Page 58 of Sleep No More
“Yes.”
After a quick check on the sleeping man he turned toward the camera.
Pallas took a sharp breath. “Look at the stains on his scrubs.”
“Blood,” Ambrose said. “That explains why Fenner lied about the camera.”
The screen abruptly went dark.
“Geddings took the memory card out of the camera,” Pallas said.
Ambrose sat back, comprehension heating his eyes. “He stole the card. Probably told Fenner that the camera had failed.Thatexplains why Fenner thought there was no video. He was not lying about the camera.”
“You didn’t misread his aura.”
Ambrose got to his feet and went to stand at the window. “The problem is that there is nothing incriminating on the video. Yes, the sleepwalking incident is there, but that just proves that Fenner told me the truth. He was very clear that I had walked in my sleep that night. What made Geddings think I’d pay good money for footage of me sleeping and sleepwalking?”
“It looks like that photo of the page of data about Brooke Kendrick is the only damning evidence on the memory card. Why did Geddings include it?”
“Remember, this is the copy of the card he kept for himself.” Ambrose looked down at the little succulents on the windowsill. “I doubt if that page of notes was on the copy he planned to sell to me. Got a feeling he intended to use the photo to blackmail Fenner. It’s proof that there was another patient that night and that something went wrong in room B.”
“That indicates that Fenner killed Geddings,” Pallas said. “Fenner is a doctor. He probably used a lethal drug. That would explain thehypodermic needle you found at the asylum. But we’ve still got the problem of the body. Geddings was a big man. It’s hard to envision Fenner hauling him out of the asylum, stuffing him into a car, and burying him somewhere in an unmarked grave.”
Ambrose turned to face her. “Maybe he had help.”
Pallas went cold. “We can’t rule out that possibility, but it complicates things.”
“We need to know more about Brooke Kendrick.”
“Assuming the woman named in that picture is the one who checked into the Institute that night, she’s probably dead,” Pallas said.
“Dead or alive, she’s got some of the answers we need.”
“I feel like one of us needs to tap the brakes here. In case you haven’t noticed, we are a little short on motive. So far none of this makes any sense.”
“It does if you remember that drugs are at the core of this thing,” Ambrose said. “You saw those meds in Geddings’s go bag.”
“In that case, our work here is done.” Pallas spread her hands apart. “Detective Logan is pursuing the drug angle. You saw him today. He’s thrilled with the case. Not only is he enthusiastic, he’s got a lot more resources to throw at the investigation than we do.”
“So we let Logan work the drug angle and see what he turns up,” Ambrose said. “Meanwhile, we find out what happened to the missing patient.”
“Got a plan?”
“Calvin is my plan.” Ambrose picked up his phone. “If anyone can dig up some useful background on Brooke Kendrick, it will be Calvin.”
Pallas picked up her own phone. “I need to call Talia—and Amelia, too, if she’s back from Lucent Springs. Talia will be monitoringnews out of Carnelian. Sooner or later she’ll hear about the explosion. If she does, she’ll panic.”
“Fortunately, my family doesn’t know I’m in Carnelian,” Ambrose said. “Neither does my assistant. Everyone thinks I’m hiding out in a hotel somewhere on the coast.”
Pallas swept the room with a meaningful glance. “Which just happens to be the truth.”
Ambrose smiled, but the smile did not mask the battle he was fighting against exhaustion. He was getting regular meals now, Pallas thought, probably because they were eating together, but the food wasn’t making up for his badly disrupted sleep.
“Thanks,” he said.
“For what?” she asked, surprised.
“For being here. For being you.” He massaged the back of his neck with one hand. “It’s a hell of a relief to be able to act as if everything that’s happened to me in the past few months is—well, not normal, but real. Weird and disturbing, but real. I’m not quite so worried about my mental health now.”