Tracy felt agitated. It was clear that Tracy had to speak to Kaylna before she went home tonight. Serial killers often heated up and the time between their attacks grew closer and closer. For all Tracy knew, the next killing could come at any moment. And anyone could be the next victim.
“Please excuse me a minute,” said Tracy to Virginia, getting up from her seat. “I have to talk to some others before dinner is over. It was really great speaking with you.”
Hanna and Virginia smiled strangely as Tracy walked a few steps over and stopped behind Ashley’s chair.
“Something wrong?” asked Ashley.
“Can you move over a seat?” Tracy asked Aldon and Ashley, who had been chatting happily. “I need to talk to Kaylna now.”
A fleeting look of upset passed over Ashley’s face. “Why Kaylna? How about me? I want to talk to you. I asked first.”
“You’re talking to Aldon now,” Tracy said softly.
“Is there something wrong with that?” Ashley grimaced.
“No, of course not, Ashley,” Tracy replied. “But no one is talking to Kaylna and I have important questions to ask her.”
Ashley shrugged a moment and turned back to Aldon. “Ask Kaylna anything you want. She won’t answer anyway.”
Ashley and Aldon slipped over one seat and continued talking as Tracy sat down beside Kaylna.
“How are you this evening, Kaylna?” Tracy started.
Kaylna barely moved or showed any response all.
“I know this is terribly hard for you, Kaylna,” Tracy went on.
To Tracy’s great surprise Kaylna blinked her eyes and her long fingers started to play with the edge of her dinner plate.
“There is nothing at all difficult about anything for me,” Kaylna then murmured. “You are wrong about everything, Tracy Wrenn.”
Tracy shivered, wondering how Kaylna knew her last name. “How do you know my last name?” she asked.
Kaylna actually smiled. “Ashley told me. Ashley doesn’t let a thing go by. She’s smart, she’s sweet, and she investigates everything.”
“Does Ashley tell you everything she finds out?” Tracy was startled.
“No, not at all.” Kaylna took exception at the idea. “See, you’re wrong again, Tracy Wrenn. Wrong about everything,” she said in a sing-song voice now.
“How am I wrong, Kaylna?” Tracy felt unnerved. Kaylna spoke with such authority she created an urgency in the listener to hear more.
“Whatever you think is wrong,” Kaylna replied with certainty.
That was quite a grandiose statement, thought Tracy. Obviously, Kaylna had delusions of grandeur, assuming she knew everyone’s thoughts.
“And how exactly do you know what I’m thinking?” Tracy pressed onward, testing Kaylna’s grip on reality.
“I don’t know.” Kaylna suddenly looked at Tracy plaintively. “I don’t know how I know what people are thinking or what is going to happen tomorrow. But I do. It comes to me suddenly, like a bird falling out of the sky.”
Tracy was puzzled. “What kind of bird?”
“That doesn’t matter. At first the bird is flying,” whispered Kaylna, “then it stops in mid-flight and falls on my shoulder, telling me things.”
Tracy took a deep breath. Kaylna was obviously in the grip of disordered thinking.
“If I could explain it better, I wouldn’t be locked up in here,” Kaylna exclaimed.
“Is that the only reason you’re here?” Tracy asked quickly. “Why are you really locked up, Kaylna?”
“Now we’re getting to the point,” Kaylna said, suddenly relishing the conversation. “People are frightened of me because I know more than they do, because I see things that are hidden. So they call me crazy and hide me away. That’s true, isn’t it, Tracy Wrenn?”
Tracy felt rattled. It wasn’t so simple to say no to what Kaylna was suggesting. Along with her delusions of grandeur, Kaylna could have psychic ability. Or perhaps she was a master manipulator? Kaylna certainly knew how to play with one’s sense of reality. It was all an odd mixture. Could it make her capable of murder?
“You see, you can’t answer my question,” Kaylna chided her. “That’s because you’re wrong about everything, Tracy Wrenn.”
Tracy felt discombobulated. “How am I wrong?”
