Ghosts of Rosewood Asylum (33 page)

“I know you’re not suicidal,” she said. “But
you’re a cutter?”

Zach knew of the practice. He actually
understood why people might put themselves in physical pain to release
emotional suffering. Still, he had never cut himself, nor would he ever. She
gazed at him with such concern, such nonjudgmental interest that he felt the
need to show her.

He unwrapped the gauze; they’d be healed by
now. He could feel her penetrating glare as he wound it around and around in
counterclockwise circles. When he’d finished, he held out his wrists for
display. There was some spotting of blood on and around his
Chi Rho
tattoos, but as she undoubtedly could see, there were no cuts.

“I-I don’t understand,” she said. Her
fingertips caressed the insides of his wrists in tiny S-shaped patterns.

“It’s okay,” Zach said. “No need to
apologize and I appreciate your concern.”

Still with his back pinned up against sharp
bricks, he wasn’t sure that he fully appreciated her concern, however...it
seemed the right thing to say at the time.

“Do you?” she asked. “Do you really?”

His heart cranked into double time, and with
the shortage of blood in his veins, he needed to be careful, very careful.

“I think that I do.” He needed to look up at
her because of her heeled-boot advantage. “Patrizia, we should—”

“Go in,” she said, completing his thought.
“I know we should. I know we need to. I just needed you to know that I care.
I’ve watched all your shows and I know that you’re for real. I care a lot.”

Her face inched closer to his. If not for
the brick-wall supporting his spine, Zach might have fallen over. As her lips
gravitated towards his, Zach thought of her tattoo and the lithe arm that bore
it. Their lips met. There was a creamy taste of lipstick and softness. At
first, her nose tickled his cheekbone, and then pressed into it as he moved
deeper into her mouth. His tongue lightly caressed hers in slow rhythmic
circles. She emitted a soft whine of desire. It was a sound he’d never expected
to hear from her, but it was unmistakable.

From seemingly another dimension, Sara’s
voice was laden with sarcasm. “Za-ach, we’re all waiting for youuu.”

Patrizia pulled away and stared at him. Zach
knew he should say something witty or clever or romantic, but he was too
stunned to process. Given the circumstance, anything that he would have uttered
may not have made sense.

“Well, anyway, I just thought you should
know,” she said. She turned and walked away leaving Zach alone.

He expected Sara to come prancing around the
corner of the building and, in a knowing voice, ask what had been going on. She
didn’t, and it allowed him to consider his next move.

Playing poker, Zach had learned that
sometimes it was necessary to talk your opponent into or out of calling your
bet. In this situation, with a lot of bravado and bluster, Zach could accuse
Matthew and Bryce of deception and fraud, but getting at least one of them to
admit guilt would be far better. Besides, if someone other than the two of them
were involved, he’d only know for sure if that party was fingered by one of the
other two culprits.

He turned the corner and caught a glimpse of
Patrizia approaching Rosewood’s entrance. Before she slipped from sight, she
glanced back. Even from that distance he could see that she was grinning at
him. Only then did he realize it was the first time he’d seen her smile.

Chapter Thirty-Six

“What’s the John Dory wif you chaps pullin’
down the cameras?” Pierre asked, before Zach had a chance to address the
Demon
Hunter
and
XPI
teams.

Bryce stood on the far side of the lobby
away from the group by several feet. Everyone was present or accounted for.
Angel could be seen occasionally on the video monitors hauling down equipment.
It looked like he’d finished removing the cameras from the third floor and was
taking them down on the second level. The rest of the team stood around the
lobby waiting for explanation to what was going on. The only member missing,
and the one member Zach really wished could have been there, was Ray.

“Yeah, boss,” Matthew said, “What gives?”
His voice seemed tentative, although it may have been Zach’s knowledge of
Matthew’s guilt being amplified.

“We’re packing up and heading out before
someone else gets hurt on this investigation. I take it you’ve all heard about
Sashza?”

Heads nodded throughout the room.

“You think her accident had something to do
with Rosewood?” Wendy asked.

Leave it to Wendy to ask the question most
likely to make it onto the actual show. Sara zigzagged around the room with a
handheld video cam; two regular cameramen also were filming the meeting. The
whole scene ultimately might not make it into the final cut of the Halloween
Special, but if it did, Sara would edit it to provide maximum drama.

“To be honest, Wendy, I don’t know if
they’re connected or not.” Shelly and Rico’s eyes bulged at the mere
possibility that they could be. Others maintained their somber mood. “But with
this place’s history of fires, and a fire here both last night and tonight, I’m
not willing to take that chance. Something at Rosewood likes fire.”

Sara momentarily dipped her camera. She was
possibly already visualizing the shot, with that line as a commercial.

“Dude, you’ve
got
to be shitting me.”
Bryce strode from the far end of the lobby towards him. “You’re going to run
away now? Whatever. That’s fine. But I think I speak for my entire team when I
say that we’re staying.”

The Demon Hunters appeared either uncertain
or unprepared to pound their fists together and bark. Zach had counted on
precisely this reaction from Bryce.

“In fact,” Bryce had moved closer, but
maintained a safe distance. “The
attack
on her has us even more
determined to solve the mystery of this place. We shall exorcise each and every
evil spirit here at Rosewood!”

At that, the Demon Hunters erupted in their
signature cheer.

“Bryce, I understand your frustration and
desire to avenge your fallen team member, but I need to tell you something and
I need to say it right to your face.”

Bryce obliged. He towered over Zach. Like a
ruffled-feathered peacock, Bryce puffed. His chest and shoulders swelled in a
posture that suggested he was not about to back down.

But he’d never expect this.

Out of the corner of his eye, Zach spied
Angel at the top of the lobby’s circular staircase. He must have noticed Bryce
in Zach’s face and treaded down the stairs, as a sign of support—perhaps to
lend physical support if needed.

