“Gill smoked,” Adelaide said. She sat down in the empty chair next to Jake. “He always had a cigarette in his hand. I remember Dr. Ormsby complaining about it whenever Gill came up to the lab. Some of the chemicals were highly flammable.”
Raina’s eyes narrowed a little. “If Gill tossed a match or a half-smoked cigarette out the window and it blew back into the car and landed on the dynamite, that would certainly account for the explosion.”
“Maybe,” Jake said.
Adelaide looked at him. “What’s worrying you?”
Luther studied Jake from the opposite side of the table. “He’s thinking that this whole thing seems to be ending a little too neatly.”
“Neatly?” Raina said. “It all seems very bizarre to me.”
“Not if you consider that everything that has happened somehow revolves around the drug that Adelaide’s parents discovered,” Jake said.
Adelaide shuddered. “Daydream. They should have called it Nightmare.”
“Let’s assume that Gill and Paxton had been running a profitable little drug ring and marketing their wares to Hollywood celebrities,” Jake said. “They used Madam Zolanda and Thelma Leggett as distributors. Then Gill realizes that Adelaide’s parents have discovered a new hallucinogen with hypnotic properties.”
“A drug that could be used to implant hypnotic suggestions could be worth a fortune not only on the private market but also to certain government agencies in every country in the world,” Raina mused. “The potential would be huge.”
“But only if Gill and Paxton can have exclusive control of the drug,” Jake continued. “So they decide to get rid of everyone who knew too much about the original drug ring and about Daydream. Patient A evidently died from the effects of the drug. That left Ormsby, Zolanda, Thelma Leggett, and Patient B.”
“Me,” Adelaide said.
Jake looked at her. “But Patient B vanished the night they planned to murder her. That left Gill and Paxton with a serious problem because Adelaide was the one person who knew all about the secret experiments at Rushbrook. They had to find her before they continued dismantling the ring. They finally tracked her down here in Burning Cove.”
“Madam Zolanda and Thelma Leggett were sent here to get a handle on the situation,” Luther said. “If Jake’s right about Paxton, that explains his presence in town.”
“They knew that I wouldn’t recognize any of them,” Adelaide said. “But by the time they found me, I had settled into life here in Burning Cove. I had a job. Friends. People would have noticed if I simply vanished. They needed a plan to kidnap me or maybe murder me without drawing attention to themselves.”
Raina nodded. “Do you think the original scheme involved Madam Zolanda making that final prediction about someone dying before morning?”
“Maybe,” Jake said. “It wouldn’t have been a bad plan, when you think about it. If Adelaide had been killed or if she had vanished that night, the press would have gone wild. Zolanda could have added to her fame by helping the police find the body.”
“Instead, it was Zolanda who was killed,” Luther said. “If her plan was to predict Adelaide’s death, it backfired.”
“Gill and Paxton obviously had a different outcome in mind,” Adelaide said.
“One thing seems certain,” Raina said. “If we’re right about all of this, Paxton is the last member of the drug ring who is still alive. How do we go about proving he is not only a killer but also in possession of a dangerous new hallucinogen?”
Jake put down his coffee mug and got to his feet. “We need more answers and there’s only one place left to look for them.”
“Where?” Adelaide asked.
“Back where it all started, the Rushbrook Sanitarium.” He glanced at the wall clock. “If I leave now, I can be in Rushbrook by dawn. Luther, look after Adelaide until you hear from me, all right?”
“Of course,” Luther said. “She can stay in a guest room at my place. There’s plenty of security around the Paradise.”
“No,” Adelaide said. She got to her feet and looked at Jake. “I’m coming with you.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Jake said.
“You’ll need me. You don’t know your way around Rushbrook. I know every inch of it. I know where the keys are kept. I also know some of the patients and the staff. You’ll be able to search the place much more efficiently if I’m with you.”
“She’s right,” Raina said.
Luther nodded. “I agree with Raina. It would be helpful to have someone with you who knows her way around the sanitarium. Raina and I can keep an eye on Paxton while you’re gone.”
Jake hesitated and then surrendered to the logic.
“All right,” he said.
“You’ll need a good, fast, reliable car,” Luther said to Jake. “I wouldn’t trust that secondhand Oldsmobile you picked up when you tracked down Thelma Leggett. Adelaide’s Ford isn’t in great shape, either. You can take my car.”
“Thanks,” Jake said.
Adelaide headed for the stairs. “I’ll get my gun.”
Jake groaned. “I was afraid you were going to say that.”
Chapter 47
The Rushbrook Sanitarium loomed in the dawn fog, a monstrous gargoyle frozen in stone. Adelaide had spent the past three hours trying to fortify her nerves, but when she saw the asylum, she knew that nothing could have prepared her for the cold shock. The Duchess’s words rang in her ears. You should not return to this place. You don’t belong here.
Jake brought the car to a halt near the front gate and shut down the engine. He sat quietly for a moment, his hands resting on the steering wheel, and contemplated the sanitarium.
“Looks like a movie set for a horror film,” he said.
“According to the Duchess, the house has a very odd history,” Adelaide said, trying to distract herself with facts. “It was built by a man who made a fortune in oil. He set out to construct a Gothic castle that he thought would please his East Coast bride. The story is that when she saw it for the first time on her honeymoon, she was horrified. She announced that she would never live in such an ugly place. There was a quarrel. The husband went mad and pushed his bride out one of the tower room windows. She was killed, of course.”
“Just like Ormsby,” Jake said.
Adelaide looked at him. “Yes, just like Ormsby.”
“I can see someone inside the guardhouse at the front gate.”
“That will be Oscar,” Adelaide said. “He works the night shift. The day man, Pete, won’t arrive until seven.”
“Not a lot of security for a secret drug manufacturing facility.”
“I don’t think there was much need for security, at least not until recently. Most people aren’t even aware that Rushbrook exists. There are two orderlies on every floor and they are all hired for their muscle. But I’m quite sure they aren’t involved in the drug ring.”
“What makes you so certain?”
“For the simple reason that none of them is getting rich,” Adelaide said. “They grumble constantly about the low pay. The only real security is on ward five, where the most insane patients are housed. That ward is locked twenty-four hours a day. The entrance to the tower room lab is on that floor.”
“You said you know where the keys are kept.”
“Yes. They are in Gill’s office on the second floor.”
“But you think the files we want are kept upstairs in the lab.”
“That’s where they were when I was—” She broke off because she refused to label herself a patient. “When I was here.”
“You mean when you were involuntarily in residence?” Jake asked with a wry smile.
For some reason the grim attempt at humor buoyed her spirits.
“Yes,” she said.
“But you escaped,” he said. “Don’t ever forget that. You saved yourself.”
She took a breath. “Right. I escaped. So, how do we do this?”
“The easy way. We walk through the front door.”
They got out of the car. Jake paused to put on his coat and collect an official-looking briefcase from the trunk of the car.
They went toward the guardhouse. A stocky man with thinning red hair peered out at them. He glanced briefly at Adelaide, started to switch his attention to Jake, hesitated, and then looked back at Adelaide. His eyes widened in astonishment.
“Adelaide? Mrs. Massey? Is that you?”