The New World Covenant

by Norm & Kim Bourque

  She responded, "I didn't take much notice of him other than his eyes seemed to be unusually bright I think they were green but I'm not sure. He was simply a young white man. He seemed respectable enough. I didn't hear what he said to Asher and he was only here for a brief moment and I had not seen him here before."

  "May we see the Rabbi's room please?" Murphy asked not expecting to get any additional information from her.

  She drew herself up and without a word showed them to a small room at the back of the house.

  Murphy stated to the woman, "For now Miss Jossel all we can do is check around the neighbourhood and wait to see if anything comes out of it. We really can't do anything until at least twenty-four hours are up and then we can file the disappearances as missing persons. For now, there is nothing to indicate that either the Rabbi or his daughter did not leave voluntarily. I'll give you my card and if you think of anything else please let us know."

  She dipped her head in disgust. "I would have thought that under the circumstances you would do something. If there is nothing else, I'll leave you here. I will be in the kitchen, the first door on the left across from the sitting room. I'm sure you can find your way out when you are finished." She turned away and almost pushed Jack out of the way in her haste to move down the corridor.

  Murphy and Jack exchanged grimaces and closed the door behind them.

  "Wow can you imagine what life would be like around here with that one?" Jack asked Murphy quietly.

  Murphy shook his head in reply looking around the sparse room.

  "Not much to see here. She sure keeps a clean house," he commented as he ran his hand over the dresser, "Not even a speck of dust. Even the bed has military corners."

  He turned to Jack with a comment, "What do you make of a person who is apparently a 'neat freak' and yet leaves his pyjamas lying on the floor. I can't help thinking of the similarity to the pile of clothing left behind at the Commerce Credit Union by the first ghost and the pile of clothes in the alley by the second ghost. We'd better check at the hospital and see if the clothes that Hannah was wearing are also left the same way, maybe there's some connection."

  "Something about this doesn't seem right," Murphy commented, "It's as if there is a bigger picture that we just aren't seeing yet."

  He removed a pen from his inside pocket and lifted the pyjamas looking for any evidence of foul play but there was no blood or body fluids of any sort on the material.

  Murphy continued, "There's nothing here, just another ghost. Let's ask a couple of the neighbours if they saw anything and then head up to the hospital. Maybe we'll have better luck there."

  A canvass of the neighbours on either side of the Rabbi's house was just another dead end. No one saw anything, no strange vehicles in the area and the Rabbi's vehicle was still in the garage next to the house.

  Jack looked over at Murphy. "Shall we go take a look at the hospital?"

  Murphy shrugged. "It can't hurt. Maybe there'll be a clue there. It feels like we're missing something, like its right there if we could just see it," he shook his head and folded his long frame into the passenger seat.

  ********

  They arrived at the Safe Haven Sanatorium just as the doors to the dining room opened for dinner and a surge of residents moved forward pushing through the doors. Murphy and Jack retreated to the main doors until they felt it was safe to make their way to the administration desk.

  The grey haired matron guarding the desk tried unsuccessfully to hide her laughter at their embarrassing entrance.

  "You seem to have come at a most inconvenient time. We've learned not to get in the way of the residents when it's feeding time," she commented.

  They showed their badges as they smiled back at her.

  She nodded. "I assume you are here to see about Hannah Jossel? I'll just get the Administrator, why don't you have a seat over there in the waiting area."

  They looked over to the hard institutional chairs exchanged a look and remained standing where they were.

  A round little man stepped from behind a partition wall. He was not just fat but his waist looked like it was fighting to be as big as his height. He had an overbite making him resemble a rabbit and the comparison was further enhanced by the large ears protruding from his nearly bald head.

  He smiled as he reached out a pudgy hand to each of them.

  "I'm Walter how are you? You must be here to see about Hannah. Let me tell you we've never had a patient go missing, we run a tight ship around here."

  Murphy reached out his hand and reluctantly shook Walter's hand. "My name is Detective Murphy and this is Detective Richards."

  Walter responded, "Nice to meet you. Come on, I'll show you around."

  He waddled off in the opposite direction, anticipating that they would follow his lead. As they walked, Walter kept up a constant stream of conversation.

  "Over here is the exercise room, the games room, and the dining room."

  Jack looked into the dining room, watching people eating, some with their fingers and he thought to himself, what a horde. I hope this doesn't turn into a food fight he chuckled quietly.

  "Down this section are the suites. All of our doors are alarmed so if anyone tried to leave through them we would know it. All windows are fitted with metal cages and there is someone on our front desk twenty-four hours a day. There is just no way Hannah could have gotten out of here."

  Jack spoke up, tired of listening to the blustering of this buffoon, "Do you have any cameras?"

  "Of course...but they are mostly on the outside of the building. We do have one on the dining room hall, that's usually where we get disturbances."

  Jack smiled. I guess I was right about the food fights.

