“What is this place?” she asked.
Fenella looked around. “It looks like a basement,” she said. “I didn’t think houses over here had basements.”
“They usually don’t, but I suppose some might,” Shelly told her.
The room was smaller than Fenella had imagined when she’d been feeling her way around it. It was completely empty, aside from a few boxes in one corner. There were no windows and only the one door that Fenella had already tried.
“I feel better now that I can see,” Fenella said. “But I still can’t remember what happened.”
“We were going to talk to someone about Harvey,” Shelly said. “Who might we have wanted to talk to?”
“Daniel?” was the first name that came to Fenella’s mind.
“But we had lunch with him,” Shelly reminded her.
“My arm hurts,” Fenella complained.
“I think we both need medical attention,” Shelly replied.
“Medical,” Fenella echoed. “Dr. Yates. We were going to talk to Dr. Yates.”
“That’s right. But why would Dr. Yates lock us in a basement?” Shelly asked. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“My head hurts too much to try to make sense of anything,” Fenella admitted. “I really just want to lie down and sleep.”
“I’m afraid to sleep,” Shelly told her. “I’m really scared.”
Fenella gave her another hug. “I’m scared, too. We have to work out how to get out of here.”
“There’s only one door.”
“Let’s see what’s in these boxes,” Fenella suggested. “Maybe we can find something that might help.”
“Unless there’s a key, I can’t see what we might find,” Shelly replied.
Fenella opened the box on the top of the pile. It was full of file folders. She opened the top folder and sighed. “Medical records,” she said. “Which suggests that it really was Dr. Yates who locked us in here. I wish I knew why.”
Before she could look at the other boxes, the door to the room suddenly swung open. Shelly rushed to Fenella’s side as Dr. Yates walked in.
“Don’t look so frightened,” he said in a soothing voice. “I really don’t want to hurt you.”
“So you’ll be letting us go?” Fenella asked.
“In a short while,” the man told her. “I just have a few things that I need to work out before I do that.”
“What sort of things?” Fenella wondered.
The man shook his head. “You mustn’t concern yourself with that,” he said. “I just came down to check on you both, that’s all. Soon we’ll be moving to more comfortable accommodation and we’ll be able to talk more. I can tell you all about what I’m doing and why. You should understand, even if you won’t remember.”
“You gave us something to make us forget,” Shelly said.
The man frowned. “You shouldn’t really remember that,” he said. “But it doesn’t matter. I’ll sort you out properly before you leave.”
“Oscar, there’s a car here,” Bernice’s voice called from somewhere. “You’d better come and see.”
“Let me just check that you’re okay,” the man said, walking toward them.
Fenella and Shelly both took backward steps as the man advanced. They quickly ran into the wall behind them.
“You mustn’t be afraid,” he said as he put his hand on Shelly’s arm. “I really don’t want to hurt you.”
Fenella pulled Shelly sideways and then ran toward the door. She’d only gone a few steps when her legs gave out from under her and she fell to the ground.
“You mustn’t push yourself too hard,” the man said. “You’ve rather a lot of drugs in your system.” He walked toward her, and she could see a syringe in his hand.
“Oscar, there’s someone at the door. Oscar, you need to come now,” Bernice shouted. Fenella could hear panic in her voice.
The doctor sighed and then shook his head. “I suppose it won’t hurt to leave you for a short while,” he said. “I’ll be back soon.”
He disappeared through the door, leaving Fenella and Shelly to stare after him.
“Did he give you another injection?” Fenella asked once she’d managed to pick herself up off the floor.
“I don’t think so,” Shelly said. “I twisted my arm when you pushed me away, and I think he missed with his needle.”
“We have to get out of here. I don’t know what he’s planning, but it won’t be good.” She tried the door, but it was locked again.
“We need to be ready for him next time,” Shelly said. “We should be able to overpower him. We’re tough women.”
Fenella laughed. “He won’t be expecting it, either. I’m sure the others didn’t put up much of a fight.”
