Insomniac

by P J Mann

  Laura remained silent thinking about it, and she had to admit that the way she put it, it sounded quite ridiculous. Of course, people can argue over thousands of things, and maybe I have overreacted. Perhaps I dreamt about someone screaming, and whatever happened after, resembled the plot of the book I was reading.

  “I must have sounded like a maniac,” she whispered.

  Sabina hugged her, trying to console her, “don’t think about it right now, just try to relax.”

  Laura nodded, “but I am not going to talk about it with anyone else, I already feel too embarrassed.”

  “And you can be sure that I will not tell anyone. This is going to be our little secret,” Sabina said without blinking an eye.

  Laura smiled at her, and together they finally reached the hall for breakfast.

  In the afternoon, Laura was coming out of Dr. Wright’s office after the individual session. She refrained from telling him about what she heard last night, trying to convince herself that what she heard was not connected with any sort of crime. However, she noticed that Sabina was seated on a bench and seemed to be fully immersed in her thoughts. Gabriel and Maximilian stood a few meters from her, but they were busy having a heated argument and seemed to ignore her entirely.

  “Anything wrong?” Laura asked.

  Sabina raised her gaze to her and without saying anything she handed something she had in her hand to Laura.

  Laura looked at the item recognizing the pendant Carolina had on her necklace. “Where did you find it?” Laura asked surprised.

  “I was walking around, actually I was waiting for you to come out, so we could have a chat when I saw something on the ground. It was right there beside that bush,” she said pointing towards a rose bush with her finger.

  “She might have lost it when she left, we need to give it to the reception desk. It is possible that she already contacted the staff of the hotel asking whether they found it. We might also ask Dr. Wright, perhaps he has her telephone number, and he can call her back,” Laura proposed. “She was very fond of that pendant, she might miss it a lot.”

  “Girls, what are you brewing there?” Said Maximilian coming closer.

  Sabina hid the pendant in one of her pockets “nothing that concerns you.”

  Maximilian smiled broadly, “Ah girls’ stuff?”

  Sabina rolled her eyes, annoyed “indeed and you don’t look like you belong to the club.”

  That said she grabbed Laura’s arm and guided her away. “Let’s go and talk to the reception desk, but let’s just ask whether Carolina has ever called.”

  “Why don’t we just ask Dr. Wright?” Laura said.

  “What should Ms. LaMotte ask me?” Dr. Wright said, coming from the hall.

  Sabina looked embarrassed like she wasn’t sure whether to tell him about what she found or not. But if I don’t tell him about it, Carolina might never find her pendant, Sabina thought.

  “Well, we found a pendant that belongs to Carolina, and we would like to contact her to let her know that we found it, so she can come and get it,” Laura replied.

  Dr. Wright looked at the pendant like he was mesmerized by it, and for a long instant, he didn’t say a word. It was like he was frozen.

  “Dr. Wright, are you OK?” Sabina asked, with a slight tone of sarcasm in her voice.

  “Well… I don’t know whether she tried to contact the reception. As for me, I haven’t heard from her since she left,” he replied, uncertainly.

  “Perhaps we should ask the receptionist…” proposed Laura.

  Dr. Wright grabbed the pendant. “Don’t you worry about it, I will contact her and tell her to come and get it. Besides, don’t you have the afternoon activities to follow?”

  “Yes, of course,” Laura hesitated, “I suppose…”

  As soon as they were alone Laura took a deep breath, “Don’t you think he behaved strangely?”

  “He totally froze in a single second, but that is generally the effect I have on men,” said Sabina amused. “Jokes aside, I don’t think there is anything suspicious. I do believe that mostly he wasn’t expecting anything like that, and now he has to get back in touch with Carolina to give her back the pendant. Thinking about it, I would be annoyed as well.”

  “I would like to get in touch with her too,” considered Laura.

  “Certainly, you can ask Dr. Wright to give you her contact info.”

