Mask of Flies by Eric Leitten Read Free Book Online Page A

this weird lady, a regular at that bar, always
comes alone, always carries one of those old portable CD players . .
. a Discman.” Payton’s brow crumpled. “I don’t know why
anybody would want to go out just to listen to some old CDs.—the
woman’s definitely odd.”
    “Please spare me the
rest.”
    Payton acquiesced. “I’m
really sorry Allie. I’m sure you can find a better man.”
    Allie afforded the
intern a forced smile as she walked towards the door. “Hate to
sound bitter, but I don’t think there’re any good ones left.”

Chapter 5: Tony
    Almost
8:30 and still no
sign of Rick . I think
it’s official. Tony picked up his cell phone and tried
Rick’s cell for the third time. He needed something to calm Jim
down. “There’s gotta be a valid explanation. Maybe he had a
family emergency,” Tony to himself.
    Rick had disappeared
before yesterday’s meeting with the auditor from Adult Protective
Services, Mrs. Thornbury. Jim had to scramble to find somebody
competent to brief Jane Doe’s chart, while the auditor waited, and
she wasn’t the most patient woman.
    “Where is this Rick
Soblinski,” Mrs. Thornbury had asked. “His name is all over his
charts, yet he is nowhere to be found. I need a conclusive report,
and he is the man I need to speak to!”
    Jim squirmed in his big chair,
adjusting the collar of his shirt. “We are working on finding him,
but I have several other employees capable of giving you the
rundown.” Watching Jim flustered was utterly delightful.
    Tony heard one ring,
and then the call cut immediately to Rick’s voicemail, no different
from his earlier attempts. He looked out the small rectangular
window, and watched the snow pour down with ennui. The pummeling
Buffalo winter charmed in its infancy, but after months, crossing out
winter days on the calendar became a welcome event.
    “What a shit storm we
have on our hands”. Jim Haynes leaned half his body through the
doorway like a churlish jack in the box. “Thornbush will have our
asses.”
    “Mrs. Thornbury, you
mean?” Tony said. Jim was never good with names.
    “Yeah, sure.” Jim
bent back out and waved out the door. “Steve, get in here.”
    Steve Wallace, the
night shift supervisor, walked into his and Tony’s office, looking
completely depleted. His job was to make sure all of the hall’s
residents got to bed and didn’t try to wander off in the middle of
the night, but it was way past quitting time for him. He sat, a shiny
bald head fixated to a dense neck, connecting down to broad
shoulders. His abdomen blossomed into a full beer gut during his two
years at Oak Leaf—life after the Marine Corps. Tony once noted
Steve’s likeness to Bull from the show Night
Court . But, now, he wore severe bags under his eyes and a
blank expression that now reminded him more of Uncle Fester.
    “There was an
incident with the Jane.” Jim sat down and pointed to the other
chair for Steve to follow. “Steve had to take her to the emergency
room late last night. He just returned from picking her up.”
    “What happened?”
    Steve sat, facing
Tony’s desk. “Around 3am, I heard a scream from Summer Hall. I
ran over as fast as I could, room 137 was opened, Jane Doe’s room.
I saw blood spattered on the walls as I got closer. The Jane stood on
her bed; her were hands and gown covered in blood; she had numerous
lacerations and puncture wounds to her face—self-inflicted. We got
her to the ER. She lost a good amount of blood, but the wounds were
superficial, so the hospital released her back to us.”
    Tony felt like he
swallowed a brick. “That’s awful. They didn’t hold her on the
grounds of her potentially being mentally unstable?”
    “It’s difficult to
get a proper diagnosis when she doesn’t talk. I sent an email to
the head nurse to issue a light sedative at night, and maybe consult
a specialist to perhaps get some sort of basis for her state of
mind.”
    “I like that
approach,” Jim said. “But we