Page 26 of The Lost Girls of Willowbrook

“She looks like she needs a doctor.”

He turned toward her suddenly, dark-eyed and ferocious. “And you need to mind your own business.”

Before she could say more, he turned and started across the room. She followed, dodging a chair that came out of nowhere and went flying across the floor.

“Are you going to call someone?” she called after him.

He kept going. “Don’t tell me how to do my job,” he snarled. “She’ll be fine.”

“Please, will you just talk to me for a minute?”

He stopped and spun around to face her, a blue vein bulging in his forehead. “About what?” Sweat dampened the armpits of his white uniform, and needle marks tracked the inside of his elbows.

Great.Along with being an asshole and a bully, he was a junkie too. Pressing her hands into fists to keep them from shaking, Sage pretended she hadn’t noticed. “I was wondering,” she said. “How well did you know my sister, Rosemary?”

He let out an ugly chuckle. “Oh, I get it,” he said. “You want to playthisgame again. Don’t you think you’ve caused enough trouble?” Something about his eyes made her pause. They were calm and cold, like Alan’s, but murkier. Predator eyes.

She shook her head. “I don’t know what game you’re talking about.”

He moistened his lips. “You know, the one where you pretend you’re someone else?” A young woman ran up to him and pawed at his chest. He pushed her away. “That way, whenever you do something wrong, you can blame it on your ‘sister.’” He made quotation marks with his fingers around the word “sister.”

She shook her head again, panic tightening her throat. Between what Norma had said about being “sisters” and what he was saying about Rosemary pretending she was someone else, no wonder no one believed her. “I swear I’m not playing a game,” she said. “I’m not Rosemary. Everyone thinks I am, but I’m not. I’m her twin sister, Sage. I found out she was missing, so I came here to help look for her.”

“You came here to look for her? Is that what you’re telling everyone?”

“Yes,” she said. “But Dr. Baldwin thinks—”

He held up a plank-thick hand. “Just shut up,” he barked. “I’m not in the mood for your shit today.” He headed back toward the cubicle, shoving residents out of his way.

Trying to keep up, she dodged the girls and women who stumbled in his violent wake. “Please,” she said. “I need to talk to you about Rosemary. Nurse Vic and Leonard said you might know where she went. If you were friends with her, maybe you can help. Maybe you know something that would prove I’m not her.”

He stopped and turned on her again, crossing his massive tattooed arms over his broad chest. “I don’t know what you’re trying to pull,” he said. “But you know Nurse Vic and Leonard love to stir up shit. And you tell everyone your name is Sage all the time. You never stop.” He scanned the room, then pointed at Norma. “You say she’s your sister too. Now leave me alone.” He walked away again.

“Please,”she said again, still following him. “You have to help me. I don’t belong here.”

“Yeah, that’s what you all say,” he snarled over his shoulder. “The ones who can talk, anyway.”

“It’s the truth! Really! Please, I’m begging you. You have to believe me.”

When he reached the cubicle, he turned to face her again. “Listen, you stupid bitch. I told you to leave me alone. You’ve caused me enough trouble.”

She drew back. “How did I cause you trouble?”

“You know damn well how. They almost fired me when you disappeared.”

“Why would they fire you? Did you have something to do with it? Do you know where Rosemary is? I heard you had a crush on her.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted them.

His face turned purple with rage, the blue vein in his forehead looking like it was about to burst. “I’m warning you one last time. Stay away from me or I’ll send you to the pit again. And this time it’ll be twice as long.”

She dropped her eyes, practically wilting under the heat of his seething glare.

“That’s what I thought,” he said. “Now get lost.”

Near tears, she turned and headed back toward the opposite wall, pushing away groping hands and moving around naked bodies. Clearly Wayne was hiding something. But what? And why was he almost fired when Rosemary disappeared? More importantly, how had he managed to get out of it and keep his job? Halfway across the room, she noticed a girl with strawberry-blond hair sitting Indian-style in a chair facing the wall. She had the same slim build as her sister, the same thin arms and legs. Unable to stop herself despite the poor odds, she rushed over and went around the front of the chair.

It wasn’t Rosemary. The girl’s skin was white as paper, thin as parchment. Gray clouds filled her sightless eyes, but she seemed to sense Sage’s presence and said, “Who’s there?”

“I’m sorry,” Sage said. “I thought you were someone else.”

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