"Which is?"
"Try the knob first. " I pushed, and the door swung open.
The corridor beyond was brilliantly white and glaringly empty. Every door gaped wide. I didn't like it, but I took a deep breath, drew my weapon--who knows how fast whatever we might encounter could move--and said, "Let's go. "
Will set his computer under the receptionist's desk and followed. He left his weapon in its holster. He'd never been very good with it. Will Cadotte was much better at hand-to-hand.
As we moved down the corridor, every room not only appeared empty but, upon further checking, was empty.
"Maybe everyone got better," Will murmured.
"Then where are the doctors, the nurses, the janitors? Whose cars are those in the lot?"
"Got me. "
I liked this place less and less the longer we were there. Each room had been lived in, if you could call being incarcerated in the equivalent of a padded room "living. "
I pointed to the camera in the corner of the hallway. "There has to be a security office somewhere. " The red light was on. Tape was rolling.
"I saw cameras in all the rooms, too," Will said. "Wonder what that was about. "
"To keep track of patient care, or lack thereof. We need to find the other end of all those seeing eyes. "
As we'd checked every room, every closet, every nook and cranny on the main floor, when I found the door that led to the basement, I started down without hesitation.
"Hold on. " Will laid a hand on my shoulder. "Do you watch scary movies?"
I glanced up. The bright light from the hall flared around his head, casting his pretty face in shadow. "Why on earth would I watch a horror flick when half the time I'm living in one?"
"The most important rule forgotten by stupid heroines everywhere is: Don't go in the basement. "
I hated being called stupid almost as much as I hated being called a heroine.
"I've got a gun. " I lifted the weapon.
"You always do. How many times has a gun been useless against the monster du jour?"
More than I cared for. Still - "We can't just leave. You want to tell Edward we were too frightened to go in the basement?"
He took a deep breath then let it out. "You could tell him. "
"No thanks. " Edward was often scarier than anything we uncovered on the job.
Will fumbled behind me, and light flared above and below us.
"See. " I gestured with my gun. "Nothing scary down here. "
Although I had to say that the extreme cleanliness was disturbing. Didn't all basements have their share of cobwebs, dust and rats? Apparently not the basement of the Riverview Psychiatric Clinic.
I reached the bottom of the steps and was blinded by the brilliance. Everything was painted white--floor, ceiling, walls, doors. There were two. I opened the first, leading with my gun. The lack of light in front of me after having so much behind me made me blink. Nothing jumped out and said "Grrr. " All I heard was the low rumble of machinery.
"Furnace," Will said.
The second door revealed what we'd been searching for--the security office--also darkened so the screens were easy to see. The place was empty as the rest of the building. The echoing silence and shadowy atmosphere gave me the urge to tread lightly and whisper. I guess that wasn't a bad thing.
"Check all the screens," I murmured.
One glance and my unease deepened. While we'd been inside, dusk had fallen. As previously mentioned, bad things happened after the sun went down.