Page 23 of No Quarter

“Say no more,” Doctor Whitmore said. “I’ll petition the Board to have the files made available as quickly as possible.”

“Thank you,” Valerie replied.

Charlie moved back to the door, stuck his head out into the hallway, and then turned back to face everyone.

“Doc,” he said to Whitmore. “I noticed that there is a security camera up there in the corner of the hall. What gives?”

“Ah, yes,” the doctor explained. “We do have a security camera system, but it’s so old that we are having it upgraded. There were some problems, and so half the system is down atthe moment. I explained this to the local police officers who were here. They seemed concerned about that.”

“I bet they were,” Valerie said. “Thank you for all of your help, Doctor Whitmore. Could you arrange for us to get access to the employee and patient records within the hour?”

“I’ll absolutely do what I can,” he said. “If you can wait here for a moment, I’ll need to make a few phone calls to the Board to see what they say.”

“Of course, Doctor Whitmore,” Valerie said. “We appreciate all of your cooperation.”

“I just hope it’s not someone we should have been more careful with,” the Doctor commented, sighing.

He then left the room.

Valerie turned to Will and Charlie. “It’s an inside job. They must have known the cameras wouldn’t be on.”

“There’s not really much to go on,” Will said. “I couldn’t even begin to build a profile from what little we have so far.”

“I know,” Valerie said. “As far as I can see from these photographs, there is no death ritual with the killer. He hasn’t treated the body in any specific way that would give us any kind of inclination about his motives.”

“Sometimes the simplest of killers are the hardest to catch,” Charlie mused out loud. “When they keep it simple, it means they’re keeping their heads. They’re not escalating carelessly. And they’re not over complicating things. That means fewer chances for them to slip up and get caught.”

Valerie thought for a moment. “Let’s not get too downbeat. The simplicity angle is a good one, Charlie. It might suggest a simplicity in the killer’s mind. We might be able to use that down the road to predict his movements.”

“I suspect we’re going to have to carry out a lot of groundwork on this one,” Will offered. “When we get access to Elmwood’s files—if we get access to them—there could be a listof hundreds, even thousands, of patients who have been in and out of here in recent years.”

“Agreed,” Valerie said. “We’ll need to narrow down that list. Charlie, you and Will make a few inquiries here at Elmwood. Find out who Gillian associated with the most among the other patients. I want to know who her friends were. Let’s see if we can find something useful from them.”

“Why do I get the feeling that you’re going to be somewhere else?” Charlie said with a raised eyebrow.

“We need to split up to cover a bit more ground. I’ll be back later. I’m going to go and investigate the death of the first victim, Agatha Mitchell. I’ll speak with the family and see if there was anyone from Elmwood that Agatha was frightened of.”

“Fair enough,” Charlie said.

Valerie could feel that he disagreed with her. He probably thought they should focus on the retreat’s patients for a quick conclusion to the case. But there was no time for hanging around. If they split up, they’d have a better chance of identifying a suspect as quickly as possible. And Valerie felt that Doctor Whitmore would have a fight on his hands to get all the records they needed. They could be waiting days for that information.

It was Valerie’s style to move faster than that. She had a fervent desire that she would have the killer in handcuffs before sundown, before he could kill again, connected to Elmwood or not.

CHAPTER SIX

Charlie stared with incredulity at Doctor Whitmore.

The doctor sat behind his desk in his office, surrounded by files and various psychiatric awards and certificates.

“I’m sorry,” the doctor said. “But the Board aren’t giving me permission to release those files.”

Charlie shook his head from the other side of the desk. “Do they realize other lives are on the line?”

“I tried my best,” the doctor replied. “But they wouldn’t budge. I don’t know why. But I suspect they’re worried the killer will end up being someone who works here, and the media frenzy will mean shutting the retreat down.”

“And what do you think?” Will asked, sitting beside Charlie.

“I told them that I thought it was more likely a current or ex patient,” the doctor replied.

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