The Cradle Will Fall (15 page)
Read The Cradle Will Fall Online
Authors: Mary Higgins Clark
Tags: #Fiction, #General, #Thrillers, #Suspense
SHE tried to wake up. There was a click; a door had closed. Someone
had just been here. Her arm hurt. Dr. Highley. She dropped
off. . . . What had she said to Dr. Highley? Katie woke up a few
minutes later and remembered. The black car and the shiny
spokes and the light on his glasses. She'd seen him put Vangie
Lewis in his trunk Monday night. Dr. Highley had killed Vangie.
And now he knew she knew about him. Why had she asked him
that question? He'd be back. She had to get out of here. He was
going to kill her too.
Help. She needed help. Why was she so weak? Her finger was
bleeding. The pills he had given her. Since she'd been taking
them she'd been so sick. The pills were making her bleed.
Oh, God, help me, please. The phone! Katie fumbled for it,
knocked it over. She pulled it up by the cord, put the receiver to
her ear. The line was dead.
Highley had said the phone was being repaired. She pushed
the bell for the nurse. The nurse would help her. But there was
no click to indicate that the light was on outside her door. She
was sure the signal wasn't lighting the nurse's panel either.
She had to get out of here before Highley came back. Fighting
waves of dizziness, she stood up. She'd go down to the second
floor. There were people there—other patients, nurses.
From nearby, a door closed. He was coming back. Frantically
Katie looked at the open door to the corridor. He'd see her if she
went out there. Stumbling to the living-room door, she opened
it, got inside, closed it before he came into the bedroom.
Where could she go? She couldn't stay here. She heard a door
open inside. He was in the bathroom looking for her. Hide under
the drop cloth? No. He'd find her, drag her out. Dizziness clawed
at the space behind her eyes. Her legs were rubbery.
She stumbled to the door that led to the hall. There was a fire
exit there. She'd seen it when she was wheeled in. She'd go down
that way to the second floor. She'd get help.
The door to the fire stairs was heavy. She tugged at it . . .
tugged again. Reluctantly it gave way. She stepped inside. It
closed so slowly. Would he see it closing? The stairs. It was so
dark here, terribly dark. She grabbed the banister. The stairs
were steep. There was a landing after eight steps. Another short
flight, then she was at the door. She tried the handle. It was
locked. It could be opened only from the other side.
Then she heard the third-floor door open and heavy footsteps
coming down the stairs.
CHRIS refused to call a lawyer. He sat opposite the prosecutor;
he looked at the two detectives who had met him at the airport.
"I have nothing to hide," he said.
Scott was unimpressed. A young man carrying a stenographer's
pad came into the room, sat down and took out a pen. Scott looked
directly at Chris. "Captain Lewis, it is my duty to inform you that
you are a suspect in the deaths of Vangie Lewis, Edna Burns and
Dr. Emmet Salem. You may remain silent. You are not required to
answer any questions. You are entitled to the services of a lawyer.
Any statement that you make can be used against you. Is that
perfectly clear?"
"Yes."
Scott shoved a paper across the desk. "This is a copy of the
Miranda warning you have just heard. Please read it carefully. Be
sure you understand it. If you are so disposed, sign it."
Chris read the statement, signed it and handed it back. He
braced himself for Scott's question. "Did you murder your wife,
Vangie Lewis?"
Chris looked directly at him. "I did not murder my wife. I do
not know if she was murdered. But I do know this. If she died
before midnight Monday, she did not kill herself in our home."
Scott, Charley and Phil were astonished as Chris calmly said,
"I was there a short time after midnight Monday. Vangie was not
home. I returned to New York. At eleven the next morning I
found her on the bed. It wasn't until the funeral director told me
the time of death that I realized her body must have been returned
to our house. But even before that I knew something was wrong.
My wife would never have worn the shoes she was wearing when
she was found. Her right leg and foot were badly swollen, and
the only shoes she could wear were a pair of battered moccasins."
It was easier than he had expected. The questions came at him.
"You left the motel at eight Monday night and returned at ten.
Where did you go?"
"To a movie in Greenwich Village. After I got back to the motel,
I couldn't sleep. I decided to drive home and talk to Vangie. That
was shortly before midnight."
Then the hammerblow. "Did you know your wife was carrying
an Oriental fetus?"
"Oh, my God!" Horror mingled with a sense of release flooded
over Chris. It hadn't been his baby. An Oriental fetus. That psychiatrist.
