Maddy's Floor Read online

  So what if she'd been here for almost a year? She planned to walk out of here soon – healthy, happy and capable of dealing with the world outside.

  Stupid doctors. What did they know?

  ***

  Maddy, her hair in a fluffy towel, slipped on a warm robe and stepped into her bedroom. The hot bath had been a relief after the chill she'd experienced since talking with Stefan.

  Pulling a silk nightie from her closet, she tossed it on the bed then went to work drying her hair. She sneezed. Hopefully, she wasn't coming down with something. She really couldn't afford that right now.

  She needed advice and who better than Janice Shiner? A powerful energy worker, Janice was one of the pioneers of the medical intuitive field. Not a medical doctor herself, she'd come into her abilities through the impending death of her only son. Janice's determination to save him had flung her into the world of colors, vibrations and transparencies. She'd managed to see inside her son's body to what the doctors had missed. Getting his doctor to listen to her had been a different story. Knowing the child was dying anyway, he'd changed the medication to treat the rapidly encroaching staph infection they'd missed the first time around.

  Her son had lived through the experience, and both the doctor and Janice had been forever changed. She'd moved on to work with several other doctors, studying to understand and develop some kind of standardization of her work and to teach others. Out of those students, only a dozen were strong, practicing medical intuitives. Maddy was one of them. She'd been able, not only to see the human body in a unique way, but also manipulate the energy in such a way as to facilitate healing…occasionally with miraculous results.

  She picked up the phone and made the call. "Janice, do you have a moment? I've got a possible situation developing and need your help."

  "Tell me." Janice never wasted words or sugarcoated anything. Quickly, Maddy explained, adding in some of Stefan's concerns.

  "I don't know about the tear stuff, I'm not much into that psychic business as you well know, and I don't buy into any evil stuff when I do energy work. As for this other business…" Janice's voice died off. "I've never seen it myself, although I remember Jimmy, one of my earlier students, telling me years ago, many years ago, about something similar."

  "How long ago did this happen?"

  "Oh, who knows? Twenty, maybe thirty years ago. It might even have been longer."

  "What did he see?" Maddy walked over to her bed and sat down. With her spare hand, she continued to towel dry her hair.

  "Something about a deep purple energy and blackness."

  Maddy bolted to her feet. "That sounds like what I saw." She paced the small room. "Maybe he saw the same thing."

  "Maybe, but who's to say? He didn't say much more. I think it kind of freaked him out, to tell you the truth. I know he wouldn't speak of it again."

  "It freaked the hell out of me too." Maddy walked over to the big window, staring out at the blackness beyond her window. "I was hoping you'd say it wasn't anything to worry about or give me a solution to make it disappear. You know, that sort of thing."

  Janice's voice took on its usual teacher tone. "Everything is energy. If what you are seeing is a person's energy, then it should be easy to see inside the energy and find out exactly what they are doing. Then you might be able to find a way to stop it."

  "And if I can see through it, I should be able to see the source of it." Maddy nodded. That made sense and matched her healing process.

  "Right. Now if you don't have any other questions, I'll head to bed." Janice rang off, leaving Maddy feeling calmer and surer of herself. If something was afoot, she did have the skills to get to the bottom of it. That was the trick. She had to be there when it happened. Only she wasn't at The Haven during the night.

  SUNDAY

  On Sunday, Maddy woke late with more questions than answers.

  She needed a better way to see what was happening on her floor. The floor had been deliberately set up with minimal video cameras. She needed to see the feeds from the ones that existed, and better yet, set up a few more. There were too many unsettling issues pulling her away from her work. She needed to focus on healing, on her patients, not all this other stuff. Surely that was for the police to sort out.

  Now she was convinced that someone was killing her patients. All of this begged the question, could someone really kill another person by damaging, draining, and absorbing the person's energy, their life force, in some way? According to stories she'd heard, the answer was yes. Yet, why would they do this? What was their need? There was enough energy for every person, for every need. There was no shortage. Ever. The reason behind this was what she didn't understand. So, why and how mattered, but the uppermost question in her mind was who'd be targeted next.

  And as much as she'd like to take the day off, she wanted to keep an eye on her floor. She didn't dare stop her vigilance with this mess going on.

  Time to go to work and check on those video feeds.

  ***

  Drew walked through the main floor of The Haven, heading for the stairs. As he pushed open the fire door to the stairs, he half-hoped he'd see the running wild woman again. Walking up slowly, he listened for any sound that might signal a door opening. No such luck. Then again, it was Sunday, and who knew if Dr. Maddy was on duty or not.