“They were older and on their own,” Shelly said. “I’m afraid they didn’t have a chance.”
Fenella went back over to the boxes and went through them, looking for a potential weapon. “There’s nothing here but paperwork,” she complained. “This will have to do.” She picked up the thickest file she could find and swung it experimentally against the wall. It made a satisfying-sounding thud when it hit.
“We just have to slow him down a little bit,” Shelly reminded her. “Even if only one of us gets out, help won’t be far away.”
“You stand by the light switch,” Fenella said. “I’ll stand by the door. The next time it opens, you turn off the light and I’ll hit the friendly doctor over the head as hard as I can.”
Shelly nodded. The pair hugged again and then took up their positions. Time seemed to slow and then stand still as the pair waited.
“What if he never comes back?” Shelly asked a bit desperately.
“He’ll be back,” Fenella said with confidence she didn’t feel.
Shelly opened her mouth to ask another question, but stopped when she heard a noise. Fenella swallowed hard. The sound was a key turning in the door’s lock. The women nodded at one another, and as the door slowly swung open, Shelly switched off the light.
15
Fenella blinked several times, feeling blind in the sudden darkness. She raised the paper file over her head, ready to swing it at the man opening the door. The door moved open slowly.
“Fenella? Shelly?” a voice called.
As Fenella’s arms began their descent, her brain tried to work out why the voice was so familiar. She stopped herself just before she made contact.
“Daniel?” she said.
“Daniel?” Shelly echoed, flipping the light back on.
“Thank goodness you’re both okay,” Daniel said. He pulled Fenella into a hug as she burst into tears. “It’s okay,” he said soothingly.
“I almost hit you over the head,” Fenella said shakily, taking a small step away from him. “I thought you were Dr. Yates.”
Shelly came over and put her arm around Fenella. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so afraid in my life,” she said, tears running down her cheeks as well.
Daniel put an arm around each woman. “It’s all over now. You’re safe,” he murmured. “Why don’t we talk upstairs?”
He turned and led the women up a dark flight of stairs. They both stumbled more than once as they climbed.
“Are you okay?” Daniel asked when they reached the top.
“We were drugged,” Fenella told him. “I think we’re both still a little out of it.”
Daniel frowned. “We need to get you both checked out by a doctor,” he said. “And I really can’t question you until that’s done.”
“I’m fine,” Fenella said, frowning as her voice quavered slightly. “Really, I am, but there are gaps in my memory. I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to tell you.”
Daniel had the women sit down in the surgery’s small waiting room while he made a few phone calls. Eventually they were checked by a doctor who then talked to Daniel.
“If you can wait twenty-four hours to question them, you’ll get better answers,” the doctor told him. “They’ve
both been given a large dose of something which will be making it difficult for them to remember what happened.”
“Will it get better, given time?” Daniel asked.
“I can’t tell you that for sure,” the doctor said. “I’m not sure what they’ve been given. I’d like to take them to Noble’s and keep them overnight, just to keep an eye on them.”
Fenella wanted to object, but she was suddenly too sleepy to make her mouth work. She was only dimly aware that Daniel almost carried her to a car. The next time she woke up, she was outside Noble’s, being loaded into a wheelchair.
“I’ll go and give Katie and Smokey some dinner,” Daniel told her and Shelly. “I’ll see you both in the morning.”
When he appeared at her bedside just before noon the next day, Fenella was starting to feel a bit more like herself again. Her head still hurt, but the doctor had assured her that it would be better soon.
“Please tell me that you’ve come to get me out of here,” she said to Daniel when she saw him.
“I have,” Daniel replied with a grin. “After you’ve been given your orders.”
He sat quietly by the bed while a nurse gave Fenella a series of instructions about taking it easy and resting for the next few days. When the woman was done, Fenella stood up. “Let’s go,” she said to Daniel.