  “No, that is privacy infringement, you cannot give away personal details of anyone involved in the study without their consent,” Laura replied.

  “Then, I am afraid that you have to hope that she will get in touch with you as soon as this month is over. Come on, there are only two weeks left; I believe you can wait until then,” she cheered. “and if she won’t, it means that she wasn’t worth your friendship. Stop bothering yourself with all the questions of this world; you won’t have the answers for them all.”

  Laura didn’t reply, perhaps she is right, I am worrying too much about everything when instead I should focus more on living my life.

  “No wonder that you suffer from insomnia, you take everything too seriously and let the smallest things bother you. Why don’t you try to let all those things you can’t change stop bothering you?” Sabina asked.

  “You might be right, and perhaps this is truly the reason why I cannot fall asleep. Although, recently with the help of those meditation sessions I have been able to increase the hours of sleep I’m getting each night. Not only that, but I could also sleep better; I am wondering whether this was all I needed to solve the problem.”

  “Aren’t you forgetting that we are taking a few pills every night as a part of our therapy?” Sabina giggled.

  “Of course, I do not forget about them, but what if the real game changer was the meditation? What if that is the real reason why I can suddenly sleep better?” Laura pursued.

  Sabina shrugged, “Who knows?”

  Suddenly, Maximilian came running from the reception, like he was looking desperately for something or someone.

  Laura and Sabina glanced at each other and rushed towards him, trying to understand the reason for that fury.

  “Max… Hey, Max! Why are you running?” yelled Sabina.

  He turned to her and looked like he got lost. “I-I had a call from the University… Have you seen Dr. Wright?”

  “He might be in his office, but what’s happening? Anything wrong?” Asked Laura.

  “I don’t know… well sort of,” he tried to explain. “I had a call from the University, and I absolutely need to head back to work. If I don’t, I might lose my job.”

  “Nobody can fire you while you are in the middle of therapy,” explained Laura.

  “I know, but the University is another world. It is not like a whatever firm, and sometimes not being there at the right time, it means that a lot of windows of opportunity will be closing right in front of you. I don’t know how I can explain this to you, but I need to find Dr. Wright to understand what the consequences for my health will be if I quit the therapy right away.”

  Sabina shook her head and held him by the shoulders “now take a deep breath.”

  He did as she said.

  “Now, get a grip on yourself. Dr. Wright is probably in his office, but before going talking to him, you should calm down and think about it. If you really think you need to leave therapy, then fine, you go and tell him you are quitting, but please think about it before you make a rash decision,” Sabina added.

  “Yes,” he said pausing a bit. “I need to go…”

  He left, and Laura glanced Sabina shaking her head, “I bet he didn’t even listen to what you were saying.”

  “Sometimes I wonder whether this was a group to cure people of insomnia or did I join the therapy group for all sort of mental instabilities,” Sabina replied. “They are all crazy if we exclude you and me.”

  “…And the rest of the staff in this hotel,” Laura replied.

  “Even about them, I wouldn’t be so sure. Someth
ing I have noticed is that the staff has constantly been changing.”

  “I guess this is because of the shifts…” Laura guessed.

  “No, no… this has nothing to do with the shifts, the cleaning ladies should be the same. For this month in this hotel, there are only eight rooms occupied by the guests. The cleaning ladies should be the same. But I have noticed at least four replacements.”

  “Maybe some of them got their holiday, or they got sick?” Laura shrugged.

  “Maybe…”

  “Now it is you who is starting to sound paranoid,” Laura giggled.

  “It seems like paranoia is contagious. We should blame Jonathan, he started all this madness…”

  After a couple of days, Maximilian left, and it seemed like Gabriel was about to quit everything after he lost his best friend.

  “I cannot say that I will miss that cabron, but now I am missing having someone to talk to…” he said, almost whispering to himself.

  “Come on, now you have us two all to yourself,” Sabina said as her hand heavily landed on his shoulder, causing him almost to fall.

  “Auch!” he just replied.