“You are wrong to think I’m involved with the deaths that took place at Ashton.” Kaylna was now on a roll. “The deaths took place because they were meant to. No one dies unless it’s their destiny. Each person died at the perfect moment, and I was not involved at all. In fact, I am not involved with anything.”
Tracy shuddered. As Kaylna spoke, it was entirely possible that she was implicating herself in the crimes. Whenever one protested too loudly, it was always a cause for alert. Tracy wanted to hear more.
“What exactly do you know that others don’t?” Tracy took a step back to what Kaylna had said previously.
“What I know would not interest you.” Kaylna smiled sweetly then.
“Everything interests me,” said Tracy.
Kaylna laughed. “Does a seagull who flies in the sky bother talking to a turtle, creeping along on the ground?”
Tracy was struck with the analogy. “Do you think I am like a turtle on the ground?”
“You’re creeping, Tracy Wrenn.” Kaylna laughed harder. “Creeping along in the mud.”
Tracy flinched and felt hurt. Then she stopped to remind herself that she was talking to an inmate. These were fantasies Kaylna was spouting. They had no actual bearing on the truth of Tracy’s life, did they? Yet Kaylna spoke with such forcefulness that Tracy had to pull herself out of her spell.
“And what about Maggie? Was she also slithering around in the mud?” Tracy asked.
“Maggie was a hateful girl,” Kaylna quipped. “Even though she smiled all day long, she hurt many of the girls here.”
“Who did she hurt?” Tracy asked.
“She hurt Maggie, Ashley, Virginia, Hanna, the works,” muttered Kaylna. “You can’t hurt everyone and just live your life as if nothing happened.”
Kaylna had an odd wisdom mixed with her madness, thought Tracy.
“And the trouble isn’t over yet,” insisted Kaylna. “There’s more coming.”
“More deaths?” asked Tracy.
Kaylna began smiling quietly. “There are seventeen angels that I can see floating down over the hospital tonight. I have no idea what they actually have in mind, but these are not necessarily angels of kindness!”
Tracy shivered as Ashley suddenly leaned over and interrupted.
“Do you see what I go through now?” Ashley asked. “Every night I have to hear these ramblings. Even if I put my hands over my ears, I hear it.”
“I am not rambling,” Kaylna replied immediately. “You, of course, don’t see what I see, Ashley, so how can I expect you to understand?”
Aldon leaned in closer, listening to the conversation as well.
“No one sees what I see, no one understands.” Kaylna’s voice rose. “If only one person saw what I saw—”
“What then?” asked Tracy.
“Then I would be free,” cried Kaylna. “I wouldn’t be all alone.”
Ashley swiftly stood up and grabbed Tracy’s arm. “Enough with Kaylna! Get up a second and talk to me!”
Tracy got up and stood beside Ashley.
“Every night, every night, this talk goes on and on. I can’t stand it anymore,” said Ashley.
“Can’t you get transferred to another room?” asked Tracy.
“No. I try over and over.” Ashley was adamant. “When I ask to be transferred everyone says no. It’s hospital regulations, you have to learn to deal with your roommate, whomever they may be,” said Ashley.
“I’ll talk to Dr. Wright,” Tracy repeated.
“He won’t do a thing.” Ashley was positive.
“Then Aldon and I will go to top administration,” Tracy insisted.
“Why not just you?” Ashley’s eyes opened wide.
“Why not Aldon as well?” asked Tracy.
“Who is he, anyway? Your boyfriend?” Ashley took a step away.
“We work as partners for the FBI,” replied Tracy. “We help one another.”
“Do it yourself, please,” Ashley insisted. “Aldon’s too cheerful, I don’t buy it. What’s he selling, anyway?”
“Aldon’s a good man.” Tracy had to defend him.
Ashley grimaced. “Just what I thought, he’s your boyfriend,” she muttered. “Can I trust you, Tracy? Can I?”
A bell rang out then, calling the patients to attention once again.
“Dinner is over,” a voice over the loudspeaker announced. “We will all get up now and return to our rooms. Do not go into the dayroom this evening. No loitering in the hallways either. You will all be accompanied by staff every step of the way. Special buttons have been placed in each room. Ring it immediately if anything seems amiss. Someone will come to help instantly. Do not hesitate. Have a good night.”
