“Wish I could tell you it would be soon, Heidi,” he said. “Meanwhile, as long as Dr.
Delaware’s here, he might as well give Peake a try.”
“Oh, sure,” she said. “Whatever.”
The door closed after me with a pneumatic hiss.
I stood halfway between the door and the bed, watching Peake. If he was aware of my presence, he didn’t show it.
I watched. He did tongue calisthenics. Rocked, rolled, fluttered his eyes.
Standing there immobile, suspended in gray light, I began to feel formless, weightless. My nose habituated to the stink. Keeping my eyes on Peake’s hands, I edged closer. A few more minutes of observation and I thought I’d detected a cadence to his movements.
Tongue-thrust, curl and hover, lingual retreat, neck roll clockwise, then counterclockwise.
Approximately ten-second sequences, six repetitions per minute, played out against the constant rocking of his torso.
I took in other details.
His bed wasn’t made. Looked as if it was never made. The hands rested on rumpled, sweat-stained covers. The fingers of the left hand were hooked in the sheeting, half-hidden.
Hands that had wreaked so much ruin… I moved to within inches of the bed, standing over him for a while.
No change in the routine. I kneeled. Bringing myself down to Peake’s eye level. His eyes were glued shut. Strain-marks at the corners said he was pressing the lids together tightly. A few moments ago, with Heidi, they’d been half-open. Responding to that bit of stimulation? Withdrawing further, once returned to isolation?
I heard, a tapping from below. Looked down. His feet. Bare-the paper slippers had come off without my noticing.
Two thin white feet. Oversized feet. Unnaturally long toes. Drumming the floor, faster than the upper-body movements, out of rhythm with the tardive dance.
So much motion, but no flavor of intent-the inanimate dangle of a puppet.
All through it, his eyes remained sealed. This close I could see dry, greenish crust flecking the lashes.
“Ardis,”Isaid.
The beat went on.
I tried again. Nothing.
A few minutes later: “Ardis, this is Dr. Delaware. I want to talk to you about Dr.
Argent.”
Nothing.
“Claire Argent.”
No response. I repeated myself. Peake’s eyelids remained shut, but started to tic-lids contracting and releasing, lateral movement visible under the skin. A few green specks dropped onto his lap.
Reaction? Or random movement?
I sidled closer. Had he wanted to kiss me or claw out my eyes, he could’ve.
“Ardis, I’m here about Dr. Argent.”
Another eyelid tic-a jerky wave traveling beneath the papery skin.
Definite response. On some level, he was able to focus.
I said, “You were important to Dr. Argent.”
Tic tic tic.
“She was important to you, Ardis. Tell me why.”
His eyelids quivered like a frog in a galvanic experiment. I counted the time in tardive sequences: One T.D., two T.D.’s…tenT.D.’s.
Twelve. Two minutes. He stopped.
Subjectively, it seemed longer than a hundred and twenty seconds. I was far from bored, but time was dragging. I started wondering how many minutes Peake’s rampage had consumed. Had the Ardullos been fully awake or asleep? Or somewhere in between-a murky semiconsciousness as they died, thinking it was all a bad dream?
I mentioned Claire’s name again. Peake’s eyes ticced. But nothing more.
I thought back to his arrest photo, the look of terror in his eyes. It reminded me of something-a vicious dog from my boyhood. It had drawn lots of blood but, when finally cornered by the dogcatcher, had curled up and whimpered like a starving pup.
…
How much violence was fear catapulted back at the world? Was all viciousness cowardice at the root?
No, I didn’t think so, was still convinced Claire’s murderer had acted from a position of power and dominance.
Fun.
Had Peake enjoyed his blood walk? Looking at him now, I found it hard to imagine him extracting enjoyment out of anything.
As I watched at him now, the notion of this husk decapitating his own mother, stalking up the stairs, bloody knife in hand, running from room to room inflicting agony and death, seemed impossibly remote….
As unlikely as kindly Mr. Holtzmann sectioning and freezing his wife.
In this place, logic meant nothing.