  Taking the stairs two at a time, he arrived at his aunt's floor and strode over to speak to her. Doris had been at The Haven for over a year. In the beginning, she'd talked nonstop about coming home. Since her condition had started to deteriorate, she'd switched to speaking more about transferring to Dr. Maddy's floor. According to his uncle, the doctor had said her depression and declining mental state were concerns as well. Medication had helped improve her spirits.

  He and John were her entire family, though Drew vaguely remembered talk about her having had a child long ago. He didn't know the whole story as his aunt had only come into his life to help out after his mother died from breast cancer when he was entering high school.

  Drew had coped by going a little wild. His dad chased the bottle, or rather, a lot of bottles until his death a good ten years ago.

  Walking into her room, Drew waved to a couple of his aunt's friends. He reached her bed and frowned. The bed was empty.

  "She's gone to have her bath, she has."

  Drew spun around to look at the patient across the floor. Her illness had reduced her frame almost to a rack of bones, but under a mop of pepper-gray hair her smile shone bright and true.

  "Has she? Could you please tell her when she gets back that I'm just upstairs? I'll stop in and see her on my way out." Just about to turn away, he stopped and asked, "What kind of a day is she having?"

  The heavily wrinkled neighbor grinned. "Not too good today. She was better yesterday."

  Drew nodded. Everything was normal then.

  Now to see if Dr. Maddy was in. In spite of his calm demeanor, his pulse raced. She fascinated him. He'd heard the rumors. Who hadn't? She'd had some phenomenal results and Drew knew his uncle had twisted someone's arm hard, to get in here. It would be interesting to see how he fared under Dr. Maddy's wing.

  At the top floor, he pushed open the double doors and walked through onto Dr. Maddy's floor. Immediately the sensation of peace and love enveloped him. He stood still for a long moment. The tension in his shoulders eased as a long rippling sigh worked its way to freedom.

  No wonder his aunt and uncle wanted in. He strode the first few feet into the main hallway, searching for the elusive doctor. The décor had an upbeat yet peaceful vibe to it.

  Unlike the rest of The Haven, this floor plan laid out a series of sitting rooms and bedrooms, private yet social, open yet partially closed. Everything was designed for the comfort of a sleeping, healing patient versus the sterile, plastic look of the other floors of the home. Walking a few feet, he casually glanced in at the first bed on the left. He'd been right. There was real bedding and sheets on it. Not the standard issue hospital shit.


  Impressed in spite of himself, he searched for the nurses' station.

  "Excuse me. Is Dr. Maddy here?"

  "I think she's with a patient, right now." The portly nurse wearing the nametag of Gerona, answered him. Her smile actually looked real.

  He pulled out his badge to show her. "I do need to speak with her. Could you let her know I'm here, please?"

  The smile beamed. "No problem. Take a seat in the waiting room."

  "Thanks." He turned around. Waiting room?

  "Down the hall and turn left."

  He nodded his thanks, then followed the instructions and found himself at the entrance to a bright sunny sitting room that was more inviting than any room in his own house. He wandered over to the double French doors that opened out onto a large open balcony. It overlooked bright, cheerful gardens sprawled out behind The Haven. The seating area was more than generous and although there were a dozen or so straight-backed chairs, the space between the round tables was spacious enough for wheelchairs to maneuver.

  He admired the view of the city park off in the distance. This was a nice place. He'd have to remember to congratulate his uncle for whatever devious moves he'd made to get in here. He just hoped those moves were legal.

  "Hello, Detective. I understand you're waiting for me."

  Drew spun around at the sound of her voice. He couldn't help it, his gaze slid to her feet. Three inch black stilettos. Be still my beating heart.

  "Detective?"

  Snapping his head up, he felt the heat climb his face. "Sorry. I wasn't sure you'd be in. Have you got a few moments?"

  Maddy nodded. "I'm not normally in on Sundays. However, with new patients moving in there's a lot to do. Shall we go into my office or would you like to sit out here?"

  "Out here would be great."

  "Sure." She led the way and pulled out a chair at the farthest table. Turning to face the view, she sat down and crossed her legs.

  Damn those long smooth legs. Drew had to forcibly pull his gaze away to stare out over the garden.

  "As nice as this is, Detective, I'm assuming this isn't a social visit."

  "No." Drew shifted toward her and pulled his notebook out of his pocket. "Thanks for sending the list of people that had visited Jansen Svaar. If you can think of anyone else he saw on a regular basis, please let me know." He narrowed his gaze, frowning at her. "I'm really here because I don't understand the significance of the bruise on the top of his head. You asked Dr. Miko to check for it, you gave me a quick explanation that made no sense, then you took off. So I also need to know if you have any idea how those bruises occurred?"

  She was already shaking her head. "No, I don't. They are superficial, so it's not as if they were caused by a blow or from lying on something. Normal energy work doesn't leave marks of any kind. I just don't know."

