Seeking Asylum (18 page)

She shook her head and a strand of hair fell across her forehead. “If I leave now, won’t that seem even more suspicious? And what will you do alone? You need me.”

Eric’s eyes roamed hungrily over her, taking in her snug pants and figure-hugging black T-shirt, the graceful slope
of her neck, the black hair that, even wet, curved under her chin, and those amazing, brilliant blue eyes. His body reacted to just the sight of her.

Yes, he needed her. But what he needed from her he couldn’t have anyway. And he certainly wasn’t going to put her in danger just because with her at his side he felt complete for the first time in his life. He’d always thought Caleb was the other part of him, and he was. Eric had a connection to his identical twin that had transcended their separation. But he was beginning to realize just how important Rachel was to him.

“Give me the phone. I’m calling Mitch and telling him to get you out of here before you get really hurt.”

“Oh, Eric.” Her face turned pale. “Mitch called. That’s why I came. He wanted to talk to you personally.”

Eric went still. “Why didn’t he just give you the message? Was it about Caleb?”

Her fingers looked pinched as she held out the phone. “He didn’t say.”

As Eric took hold of the phone, his fingers brushed hers. She held fast and looked up into his eyes. “I told Mitch what happened. He agreed to let me stay.”

He started to speak, but she interrupted him.

“Please, Eric. Don’t ask Mitch to have me removed. I need to do this. I need to help Caleb and…and you.”

There was a passion in her eyes that he couldn’t ignore. He knew that passion. He understood it. She needed to prove to herself that she could make a difference in someone’s life. He even knew where it came from. The same place as his need. The feeling that in the past, she’d failed the one person in her life who’d depended on her. For her, it was her mother. For him, it was Caleb.

Eric pulled the phone from Rachel’s unsteady hand.
She was obviously shaken by her experience. He had to admire her for being so determined not to give up.

As he keyed in Mitch’s number, Eric wondered who was growing suspicious, and how much they had figured out. He knew if Metzger gave him a physical exam, the doctor would immediately realize that he wasn’t Caleb Baldwyn. The scar under his ear would prove that.

Mitch answered right away.

“What is it?” Eric didn’t waste time with niceties.

“We obtained the complete autopsy report and evidence box on Charles Green. Laurel reran some tests, considering the possibility of murder. She found extremely high levels of morphine, but she also discovered a lethal level of potassium.”

“Potassium? A tox screen wouldn’t normally test for that, but what about injection sites on the body?”

“According to the autopsy report, the morphine and alcohol were found in his stomach contents. So the blood tests were run on those. The medical examiner didn’t test for other substances.”

Eric lifted his gaze to Rachel. “I’ll bet he didn’t check for hidden injection sites, either, like under the tongue or in the scalp.”

“Nope.”

“So Dr. Green was fired for talking to a reporter, and he apparently died of a drug overdose. Yet now it appears that someone dosed him up with morphine and booze, and injected potassium into his bloodstream. That’s murder.”

Rachel pressed her knuckles against her mouth.

“We’re obtaining permission to exhume the body. Laurel says it’s theoretically possible to find an injection site on an embalmed body.”

“I hope she’s right.” Eric gripped the phone tightly. “So is that what you called about?”

“I have information from Natasha. She found a Misty Norwood. It turns out the young woman was admitted to the Meadows by her parents following a suicide attempt, and stayed there for several months. She was discharged at her parents’ request, after they became concerned by some of the things she told them. She’s now living at home with them. We’re making arrangements to interview her.”

“Mitch, Rachel could have relayed all this information to me.”

The instant of silence on Mitch’s end told Eric why his boss had wanted to speak with him personally. He’d already felt that something was wrong.

From the moment he’d heard his brother’s name on the television newscast, he’d been slowly accepting the truth. The sensations and dreams he’d always feared, the images and odd thoughts, and now the heightened awareness and instinctive knowledge of how to navigate the halls and corridors of the Meadows, were a part of the link he shared with his twin brother. But in the past twenty-four hours or so, those thoughts and sensations were becoming less and less coherent.

