Cloaked in Blood (24 page)

“Can I help you?”

“I realize I’m here several hours before
visitors are permitted to see patients, but –”

“You want to know if you can see one of
them,” she surmised with a not-so-friendly smile.  “Who are
you here to see?”

“Jerry Lowe.”

She frowned.  “I don’t think that’s
possible, even if the charge nurse agreed to bend the rules for
you, ma’am.”

“Eriksson,” I said.  “Dr. Helen
Eriksson.  I’m a psychologist.”

Recognition flickered in her sleep-crusted
eyes.  “And the woman who arrested Mr. Lowe.  Now I’m
sure you won’t be able to talk to him.  Mr. Lowe’s lawyer
doesn’t want anybody from law enforcement talking to Jerry unless
he’s here, Dr. Eriksson.”

“Well, I’m retired from law enforcement, so
if you’ll call the charge nurse on his unit and ask her permission,
and if she’ll ask Jerry if he’d allow me to visit, I’m quite sure
he’d agree to see me.  Eagerly even.”

Wary, she complied with my request. 
She picked up the phone.  “Hey Fiona, it’s Callie.  I’ve
got someone down here in the security office who wants to see one
of the patients even though visiting hours don’t start until
eleven.” 

She paused and looked up at me.  “She’s
here to see Jerry Lowe.  Says he’d want to talk to her if he
knew she were here.  It’s that woman that arrested him. 
Yeah, I’ll hold.” 

The guard tucked the phone between her
breasts and said, “Fiona’s gonna ask Lowe if he’ll talk to you, and
then she’s gonna call Kayla Young to see if she’ll agree to let you
visit before eleven.”

“I wish she’d skip that step,” I said. 
“Mrs. Young already told my husband that they’ve restricted access
to Jerry.  If he’s willing to see me, and Fiona is agreeable
to an unscheduled visitation, I’d like to see it happen before
anybody can stop it.”

Her suspicion spiked.

“I’m not a cop anymore.”

She depressed the receiver and called the
unit again.

“Hey, Fiona, it’s Callie again.  Did
you call Kayla yet?  Well, Dr. Eriksson swears this isn’t
anything related to the litigation pending against Mr.
Lowe.” 

Silence.

“He did, huh?  Well, all right
then.  If you don’t have a problem with it, I’ll escort her up
to the unit.  That cop still up there?”

I cursed under my breath.  He’d call
Johnny before I had a chance to say hello, and probably drag me off
under orders from his commander before I could talk to Jerry.

“Would it be possible to speak with Fiona
before I go upstairs?”

“Hang on Fiona.  Dr. Eriksson wants to
talk to you.”

She handed me the phone.

“Fiona?  This is Dr. Helen
Eriksson.  First of all, thank you for letting me speak to
Jerry this morning.  I realize you’re bending the rules for
me, and I want you to know that I’m appreciative.  I’m also
aware that my husband put an officer from OSI on the unit to
protect Mr. Lowe.”

“Yes, he did.  He’s here, but not
guarding Jerry at the moment.  Jerry’s still secluded in his
room, at least until breakfast arrives.  Only the staff have
keys to the patient’s rooms.”

“My husband doesn’t know I’m here,” I
admitted.  “And I’m concerned that if his officer learns that
I’m here, he’ll call Johnny right away, and I won’t be able to
speak to Jerry.  You see, several months ago, he learned that
Jerry threatened my life, and he’s been very adamant that I not
speak to him for any reason since then.”

“I don’t know, doctor.  If so many
people are set against you talking to him –”

“This isn’t about the charges against him,”
I said quickly.  “Please.  I’ve got to talk to him. 
It’s personal.”

“All right.  We’ll let you speak to him
in his room before the officer comes to escort Jerry to
breakfast.  Ask Callie to bring you up the back stairs.”

The idea of being in a little used stairwell
with another one of Dunhaven’s security guards made my skin
crawl.  Last time, it hadn’t gone so well for me.  I
wondered briefly if Dunhaven’s old treatment room still
existed.  Had they bricked the hideous monument to
psychiatry’s dark ages off?  Was it still waiting silently for
another victim, to finish me off this time, perhaps?

Callie led me up a stairway toward the back
side of the hospital without incident, and I was quickly whisked
down a dimly lighted hallway to a locked room.