  Walter continued, "We have more than enough security for the rest of the building and all our doors are alarmed. We have staff on shift all day and night. There are two guards, one at the entrance to each of the two bedroom corridors and they do rounds at least once every hour."

  "That's interesting, how is it that the disappearance wasn't detected until Hannah failed to show up for breakfast? Wasn't there some concern about Hannah possibly being suicidal?" Murphy pointed out.

  He watched with some amusement, as Walter's face grew red and his forehead shiny with sweat.

  Walter reluctantly answered, "It seems the guards were only spot checking random rooms, not all of them. I have now implemented rules that they must check every room. Of course, that doesn't help in this case, we don't know when she left or how. Hannah was under twenty-four hour supervision when she was first admitted but usually once they have been prescribed medications the risk comes down and her condition had improved so she was moved from the hospital area to one of the wards."

  Jack asked, "Could I see what camera footage you have?"

  "Um...that may be a problem as well...." The sweat beaded on Walter's upper lip and he pulled out a monogrammed handkerchief and dabbed at it. "It seems we have a very old basic system that works on motion sensitivity and it only retains a two hour block of time and then it records over itself. I'm afraid it has been written over many times by now since Hannah went missing. We never felt a need to update the system as we have twenty-four hour security personnel throughout the institution."

  "Here we are this is Hannah's suite." He gestured to a small room. It was just large enough to hold a single bed, nightstand, and small chest of drawers. Off the back wall was a door to a bathroom with a sink, toilet, and small shelf.

  As they looked around the small room, their eyes drawn to a tapestry of The Star of David hanging on the wall above the head of the bed, a reminder of the reason why Hannah was here in the first place.

  A pair of bedroom slippers lined up neatly beside the bed and a cotton nightgown lay out on the top of the blankets as if placed there ready to wear. In the bathroom in a glass stood a toothbrush and on the shelf, a hairbrush neatly placed. Murphy opened the drawers of the chest but the clothes did not appear to have been disturbed they
were neatly folded, and sorted by color.

  The small nightstand held a few books written in a foreign language, probably Hebrew as the young girl had been studying to become a Rabbi.

  Murphy asked, "Is this how the room was found? Did anyone move anything?"

  Walter nodded, "I believe the nightgown was on the floor on top of the slippers and one of the nurses placed it on the bed. Other than that, this is how it looked."

  Jack asked, "Can we talk to the staff members that were here on duty when Hannah vanished?"

  Walter shook his head. "Oh my, I don't think that will be possible, they were let go for incompetence. I can have Amy at the front desk get you their addresses but that would be the best I can do."

  They went back to the front desk where the older woman was sitting. Without looking up, she handed them a file folder. "You will find names, addresses, and phone numbers for the guards that were on duty that night as well as the desk girl. Do have a nice day Detectives," she said not raising her eyes from the computer monitor.

  Murphy took the file and they left the building.

  "Wow...can you imagine living with that one? She gives me the heebie-jeebies," Jack said and shivered.

  ********

  It took them over an hour to reach the office and they headed straight for the coffee pot.

  As Murphy sat down at his desk, Jack tossed him another folder. "Just came in, the forensic report on the credit union video thought you might like to see it."

  Murphy raised his eyebrow but did not say anything. He opened the folder, glanced briefly at the pictures, and then began to read the closely typed report.

  He summarized the report. "Well there's not much here that we didn't already know. Male suspect, approximately 5'11" to 6', one hundred fifty to one hundred sixty pounds, in the range of thirty to forty years of age, and right handed. That description could fit half the guys in this room. The video quality is too grainy to identify any distinguishing features and they were unable to isolate any identification of the individual on the other side of the main entrance doors".

  He set the report aside and picked up the still pictures taken from the video. He studied each picture looking for anything that could help them connect the picture of the robber with the prints they had found at the credit union. Could it be Johnny Strickland?

  The last picture in the group showed the blurry image of the masked male as he stood before the inside set of exit doors. He appeared to be looking directly at someone or something. Murphy reached into his drawer and pulled out his magnifying glass. He studied the area in front of the robber looking for anything that could give him a clue to who or what was actually there. He could see a faint shadow but all he could make out was it appeared to be human form but it was impossible to determine any specific details including sex or size.

  He growled with frustration. "Are we ever going to get a break?" he asked Jack.

  "So what do you think so far?" Jack asked his partner.

  Murphy looked down at the neat piles on the desk. "I don't know what to think. There seems to be a lot of weird things happening lately and I'm getting really tired of people just disappearing on me."

  He started to count on his fingers. "First the bank robber, then this Vince Diaz and then the Rabbi and his daughter and who is this guy who keeps showing up?"

  Jokingly Jack commented, "Maybe they're all connected."

  Murphy snorted and stormed down the corridor, muttering, "Four ghosts and nothing to go on. Let's go talk to some people."