*
As the dining room promptly emptied out, Tracy and Aldon stood at the table looking at each other sadly. To Tracy’s surprise, the moment the last patient filed out, Hunter walked in briskly.
“I have interesting news,” Hunter said promptly as he came over to them. Tracy felt relieved that he’d returned. “For starters,” Hunter continued, “I spoke to Enid. She gave me the name of the visitor who came too often and stayed too late.”
Tracy had been thinking about that supposed visitor. “But they couldn’t have been here right after breakfast when the girls were killed,” Tracy exclaimed.
“Enid implied there was a way to get into the hospital from a door in the basement if you knew about it,” Hunter replied.
“What do you think of Enid?” Aldon asked him.
“She’s got a hard job on her hands,” Hunter replied, “it’s taking a toll. But FBI is now checking into that visitor. She said he was a man in his early fifties with red, puffy cheeks. Seems like he was coming here every day for a while. Enid said he was here to see Deidre.”
“But Deidre died a month ago,” Tracy replied. “Did this visitor return after that?”
“We’ll get all the information soon,” Hunter assured her.
“What if there was no visitor? What if Enid made this all up?” Tracy was thinking out loud.
“Why would she do that?” asked Hunter abruptly.
“That’s a good question,” said Tracy. “It would tell us a lot.”
“Right now this is all very good.” Aldon was encouraging. “Bring in the visitor. Let’s talk to him. Anything else?”
“I also spent time talking to Sam this evening,” Hunter continued. “Sam’s an interesting person, a good guy, definitely not the killer.”
“A good guy?” Aldon looked puzzled. “That’s a strange way to describe a mental patient.”
“The kid’s been locked up here awhile. He’s practically a ward of the state, with nowhere else to go. He considers Ashton Pillars his home.”
“There are foster homes,” Aldon cut in.
“Not for kids his age,” Hunter murmured. “And Sam scares people out there, he’s a Peeping Tom. We don’t want him getting locked up for it.”
“What did you learn from him?” asked Tracy, wanting to cut to the chase.
Hunter suddenly gave Tracy a full, warm glance. “Learned a lot. Sam said sometimes he thinks that Maggie could have killed herself, because her moods went up and down. Other times he has other ideas. When he gets other ideas, he writes them down. It’s hard for him to remember it all at the same time.”
“How is he dealing with Maggie’s death?” asked Aldon.
“He seems to be accepting it,” said Hunter. “Sam said he gave Maggie all he could. The last thing she said to him was that he made her happy. He keeps playing that over in his mind.”
“Sad, very sad,” Tracy muttered.
Aldon shook his head slowly. “None of these people are reliable witnesses. They’re all skewed in some way. Are we wasting our time speaking to them?”
“We’re not wasting our time,” Tracy said firmly. “The patients are skewed in some ways and fine in others. If we listen to them closely and piece the puzzle together, we’ll get to exactly what happened.”
“I agree precisely,” said Hunter. “Actually, I liked speaking to Sam. There’s not a mean bone in his body.”
“We’re ruling him out as a suspect then?” Aldon remarked.
“Absolutely,” said Hunter. “The person Sam suggested we learn more about is Kaylna. He said she’s tricky and knows things. “
“All the patients feel that way about her,” said Tracy. “I just spoke to her a bit. She’s basically a functional schizophrenic with disordered thinking. Kaylna spends her time dwelling on angels and destiny. It’s hard to pin her down about the facts.”
“I know, I looked up her background,” said Hunter. “I also got the name of the therapist she saw before she was admitted to Ashton. The therapist’s office is in Manhattan. I called and made an appointment for you to speak to the therapist first thing tomorrow morning.”
Tracy was taken aback. “Why? Does Kaylna have a history of violence?”
“Could be,” said Hunter. “There are some cloudy suggestions of it. For all we know Kaylna’s the one who’s been secretly stalking everyone, deciding when destiny will strike again.”