Free Disturb by J.A. Konrath Page B

tip of it.
    Along the walls, in racks, were dozens of labeled CDRs. The computer looked like any other modest system, unless you examined the back and noticed the extra cables running to and from the CPU. Red typed a command and the sound came up on the speakers.
    Moaning and breathing, from Manny’s room.
    Red smiled. He’d been right. He checked to make sure it was being burned on the CD, and then turned the sound down.
    Bugging Manny’s room had been his idea. Red was an ethical doctor, but this was an exceptional case. Manny was his patient, yes, and he wanted to help him. But first and foremost, Manny was a guinea pig for an experimental drug. Red’s job here was to evaluate the psychological effect it had on Manny, and if that meant violating his trust, so be it.
    It was a good thing he did, because some of the things Red had recorded were extraordinary.
    He took down a CD labeled “MANNY and DAVID #7”, put it in the second disk drive, and turned up the volume.
    Voices filled the small room, David and Manny in a heated argument. Red sat down and picked up his notebook, leafing through it.
    “You cover for me. You always cover for me.”
    “I have to, David. You’re my brother.”
    Red squinted at his handwriting, wishing it were more legible. He found the session he wanted and read. Manny had been talking about his youth, describing an instance where David killed a neighbor’s dog. Manny told their foster parents. David was sent to juvenile hall, and like most kids in juvee, he’d been abused.
    Manny had never gotten over the guilt of doing that to his brother. Even though Manny hadn’t been the one to beat the animal to death, he felt responsible.
    “Stop it, David! You’re hurting me!”
    Red pursed his lips, listening to the tape, wondering if he could actually hear the singeing sound of the hot iron on skin or if it was his imagination.
    He questioned, yet again, if he should have attempted to stop it. True, Manny’s healing abilities were accelerated, but shouldn’t he have stepped in and tried to prevent him from being hurt?
    “Not my job.” Red said the words to reaffirm his decision. “My job is to observe and evaluate.”
    Dr. Nikos had never known about the friction between Manny and David. Red had planned on telling him, but had wanted to gather enough data to formulate a diagnosis first. He knew David was violent, but was unsure if his incessant mention of homicide was real or imaginary. He believed that David would never actually kill someone. It was just tough talk; bravado and swagger.
    Or was it?
    A sobering thought, especially in light of Dr. Nikos’s murder. But Red was sure it couldn’t have been David. David hadn’t been there.
    No, someone else killed Dr. Nikos. Red set it in his mind. It had to have been someone else.
    He popped out the CD and checked on the sounds in Manny’s room.
    More moaning and groaning.
    Red smiled. “Ah, youth.”
    He left it on, again telling himself it was for professional rather than prurient reasons. Theena intrigued him. As a Freudian, he was immediately aware of the complex she suffered from; it was her primary motivation for beginning the affair with Manny. Red was unsure of her motive in this instance.
    It might have been the need for sex, but she seemed to have been getting enough of that already. Was she doing it with Bill out of pity?
    The moans didn’t sound like pity to Red.
    Something else then. Romantic feelings, perhaps? Or perhaps Bill was a more appropriate substitute than Manny was.
    Red switched off the sound and left the room, locking the door behind him. Fascinating as she was, Theena wasn’t his patient. She had a right to her secrets.
    He did, however, pocket a CD labeled MANNY and THEENA #4, to listen to later.
    It was only lunch time, but with Manny still missing, Red had no reason to stay at DruTech. He pondered going into the office downtown, but everything there could wait.
    Red chose to go home. Rather than track down