Page 43 of Absent Feeling

“Amber,where are you? What’s this Detective Heart tells me about you needing to go tothe Guisborough Wellness Institute again? And why is one of the inkblotsmissing?”

“Ihave it,” Amber said. “I need to check something. The inkblot isn’t a Rorschachdesign, and it isn’t random: it’s a map of the Wellness Institute’s grounds.”

“Wealready know that Chris Avery has a link to there.”

“Ialso think that the spot where each card was left links to a specific place onthat map, but to find out where, I need to go to the Wellness Institute. There’smore to this, Simon. You must be able to see by now that Chris Avery isn’tcapable of the calm, controlled side of these murders.”

“Ifyou don’t think it’s him, then you need to give me a better option, Amber.”

“I’mworking on it. I’ll call you as soon as I know anything.”

Amberhung up, determined to find out the truth of all of this. The answers were inthe Guisborough Wellness Institute somewhere. She just had to work out where asit appeared in front of her, slowly growing closer while the light continued tofade.

Amberpulled up in front of the main building, grabbing the inkblot and running towardsit. She hurried into the reception area. Ms. Dern the administrator was there,talking to the receptionist. She looked around at Amber as she entered.

“Youwant something else?” she asked. “When you’ve already arrested one of our staff—”

“So,help me to find therealkiller,” Amber said.

Shesaw her frown. “And how, exactly, am I meant to do that?”

“First,I need a floor plan of this facility,” Amber said. She tried to sound asauthoritative as she could, tried to make it sound as if she were already anagent, and it was obvious that they should help her.

“Afloor plan, why?”

“Justget one, please,” Amber said. “It’s easier to show you than to explain it.”

Shesaw Ms. Dern frown, but she gestured for Amber to follow her. “Come with me,please.”

LucyDern started to lead the way through the facility, to what appeared to be astoreroom, but it was lined with shelf after shelf of box files. Such light asthere was came from a single bulb hanging high above a central table, while ahigh window at one end contributed little or nothing. An aging computerterminal sat in one corner.

“Ifwe have one, it will be in here,” the administrator said. “This is our recordsroom, for the paper copies of the files on our patients. I’ve been trying toget it into some kind of order since I got here.”

“So,you still have the files from back before your computer crash wiped theelectronic versions out?” Amber said.

Ms.Dern nodded. “Everything is in here somewhere. It’s just a question of findingit. We have a card index, but it’s so rare that we need anything from in herethat it’s hard to say if it’s up to date.”

Amberhoped that it would be because she had a feeling that she knew why theirprevious searches hadn’t turned up the patient they were looking for: his stayat the Wellness Institute had begun before the loss of the files.

Fornow, though, Amber needed to focus on the pieces of information she alreadyhad.

“Wherecan we find that floor plan?” Amber asked.

“Overhere, I think,” Ms. Dern said. She went to a box, taking out a dusty, old mapof the building and its grounds, complete with a floor plan of the interior. Shespread it out carefully on the table at the center of the room, weighing itdown with boxes to hold it flat.

Ambercalled up one of the crime scene photographs, trying to orient herself.

“Whyare you showing me that?” Ms. Dern asked, sounding a little disturbed by thesight of the bloodstained floor of Ysabel Jones’s house.

“Don’tyou see it?” Amber countered. “It’s the same shape.Exactlythe sameshape. And the card was left … somewhere here, in this corner.”

Sheneeded to be more exact. She had no doubt that the killer had been. The inkblotcards had been in the same place every time, down to the last inch. Amber waswilling to bet that he’d measured out the spot.

Whichmeant that she could too. She enlarged the pictures as much as she could,trying to triangulate by drawing lines from the corners of the grounds. Theplace where they crossed …

Well,it depended what floor it was on, but the upper floors seemed to contain anoffice and a storage space, so Amber was willing to bet that this didn’t haveanything to do with them. No, this was about the patient room that was there atone side of the place.

“Room15,” Amber read from the map. “I need to know about the patients in room 15.”

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