Page 71 of The Sister's Curse
“Yeah. It’s a general-anesthetic procedure, essentially washing out the lungs one at a time.”
That would be a lot for a little kid to handle. But it didn’t sound like it was the only thing on Nick’s mind.
“Hey,” I said, “are you okay?”
“Yeah. I just…we’ll talk when you get home.”
We exchanged “I love yous,” and hung up. I didn’t like hearing stress in Nick’s voice. He was the most unflappable person I knew. Maybe work was getting to him. I hoped he was going to be all right.
He had to be. He was all I had.
When I’d pulled off the road to gas up the car, I bought a sandwich and called the state EPA’s enforcement division again. I left a message describing the lab sample. They probably thought I was an annoying local yokel trying to tell them how to do their job, but they were my best shot at getting to Sumner. Sumner might be bulletproof where local politics were concerned, but I severely doubted he had that much influence at the state level.
I got back on the road and wound my way through a small town, and up a hill to a facility overlooking a small college. The college had a psychology program that provided mental health professionals to this facility. I’d never been here before.
Trinity Springs’s main building was from the 1930s, perched on top of a freshly mown green hill studded with mature maple trees. The gardens around the slate-roofed three-story brick building were well manicured, with purple roses of Sharon blooming near the foundation.
I checked in at the front desk, in a green-tiled atrium. The clerk sat behind plexiglass, and the doors to the facility within were locked. The reception clerk invited me to sit in a plastic chair in the waiting area. I noted that the chairs were bolted to the floor.
Eventually, a woman in a white coat was buzzed through adoor. She was tall and square-shouldered, white hair held back in a messy bun. Her skin was tan and speckled with sun freckles.
“Hello. I’m Dr.Fox. It’s nice to meet you.”
She extended her hand to me, and it was cool when I took it. I swallowed my discomfort at dealing with people who dug around in minds for a living; I had too much to hide in my own, and feared pieces falling out.
“I’m Lt. Koray. Thank you for seeing me on such short notice.”
“I will always clear my calendar for a chance to help long-term residents. Would you like to take a walk outside to discuss the case?”
“Of course.” I thought it a bit odd that she seemed not to want me to see the facility’s interior, but maybe I should give her the benefit of the doubt. Likely, the presence of strangers, especially police, upset the residents.
We headed out the front doors and walked around the corner of the building. I commented on the landscaping, observing that the blooming joe-pye weed had attracted monarch butterflies.
She smiled. “It’s important that our residents get to see nature, in the limited fashion that we can allow them to. We partner with our university’s entomology and botany departments to ensure that our gardens are appealing to songbirds and pollinators.”
“That sounds expensive.”
“It would be, but the contributing departments have found grant monies to help us as part of a permaculture initiative. We’re also fortunate to have received a windfall from the family of a long-term patient who found comfort in the gardens.”
I generally looked upon such facilities with skepticism, but perhaps it said something that a family had been pleased enough with the treatment to leave a bequest. Indeed, the exterior didn’t feel like any state institution I’d encountered before. Through agate we entered the back gardens, where broad sweeps of lawn were crossed by crushed-gravel paths and dotted with island gardens and trees. Mature maples shaded gardens containing hardy plants: spiky blazing star, spiderworts with long fingers of leaves, and ninebark cultivars with crimson foliage.
I scanned the scene, where staff watched over people seeming to be generally elderly and in poor health. I saw a man in a wheelchair; a woman with a cane; and a woman sitting in the grass, patiently plucking petals off a purple coneflower. In the distance, a tall chain-link fence circled the entire garden, but it was painted green and blended in with the forest beyond.
I wished, for a moment, that my father could’ve wound up in a place like this. A place where he could have felt the shade of a tree and combed grass with his fingers.
But then anger flashed through me. He didn’t deserve this place. He deserved to rot behind cold concrete for decades, withering away from the source of his power. Even when he died, he had died outdoors, in his element. He’d won.
Dr.Fox gestured for me to sit at a table. The table and chairs were set in concrete. “But you’re not here to talk about flowers. You’re here about Cassandra Carson.”
“Yes. I’m working on her daughter’s disappearance. I’m trying to get familiar with the case, but it’s been twenty-five years.”
Dr.Fox frowned. “That was the inciting incident for her psychotic break. Cassandra was unable to cope with her daughter’s vanishing, and I’m concerned that discussing it might set her progress back.”
“How’s her progress? I learned from her daughter Viv that Cassandra attempted to commit suicide after Dana went missing.”
Dr.Fox sighed. “Cassandra has entirely broken with reality. When she was younger, we sometimes were able to bring her backto reality. But when she returned to her everyday life, she’d fall into a depression and attempt to kill herself. The attempt immediately following her daughter’s disappearance wasn’t the only one. She tried to kill herself twice after that time, once by hanging and the other time by stepping out into traffic. Based on scans, we think her brain was structurally damaged by oxygen deprivation.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that. I can’t imagine what this was like for her.” Maybe coming here was a bad idea.
