Before I can second-guess myself, I hurry to the bookcase in the back. I don’t even hesitate before I locate The Shining and tug on the spine. I hear that now familiar click and I slip inside the room, grabbing the cord to turn on the light.
This time I decide to swipe a bunch of the tapes. I can stash them in one of the drawers in the office. I take all the EJ ones recorded after the tape marked in red. Then I take a selection of other tapes from around the same date. It must’ve been right before Dr. Hale disappeared, because there’s nothing recorded later than that.
I’m going to hear the information that the police missed. I’ll listen to everything that happened to Dr. Hale in the months leading to her disappearance. The mystery that the entire country was talking about for almost a year.
I scan the shelves one more time. That’s when the one tape labeled differently catches my eye once again. LUKE. The boyfriend. The one the police thought killed her. Why does she have a recording of him? Was he her patient? But if he was, why is his tape labeled differently than all the others?
My mother always said I’m too curious for my own good.
I grab the LUKE tape and add it to the pile. I’ll have time to listen to at least one of these tapes before Ethan gets back.
I close the door to the hidden room and carry my stack of tapes to Dr. Hale’s office. I stash them in the bottom drawer of her desk, where I found the scissors last night. I select one of them at random and pop it into the tape recorder.
My finger hesitates over the Play button on the tape recorder. I desperately want to listen to these tapes, but there’s one thing I need to do first.
I get up and close the door to the office.
Okay, now I can listen.
Chapter 19
Transcript of Recording
This is session 89 with GW, a 68-year-old widow who suffers from paranoid delusions.
“Hello, Dr. Hale.”
“Please have a seat, Gail.”
“Oh. Yes. Of course. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. I want you to be comfortable when we’re talking.”
“Yes. I know. I just… I feel like…”
“Are you okay? You seem especially anxious today. Your hands are shaking.”
“I just…”
“Are you taking the medications I prescribed?”
“No. I’m afraid not.”
“How come?”
“Well, I… I know you’re going to tell me I’m being paranoid if I tell you this.”
“Tell me.”
“I… I think my pharmacist is trying to kill me.”
“Gail…”
“I know. You think I’m crazy. You think I’m paranoid. But this time, it’s true. I mean, he’s a pharmacist. It would be so easy for him to do it. He could just swap out my pills for something else.”
“Why would you think he wants to kill you?”
“It’s the way he looks at me. I can’t describe it. And after he handed me the bag with my pills in it, he winked at me.”
“So…？”
“Don’t you see, Dr. Hale? He was winking at me because he knew there was something bad in the pill bottles.”
“Maybe he was just being friendly? Or even flirting?”
“No. Definitely not.”
“Why would he want to kill you?”
“Who knows? Because he’s a psychopath. You know, people are walking around out there who are just crazy. They don’t need a reason to kill you. They just do it because they’re crazy!”
“Gail, I need you to take your medications.”
“But I can’t! Don’t you see what I’m saying? If I take those pills, I’m going to die!”
“Do you remember when you thought the mailman was trying to kill you?”
“Um…”
“Gail? Was he actually trying to kill you?”
“I’m still not sure. I mean, it’s possible. He was always outside my house at the same time. Right outside my door. Peeking in.”
“He was delivering your mail, Gail.”
“There was something funny about it.”
“The mailman was not trying to kill you. And your pharmacist is not trying to kill you. You really need to take the medications that I prescribed.”
“That’s what my son says too.”
“So there you go. You should listen to him.”
“But think about it, Dr. Hale. If I were to die, my son would get a big insurance payoff. So he doesn’t mind if the pharmacist kills me.”