Free Asylum - 13 Tales of Terror by Matt Drabble Page B

neither the time nor the inclination to look after them. He offered a solution to their problems, one that tucked their burdens far away from sight and guilty consciences.
    He looked out of his office window that framed the beautiful mountain view to the car below. It would be the last weekend that he would be able to accept a new resident, as the weather had already worsened considerably and the roads would be impassable come Monday. In fact he’d had to pay the driver considerably over the odds to make the trip today, but his prize had been worth the expense. Sarah Conner had certainly merited the costs involved in bringing her to him. She stood below, arching her back to alleviate the stress of the long drive. She was a Nordic beauty set within her perfect environment. She was naturally blonde with piercing crystal blue eyes and cheekbones that could cut glass. Dietz ran his hungry eyes over her limber frame; she was a woman of extraordinary physical and financial splendor; she was perfect for his appetites. His selection and admission process were flawless and only the best and brightest were ever chosen. He paid a lot of money to an army of researchers and investigators to find his prey and it was a sound investment. According to her file her family were distant and none too interested. The bulk of her estate was held in a trust under her own name and inaccessible to anyone else. Her psychological profile indicated a perfect blend of vulnerability and loyalty, with an underlying lack of a father figure and a desire to please. The only slight problem was her beauty which seemed hauntingly familiar. He knew that his own weakness had almost cost him everything not so long ago, and he had sworn to himself that he would never allow his own dark desires to put him in jeopardy again.
    His plans were mind numbingly simple in origin, but brain twistingly difficult in practice. He would select those most vulnerable to his own blend of medication and psychological manipulation and become the one figure to which they owed everything. Set within his isolated walls he would become their sole purpose for living; he would plant himself deep into the roots of their lives and become the one thing that they could not live without. After that, it was a simple case of having their wills altered and for him to become their sole beneficiary. He had been pulling the scam on the elderly during his previous life as a residential home owner. But, it had become more and more difficult to manipulate those whose senses and functions were failing as their minds drifted away and could no longer remember the hard work that he had put into them. He had toyed around with the idea - which he still thought was a solid one - before settling on a residential home for the blind. He made sure that his patients were vulnerable, often unsure of themselves, and emotionally under-developed.
    He watched the car pull away and disappear back beneath the blanket of thick snow that had begun to fall once again; the white blanket sealing him and his guests from the rest of the world, and its prying eyes.
    He wandered out from his office and down the sweeping dark oak staircase that dominated the atrium. The institute was a large wooden building that looked more like a ski lodge than a hospital. The log walls blended in perfectly with the snow covered surroundings. There were several luxury hotel standard bedrooms, but these were mainly available to the staff and one was kept as a showroom to any potential sighted inquirers. He’d always figured that it would be a waste of valuable money to spend on decorations that his guests could never appreciate. Their rooms were sparse but comfortable enough for his needs, and theirs had never entered much into his equations.
    “Ms Conner,” he greeted his new arrival warmly as she entered on the arm of one of his nurses.
    “Dr Dietz,” she replied in a tone to match his.
    Expert ears , he mused to himself as he evaluated her.