  “I knew you’d like it,” Sabina said.

  “You are dangerous, but I think you might be my kind of girl…”

  Sabina looked at him pretending to have an upset expression, “aha, so you already forgot about your Juliet!”

  They all laughed, but for some reason, there was something that didn’t fit in the progressive quitting of the other members.

  Soon the last week will start. In the beginning, we were six patients, and now we are only three; sometimes I feel like I’m participating in one of those games, where the players are eliminated until only one remains; the winner. Just what will we win in this case? Laura thought as she was alone in her bedroom.

  As her new routine, she went to connect her bracelet to the recording devices and took her pills. “I am wondering whether I will be able to regain the capability to sleep also without those pills. I’d prefer to get rid of them also, once I start to sleep for more than seven hours per night,” she said aloud.

  Chapter 7.

  The following days seemed to pass quite quickly, even though it felt a bit awkward for everyone that half of the people in the original group left. What was more difficult to understand, at least for Laura was that they didn’t keep in contact as they promised. Once they left, they seemed to have forgotten about their promises to call.

  But then one day, things started to become more complicated, and one morning, right after breakfast a young man entered the lobby. He looked around like he wanted to be sure he was in the right place.

  “Good morning, how may I help you?” Asked the receptionist.

  “Yes, I am looking for a certain…” he searched for something in his pockets and extracted a piece of paper “…Dr. Wright. I hope I am in the right place.”

  The receptionist smiled, “You are in the right place, but this hotel has been booked for the entire month for a private purpose, and without an appointment, I cannot let you in.”

  “Of course, of course,” he replied nervously, “but I’m not here to have fun. I’m here for work,” he said showing the badge of the Police Department.”

  “Oh, I didn’t know you were an Officer,” she replied grabbing the phone. “Who do I have to announce?”

  “You can tell him that Officer Sheen wants to ask a couple of questions.”

  “Right,” she replied and dialed the number of the room Dr. Wright used as an office. “Dr. Wright, I have Officer Sheen here from the Police Department. He asked to meet you.”

  After a couple of minutes, Dr. Wright appeared in the hall. He tried to look calm, but Officer Sheen could notice immediately by the way he walked that something had him on edge. I am not a psychiatrist like you are, but I can see when someone has something to hide, he thought.

  “This is an unexpected visit, Officer Sheen,” greeted Dr. Wright. “Please, follow me to my office, where we can talk in privacy.” He said shaking Officer Sheen’s hand.

  “I am sorry to arrive without any notice. I understand you are busy and I will try not to take up too much of your time,” replied Officer Sheen.

  “Don’t you worry,” replied Dr. Wright closing the door behind them and inviting Officer Sheen to take a seat. "While it is true that I am busy, but if there is a way I can help you, it will be my pleasure.”

  “I appreciate it, I am investigating a missing person’s case, and it seems like the last place where she was seen, it was this hotel a couple of weeks ago,” he explained. “I am talking about Mrs. Carolina Lynn. She was one of your patients, wasn’t she?”

  “My goodness, I didn’t know she was missing. She decided to leave therapy because the daughter of her sister was having some sort of health problems and she wanted to go back to help them. I have given her the contacts of a colleague of mine so that she could follow an alternative therapy, but I haven’t heard from her anymore.”

  “Really?” Officer Sheen replied surprised.

  “Yes… Oh well, this was at least what she said to all of us about her reason to stop the therapy. I do not have any idea whether she had other plans or not,” replied Dr. Wright. “I have no right to question her word when she explained the reason why she wanted to quit.”

  “Of course, and I am not accusing anyone, yet. For now, I am just trying to understand what happened to Mrs. Lynn, by reconstructing the last few days when she was seen alive.”

  “Do you think she has been murdered?” Dr. Wright replied concerned.

  “I cannot exclude any possibility. Although, it is too early to think about murder, as she might be somewhere else, willing to remain alone. It is possible that Mrs. Lynn had an accident and she is somewhere in a hospital, or in a morgue. Another possibility is that she has been murdered.”