He offered her his arm and she took it, swaying slightly. “You are okay, aren’t you?” he whispered as the nurse looked on with concern.
“I’m fine,” she replied stoutly. “But what about Shelly?”
“She’s being kept another day,” Daniel replied. “I’m assured that she’ll be fine, but they’re worried about possible drug interactions with something else that she takes.”
“Can I see her?”
“I’m hugely jealous that you get to go home and I don’t,” Shelly said from her bed in the room next to the one Fenella had been occupying. “But Gordon has promised to bring me something lovely for dinner tonight, at least. I’m told I can go tomorrow as long as all of my tests come back okay.”
Fenella gave her a hug. “I’ll check on Smokey and see you tomorrow,” she told her friend before she and Daniel left the hospital and headed for home.
Katie seemed happy to see Fenella when she walked in. The kitten rushed over to her and began to meow loudly. Fenella picked her up and gave her a good cuddle, before she put her back down.
“She probably wants food,” Fenella said to Daniel.
“I gave her breakfast only a few hours ago,” he replied.
“But she always wants food,” Fenella laughed.
Mona appeared in the kitchen as Fenella was pouring food into Katie’s bowl. She frowned at Fenella, but didn’t speak.
“You know I have a lot of questions for you,” Daniel said from the kitchen doorway.
“I’ll do my best, but I still can’t remember much of yesterday,” Fenella replied. Daniel walked her through her day, helping to fill in some of the gaps when he’d been with her. There were still several holes in her story, though, and she couldn’t tell him exactly what had happened when she and Shelly had talked to Dr. Yates.
“I’m sure we asked him some questions,” she said with a sigh. “We must have said something that worried him, but I don’t know what.”
“What about Bernice?” Daniel asked.
“What about her?”
“Was she there?”
Fenella shook her head and then frowned. “Maybe,” she said after a minute. “I’m sorry, but I’m not sure.”
Daniel nodded. “Let’s leave it there for now. We have plenty of other things to discuss with Dr. Yates and his wife. They’ll be in custody for the foreseeable future. I’m hopeful that your memory might improve, given some time.”
After he left, Mona wanted to hear all about what had happened, but Fenella couldn’t tell her any more than she’d already told Daniel. “I was drugged,” she said to Mona. “I hate that I can’t remember.”
“At least you’re okay,” Mona replied. “I was very worried about you and Shelly.”
Life was slowly returning to normal when Daniel stopped by a week later. “Dr. Yates would like to talk to you and Shelly,” he told Fenella. “He’d like you to visit him so that he can apologize to you both.”
“I don’t know,” Fenella said. “I’m not sure I want to see him ever again.”
“It’s up to you,” he told her. “He’s already confessed to several crimes and will be spending the rest of his life in prison. This would just be an opportunity for you to hear his version of events.”
Fenella thought about it, and she and Shelly discussed it. The next day she rang Daniel and told him that they were willing to see the doctor. Daniel arranged for them to meet in an interview room at the Douglas Constabulary.
“I’m sorry,” Dr. Yates said as he was led into the room. “I’m so very sorry.”
Fenella glanced at Shelly, who shrugged. Neither woman spoke.
“I’m sure you’re both angry with me, and deservedly so,” the man said. “I never meant to hurt you, either of you. I never meant to hurt anyone.”
He sat down across the table from them and put his head in his hands. Daniel stood on one side of him. A man in a police uniform stood on the other side of the doctor.
“I hope you don’t mind if I tell you the whole story,” Dr. Yates said after a moment. “I really want you to understand. I don’t expect you to forgive me.”
“Go ahead,” Shelly said after a long pause.
“It was all for Bernice,” he said. “You know, everyone knows, that she’s suffering from dementia. She’s so young; it shouldn’t be happening to her, but it is. I’m a doctor. I did my research and tried to find something, anything, that would help her, but there was nothing. So I started trying to experiment with different medications. I thought that I just needed to find the right combination of drugs and I could save her.”