Sometimes he had to fight the disorder in his head just to think and act rationally. What he couldn’t figure out was if the increasingly chaotic sensations were from the daily injections he was forced to endure or from Caleb’s deteriorating mind.

“What’s wrong with Caleb?”

Oh, no,
Rachel mouthed as Eric heard Mitch take a long breath.

“Your brother is having seizures. Right now they’re only lasting a couple of seconds, but they’re getting worse.”

“So that’s it. I knew something was wrong.”

Rachel reacted to his words. Her brow pulled tight in a tiny frown and she hugged herself.

“Obviously there’s no time to waste. Natasha has gone over the blueprints with a fine-toothed comb,” Mitch continued. “Rachel has them. Take a look. There’s an unexplained area in the basement. It appears to be totally blocked off. That could be Metzger’s lab.”

“We’ll check it out tonight. Thanks.”

“Eric, how are you holding up?”

Eric rubbed his eyes as he assured his boss he was doing okay.

“What about Rachel?”

He lowered his hand and looked at her. “Rachel? She’s fine.”

“Are you sure? I’d hate to have to extract her, but we can’t afford any mistakes.”

“She’s doing great. I don’t know how I’d have managed without her.”

When he disconnected, Rachel was studying him, that little frown still in place. She’d reacted when he’d told Mitch he knew something was wrong with Caleb.

Was she concerned about his brother’s health? Or
his
sanity?

“You have the blueprints?” he asked her.

It took her a fraction of a second to react. “Yes. In my backpack.”

“Let’s have a look at them.”

Rachel glanced toward the door. “What about Gracie?”

“She’s off tonight. The substitute nurse came around just after nine, right before you got here. It’ll be at least eleven o’clock before she checks the rooms again. She was complaining about how busy she was, and bed checks are way down on the list of priorities.”

He unfolded the blueprints on the tiny desk that sat under the window. “Look at this.”

Rachel approached, and Eric pulled out the chair for her, then leaned over her as he pointed out the area that Natasha had marked.

Her hair smelled of rain and sun and gardenias. He gripped the back of the chair until his fingers cramped, forcing himself to remember that he was here because of Caleb.

His reminder didn’t help. Rachel’s closeness tortured him with unslaked need. Still, he knew how she would react toward him if she had any inkling of the bond between him and his twin. For her, any hint of a psychic connection would smack of insanity.

He couldn’t stand it if she looked at him with the hurt and betrayal and aversion that had darkened her eyes when she mentioned her mother.

As long as he stayed in control around her, he could keep her near him. He could ensure that she was as safe as he could possibly make her.

He concentrated on their shared goal.

He pointed with his free hand. “There don’t seem to be any doors.” The area Natasha had highlighted was located toward the south side of the building, near the dirt and stone crawl space. The north wall of the highlighted area appeared solid, and formed the back wall of the banks of service elevators, and the east and west boundaries looked like nothing more than corridors.

“Natasha thinks this may be Metzger’s secret lab.” Eric traced the boundaries of the mysterious room with his finger, working hard to ignore Rachel’s dark hair tickling his lips and cheek. “I see why she thinks it may have been a bomb shelter. This blueprint is dated 1970. And look, the
walls of this room are thicker than any other room in the basement. They’re probably made of some sort of metal.”

Rachel nodded her head, torturing him with the feel of her silky hair.

“Eric? What did Mitch say about Caleb?” She turned her head.

Eric’s heart turned upside down. Her face was millimeters from his, her lips soft and inviting, her eyes wide and filled with concern. A shuddering desire ripped through him like a knife through old silk, shredding his defenses, leaving a ragged edge of hunger that could never be soothed except by her kiss, her touch.

Her gaze traveled from his eyes down to his mouth. As he watched her lashes dip, and her chin lift until her lips were almost touching his, he came dangerously close to giving in.

But it wasn’t fair to her. If he made love to her, it would be a lie. He owed her the truth about himself, about his connection with his brother. But he couldn’t tell her yet.

Because when he told her, he would lose her. She would view his confession as an indication of a mental problem, and she’d already stated with stark certainty that she would never get personally involved with anyone like that.

