well with the thespian branch of our residents.
“Oh, what a great atmosphere.” Miss Hopkins blurted out with rich fervor. “Are you sure you didn’t ‘stage’ this blackout, Doctor Ramsey? Because if you did, I think it was simply marvelous…even though it upstaged me. But never mind, because, as Shakespeare said, ‘All life is a stage and we are the players therein,’ or words to that effect.”
“No, Miss Hopkins, I assure you this wasn’t any of my handiwork.”
“Oh well then, I thank Providence for supplying a most appropriate effect for our party.” She then abruptly made a one hundred eighty degree turn and ethereally crossed to the other side of the room.
I did a thorough head count of everyone in the room here. Then I motioned Mary, Miss Hathaway, and Mrs. Dudley to come out in the hall. I said in a low voice, “Listen, the staff, residents, everyone, are in the recreation room except the four of us here and…
“Mister Strutmire isn’t, Alex. He’s upstairs in his room,” Mary interrupted.
“That’s my point, Mary. Mister Strutmire is the only one who is not here. That is, if we don’t count our four missing ones, of course.”
“Oh my goodness, is it four, now?” Mrs. Dudley chimed in.
“That’s right. Now we can add Doctor Lederer to the missing,” I answered.
“Actually five, if we count the so-called mystery patient Doctor Calloway mentione
d,” commented Miss Hathaway.
“Indeed, if there’s such a patient at all,” retorted back Mrs. Dudley.
“Nevertheless, Mister Strutmire is still up there,” I stressed, “and we have to bring him down here…whether he likes it or not. It’s too dangerous for him to be alone. I believe we’re in a perilous situation that is being deliberately orchestrated and for the safety of all of us, including Mister Strutmire, we should all be together in the rec. room.”
Miss Hathaway sarcastically said, “Hum, good luck on getting him to cooperate with you.”
“Look, Miss Hathaway, you and Mrs. Dudley go back in there and keep the party going,” I said, “and act like everything is fine and don’t, I repeat, don’t let anyone leave the rec. room. Mary and I will go up to Mister Strutmire’s room now and drag him down here, if we have to.”
“Oh, wait, Doctor Ramsey,” Mrs. Dudley swiftly said, “you can’t go traipsing through the Castle with that half-dead pencil torch of yours in all this darkness. I’ll get my husband to go with you; he’s got a big torch, you know. Besides, he won’t be of much use at all if I don’t get him away from the whiskey he’s been adding to his punch.”
“That’s a good idea, Mrs. Dudley; we’ll wait here for him.”
While we were waiting for Mister Dudley, Mary said, “Alex, you can feel it, can’t you?”
I knew what she meant because I felt it, too; there was a malevolent presence in the vast still blackness of the Castle. Save for the merriment in the rec. room, the ominous tranquility was like the quiet before a great disaster…such as an earthquake or storm, as Doctor Lederer had said before, wherever he is. It not only surrounded the Castle but it was washing over all of my senses like a high tide. Deafening silence pounded my eardrums; I could feel it without touching anything; I could see it without seeing anything; I could smell the metaphorical foul stench; I even almost choked on the bitter taste of the stale air.
However, I answered Mary by saying, “Feel it, Mary?” Then my eyes fixed on hers, I softly whispered, “I know how I feel about you…I love you, Mary.”
Castle on the Edge Page 6