Fenella felt a pang of sympathy for the man as tears began to stream down his face. “Where do Harvey and the others fit into this, then?” she asked.
“I was worried about possible negative interactions between different medications. Bernice often has trouble with that, so I wanted to test a few different things on someone. Harvey was already taking some of the things that Bernice takes. I just added a few different tablets to his regime. He didn’t notice the difference, not at first.”
Sympathy vanished as Fenella shook her head. “Obviously, you didn’t tell him what you were doing,” she said coolly.
“I couldn’t,” the man replied. “He might not have cooperated.”
Fenella opened her mouth to reply, but Shelly put a hand on her arm. When Fenella looked at her, Shelly shook her head. After a deep breath, Fenella sighed. “Go on, then,” she muttered.
“He was fine, at first,” Dr. Yates continued. “But then one day he came in to see me and he was upset. He was having trouble remembering things and he was concerned that it was to do with some of his new medications. I tried to assure him that that wasn’t the case, but he got very upset. I was afraid someone might hear him shouting at me, so I, well, I sedated him and then took him back to my house in Laxey for a few days.”
“And left poor Winston to starve,” Shelly said.
“No, not at all. I took Harvey’s keys and let myself into his flat. While I was refilling Winston’s bowl, though, he managed to get out somehow. I went out to look for him, but I couldn’t find him,” the man replied.
“So you kept Harvey at your house?” Fenella asked.
“I did,” he confirmed. “He was a lovely house guest, really. He even cooked dinner for us one night. Once I was sure that he wasn’t going to remember anything that had happened, I drove him home and left him on the promenade across from his flat. Like I said earlier, I never meant to hurt anyone.”
“So what happened next?” Shelly demanded.
“I needed someone else to try out the drugs on, and Mortimer was nearly perfect. He had a stronger reaction to t
hem, though. I had to bring him to my house while Harvey was still there, which was slightly awkward, as we only have one guest room.”
“And then your drugs killed him,” Fenella said flatly.
“They did not,” the man said. “There was a mix-up, that’s all. He needed certain medications every day and something got mixed up and he didn’t get one of the tablets he needed. His death was a complete accident.”
“But instead of calling 999 to report it, you drove him to Andreas and left the body in a car park,” Shelly said.
“It sounds terrible when you put it that way,” the man complained.
Fenella patted Shelly’s arm, hoping to calm her down. There was no point in either of them getting upset with the man. They simply needed to hear him out. “What about Leonora?” she asked as Shelly frowned.
“She was my perfect test subject. I was so excited when she changed doctors a few months ago and started seeing me. I started giving her a few extra tablets almost immediately and then watching for negative interactions, but there weren’t any. I even started Bernice on the same cocktail of drugs that Leonora was getting.”
“And then what happened?” Shelly asked.
“Another tragic accident,” the man said with a sigh. “She used to come and visit with us in Laxey. We live just a few streets away from the sea, and Leonora used to come and stay for a day or two and take long walks with Bernice along the cliffs. One day, while she and Bernice were out walking, she lost her footing and fell to her death.”
“She lost her footing,” Fenella echoed.
“Yes. Bernice was devastated, of course,” the man said.
“And you don’t think that the drugs you were giving her could have played a part?” Shelly asked.
“Oh, no. I’m quite certain they didn’t.”
“What happened when we came to see you?” Shelly demanded.
“You don’t remember?” he asked. “I’m intrigued. I think I may have discovered something quite important in the field of memory loss and recovery, actually.”
“What happened?” Fenella pressed him.
“You asked a few questions and were getting ready to leave when Bernice arrived. She said a few things she shouldn’t have and I, well, I had to stop you leaving. I was only going to keep you until I was sure you wouldn’t remember what Bernice had said, but then the police showed up and ruined everything.” The man sat back in his chair, looking pleased with himself.
An Isle of Man Ghostly Cozy Collection - DEF Page 24
