Part 30 (1/2)
As he was about to leave, Britt said, ”Your milk.”
Rather than argue with her, he drank it down without pausing for breath.
A few minutes later he rode the elevator up to the ICU at the community hospital. The disinfectant fumes made him wish he had skipped the milk. In the lounge Hayes and Rizzo, the medical examiner he'd met at the stadium, waited for him.”If this doesn't take the prize!” said Hayes after a perfunctory greeting. ”n.o.body remembers any suspicious person wandering the halls last night, coming or going. The nurses on duty in intensive care didn't see anyone. In fact, they don't remember a thing from about five a.m. until their relief arrived at six!”
”Don't remember?” Roger echoed. He was beginning to guess how the murder had been accomplished.
”Total blank.” The detective shook his head. ”I take back every sane thing I ever told you about this case. I think the guy really is a phantom.”
”Unless he disguised himself as an orderly or a maintenance worker,” said Roger.More likely he used that psychic veil illusion.
But he couldn't suggest that to Hayes.
”That could explain how he got to the ward without being noticed. Not how come the nurses don't remember what happened.”
”Are they still here?” said Roger. ”Could I talk to them?”
”The senior nurse on duty is. I let the other one go home. All the patients were transferred to other rooms for the day, and anyhow none of them saw a thing.” Hayes smoothed his moustache. ”Say, you think he could've somehow drugged the nurses?”
”I didn't notice any signs of that,” Rizzo put in, ”but I wouldn't rule it out.”
Roger asked the medical examiner about Alice's death. The reply added nothing substantial to what Hayes had said. ”She seems to have been dead between thirty and forty-five minutes when the morning s.h.i.+ft came in and found the duty nurses sitting at their station in a daze. With the carotid artery severed, your patient died instantly without regaining consciousness.”
Since Rizzo seemed to expect it, Roger muttered an expression of relief that Alice hadn't suffered. Meanwhile, Hayes had left the lounge and was just returning with a middle-aged nurse in tow, her short-cropped auburn hair fading to gray, her eyes bloodshot behind square, gold-rimmed gla.s.ses. The detective introduced her as Mrs. Gifford.
”I'd like to talk with her alone, if I may,” said Roger. When the two men had left the lounge, Roger invited Mrs. Gifford to relax on the divan and immediately lulled her into a trance. He viewed her instant submission as ominous in itself.
”Now tell me, calmly, knowing you are completely safe, who came into your ward this morning at five.”
Her expressionless voice answered, ”A tall man-big man- with deep red hair and a beard. He just-popped out of thin air. For some reason I'd been dozing off. Next thing I knew, I looked around at Kathy, and she was asleep with her head on the desk.” A small frown creased the woman's brow.
Roger traced circles on her temples until she sank into tranquility again. ”It's all right now. Nothing will disturb you. Tell me what you did then.”
Her hands resting limp on her knees, Mrs. Gifford said, ”I got up to walk over to Kathy, at the console, and wake her. Then this man-appeared-beside her chair. Something went wrong with my vision. The lights seemed to go dim all of a sudden. And I thought the man's eyes burned, like red-hot coals. He told me to sit down and relax. I felt warm and sort of-liquid-all over.
Something told me he shouldn't be there, but I couldn't get excited about that. He told me not to worry, to go to sleep and forget about him.” She heaved a long sigh. ”I guess I did fall asleep, because the next thing I remember, the day s.h.i.+ft nurse was shaking me.” Her breathing quickened. ”That man-he got to one of the patients-”
Smoothing the tension from her neck and shoulders, Roger said, ”You must not worry about that. You aren't to blame. Forget what you saw, and be at peace. I will now count to ten, and you will awaken refreshed. One, two....”
A few minutes later, he lied to Rizzo and Hayes with all the persuasion at his command. ”I can't get her to remember anything. I suspect a quick-acting drug, rapidly eliminated from her system. Unless, of course, your suspect hypnotized both of them.”
Rizzo greeted that suggestion, as Roger expected, with a nervous laugh. No one could hypnotize two people at the same time that thoroughly, not when the victims were alert and on guard.