“You don’t think he’ll try to harm you if we
leave you in here alone, do you?” presumably, it was Fiona who
asked the question while she jammed a key into a deadbolt and
twisted it counter clockwise.

“Even if he tried, I’m a black belt. 
He’s not going to hurt me.  I don’t have to tell you how eager
he was when you told him I was here, Fiona.”

“No,” she said, “which is part of what
concerns me so much.  I’ll wait outside the door, and it won’t
be locked if you need to make a hasty retreat.”

She flicked two fingers at a burly tech a
few feet away.  “Kevin, stay here with me while she talks to
Mr. Lowe.”

I stepped inside the room.  Jerry was
standing, fully dressed in his gray hospital-issue jumpsuit.

“Helen!  My God, look at you!  I
read in the paper that you and Orion married, but I had no idea
that you’re pregnant.  Congratulations!”

A tiny shiver cascaded down my spine.

Jerry gestured to the single chair in the
room.  “Please.  Sit.  I’ll stay over here.” 
He perched on the edge of a crisply made bed and peered at me
expectantly.

“You knew I’d come,” I said.  The
little jigsaw pieces began to fall into place in my mind. 
“How long have you known who I really am, Jerry?”

“Honestly?  It didn’t occur to me until
our second meeting.  There was something familiar about
you.  I played out my hunch.”

“Who ran the DNA test for you?”

“Dr. Storm of course.  Naturally, I
never told him who the blood sample came from.”

“Did you plan to frame me for Rodney
Martin’s murder?”

Lowe sighed, disappointment etched in his
face.  “Helen, Helen, Helen.”

“Fine, I promise not to ask questions about
the case against you.  But you must realize how curious I am
about why you wanted me here so badly.”

He laughed.  “You were the last thing I
wanted in Darkwater Bay, but I will admit that I was intrigued once
you arrived.  Yes, Rodney did inform me that he put your name
forward as a candidate to help solve certain problems plaguing
George Hardy and Don Weber, but it wasn’t something I thought would
ever happen.”

“Did you know they were being
blackmailed?”

Lowe grinned.  “Of course I knew. 
I used to know everything that happened in my city.  Neither
one of their secrets were particularly unknown after all,
Helen.  So Don had a boyfriend for thirty years.  Big
deal.  And George had a mistress.  They weren’t breaking
the law.  Maybe their marriage vows, but those were hardly
cardinal sins.”  He sighed wistfully.  “I could’ve put an
end to their problems if they had just confided in me.  They
didn’t have to bring you here.”

“You didn’t send Varden and Kelly after me
in Washington?”

Lowe’s eyes widened.  “I had no idea
they went after you.  You survived the encounter,
obviously.  I’d love to know how.”

“Jerry, I think you knew they were following
me.  Your city and all that.  Plus, Fred Varden’s
fingerprints were found on one of the threatening letters sent to
Gwen Foster.  How did that happen if you had nothing to do
with them?”

Lowe chuckled.  “I knew Orion was
playing bodyguard to Gwen.  She lived so close to me, you
see.  I thought it would be funny, you know, throw a red
herring out to Orion and see if he’d run with it.  It was a
simple matter to get one of them to put prints on a letter that
landed in their outgoing mailbox.  As for hiring them myself?
 Never happened.  But I was approached by people all the
time asking for names of private contractors, who could do specific
jobs.”

“And someone asked you about Varden and
Kelly?”

“Never in the context of hiring them,” he
said.  “Their methods were whispered in all the right circles,
if you know what I mean.  But someone did inquire about them
shortly before you came to Darkwater Bay.”

“Who was it?”

“Rodney Martin.”

“May I ask what he wanted to know?”

“I believe he said that someone he knew out
of state asked if they were licensed elsewhere.  There was a
job, and he needed to know if they’d get into trouble digging for
information in another state without a license.”

“I see.  I suppose you told him what
you knew.”

“I said that considering the very blurred
line those two employed in all of their work that I doubted they’d
care one way or the other.  Now tell me, Helen.  How did
you find out that Detective Conall is your long lost brother? 
Was it the abduction in March?”

Lowe really did know too much. 

“Yes,” I admitted.  “I find it
disconcerting that you knew all along and kept that information to
yourself.  How much do you know about the infant abduction,
Jerry?  You couldn’t have been more than a child at the time
it happened.”