  "Have you ever done any procedure on Jansen that could have resulted on this type of bruising?"

  "Absolutely not. Any procedures are well documented and there had been no need for any kind of intervention because he was doing so well. That's the thing, he was healing."

  "So his death surprised you?" Drew jotted down a few notes but so far nothing helped.

  "Yes and no."

  He looked up in surprise.

  "You have to realize that everyone here is expected to die sooner than later. Jansen's progress was remarkable yet he had a ways to go for a full recovery."

  There was no arguing that.

  She surprised him with her next comment. "I understand from Gerard that your uncle will be joining us soon." Her smile brightened. "That will be nice. We have several more beds we're filling over the next few days."

  "How about extra staff to help with the extra work?"

  Her smile dimmed. "Not going to happen. Budgets, economy and all that." She shrugged those slim shoulders and looked directly into his eyes. "It doesn't really matter. This floor operates separately from the rest of The Haven, so our budgetary needs are separate as well."

  "Just how unusual is this floor?" Drew leaned in, his gaze narrowing on her face. Maybe now he could get real answers. "I hear rumors and conjecture, no actual facts. What exactly goes on up here?"

  Her face assumed the professional polish of one about to give a prepared speech. He waved her quiet. "No. I don't want the sales pitch. I want to know what you do here." He pointed a finger at her. "This floor is named after you. As if you are in charge of something special. I agree it is special. I can see that. I can feel that. I walk through the doors to this floor and it's like coming home. It's warm, peaceful…loving. How? What are you doing to make it so different?"

  Maddy sat back and studied him.

  Drew stared back.

  "It might be a little difficult to explain," she said, cautiously.

  "Try me." He watched her huge chocolate eyes deepen as the expressions played across her face. He watched her carefully, hoping she wouldn't lie to him.

  "This is off the record and has nothing to do with the case."

  Drew pursed his lips and nodded. He snapped his notebook closed and dropped his pen on top. "Fine. Let's hear it."

  Maddy leaned forward slightly, glanced toward the door to make sure they were alone, then back at his face. "It's not a deep mystery. However, due to the sensitive nature of the project, we keep it low key to avoid any paranoid backlash."

  Interesting choice of words.

  "I'm listening."

  "I'm a medical intuitive as well as a licensed medical doctor."

  Drew's gaze narrowed. Medical intuitive. Did he even know what that was?

  She carried on. "As energy is so important to a person's health, we devised a system to maximize a person's healing by utilizing the energy of the person, his surroundings and of those he interacts with to help him to heal. It's like a city system where everything is interdependent and is only as good as the lowest element. In this case, the lowest element is the sick person.

  "As each of these people start to heal, then the energy level around them and us becomes invigorated or energized. That then cycles back around for the patients to use for more healing. Most of these patients have been here for at least six months – an average time factor to clean their energy meridians and to open up their ability to utilize what's available so they can progress through their body's various health conditions and heal."

  Drew blinked. Say what?

  "That's why we can't accept just everyone here. And why the next six months will be tough on all of us with so many new patients coming in. The best scenario would be one new patient a month and even that can slow the healing progression for everyone. Adding a new person is adding a lower element every time. The other patients have to adjust to the shift in energy." She sat back. "I have to adjust, too," she admitted.

  She spoke as if pondering the chances of having The Haven administrators change their plan. Fat chance. Drew knew 'money' people. If they managed to squeeze an extra dollar out of something, they'd try for two. Not that it would help here. He didn't understand exactly what she'd said and the only thing that had registered was that the people here were healing. Healing? These people were dying – weren't they?

  The question refused to stay quiet. "When did your last patient die?"

  Her mouth drooped. "Until Jansen, it had been just over eight months."

  "That long? And how many patients do you have?"

  "Over sixty."

  "Over sixty and only one death. Holy crap. These people are in seriously bad condition before they come to you, aren't they?"

  She nodded. "Yes, they're all terminal. They all need to have a life expectancy of at least six months to join the floor or it damages the energy. Even worse, a death will have a big impact on the other patients, particularly a bad death. Death can be a positive experience for those that have been ill for a long while or it can be a negative experience. Jansen's death affected everyone in a very negative way. We're still working through that."

  Drew shook his head. "What
's to figure out? Of course, everyone is upset. Someone who appeared to be getting better – something they were all hoping to do – died. And unexpectedly at that."

  "It could be that. Or it could be something else." Maddy stared down at the frosted glass table, her finger tracing some invisible pattern. "I don't know."

  "That sounds odd coming from a doctor."

  She raised her face to the sunlight, a lopsided smile on her face. "Really? Well, I don't know that all doctors are black and white. Besides, like I said, I'm a medical intuitive and a doctor."

  "What does that mean? I'm not sure that I've even heard that term before."