“Do you have any idea what the falling-out was over?” Destiny asked. Seeing the priest hesitate, she continued. “I wouldn’t ask, but I think the doctor may be involved in all of this in some way. The more information I have, the easier it will be to solve the entire mess.”
“It had to do with their business. Tim and Martin are planning a community for older citizens. They are trying to make it unique and safe and yet affordable. A great deal of money is involved. The doctor wanted to be added to the staff for a high consultant salary. Martin overheard him treating an elderly patient and thought his manner impatient and insulting. I heard several complaints about his treatment of the elderly, and when Martin asked me my opinion, I told him what some of my parishioners had said.”
“So at his next session with the doctor, Martin probably told him politely they would pass on his services,” Destiny mused.
“I don’t want to give you the wrong impression,” Father Mulligan said. “The doctor may not be very good with the elderly, but he’s helped others tremendously. I know he visits poor little Blythe Madison on a regular basis. I’ve seen him leaving when I go to see her.”
“Is Blythe an attractive woman?” Nicolae asked.
“Strikingly so,” Father Mulligan answered readily.
“Just as Helena is,” Destiny pointed out. “Is Harry as crazy about his wife as everyone claims he is?”
“Absolutely,” Father Mulligan said. “He’s devastated. Not a single day goes by that he doesn’t visit her at the hospital. He’s begged her to come home to him, but he says she’s become even more withdrawn.”
“Perhaps we should pay him a quiet visit,” Nicolae suggested. He held up his hand when Father Mulligan might have protested. “Do not worry, he will not even know we were there.”
“Thank you for taking care of Sam, Father,” Destiny said. “I’m sorry I had to turn him over to you.”
“I don’t mind. Nicolae helped the social workers see things my way, so I think we have Sam’s future well taken care of, including a trust fund that Nicolae set up for him. The couple who want him are wonderful people, and we’re cutting through the red tape nicely.”
Nicolae. It always came back to him. His thoughtfulness. His attention to detail. For some reason, the thought made Destiny blush wildly and she had to duck her head to conceal her thoughts from the priest. There was no concealing them from Nicolae.
Details are important, he agreed in his black velvet voice, implying all sorts of things. Lightning is going to strike you if you keep that up in front of a holy man. Let us go where I am much safer, then. But first we must stop by The Tavern.
Destiny murmured a goodbye to the priest, brushed back Sam’s hair once more and started for the door.
“Go out the same way you came in,” Father Mulligan pleaded. “Just one more time, for me.”
Destiny glanced at Nicolae, who raised an eyebrow at her. His lips twitched with suppressed laughter. Together they melted into vapor, then rushed out beneath the small crack in the door while the priest laughed delightedly.
Harry had already closed The Tavern and had climbed the stairs to his apartment above the bar when they arrived. He was slumped in a chair with a framed photo in his hands, his forehead resting on the glass. He sat there unmoving, clutching the picture of his wife. The sight of him sitting so alone and unhappy wrenched at Destiny’s heart.
We
will fix this, Destiny. Now that we know what Blythe looks like, we can find her. I feel as if we are very close to solving this mystery. The doctor is very much involved in these attacks.
They left Harry and flew out of the city. Destiny looked down at the sparkling lights.
It’s so beautiful here, Nicolae. I love this city. I love the people.
She could admit it to him now. He had given her that gift. She wasn’t so afraid to allow herself to care about others. She was beginning to believe she wasn’t responsible for the death of everyone she had ever loved.
Is that the hospital where Blythe is living? Destiny was already heading toward the grounds, certain of the direction, almost as if Blythe were calling to her.
“Maybe she is,” Nicolae said with understanding. “She has suffered greatly. I think it best if you speak with her alone. I will be close, but unseen.”
Destiny was grateful for his sensitivity. Nicolae could easily force Blythe’s acceptance of him, but Destiny was reluctant to compel cooperation from someone who was most likely suffering, and Nicolae shared her view.
Destiny blew him a kiss as they walked through the halls of the hospital invisible to the human eye. She found Blythe huddled on a window seat, rocking back and forth, her tormented gaze riveted on the door. She didn’t appear to notice Destiny at first; her entire concentration was focused on the door.
Destiny cleared her throat to bring the woman’s attention to her. When Blythe turned her head, Destiny recognized the look in her eyes. She had seen it over and over on the faces of the abused and battered women who had fled their lives and gone to Mary Ann. There was despair and shame and hopelessness. Blythe was drugged, but there was awareness in her, a strong spark of life despite her situation.
“Who are you? How did you get in here?” Blythe asked nervously, but she was looking expectantly toward the door, not at Destiny.
“Is he coming? The doctor?” Destiny asked softly.
Blythe focused more fully on her. She nodded. “If he sees you here, you could be in danger.” At the mention of the doctor, Blythe’s heart rate increased dramatically.
“He hypnotized you, Blythe, didn’t he?” Destiny asked softly.
“I suspect that he did.” Blythe’s voice was surprisingly strong for a woman everyone believed to be mentally ill. “There’s no way to get away from him and know Harry is safe. He uses drugs and hypnosis.” She shrugged. “Everyone thinks I’m crazy.” She added the last as an afterthought.
Destiny noted that Blythe was becoming increasingly agitated. Her fists were clenching and unclenching. Destiny felt the same presence she’d discerned earlier that day. Evil. It was moving toward them, the footsteps hard on the hallway floor. Blythe whimpered and hurried to her window seat, pressing one hand hard against her mouth to keep from crying out.
Destiny slipped back into the shadows. “Get him to talk, Blythe,” she said softly. “Give me something to work with.” She could easily take the information from the doctor’s mind, but she wanted Blythe to participate actively in freeing herself.
The lock clicked and the door burst open. Destiny was half expecting a vampire, but the man glaring suspiciously around the room was wholly human and yet as vile as any monster she had vanquished. Destiny could see through the illusion a vampire projected with his voice and his looks to the rotting malevolence beneath, but this man shocked her. He was incredibly good-looking, a tall, blond man with a shark’s smile. Even looking closely, Destiny could not
see
past his surface good looks to the evil lying beneath.
“I heard you talking to someone.” He closed the door with deliberate finality. “Or are you so far gone that you talk to yourself now?”
Blythe huddled closer to the window as if she might throw herself out, except the way was blocked by bars. Her gaze shifted to the corner of the room where Destiny had disappeared. She lifted her chin. “I won’t let you touch me again.”
He laughed, the sound chilling. “Of course you will. You’ll do exactly as I tell you, just as you always have. You wouldn’t want to kill your husband, wonderful Harry. Slice him up into little pieces while he slept in bed, now would you? I could make you do that, Blythe, and you would deserve it for cheating on me with that