Chills Read Online Free PDF Page B

nearly suffocating in its lengths and turns. Unlike other mental hospitals in which Kathy had found occasion to visit in order to interview staff or patients, Connecticut-Newlyn Hospital, formerly Newlyn Hospital for the Criminally Insane, was one large building with wards, dubbed “halls,” extending out from Parker Hall’s administrative offices in broad slants.
    She parked and sat for several minutes, watching the snow gather on her windshield and slowly blot out her view of the hospital. It took every ounce of willpower inside her to make herself get out of the car. Once the cold hit her face, she found it a little easier to trudge through the snow to the front door.
    Kathy pressed the intercom button and gave her full name, then flashed her credentials at the CCTV camera mounted above the front door. There was a click and a crackle on the other end, followed by a soul-jarring buzz as the front door was unlocked. Kathy left the blindingly bright cold behind and stepped into the main lobby.
    Ahead and to the right, a middle-aged woman with coiffed blond hair, a tired mouth, and cool eyes magnified by thick glasses sat behind a glass wall in a small office. She waved Kathy over.
    â€œHey, Margaret,” Kathy said with a small smile as she approached. She held up her ID against the glass between them, then slid it beneath through a narrow opening above the wooden desk. Margaret was a stickler for visitor log-in protocol despite their familiarity, and Kathy had no issue with making sure the video recordings showed Margaret doing her job to the letter. Going through the familiar motions after so long, though, brought back a surprising surge of heavy old feelings.
    Margaret smiled back, or rather, offered a curl of the mouth that passed for her smile, and returned Kathy’s ID, then handed her a laminated visitor’s pass on a lanyard with a clip. “Hello, Katherine. Long time no see. Are you here to see our new Mrs. Dorsey?”
    â€œNo, uh . . . actually, I’m here to, um, to see Toby.”
    Margaret’s face remained professionally placid. She nodded, scribbling something on a clipboarded form, which she then handed to Kathy to sign. After Kathy had returned it, the older woman spoke again, softly. “You’ll find him in three-oh-five.”
    Kathy tried to smile, but it slipped awkwardly off her face.
    â€œWant an orderly to go with you?”
    â€œWon’t be necessary,” Kathy said with a tone lighter than she felt. “Won’t be there long.”
    Margaret seemed to think on that for a moment, perhaps considering Kathy’s scar. “Be careful, Katherine.”
    â€œI will.”
    Kathy turned before Margaret could see the pain in her eyes and made her way down the hall. There were three more doors, two that her visitor’s pass unlocked electronically and the last, which was opened for her by a guard armed with a Taser, before she reached the visiting area. She sat at the end of a long table that reminded her of high school lunchrooms and waited. A few minutes later, the same armed guard brought Toby in.
    It had been a while since she had seen her brother. He looked smaller somehow, smaller than when he had loomed over her, smaller than he had when he had cut her—
    She swallowed hard, avoiding his eyes, which she could feel fixed on her even from across the room. His blond hair had been cut short, almost military-style, and it bristled as he tilted his head. His arms and chest, once a well-built, worked-out source of pride beneath his tattoos, looked less bulky than she remembered. She didn’t suppose they let him have weights at the hospital, which probably drove him nuts. His wrists were handcuffed to each other and to a chain around his waist that also extended to cuffs around his ankles. Kathy made herself look at the youngish, good-looking face. Its pleasantness, and its resemblance to her own, were offset by a sneer of a mouth and cold