Oh, the poor kid. That must have been why she had
called Dr. Salem. She wanted to hide.
"You didn't know she was involved with another man?"
"No. No."
"Why did you go to Edna Burns's apartment Tuesday night?"
"Wait, please—can we take this just the way it happened?"
Coffee was brought in, and he began to sip it. It helped. "Edna
Burns called me Tuesday night, just after I realized that Vangie
must have died before she was brought home. Miss Burns was
almost incoherent. She rambled on about Cinderella and Prince
Charming, said she had something for me and that she had a story
for the police. I thought she might know who Vangie had been
with. I drove to her apartment complex. Some kid pointed out
where she lived. I rang the bell and knocked. The television was
on, the light was on, but she didn't answer. I figured she'd passed
out and there was no use trying to talk to her. I went home."
"What time was that?"
"About nine thirty."
"All right. What did you do then?"
More questions, one after another; he drank more coffee. Truth.
The simple truth. It was so much easier than evasion. He took a
deep breath. They were asking about Dr. Salem.
RICHARD sat at Katie's desk as he waited for the head of personnel
of Christ Hospital in Devon, England, to answer his phone.
Only by emphasizing his need to talk to someone who had been
in authority at the hospital for more than ten years had he been
given the man's private number.
"Yes." An angry, sleepy voice had answered.
Richard introduced himself and went directly to the point. "Sir,
I apologize for calling you at this hour, but the matter is vital.
This is a transatlantic call. I must have information about Dr.
Edgar Highley."
The man's voice became wary. "What do you want to know?"
"I have just spoken with Queen Mary Clinic in Liverpool and
was surprised to learn that Dr. Highley had been on staff there
a relatively short time. We had been led to believe otherwise.
However, I was told that Dr. Highley was a member of the Christ
Hospital staff for at least nine years. Is that accurate?"
"Edgar Highley interned with us after his graduation from Cambridge,
then became staff. He is a brilliant doctor."
"Why did he leave?"
"After his wife's death, he relocated in Liverpool. Then we
heard that he had emigrated to the United States."
"Sir, I can't waste time being discreet. I believe that Dr. Highley
may be experimenting with his pregnant patients. Is there any
information you can offer to support that possibility?"
The words that came next were slow and deliberate. "While
he was with us, Dr. Highley was deeply involved in prenatal research.
He did quite brilliant experiments on embryos of frogs
and mammals. Then a fellow doctor began to suspect that he was
experimenting with aborted human fetuses—which is, of course,
illegal."
"What was done about it?"
"He was watched very carefully. Then a tragedy occurred. Dr.
Highley's wife died suddenly. There was the suspicion that he
had implanted her with an aborted fetus. Dr. Highley was asked
to resign. This is absolutely confidential. There is no proof."
Richard absorbed what he had heard. His hunch had been right.
A question came into his mind—a long shot. "Sir, do you by any
chance know a Dr. Emmet Salem?"
The voice warmed. "Of course. A good friend. Dr. Salem was
visiting staff here at the time of the Highley scandal."
SILENTLY KATIE RAN DOWN THE STATUS to the main floor. Desperately
she grasped the knob, tried to open the door. But it was
locked. Upstairs the footsteps had paused. He was trying the
second-floor knob, making sure that she had not escaped him. The
footsteps started again. He was coming down. Through these
heavy doors no one would hear her if she screamed.
She felt dull pain in her pelvic area. Whatever he had given her
had started the hemorrhaging. She was dizzy. But she had to get
away. Wildly she began rushing down the staircase. One more
flight. It probably led to the basement. He'd have to explain how
and why she'd gotten there. The farther she got, the more questions
would be asked. She stumbled on the last stair. Don't fall. Don't
make it look like an accident.
But she'd be trapped down here. Another door. This one would
be locked too. She tried the knob. He was coming. Dark as it was,
she could sense a presence rushing down at her.
The door opened. The corridor was dimly lighted. She was in
the basement. She saw rooms ahead. The door snapped closed
behind her. Could she hide somewhere? Help me. Help me. There
was a switch on the wall. She turned it off. The corridor disappeared
into blackness. Then, a few feet behind her, the door
from the stairwell burst open.
HIGHLEY was suspected of causing his first wife's death. Winifred
Westlake's cousin believed he had caused Winifred's death.
