The Night Monster_ A Novel of Suspense - James Swain [85]
“You said Nurse Bolger was pushing a gurney.”
“That’s right. There was an orderly with her. A buddy of mine named Grady. Grady and Bolger were pushing a patient out of the ward.”
“Who?”
Hinst gave it some thought. “Oh, shit. It was Lonnie. Lonnie got sick, and passed out. Grady was sent up to help Bolger move him out.”
“You’re sure this happened on Daybreak’s last day?”
“Yeah. People were flying around everywhere.”
And in all the confusion, Mouse and Lonnie grabbed Bolger and escaped.
“I need to find Mouse and Lonnie,” I said. “Do you remember their last names?”
Hinst scratched his chin. “Let me think. Lonnie’s began with an R. I think it was Polish. I never heard Mouse’s last name.”
“You’ve got to try. It’s important.”
Hinst shut his eyes and attempted to dredge up their names from his memory. After a moment his eyes opened, and he shook his head.
“I’m sorry, mister,” Hinst said.
My spirits sagged. Another dead end.
We started to leave. Walking out, Buster’s nose twitched. He’d picked up a scent. I let him lead me across the room to a closet. He scratched at the door, and I tested the knob. It was locked.
“What’s in the closet?” I asked.
“It was used for storage. Why?”
“My dog thinks there’s something in there.”
“We shouldn’t be messing around in here.”
“I’m going to see what’s inside.”
“Well, I guess I can’t stop you.”
I got a tire iron from the trunk of my car, and used it to pry open the door. Inside the closet were rusted bed frames and a steel drum spray-painted with the word Daybreak. Hinst helped me roll the drum out into the center of the room, and I popped the lid with the crowbar. The smell nearly knocked me off my feet.
“What the hell is that odor?” Hinst said.
I looked inside the drum. Lying on the bottom was a corpse dressed in a green orderly’s uniform. The corpse’s body was broken in several places, and had been folded together like a bunch of sticks. The name tag above his pocket said Grady.
CHAPTER 42
have seen the dead more times than is healthy. One thing I’ve learned from the experience: The dead don’t talk, but they do scream.
Hinst and I sat on a concrete bench in the cool shade of the courtyard. Hinst smoked cigarettes until his pack was gone. Looking at his profile, I could tell that finding Grady’s body inside the drum would haunt him for a long time.
I had a general idea of what had happened the day Daybreak shut down. Lonnie had played sick. Bolger and an orderly tried to move him. Lonnie killed the orderly, and held Bolger against her will. Mouse put on a stolen orderly’s uniform. Then they forced Bolger to come with them, took her car and escaped, never to be seen again.
“His name was Grady York,” Hinst said after awhile. “We used to go out for beers. He’d been over in ‘Nam, too. I talked to him the morning the place was shutting down. He agreed to meet me after work for a cold one. When he didn’t show, I figured he’d just blown me off. You know how it is.”
“Sure,” I said.
Hinst scratched Buster’s head. My dog had parked himself at Hinst’s feet, and was leaning against his leg, like he knew how much Hinst was suffering and wanted to comfort him.
“I need to find Lonnie and Mouse,” I said. “Is there anything else that you remember about them? Anything at all?”
Hinst gave it some thought. I listened to the wind whistle through the empty buildings. It didn’t sound like any wind I’d ever heard before.
“Come to mention it, yeah,” Hinst said. “Mouse used to bum smokes off the guards. We talked a few times. I think he knew that I knew he wasn’t crazy. He kind of got off on that, you know?”
“Like you were a co-conspirator,” I said.
“Yeah. Mouse told me something once that stuck in my head. He said that if he ever got out of Daybreak, he was going back home. I said something like, ‘Why go home? The police will just arrest you.’ And Mouse smiled and said, ‘The police don’t arrest people where I’m from.’ That always struck