  Jack just smiled and followed behind.

  "You've got the list of Safe Haven's hospital staff that got let go, where to first?" Murphy asked as he buckled his seatbelt.

  Jack looked at the list and decided on the Receptionist first. "She lives just a few blocks from here, 121 Cedarbrook Drive. It should be the second block off Centre Street to the left of the lights."

  Murphy put the car in drive and they merged into the traffic to make the left hand turn on Centre.

  The woman that answered the door was not what they had expected. She was a tall, well-toned forty-something. Hair perfectly styled like a helmet of shiny black spikes, which complimented the amazing amount of metal adorning her heavily made up face. She had studs and rings in her ears, nose, eyebrows, even her lips had a ring. Her black liner and dark blue shadow created the illusion of cavities where eyes should be. Her clothing equally dramatic, a black bikini designed to enhance the rippling muscles and the enormous breast implants.

  Murphy held up the badge. "I'm looking for Joan Cavendish?"

  "What do you want with her?" the woman asked sullenly.

  Murphy said, "We just have a few questions. Is she here?"

  "She'll be out at the pool. Back there." She waved vaguely in the direction of the back of the house. "Just go straight through and out the patio doors. I need a drink. You want one?" Not waiting for a response she turned towards the kitchen leaving them to make their own way.

  The two Detectives looked at each other, shrugged, and made their way through the maze of furniture in front of them until they reached the back deck.

  They stepped out into the sunshine and before them stretched a sparkling blue pool, the sun reflecting off the inviting ripples.

  To the right of them was a grouping of lounge chairs and tables. On one of the lounges, a petite brown-haired woman with long silky curls lay stretched out on her stomach, unaware of their presence.

  Jack put his hand to his mouth and coughed, hoping to get her attention.

  She did not appear to hear him, so Murphy called over to her, "Excuse me...would you be Joan Cavendish?"

  The girl lifted her head, clutching the bikini top to her body and sat up.

  "Who are you and what do you want?" She quickly secured the top and grabbed her cover-up.

  Murphy looked away as she straightened her clothing. He held up the badge. "Detective Murphy and my partner Detective Richards, Miss Cavendish. We'd like to ask you a few questions about Hannah Jossel."

  "You can look now Detectives," she commented as she poured herself a glass of lemonade from the pitcher on the table. Her hands were slim, her fingers long, capped off with perfectly manicured nails painted a carnation pink color. Perfectly shaped like a tiny Barbie doll, considering she would have been lucky to reach 5' tall and one hundred pounds on a binge day.

  "May I get you both a drink?" she offered.

  They accepted and took chairs at the table, enjoying the coolness of the liquid.

  "You must have met Nadia?" She smiled.

  "We weren't formally introduced but I believe she was the one who directed us back here." Murphy smiled back at her.

  "She wouldn't make a good hostess but she suits me. What did you want to ask me about Hannah?"

  "The night she disappeared, were there any visitors, did anything unusual happen?" Murphy asked.

  Her brows came together in a frown as she thought back.

  "Not that I can remember. It started out as a normal shift. I like the night shift, it gives me the day to enjoy the sun, but it was quiet that night, boring actually. Visitor hours end at 8:00pm and then they lock the main doors for the night. My shift starts at 10:00pm and I get off at 6:00am, we had no deliveries, no visitors, it was just the regular night shift, Paulie on patient wing one which was where Hannah's room is and Scott on wing two.

  "Usually some of us get together for a ten-minute break around midnight, but someone is always on the wards. Then one of the guards and me will take a half-hour break around 2:00am and the other guard takes his break at 2:30am, after that we'll run into each other occasionally getting coffee or soda just to keep awake. The next shift comes in usually around 5:45am. Even that was the same as usual, same people, Sammy, Shelley and Henry. Our team signed out and went home.

  "Next thing we know, we're in the office and fired for letting a patient escape. I just don't get it, how did Hannah get out with so many people around? She never came past me and all the doors are a
larmed including the main one. We would have known if anyone came in or went out."

  "Are there any other staff in the building at night?" Jack asked.

  She turned and looked at Jack. "Just the usual, a couple of night nurses have an office in the main administration wing and we have a doctor on call that will sometimes come in after hours when we need him."

  Jack continued, "Did you see any of them that night?"

  Joan looked down at her drink. "Let me think. One of the nurses, Diane stopped at my desk to chat for a few minutes on her way to the kitchen. Oh, and one of the other nurses, a young man went past while we were talking but I didn't know him and he didn't stop. He just gave us a smile, waved and went down the hallway but I don't know where he was going. I do remember he had some really, awesome green eyes. No one else was around; even the doctor didn't make any calls."

  Murphy asked, "Will Diane be on duty tonight?"

  Joan looked back at Murphy. "She should be, unless they canned her as well. Her last name is Marshall. Nurses work twelve hour shifts so she should be starting around seven tonight."