Smoke on the Water by Lori Handeland Read Free Book Online Page B

“Now what?”
    â€œI’ll get another.”
    â€œWhen?”
    â€œAn hour. Two if the first store’s out and I have to go to a different one.”
    â€œIsn’t there a Walmart around the corner?” After riding a motorcycle from Missouri to Wisconsin, he swore there’d been one around most of the corners.
    Justice rubbed his dirty palms on his damp jeans. “There is. But the corner’s probably twenty miles away.”
    This far north the next town—or the next corner—was not as close as it was anywhere else except maybe Alaska. His own apartment was in a complex that had been specifically built for employees of this facility. If the job worked out and Sebastian stayed here for more than a year, he’d like a house. Except he’d been told a house of his own would most likely involve building one since houses in the area were scarce and empty ones available for purchase even more so.
    â€œMaybe you should buy two generators,” Sebastian said.
    â€œWhat for?”
    â€œWhat if the next one gets hit in the next storm?”
    Sebastian didn’t care for the lack of power. Although this place was old enough to have locks that needed keys, rather than electrical doors and fences, he still felt twitchy. All he needed was an escaped patient on his first day of work. On any day of work for that matter.
    â€œLightning don’t strike twice in the same place, son. You know that.”
    It was a saying, sure, but did that make it true? Justice seemed to think so and Justice knew more than Sebastian did. At least about lightning storms and generators.
    The old man headed for his truck, and Sebastian for his office. Inside the patients were quieter than they’d been when he’d left—Sebastian checked his phone—a half hour ago.
    He beckoned to Zoe. “Any problems?”
    She shrugged. “Anything out of the ordinary gets them riled up.”
    â€œThey seem fine to me.”
    â€œThose who don’t unrile on their own are given pharmaceutical help.”
    Sebastian would prefer less drugs not more. However, a riot in the dark didn’t work for him either.
    â€œMy patient?” he asked.
    â€œWhich one?”
    â€œThe one I was talking to when this happened.” The one who had seemed to disappear into thin air.
    Zoe cast him an unreadable glance—mostly because the sky was still overcast and the lights were still out. He could barely see her let alone read her glance.
    â€œLast I saw Willow she was coming out of Mary’s room and headed for her own.” Her lips thinned. “You should be careful.”
    â€œOf?”
    â€œWillow. Mary too.”
    â€œSo I hear. Has either of them tried to kill anyone lately?”
    â€œWhat’s lately?”
    â€œIn here?”
    â€œHard to say. Mary gets agitated. She’s gone after a few orderlies, a nurse. But as she has no weapons beyond tooth and nail, was she trying to kill them or wasn’t she?”
    â€œDid she say?”
    â€œWhen she gets like that she says a lot, not much of it coherent.”
    â€œAnd Willow?”
    Zoe gave him a look again, one he still couldn’t read. “She’s always coherent. She just doesn’t say much.”
    â€œHas she attacked anyone?”
    â€œNot yet.”
    â€œDon’t be such an optimist.”
    Someone called for her, and Zoe lifted a hand, stepped in that direction, paused and glanced back. “I’ve been here a long time, Dr. Frasier.”
    As she appeared too young to have been anywhere but grade school for a long time, Sebastian smiled noncommittally and said nothing.
    â€œPatients like Mary and Willow, the ones with serious delusions and homicidal tendencies, don’t get better. They just get dead.”
    Sebastian’s smile faded.
    â€œIf they manage to get dead before they make someone else that way … it’s probably for the best.” She trotted in