“Are you?”
“Of course not.”
“And you’re sure you don’t have any idea where she might be?”
“I told you, I don’t,” he said. “I really wish I did. She asked me to come into her ward one night so we could talk, but I told her no, that we’d get in trouble if we got caught and then I’d never see her again. But she insisted. She said she’d do something drastic if I didn’t show up. She said someone was sneaking into the ward and hurting her, and she thought it would stop if they saw me there.”
“Hurting her?” Sage said. She felt sick. “Do you think it was Wayne?”
“I don’t know. She never got the chance to tell me, because that was the night she went missing. Now I can’t help thinking the worst, and it’s killing me.” His eyes grew glassy and his voice caught. “She had problems for sure, but she just wanted to be loved.”
A lump lodged in Sage’s throat. If the one person in this horrible place who cared about Rosemary was thinking the worst, what was she supposed to think? “If Dr. Baldwin thinks you were messing around with Rosemary,” she said, “why didn’t he fire you?”
“Because he’s grasping at straws. And because my mother donates a lot of money to this place, and my uncle is Willowbrook’s program director and the head of the physical therapy department. He warned me to stay away from Rosemary because she’s psychotic and paranoid and she’ll be afraid of everything and everyone for the rest of her life, but I didn’t listen. But I think the biggest reason Baldwin didn’t fire me was because my uncle said he’d go to the press.”
“Go to the press? About what?”
“About her going missing. And all the other things that go on in Willowbrook.”
Sage’s eyes went wide. “Are you saying they haven’t told anyone she’s gone?”
He nodded.
“Not even the cops?”
“Hell no, especially not the cops! That would be a stain on Willowbrook’s reputation. And administration would never allow that.” His voice was filled with sarcasm.
“Oh my God. So they never even brought in a search party?”
He shook his head. “The staff was instructed to check every building on campus. And they sent some of the security guards out to search the lawns and woods, but that was it.”
“I don’t understand. Why wouldn’t they ask for help? Why wouldn’t they get the cops to come with dogs and horses and officers who know what they’re doing?”
“Because that would have brought reporters, which would make it harder to hide all the bad shit that happens here. You’ve seen the way residents are treated. This isn’t a school. It’s a warehouse for incurables. Only a handful of kids over in the experiment ward get any sort of education, and those lessons only last a couple hours a day, if that. And the only reason they’re getting any lessons at all is because their parents signed papers allowing Dr. Krugman to give them experimental vaccines in exchange for better accommodations. Meanwhile the doctors are putting feces from hepatitis patients in the chocolate milk.”
She put a hand over her stomach, certain she’d vomit if she tried to speak.
“But they’re not getting better care over there. They’re dying,” he continued. “The public has no idea how many residents die in this place every year. Some of them make it into the local paper, like the ten-year-old who was scalded to death in the shower because of the crappy plumbing, and the twelve-year-old who strangled himself while trying to get free from a restraining device. But most don’t, like the eighteen-year-old who died last week after another resident punched him in the throat. And your sister isn’t the first to disappear.”
Sage wanted him to stop talking. At the same time, she had to know the truth, even as hopelessness swept through her like a brutal wind. “That’s what Norma said. But she . . .” She stopped herself. Norma thought Jack the Ripper and the Creature from the Black Lagoon were real. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter what she said.”
“Obviously it mattered to you, so tell me.”
“Norma said it was Cropsey.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted them. Cropsey was nothing but another rumor. Deep down she knew that, but being at Willowbrook made the unthinkable seem real.
Something that looked like sorrow filled Eddie’s eyes, or maybe it was concern; it was hard to tell. She wanted him to say something—anything—to let her know he didn’t think she was as crazy as Norma. “See, I told you it wasn’t important,” she said. “It’s just a stupid urban legend I heard when I was a kid. I was just surprised when Norma mentioned it.”
“I don’t think it’s stupid,” he said. “I grew up hearing about Cropsey too. And honestly, those stories scared the shit out of me. My older brother and his friends used to drag me into the tunnels beneath the old Seaview Sanatorium and leave me there to find my way out. They said they wanted to catch Cropsey. I was the bait.”
“Oh my God. That’s horrible!”
He shrugged. “Well, my brother was an asshole, but I survived.”
Sage pushed the thoughts of Cropsey from her mind and steered the conversation back to her sister. “Did anyone question Wayne and the rest of the staff when Rosemary disappeared?”
“Of course. Dr. Baldwin had lots of us questioned, some more than once, including me. But nothing ever came of it.”
“Do you think she could have escaped?” She was grasping at any shred of hope, but she had no choice. She had to keep going, to keep searching for the truth. Otherwise she and her sister would both be lost.
“As far as I know,” he said, “the only way residents leave Willowbrook is by dying.”
She swallowed. “Are you saying . . . are you saying you think Rosemary is dead?”
“No,” he said, regret creasing his forehead. “I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant. I’ve just never heard of anyone escaping, that’s all.”
She let out a frustrated, exhausted sigh. Talking about Cropsey and everything that was wrong with Willowbrook wouldn’t get her released or find her sister. She had to take action. “If you can’t get me out of here, will you do something else for me?”
“If I can.”
“Will you call my stepfather and tell him I’m here? Dr. Baldwin said he called him, but I don’t know if he’s telling the truth. And even if he did, he would have just said that Rosemary was back safe and sound. If you tell my stepfather you work here and they locked me up because they think I’m my sister, maybe he’ll give a shit.”
“Where does he think you are?”
“At a friend’s, probably. He doesn’t care as long as I’m out of his hair. His name is Alan Tern and his number is 212-567-2345. Can you remember it?”
He nodded and repeated the number. “Will he believe some guy on the phone he’s never met?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “But I have to try something. I’m warning you though, he can be a real asshole, especially when he’s drinking, which, if he’s home to answer the phone, he will be.”