Page 54 of Into the Dark

CHAPTER

TWENTY

More silence followedNigel’s final pronouncement, until at last Zeek said, “Wait. That’s the nurse we caught in the Devil’s Toy Box, right?”

“Exactly,” Adrienne said grimly. “But what the fuck does it mean?”

Nigel started to shake his head, then stopped when it made him woozy. He’d been feeling worse and worse throughout the day, but was determined not to let it show. “I don’t know. Maybe she’s angry no one believed her about the doctor when she was alive. The letter is dated less than a month before their deaths.”

“It feels like there’s more to it,” Oscar said slowly. “I’m not sure. Nigel, what happened to the body parts that Wilkes amputated?”

“It doesn’t say. Nowadays, they’d probably be burned as medical waste. Back then, I’d guess they might have been buried?”

“Separately from the patients.” Chris swallowed audibly. “The ghost in the cemetery is looking for her missing body parts.”

“Jesus.” Zeek shuddered. “Can we help her? How would we even begin?”

Oscar ran a tired hand over his face. “I don’t know. Maybe she can be convinced to let go of her attachment to her body and move on. If not…I don’t see how we could even find whatever pit they were buried in, let alone where the rest of her body is.”

“That’s a worry for later.” Dr. Lawson turned back to the cabinet she’d been thumbing through. “Come on—let’s find the other files we were looking for.”

It didn’t take long. Chris located Mariah Hartford first. “Her parents brought her here, just like she said on the spirit box,” they said as they scanned the yellowing pages. “Diagnosed with depression, which apparently meant she needed part of her small colon and half her liver removed. Then she gets labeled as ‘psychotic’ and ‘difficult’ and ends up on the third floor. And, oh look, it says here she died from hypothermia.”

“She fought back and they were trying to either punish or control her with the cold water bath,” Dr. Lawson said grimly.

“Why not both?” Adrienne asked. “Shit. I’d be pissed as hell if I were her, too.”

Nigel frowned. “That doesn’t excuse trying to drown Oscar. He was trying to help her.”

“Sure—and the doctor and everyone else probably said they were trying to help her, too.”

Ruby Baker’s file, uncovered by Zeek, was much the same story. Diagnosed with dementia praecox—what would later be called schizophrenia—she first had her teeth pulled. Then her tonsils removed. Ovaries. Uterus. Part of the abdominal wall.

No wonder she’d risked trying to crawl down a laundry chute to get away.

“This is fucked up.” Zeek blinked and rubbed at his eyes, as if clearing away tears. “And look at how many files there are—how many people did this guy do his crazy experiments on?”

Nigel leaned heavily against the nearest cabinet. He hadn’t bothered with breakfast, but found he had no appetite. His head pounded like a drum, and he worried a fever was starting.

Damn it, he couldn’t actually get sick, not now.

“Do you think we can use any of this information to help them?” he asked Oscar. “Mariah and Ruby, I mean. They don’t deserve to be trapped here.”

“Um, quick reminder, we saw the doctor here, too.” Zeek glanced around nervously. “I really don’t want to run into that guy.”

A faint knocking echoed from the wards.

Oscar stiffened at the distant noise, which repeated, then repeated again. It sounded like something banging against metal…

That couldn’t be Ruby—the chute where she’d died was too far away. Unless the chutes in the different wards were somehow connected, allowing the sound to carry.

Or allowing her to crawl through them from place to place.

Making sure his mamaw’s file was still tucked under his arm, he started for the door. “Nigel, grab the doctor’s file and bring it with us,” he called over his shoulder.

Everyone followed, back through the southernmost ward to the one where Ruby still haunted the site of her death. An almost constant banging came from inside the laundry chute. Either the sunlight wasn’t bothering her, or she was protected from it within her steel prison.

“Ruby?” he called as they came up. “That’s your name, isn’t it?”

---