Chapter Eleven

The people at the hospital provided Ramsay with a small unused office at the rear of the first floor, next to the kitchen, to use for his interviews with the staff and employees. It had only a desk, two chairs, a file cabinet that would not open, and a hastily installed telephone. There was also a pervasive smell of bland hospital cooking coming in through the single window.

One of the chairs was occupied by a stenographer on loan from Ventura County. She took rapid, silent notes as Mrs Audrey Thayer, secretary and receptionist for the late Dr Qualen, answered the sheriffs questions.

Through the window Ramsay could see search parties labouring up the thickly wooded hillside, where the suspect may or may not have been seen running by one of the orderlies who found the body. Overhead was the persistent thrum of helicopters. There was one from the Ventura County sheriffs office, and several from television news departments.

The media had appeared miraculously less than two hours after Ramsay had received the report of Dr Qualen's murder. So far he had been able to avoid them with the help of Deputies Nevins and Fernandez, who stood out in the hallway looking as mean as they could manage.

Sooner or later he would have to talk to them, but Ramsay was determined to get as much as he could of his real work done first. Like most lawmen, he had a healthy distrust of reporters, a distrust he knew was mutual.

'Is there anything more you can tell me about this Mr Derak?' Ramsay asked the woman across from him. 'Any little thing, no matter how unimportant it seemed at the time, might be helpful.'

Mrs Thayer frowned thoughtfully and shook her head. Her hands were busy twisting a flowered hankie into a snake. 'I'm sorry, Sheriff, but there really isn't anything more than what I've already told you. He was just an ordinary-looking man. Rather pleasant, he seemed at the time. Very insistent, though, about seeing Dr Qualen.'

At the mention of her late employer, Mrs Thayer's ample chest convulsed in a sob. She unwound the hankie and dabbed at her eyes. Ramsay waited for the spasm to pass before he went on.

'And he said nothing to you about what business he had with the doctor?'

'Only that he was sent up there by Eleanor Chung. She supervises the admission desk in the lobby.'

Ramsay nodded. He had already talked to Miss Chung and the woman who was on duty when Derak came in. They said he insisted on seeing the patient known as Malcolm in Room 108. Since he could show no evidence that he was related, they explained he would have to wait until regular visiting hours, then clear it with the doctor assigned to Malcolm's case. They declined to give him any more information, and when the man refused to leave, referred him to Dr Qualen.

'How long was he in the office with Dr Qualen before you heard the crash of the window breaking?'

'Not long. Not more that fifteen minutes. I don't see how he could have… could have…'

Ramsay spoke up quickly to head off another outburst of sobs. 'And you heard nothing before that because of the soundproof construction of the walls, is that correct?'

'Nothing. Once, very faint, I thought I heard a voice, but I couldn't be sure.'

Milo Fernandez entered, glanced at Mrs Thayer and spoke to Ramsay. 'Dr Underwood is outside with his report.'

'Good. Thank you very much, Mrs Thayer. That'll be all for now.'

'You'll catch the… the terrible person who did this, won't you, Sheriff?'

'Yes, we will,' Ramsay said with a lot more conviction that he felt. 'He won't get away.'

Reassured, Mrs Thayer gave him a teary smile and left the office. Ramsay told the stenographer to take a break, and sat back waiting for the pathologist.

Neal Underwood was a man happy in his work. He was plump and pleasant and had thinning blond hair that still had a curl to it. His biggest satisfaction in recent years had been the cancellation of Quincy, the farfetched television show that had a choleric pathologist rushing around shouting at everyone, solving crimes, making fools out of doctors and police alike. Dr Underwood did his job in a quiet and efficient manner, and had far more friends than enemies. He could make small jokes about how his patients never complained, and he did not even mind being referred to around the hospital as Dr Underground.

He took the chair across from Ramsay and laid a folder on the desk between them.

'As savage a killing as I've seen in some time,' the pathologist said pleasantly.

'What was the cause of death?'

'My preliminary findings show it to be loss of blood from a severed jugular. The lower face, throat, and upper chest were severely lacerated. Many of the wounds, I'm relieved to say, probably occurred after the victim was already dead. He died very quickly.'

'Any guess as to the weapon?'

'You're not going to like it.'

'Try me.'

'Teeth.'

Ramsay let several seconds go by while he held the pathologist's mild gaze. 'Teeth?'

'I told you you wouldn't like it.'

'Human teeth?'

'Not likely. The human jaw is not constructed for attack. To kill with its teeth, an animal needs a protruding muzzle. That allows the jaws to open like this.' Underwood demonstrated with his two hands, touching at the heel, making teeth of his fingers.

'What kind of an animal might that be?'

'Oh, lots of them. Shark, alligator, tiger, hyena… '

Ramsay saw him hesitate. 'And?'

'And a wolf.'

'Uh-huh. Would you say it's possible to construct a weapon that would make wounds like that, resembling teeth?'

'I suppose it would be possible, but it would make a damned inefficient weapon. It would be an awkward thing to carry around too. Impossible to conceal.'

Ramsay pinched the bridge of his nose. He felt a headache coming on, but the next question had to be asked.

'Have you seen a killing like this before, Doctor?'

Underwood nodded slowly. He was no more eager to answer than Ramsay was to ask. 'Similar. Several of them.'

'Like to tell me where and when?'

'Right here. Last year. During the business at Drago.'

Ramsay groaned inwardly. The damned dead village of Drago was destined to haunt him. 'What do you think killed those people?'

'Wolves,' Dr Underwood said without hesitation. 'Yes, I know there hasn't been a wolf sighted around here since the turn of the century, and I know none was ever found, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Wolves. Where they came from, where they went, that's not my problem.'

'You heard the stories?'

'Werewolves? Sure, I heard them. Who didn't? But if you think I am going to write werewolves and witches and fairies into my reports… well, forget it.'

'It was no wolf that walked into Dr Qualen's office,' Ramsay said quietly. 'A man walked in there. One man. He carried no visible weapon.'

'Sheriff, I don't envy you your job.' Underwood slapped the folder he had laid on the desk. 'There's my preliminary report. Make out of it what you will. Beyond the medical facts and observations contained therein, I have nothing to offer.'

'Easy,' Ramsay said. 'Believe me, Doctor, I don't want werewolves any more than you do. I've just got to come up with some answer as to how a single man could do that kind of damage in a short space of time, then jump through a reinforced plate glass window to a concrete slab twenty feet down, then run off up into the woods

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