  Dr. Wright shook his head in disbelief, “I don’t know what to say, but I will help as much as I can with the investigation. Although, the only thing I know is that she left on Friday early afternoon, and since then I have had no more contact with her.”

  “Do you mind if I ask around with the other patients? Perhaps she might have confessed something about her real intentions or whether she had other plans.”

  “Of course, you can ask whoever you want. My patients are not my prisoners, and if they can be of any help, they won’t deny talking to you,” Dr. Wright assured. “If you want I can ask them to come here to have a talk with you. It won’t take much time to talk to them all, as there are just three patients.”

  “According to my knowledge, they were supposed to be six, where are the other two?” Officer Sheen wondered.

  “Just like Mrs. Lynn, the other two left to attend other matters.”

  “Do you have any means by which I can contact them?”

  Dr. Wright started to feel nervous and wondered whether Mr. M. even knew about the visit of Officer Sheen. This is something I would have liked to avoid. I knew it would have been too risky, but he just didn’t want to listen, he considered.

  “I am afraid that without a warrant you won’t be able to get any private information about my patients. You surely understand that without any good reason, I am not allowed to give away their personal data, and this also includes telephone numbers and addresses. I am sure you can find the way to get them by other means.” He needed time to speak to both, Prof. Doyle and Mr. M.

  “I will try to do my best to not go against your ethical code but be certain that in one way or another I will get the information I am looking for,” he replied locking his eyes on Dr. Wright’s.

  “Is there a reason why I feel like I’m on trial for murder here?” Dr. Wright asked.

  “That is a question you should ask yourself. Concerning me, I haven’t made any formal accusations; to be completely honest, I am considering all the possibilities, and it can easily be that Mrs. Lynn is safe and sound in a place where she doesn’t want to be found,” he replied trying to reassure Dr. Wright.<
br />
  “Sure, I will ask the other patients to come down here,” said Dr. Wright, as he stood up from the chair, walking to the desk where he could call the receptionist and have the other guests gathered in his office.

  Laura and Sabina were walking to Dr. Wright’s office when Gabriel reached them running. “Girls, wait for me!” He said, panting.

  “Do you have any idea why we are supposed to skip our afternoon activity to meet with Dr. Wright in his office?” He asked.

  “I have no idea, but it must be something important,” replied Laura.

  “The only thing I can say is that earlier I have spotted an intriguing looking stranger coming inside the hotel, perhaps it has something to do with him,” Sabina added, giggling.

  “You wish…” Gabriel said sarcastically.

  “Indeed, I wish, you’ll never know where you will meet your next boyfriend or one-night-stand,” Sabina replied obviously.

  They all laughed, but as soon as they found themselves in front of the closed door of Dr. Wright’s office, they suddenly all fell silent, as they hesitated for a moment.

  “Who’s going to knock?” Laura asked with a lower tone of voice, like she was whispering not to be heard from whoever was inside waiting for them.

  “Girls!” said Gabriel rolling his eyes and moving towards the door he knocked bravely.

  “Come in,” replied the familiar voice of Dr. Wright.

  “You asked to see us…” said Sabina, focusing her attention on the stranger, who was sitting on the chair in front of Dr. Wright’s desk.

  “Yes, Officer Sheen arrived about an hour ago, and he asked for some information about Mrs. Lynn,” Dr. Wright explained.

  Officer Sheen stood up, smiling lightly taking his time to observe the trio he had in front of him; he had to admit that Sabina was the one who impressed him the most. Perhaps it was because she locked her eyes on him the moment she stepped into the room and never took her eyes off him. He felt almost naked in front of her but didn’t let this intimidate him.

  “Pleased to meet you, Officer Sheen. My name is Sabina, Sabina LaMotte,” said Sabina walking gracefully towards him to shake his hand, “do you also have a name with which we can call you? I hate the formalities.”