He could tell her the connection he and his brother shared was not a delusion, but that wouldn’t be the whole truth. The truth was, he wasn’t sure.

He scooped up the blueprint and folded it. “Come on. I’ll tell you what Mitch said on the way. If someone can get into your apartment, then we need to wrap this up. You’re in danger, and we’re running out of time.”

Despite his promise to tell her about his conversation with Mitch, Eric remained quiet as they sneaked down to the basement. Once there, he seemed distracted as he studied the wall beside the elevators.

He stepped over and flattened his palms against the wall.

Rachel couldn’t take her eyes off him. The shadows cast by the faint emergency lights lining the corridors lent a harsh beauty to his features. Her gaze played over his short, straight nose, his high cheekbones, his wide mouth.

“What are you doing?” she asked, watching him move sideways along the wall.

Without slowing his examination, he spoke quietly. “If there’s anything behind here, there has to be a way to…” His voice trailed off and his brows lowered into a frown.

“I can’t quite—” he whispered.

Rachel watched in fascination and growing apprehension as he continued his methodical search, occasionally muttering to himself. He frightened her when he acted like this. She had the sense he was listening to something or someone she couldn’t hear.

It reminded her of her mother’s delusions, when the mania would take over her mind.

“Eric, tell me what Mitch said.” She had to know that he was grounded in reality. Plus, she was also worried about Caleb.

Eric closed his eyes. His hands continued to roam over the plaster. “He said one of the IDs you gave Natasha turned out to be Misty Norwood.”

“Misty! She
is
real.”

He angled his head toward her. “I told you my brother doesn’t lie.”

“Is Misty okay? What happened to her?”

“All we know so far is that her parents placed her in the Meadows after a suicide attempt. They became concerned by some of the things she told them, and took her home.”

Helpless anger burned through Rachel. “Dr. Metzger told Caleb she was dead.”

Eric’s jaw ticced. “He wanted to observe Caleb’s reaction.”

“What about Caleb? Did Mitch say he was worse?”

The tic in Eric’s jaw flared into a clench. He nodded. “He’s having seizures.”

“Oh, no.” They
were
running out of time. Seizures could be a symptom of several problems, but they definitely indicated that Caleb’s condition was worsening.

“They’re becoming more frequent.”

“Mitch told you that?”

Eric didn’t answer. He walked around the corner, into a dimly lit corridor.

Rachel followed him. The odor of dirt and mildew increased as they grew closer to the front of the building. Down the corridor, beyond the circle of the last lights, she saw the end of the finished portion of the basement and the beginning of the crawl space.

In the middle of the west wall was a recessed area.

She shook her head. “There was no alcove indicated on the blueprint.”

He closed his fist and lightly rapped on the wall.

She heard the metallic sound.

He sent her a triumphant glance. “This is it.”

Rachel’s heart hammered in her chest. “The secret lab?”

He shrugged. “Let me have the flashlight.”

He swept the bright light methodically across the entire surface of the alcove. “See the seam? It’s barely visible.”

Rachel squinted. “All I see are the inside corners of the alcove.”

“That’s it. That’s the door, I’m sure.” He looked around. “This section of the basement is almost totally deserted.”

He closed his eyes briefly. “One of the service elevators comes down inside here.”

“Inside? Why do you think that?” she asked.

He sent her a sharp glance. “Seems logical.”

“So let’s go in.” A thrill fluttered in Rachel’s throat. Was she about to find out that her idol, Gerhardt Metzger, was really the monster Caleb had said he was? She clutched the straps of her backpack until her fingers ached.

“I don’t think we dare, until we know where Metzger is.”

“But we have no way of knowing that.”

“And if we open this door and he’s in there, what are you going to say to him then?”

Chapter Ten

Metzger could be in there.

Rachel pulled her lower lip between her teeth. She had no answer for Eric. If Metzger was in there, then everything Caleb had said was true, and the dream that had sustained her since she was a little girl—the dream of helping to find a cure for mental illness, would be crushed.