“Man to man,” Zach said, looking up at
Bryce. “I need to apologize to you.”

Apparently expecting an insult or an
argument, Bryce reacted almost as though Zach had slapped his face. He opened
his mouth and closed it.

Zach put his hand on Bryce’s arm. His
cohost’s already tense muscles further constricted into stone-like bulges. “I
need to look you in the eye and say ‘I’m sorry’ because one or more members of
my team have sabotaged this mission and put us all in danger. Worst of all, he
may have rigged an explosive device in Sashza’s stove as retaliation for her
having tried to warn us.”

The group’s murmur was loud enough to echo
through the asylum’s lobby. Bryce’s glare softened for just a second. He
cleared his throat. “Who?”

Zach so wanted to say, “You know who, you
bastard.” Instead, in dramatic fashion, he extended his arm, finger pointed,
directly at Matthew. In silence, members of both teams turned and stared at the
accused.

Before Matthew could deny it, Zach advanced
on him. “Before we all arrived here at Rosewood, he cut a hole out of the back
fence so that he could get onsite to plant evidence. I’ve seen the net-like
contraption he devised to cover up the opening. At some point, he planted a
device in the administration building which caused the wild EMF readings. After
we went to bed last night, he removed it. Then, he paused the filming of two
different video cameras and allowed his accomplice to sprinkle peach juice in
room 217, which Patrizia’s research has uncovered, wasn’t
even the room
the
peach jar patient killed himself in.” The last part seemed to provide more
credence to the accusation.

“I didn’t...”

“You did!” Zach’s anger level rose but was
cut off by the smell of
Sailor Black
. He stopped four feet shy of where
Matthew stood and took a deep calming breath. He would need to stay centered
during this speech. “I gave you an opportunity and you betrayed me. Worse than
that, even if it wasn’t intentional, whatever you planted in the old stables
building may have caused the fire!”

Matthew shook his head.

“Yes,” Zach said. “I know for a fact. You
organized and led someone else to stab me in the back. Who?”

Matthew said nothing. For a moment, Zach
wondered if his plan had failed or worse, would backfire.

“How could you do this to me, Matthew?
How
?”

“I’m sorry,” he said.

When he admitted it, everyone froze. The
silence was so complete that even a tiny piece of plaster falling on Rosewood’s
third floor would have sounded like thunder.

“Who, Matthew? Who else did you recruit? Who
else did you
poison
?”

Matthew’s eyes lowered and his head drooped.

“I didn’t,” he said again. “I didn’t recruit
anyone.”

“What do you mean?” Zach asked.

Matthew looked up, but didn’t make eye
contact. He was looking past Zach. Please say it, Zach thought, please say it.

“It was Bryce. He called a week ago and
asked me to help him ensure a good show. That’s all we were trying to do. Make
sure this case got us results.”

That was it. He’d gotten Matthew to say it!

“Whoa, dude!” Bryce said. “You got caught
with your hand in the cookie jar. Don’t go trying to smear my good name.”

“Stop lying. It’s over!” Matthew turned to
Zach. “I broke the camera, yes. I planted the device and I paused the videos so
Bryce could sprinkle peach juice in the room, but I did
not
do anything
to the stables building or to Sashza. I had
nothing
to do with the fires.”

“I don’t believe a word you say.” Angel
rushed toward Matthew. “I trusted you—we trusted you. Screw Bryce Finman,
you’re
the damn traitor.”

He pressed his face close to Matthew’s.
Before Zach could step in, Matthew pushed Angel away. He attempted a punch
which Angel mostly dodged. It hit him in the meaty part of the shoulder. Turk
and Rico grabbed Matthew at the shoulders. Zach pressed both hands to Angel’s
chest and struggled to hold him back. Rebecca and Shelly stepped into the
middle of the fracas. Zach wished they hadn’t but they did.

“Calm, calm,” Zach said in Angel’s ear.
“I’ve got this.”

Angel eased up some, but it felt tentative.

“Bryce,” Zach shouted. “I know Matthew’s
telling the truth. I saw you two leave out of the hole in the fence together!”

Bryce looked like he had taken a punch on
the chin. “Dude, that’s bullshit. What are you talking about?”

An extremely unwelcome figure stood behind
Bryce.

“I don’t give a rat’s ass what any’a ya’s
are talkin’ about. Git yer shit asses outta here!”

Flanked by two state troopers, he wasn’t a
phantasm, although, at that point, Zach wished he would have been.

“Don’t even pack yer shit up neither,” Grant
Winkler shouted. “I don’t get paid no overtime, and I ain’t even on the clock.
You can come back tomorrow during the day. At
my
convenience.” He
cackled as if they’d been sentenced to a chain gang under his command.

The only one in the room who moved was the
state cop on Winkler’s left. Tall and uniformed, he strode over to Matthew. A
buzz cut of blond hair could faintly be seen under the trooper’s brimmed police
hat.

“Do you want to press charges?”

“Huh?” Matthew appeared stunned.

“I saw that,” he pointed to Angel, “
gentleman
get up in your face. He can be charged for that.”

“Hey!” Angel said. “He pun—”

“Quiet,
boy
. I wasn’t talkin’ to
you.”

He turned back to Matthew. “Do you want to
press charges, sir?”

Demon Hunters and
XPI
alike stood
motionless.

“Excuse me,
officer
,” Sara called
out. “Would you mind saying your name on camera for our
television
show?”

His attitude likely wouldn’t have changed
more if she’d proclaimed that she was the Queen of England.

“Yes, ma’am. Officer White, ma’am.”

“How
appropriate
,” she said. “Oh,
Matthew, I’d answer the officer correctly, or else I’m
sure
the network
will most certainly be pressing criminal charges in this matter.”