No one human, that is,thought Roger. Until this incident, he hadn't acknowledged what a deadly adversary even a ”young”
vampire could be.
Chapter 20
HE'S PLAYING with us,Roger told himself for the dozenth time since the disaster at the hospital. The ”giant bat” sighting demonstrated that Sandor had lost none of his brashness, and the murder of Alice showed that the renegade hadn't restrained himself out of caution. He could strike at Roger and Britt whenever and however he chose. Roger wondered whether Britt had remained safe because of the cross she wore constantly, or whether Sandor simply wasn't ready to claim her yet.
Furthermore, over the past few days since Alice's death, they'd heard nothing of the Kovak family except through official police contacts. If Mr. Kovak or his son planned to sue Doctors Darvell and Loren for malpractice, they were in no hurry to initiate the process.
Shortly after nine o'clock Wednesday evening, Roger's reading of theBoston Globewas interrupted by a twinge of apprehension from Britt. He extended an inquiring telepathic tendril.
”Nothing” she replied. ”The phone startled me.”
Since she didn't insist that he break contact, Roger listened in on the conversation. To his dismay, the caller turned out to be Peter Kovak. ”Dr. Loren, we got a little emergency here.”
”Yes, what is it?” No sign of Britt's anxiety crept into her voice.
”It's my mother. She's in real bad shape, hysterical. Dad and I can't calm her down.”
”I understood she had been prescribed tranquilizers?”
”Yeah, but she threw them away after-you know.” The young man's voice quavered with emotion; Roger wished he could read its nature through this indirect link. ”She never got around to refilling it. Look, Dr. Loren, seems to me you owe us. Can you come check on her?”
Of course Britt felt she ”owed” Alice's family; Roger knew trying to convince her otherwise would be futile. ”Yes, I'll be there as soon as possible.”
After she'd hung up, Roger spoke to her: ”Colleague, I'm not sure you should make that visit alone at night. And since when do you make house calls, except in a graver ”emergency” than this?”
”Come off it, Roger. If you had received that call, you'd be out the door already. You feel more responsible for their troubles than I do.”
”Because Iammore responsible. Besides, I'm better able to protect myself.”
Anger flared in Britt's telepathic voice. ”I functioned perfectly well for thirty-five years before I met you.”
”Granted, better than I did before meeting you.” But the p.r.i.c.kle of uneasiness along Roger's spine wouldn't go away. ”At least let me come with you, for my own peace of mind.”
”Are you kidding? The way two out of three of them feel about you?”
While Roger couldn't deny the soundness of Britt's argument, his internal alarms screamed at the thought of her visiting the Kovaks alone. Rationally considered, though, what harm could come to her? Mr. Kovak wouldn't have consented to Peter's calling Britt if they harbored resentment against her. Roger gave up his objections, contenting himself with observing Britt through their mental link.
WHEN BRITT'S car pulled up in front of the Kovaks' house, she saw nothing to justify Roger's qualms. The house stood quiet, with several lights s.h.i.+ning in addition to the bare bulb on the porch. Britt walked up and rang the bell on the side occupied by the elder Kovaks.
Peter opened the door and stepped onto the porch. He wore a floppy gray sweats.h.i.+rt that hung well below the waistband of his commercially faded jeans. ”Glad you could make it, Doc.” He cast a nervous glance over his shoulder at the dark, wooded back yard.
Listening, her hands stuffed in the pockets of her hooded windbreaker to tame their illogical tremor (blast Roger!), Britt heard no footsteps in the back rooms, no crying. She sensed Roger's inner alarm jangling again. She pushed it to the back of her mind. He had to learn she could take care of herself, and d.a.m.ned if she'd let his overprotectiveness cloud her judgment.
Lightly grasping Britt's elbow, Peter guided her inside and locked and bolted the door with his free hand, then steered her toward the hall. ”Thanks for coming. Mom's in their bedroom.”
Britt's psychic antennae, fine-tuned by contact with Roger, vibrated at that remark. ”Roger, something feels wrong. I think he's lying.”