Highley was a brilliant researcher. Highley may have been experimenting
on some of his patients. Highley may have injected
Vangie Lewis with the semen of an Oriental male. But why?
Would he try to accuse Fukhito? Or had Vangie been involved
with Fukhito? Was Highley's possible experimentation only incidental
to Vangie's pregnancy?
Richard could not find the answers. He sat at Katie's desk
twirling her pen. He wished he knew where she was. He wanted
to talk to her.
There was a soft knock on the door and Maureen looked in.
Her eyes were emerald green, large and oval. Beautiful eyes.
"Dr. Carroll.''
"Maureen, I'm sorry I asked you to stay. I thought Mrs. Horan
would be here long ago."
"She phoned. She's on her way. Something came up at work
and they needed her. But there are two women here. They're
friends of Edna Burns. They wanted to see Katie. One of them,
Mrs. Fitzgerald, said she met you the other night at the Burns
apartment."
"Right. Tell them to come on in. If it's anything much, we'll make
them wait to talk to Scott."
They entered the office together, Gana's eyes snapping with excitement.
Gertrude was carrying the moccasin in a paper bag. Her
gray hair was neatly in place. She leaned forward, shook the bag,
and the shabby moccasin fell onto Katie's desk. Primly she began
to explain. "That shoe is the reason we are here."
SHE zigzagged down the corridor. Would he know where the
light switch was? He knew this hospital. Where would she go?
There had been a door at the end of the hall. If she ran straight,
she'd get to it. Maybe she could lock herself in there somehow.
Maybe he'd try the other doors first.
He was standing still. He was listening for her. Her outstretched
hand touched a cold wall, then a doorframe. Her hand found a
knob. She turned it. A heavy formaldehyde smell filled her nostrils.
From behind her she heard rushing feet. She stepped inside
and tried to push the door closed, but she was so dizzy. She stumbled
and fell. She reached out. Her hand touched a pant leg.
"It's all over, Katie," Dr. Highley said.
"ARE you sure this is your wife's shoe?" Scott demanded.
Wearily Chris nodded. "I am absolutely certain. This is the
one that was so loose on her ... the left one."
"When Edna Burns phoned you, did she tell you she had this?"
"No. She said she had something to tell the police and that she
wanted to talk to me."
"All right. Your statement will be typed immediately. Read it
carefully, sign it if you find it accurate, and then you can go home.
We'll want to talk with you again tomorrow morning."
For the first time Chris felt as though the prosecutor had begun
to believe him. He got up to go. "Where is Joan?"
"She's completed a statement. She can go with you. Oh, one
thing. What impression do you have of Dr. Highley?"
"I never met him."
"Did you read this article?" Scott held up a copy of Newsmaker
magazine.
Chris looked at the picture of Dr. Highley. "I saw this yesterday
on the plane into New York." Memory jogged. "That's it. That's
what I couldn't place. He's the man who got off the elevator at the
Essex House last night when I was trying to reach Dr. Salem."
HE SWITCHED on a light and stood staring down at her, his
sandy hair falling untidily on his forehead.
She managed to stumble to her feet. She was in a small area
like a waiting room. It was so cold. A thick steel door was behind
her. She shrank back against it.
"You've made it so easy for me, Mrs. DeMaio." Now he was
smiling at her. "Everyone knows about your fear of hospitals.
When Nurse Renge and I make rounds in a few minutes, we'll
assume you left the hospital. Certainly no one will dream of looking
for you in the morgue.
"An old man died in the emergency room tonight. He's in one of
those vaults. Tomorrow, when the undertaker comes for his body,
you'll be found on the floor. What happened will be obvious. You
were hemorrhaging; you became disoriented. Tragically, you wandered
down here and bled to death."
"No." His face was blurring. She was dizzy, swaying.
He opened the steel door, pushed her through it, held her as
she slid down. She had fainted. Kneeling beside her, he injected
the last shot of heparin. She probably wouldn't regain consciousness.
Even if she did, she couldn't get out. From this side the
door was locked. He closed it and turned out the light. At last he
was finished with Katie DeMaio.
Cautiously he opened the door into the corridor and hurried out
into the parking lot by the fire exit through which he'd entered
fifteen minutes before.
Moments later he was drinking lukewarm cappuccino, waving
away the offer of the waitress to bring him a hot cup. "My calls
took a bit longer than I expected," he explained. "And now I must
hurry back to the hospital. There's a patient there about whom I'm
quite concerned."