TV monitor displaying video oatmeal. The guard passed the station and continued to the right. We entered a brief, bright corridor checkered with blue-green doors, each pocked with a peephole. One door was open, and the guard motioned toward it.
'Here you go, Doc'
The room was six-by-six, with soft white vinyl walls and low, flat ceilings. Most of the floor space was taken up by a hospital bed fitted with leather restraints. There was a single window high up on one wall. It had the filmy look of old Plexiglas and was barred with steel posts. Everything -from the commode to the nightstand - was built in, bolted down, and padded with blue-green vinyl. A pair of crumpled white pyjamas lay on the floor.
Three people in starched white crowded the room.
An obese blonde woman in her forties sat on the bed, head in hands. By her side stood a big, broad black man wearing horn-rimmed glasses. A second woman, young, dark, voluptuous, and sufficiently good-looking to pass for Sophia Loren's kid sister, stood, arms folded across her ample chest, at some distance from the other two. Both women wore nurse's caps; the man's tunic buttoned to the neck.
'Here's his doctor,' announced the guard to a trio of stares. The fat woman's face was tear-streaked, and she looked frightened. The big black narrowed his eyes, and went back to looking impassive.
The good-looking woman's eyes narrowed with anger.
She shouldered the black man aside and stomped over. Her hands were clenched, and her bosom heaved.
'What's the meaning of this, Edwards?' she demanded in a contralto I recognised. 'Who is this man?'
The guard's paunch dropped a few inches.
'Uh, he said he was Cadmus's doctor, Mrs. Vann, and, uh, so I - '
'It was a misunderstanding,' I smiled. 'I'm Dr. Delaware. We spoke on the phone - '
She looked at me with amazement and swivelled her attention back to the guard.
'This is a locked ward, Edwards. It's locked for two reasons.' She gave him a bitter, condescending smile. 'Isn't it?'
'Yes, ma'am - '
'What are those reasons, Edwards?'
'Uh, to keep the loon - to maintain security, ma'am, and, uh - '
'To keep the patients in and strangers out.' She glared at him. 'Tonight you're batting oh-for-two.'
'Yes, ma'am. I just thought since the kid - ' That's enough thinking on your part for one night,' she snapped. 'Return to your post.'
The guard blinked rheumily in my direction.
'You want me to take him - '
'Go, Edwards.'
He looked at me hatefully and shuffled away. The fat woman on the bed put her head back in her hands and began to snuffle. Mrs. Vann shot her a sidelong glance full of distain, batted her long dark lashes in my direction, and held out a finely boned hand.
'Hello, Dr. Delaware.'
I returned the greeting and tried to explain my presence.
'You're a very dedicated man, Doctor.' Her smile was a cold white crescent. 'I suppose we can't fault you for that.'
'I appreciate that. How's - '
'Not that you should have been let in - Edwards will answer for that - but as long as you're here, I don't
imagine you'll do much harm. Or good, for that matter.' She paused. 'Your former patient's no longer with us.'
Before I could respond, she went on:
'Mr. Cadmus escaped. After assaulting poor Miss Surtees here.'
The fat blonde looked up. Her hair was a stiff, platinum meringue. The face under it was pale and lumpy and mottled with pink. Her eyebrows were plucked flat, canopying small, olive drab, porcine eyes rimmed with red. Thick lips greasy with gloss tensed and trembled.
'I went in to check on him' - she sniffled - 'just like I do every night. All this time he's been such a nice kid, so I undid the cuffs like I always do - give the boy a bit of freedom, you know? A little compassion doesn't hurt, does it? Then the massage - wrists and ankles. What he always does is he drifts right off in the middle of the massage and starts smiling like a baby. Gets a good sleep sometimes. This time he jumped up real crazy, screaming and frothing at the mouth. Punched me in the stomach, tied me with the sheet, and gagged me with the towel. I thought he was gonna kill me, but he just took my key and - '
'That's enough, Marthe,' said Mrs. Vann firmly. 'Don't upset yourself any further. Antoine, take her to the nurses' lounge, and get some soup or something into her.'
The black man nodded and propelled the fat woman out the door.
'Private-duty nurse,' said Mrs. Vann when they were gone, making it sound like an epithet. 'We never use them, but the family insisted, and when big bucks are involved, the rules have a way of getting bent.' Her head shook, and the stiff cap rustled. 'She's a float. Not even registered, just an LVN. You can see the good she accomplished.'
'How long's Jamey been here?'
She came closer, brushing my sleeve with her fingertips. Her badge had a picture that didn't do her justice and, under it, a name: Andrea Vann, R.N.
'My, but you're persistent,' she said archly. 'What makes you think that information is less confidential than it was an hour ago?'
I shrugged.
'I had the feeling when we spoke on the phone that you thought I was some sort of crank.'
The frigid smile returned.
'And now that I see you in the flesh I'm supposed to be impressed?'
I grinned, hoped it was charming. 'If I look the way I feel, I wouldn't expect you to be. All I'm trying to do is make some sense out of the last hour.'
The smile turned crooked and, in the process, somehow grew more amiable.
'Let's get off the ward,' she said. 'The rooms are soundproofed, but the patients have an uncanny way of knowing when something's up - almost an animal type of thing. If they catch on, they'll be howling and throwing themselves against the walls all shift.'
We went into the reception room and sat down. Edwards was there, shuffling around miserably, and she ordered him to fetch coffee. He screwed up his lips, swallowed another gallon of pride, and complied.
'Actually,' she said, taking a sip and putting the cup down, 'I did think you were a crank - we get plenty of them. But when I saw you, I recognised you. A couple of years ago I attended a lecture you gave at Western Peds on childhood fears. You did a nice job.'
'Thanks.'
'My own kid was having bad dreams at the time, and I used some of your suggestions. They worked.'
'Glad to hear it.'
She pulled out a cigarette from a pack in the pocket of her uniform and lit it.
'Jamey was fond of you. He mentioned you from time to time. When he was lucid.'
She frowned. I interpreted it:
'Which wasn't very often.'
'No. Not very. How long did you say it's been since you last saw him?'
'Five years.'
'You wouldn't recognise him. He - ' She stopped
herself. 'I can't say more. There's been enough rule bending for one night.'
'Fair enough. Can you tell me how long he's been missing?'
'A half hour or so. The orderlies are out in the hills with flashlights.'
We sat and drank coffee. I asked her what kinds of patients the hospital treated, and she chain-lit another cigarette before answering.
'If what you're asking is, Do we get lots of escapes, the answer is no.'
