Free Angel of Mercy by Andrew Neiderman Page A

like to meet your sister.”
    “My sister?”
    “Uh huh. Properly, of course. That’s why I came here to ask your permission to drop by and pay you two a visit. Whenever you think it would be a good time,” he added. Faye stared at him silently.
    “How do you know about my sister?” she asked.
    “Well, I just happened to see her one day and I was quite surprised at first … being you two are twins…”
    “Have you called our house and spoken to her?”
    Faye demanded.
    “Oh no,” Corpsy said, shaking his head vigorously.
    “I would never do that.”
    “Did you speak to her in a store or…”
    “No, ma’am.”
    “Susie is a shy girl. I don’t think your paying us a visit would be wise,” Faye said sharply. “And I wouldn’t advise you to call or try to speak to her if you should see her out and about. She is a fragile person, Mr ….”
    “Ratner.”
    “Ratner. I have a special responsibility to look after her. I’m sure you understand,” Faye said and snapped the magazine open again. It was as good as her saying “Dismissed.”
    Corpsy’s naturally pallid complexion turned crimson. He started to stutter another explanation and then quickly retreated, hurrying down to the sanctity of his lab, where he paced between two dissected male bodies and berated himself for making himself look so foolish.
    But he couldn’t erase Susie Sullivan from his mind.
    The image of her hobbling down those stairs lingered and tormented him.
    He had caught her angelic smile and he dreamt that smile was for him.
    Of course, he understood and appreciated Faye Sullivan’s reaction to his request. In her shoes he might very well have responded the same way, but she just didn’t know him, he thought. If she did, once she did, she wouldn’t see him as any sort of threat to her sister.
    And so, with the same sort of monomania he brought to all his obsessions, he began to pursue Faye Sullivan, seeking ways to ingratiate himself with her.
    He followed her every assignment and made it his business to be there whenever she arrived at the hospital to greet her, and whenever she left, to bid her a good evening. He tried to expand his hellos and goodbyes with small talk about her patients, the hospital, her work, even the weather, but she resisted.
    And then he thought he would approach her through her patients and their families. He began to visit her patients whenever she wasn’t on duty.
    With those who were able to talk, he spent time, always turning the discussion to Faye and praising her on her abilities.
    When the patients were too sick to talk, he spoke to the lingering spouse or daughter or son, if there was any.
    That was how he learned that Susie Sullivan cared for some of them.
    When the first corpse of a dead spouse appeared in autopsy, it was as if he were greeting an old and special friend. This was someone Susie Sullivan had known and touched and cared for with affection. He treated the bodies the same way, taking extra care, extra interest, and that was how he discovered what the chief of pathology had missed: amyl nitrate.
    Taken in these dosages, it would bring on a heart attack.
    He had every intention of pointing it out. He imagined Faye was somehow responsible, but then he envisioned Susie Sullivan’s angelic smile and fantasized her beside him. Any investigation most likely would begin with her, and he could do nothing to hurt her, nothing to put suspicion on her. However, armed with his knowledge he found new courage and became far more brazen when he approached the stern Faye Sullivan. He lingered longer when he greeted her and he saw she noticed the way he looked at her. There was curiosity in those blue eyes now, curiosity and not just annoyance.
    One evening he waited two hours in the parking lot for her to complete her tour, and when she appeared, he got out of his car and approached.
    “I’d like to meet your sister,” he said firmly.
    “Now look, Mr. Ratner…”
    She remembered his name, he