Castle on the Edge Read Online Free

to him, or her, when we met Doctor Calloway in his office in an hour.
    The Residents
    The elevator door opened on the second floor. Mary, Doctor Lederer and I went to the nurses’ station, where Miss Hathaway was waiting for us. The station was centered in the middle of the floor, like a hub. Last year a telephone switchboard had been installed, to make it the new central communication center of the Castle.
    “Miss Hathaway,” Mary said, “allow me to introduce you to Doctor Franz Lederer, our visiting psychiatrist.”
    “How do you do, Doctor Lederer, welcome to Castillo Del Mar. I am Dorothy Hathaway, the administrative secretary.”
    “How do you do, Miss Hathaway, I’m very happy to meet you,” Doctor Lederer said with his professional protocol as he took her hand.
    Then Mary said, “Our office is on the east side of this floor, Doctor Lederer.”
    The four of us then proceeded down the corridor, turned left, walked past several rooms to the end of the hall where the administrative office was. The office itself was partitioned, as it was shared by both Mary and Miss Hathaway; we entered on Miss Hathaway’s side to the right. She asked us to sit down. I knew what was on Mary’s mind and what she was about to ask Miss Hathaway…because if she didn’t, I would have.
    “Miss Hathaway, are you aware of the new patient that Doctor Calloway admitted last night?”
    “New patient. Admitted last night?” she bellowed with surprise.
    “Yes. Doctor Calloway told us he, ‘personally’ brought in a new patient last night.”
    “I’m most certainly not aware of it, Nurse Holden. Why didn’t he tell me? I should have known about this at least six weeks ago. He didn’t tell me. Nobody told me. Nobody told me anything.” she said, trying to control her reaction.
    “It’s not your fault, Miss Hathaway. Mary and I didn’t know about it either, not until about an hour ago; that is, when Doctor Calloway told us,” I said.
    Doctor Lederer said, “Yes, Doctor Calloway apparently admitted the ‘mystery’ patient sometime last night, in secret.” Then he looked at me and said, “Alex, do you think it was before or after we got here?”
    “I don’t know, Doctor Lederer, I don’t know. I’m not sure how he brought this patient in either…unless he used his own car, or a taxi. Ordinarily, our policy is to use the staff vehicle for transporting and admitting patients…or any official hospital business for that matter. So I don’t know. The car is still in San Francisco. I don’t even know where the patient is. None of us do.”
    “Well, I’m sure Doctor Calloway will tell us everything, including the patient’s name, and the reason for the cryptic entry. I mean, I can’t imagine he would treat this person on his own without the assistance of the hospital staff…the thought of that is utterly absurd,” Doctor Lederer said with an air of superiority.
    “Yes, it certainly would be,” I responded.
    Then Miss Hathaway said, “Well, I hope he tells me soon so I can start the paper work.”
    Then Mary assured Miss Hathaway, “I didn’t mean to imply that you knew about this and deliberately didn’t tell, or that you weren’t doing your job; if I did give that impression, I apologize. It’s just that we’re all so surprised Doctor Calloway didn’t say anything to any of us about it.”
    I also chimed in by saying to Miss Hathaway, “Not only that, but we don’t know if the patient is a man or a woman or what the nature of the condition is. What’s more, we don’t even know where this patient is. None of us knows anything about this individual. We only know that he or she is somewhere in this building.
    Because Doctor Calloway told Mary, me, and Doctor Lederer that he’d brought him, or her, to our Castle retreat last night. He didn’t say what time it was either. He was very secretive. All he said this morning was that he was going to orientate our new patient while we introduce Doctor Lederer to