“I don’t remember it at all,” he said. 
“But I enjoyed reading every single case that Central Division ever
investigated.  Of course, when Crevan Conall got his detective
promotion, it triggered a memory.  I pulled the old file about
his abducted baby sister.  The two of you bear a remarkable
resemblance, Helen.  I doubt I was the only one who
noticed.”

“Probably not.”

Lowe leaned forward and said quietly. 
“Crevan knew.  He knew right away.  Did you know that my
detectives told me how strangely he behaved toward you that first
night?  They said he acted like he’d go up in flames if he got
too close to you.”

“Did Rogers and Daltry know why?”

Laughter bounced through the small
room.  “They were not particularly bright men, Helen. 
Why do you think I found them so useful?  Never keep people
who can out-think you in the inner circle.  It’s a very poor
strategy.”

“Jerry, why are you meeting with the pastor
from Foundations Baptist Church.  I thought all the important
people in Darkwater Bay were Catholics.”

He smiled.  “Does it bother you that
Lyle is visiting me?”

“I’ve never met the man.  Why should I
care?”

“Yet you cared enough to ask the
question.  Tell me why, and I’ll answer your question.”

Playing cat and mouse with Jerry Lowe was a
dangerous proposition.  “Frankly, I’d have been surprised by
interest in any religion.  You don’t strike me as a man
particularly concerned with divine retribution.”

“Excellent,” he grinned.  “I knew you’d
figure it out eventually.”

“Figure what out, Jerry?  Please tell
me.  If I’m missing something, I’ll willingly concede that
you’ve bested me.”

“What a sweet admission.”  Lowe pressed
his fingertips together and rocked back and forth on his bed. 
“But my dear, dear Helen.  You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t
already on the right track.  The game loses all meaning if you
cheat.  And you’re so close now, so close to uncovering all of
it.”

“Lyle Henderson was involved in my
abduction.”

“But which one?”  His gray eyes
twinkled with excitement.

“Both of them.”

Lowe smiled.  “I knew you were the
one.  I
knew
it.  They’ve got to be running scared
now.  You realize they’ll stop at nothing to keep this
buried.”

“You told me once that some secrets aren’t
meant to remain buried, Jerry.  Help me.  Help me expose
this one.”

“I have suspicion, but no evidence.”

“I’d take your instincts at this point,” I
said.  His mind truly fascinated me.  Despite his crimes,
I wanted the opportunity to understand what made Jerry Lowe
tick. 

“Dr. Eriksson, I cannot go to prison,” Lowe
said.  “I’d never survive it.  You know what I’m
saying.  You understand that the human animal has no greater
instinct than survival.  Well, perhaps one.”  His eyes
drifted down to my burgeoning stomach.  “To protect our
offspring, no matter what the cost.  Well, I have no progeny,
at least, none that I could easily find.  I would love to have
seen her just once.”

“Focus, Jerry.”

“Help me stay out of prison.  What is
sanity after all?”

“You knew what you were doing was
wrong.  The legal definition is very different from the
clinical, Jerry.”

“They say that insanity is doing the same
thing over and over and expecting a different result.”

“But you weren’t looking for a different
result.  You wanted those defenseless girls to fight you, just
like your Gwen Bennett did.  The first one, that first kill,
you wanted to relive it.”

“Not the kill,” he confessed.  “I
wanted, just one time for her to admit it.  I wanted to hear
her say that she loved me, despite what her brothers told her to
do.”

Yes, on some level, Jerry Lowe really was
insane.  Question was, could I let him live the rest of his
life in Dunhaven where I could have access to his mind, or was
society’s justice more important?

“I already told you that I won’t oppose the
motion to have you declared mentally incompetent,” I said. 
“Even though we both know it’s a lie.”

He smiled brightly.  “Then I shall be
delighted to have more of these cozy little chats with you in the
future.”

“The future is now.  Tell me your
suspicions.  Let
me
find the evidence.”

He shook his head.  “I’d hate to stunt
this opportunity for your growth, Helen.  And that’s what it
is.  You’ll find the proof, and then we’ll talk about what
made my theory grow in the first place.  But don’t
worry.  Lyle Henderson isn’t going to have the opportunity to
kill me now.  I do believe that my Catholic faith has truly
been awakened again.”

Cagey bastard.  He’d been letting
Henderson visit, just waiting for me to draw the proper conclusion
and show up to ask more questions.