Page 5 of The Reaper's Vice

“Forget solitary. Let’s go back to our earlier conversation,” Dr. Kebler says, flipping back a page and skimming the words hungrily. “We were talking about your mother. Her struggle with addiction, and how she was in the room with you when she overdosed… And that made you feel…?”

“Upset.”

“Upset…”

I nod. “That’s right.”

“And… would you like to elaborate?”

I shrug, drawing my brows together like I’m deep in thought. “I guess… I’m just now realizing I’ve forgotten what the sun feels like on my skin. I’ve forgotten the sound of laughter. The smell of my mother’s fresh-baked cinnamon rolls. I guess it’s just now hitting me how long I’ve been here. How long Iwillbe here.”

“Ten consecutive life sentences is a long time.” Dr. Kebler nods, not even noticing my sarcastic tone as he scribbles in his notepad. “Have you been having any suicidal thoughts?”

“No need to beat around the bush, Doc. I can handle it.”

Dr. Kebler gives me a blank look as he underlines something he just wrote down. “I need to know, Mr. Adair. You’ve been here eight years, and already your grip with reality is starting to fade. A lifetime is a long time to spend in solitude, and it will only get worse from here.”

“So what do you suggest?”

“Talking about your issues. Your thoughts and fears. Get all the repressed stuff out in the open.”

“And that’s supposed to help me?”

“Of course,” he says, leaning back with a big smile. “It helps tremendously to have someone unbiased listen to your feelings. Trust me.”

Trust me.“You know… I killed the last person who asked me to trust them.”

Dr. Kebler shifts his eyes to my cuffs nervously. “And which of your last eighteen cell mates was that?”

I cock my head, a manic laugh bubbling at my lips. “You really know nothing, do you,Doctor?”

“Only a fool would claim he knows everything.”

My lips thin into a frown, and I lean back in my chair, my foot increasing the pace with which it taps against the floor. Waiting for him to break the silence.

“Since you clearly don’t want to talk about your mother…” Dr. Kebler regards me with a solemn gaze, glancing briefly at my file before bringing his pen to his pad. “What about your sister?”

“What about her?” My foot ceases its tapping as I sit up straighter. “They have stuff about Annabelle in there?”

Dr. Kebler sits back with a smirk. “We have all kinds of information about you, Mr. Adair.”

I have nothing to say to that.

He frowns, scribbling something on his pad before drawing his attention back to me. “She died young, yes?”

“Too young,” I say, my voice suddenly hoarse. “It shouldn’t have happened.”

“Hmm. Yes, very tragic,” he murmurs, scribbling violently with one hand and pushing up his glasses with the other. “They said you were the one to call the police.”

I nod. “Yes.”

“You were only three. I imagine that had some… lasting effects on you.”

I look out the window at that tree branch, noting that the crow has now flown away. “Now that I’ve thought about it… I don’t really thinktalkingwill help me very much.”

Dr. Kebler raises his brows. “Do you have something else in mind?”

“Maybe a change of scenery…” I glance toward the small barred window behind Dr. Kebler’s desk. “It does get a little stuffy in this place. You know, I used to love going to the ocean when I was little—the sand between my toes, the fresh air…”

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