Chapter 28 Chapter Twenty Six

"Debs," I looked at her, "maybe I can give you a little hope." I thought about it for a while.Dr. Danko will know that Kyle is tried and tested, as I already told Deborah, his purpose is to break the victim's will, to turn him into something beyond repair, so... "It's just speculation, but I think the deranged doctor might have given Kyle a few more days to live with and wouldn't do anything to him right away." "Why?" She frowned. "To make the whole process last longer and make him submit. Kyle knows what will happen to him, and he will face it with strength. But imagine that he is locked in the dark, his whole body is tied up, and he can only Use your imagination. So I thought maybe there was another victim in front of him, the guy who had gone missing. Kyle could hear everything—saws, scalpels, moans, voices. He could even smell He smelled it and knew it was going to happen to him. He didn't even lose a toenail and he was half crazy."

"My God," she said, "is that what you call hope?" "Yes, we'll find him in a little more time, but I could be wrong," I said. "Don't make a mistake, Dex. Don't make a mistake this time," she said, looking out the window. I shook my head. This was bound to turn into a tedious chore and no fun at all. There are only two ways I can think of, and both of these ways can't be implemented until dawn. "Deborah, we've got to start from scratch with a routine investigation, the kind that Chutsky keeps the Department out of. Luckily, we can use your badge to fool a few people and ask a few questions. But we'll have to wait until dawn."

We showed up early in the morning in the pale green medical staff lounge of Jackson Memorial Hospital. Dr. Mark Spielman was a big man who looked less like a doctor than a retired football linebacker.But he happened to be on duty when the ambulance delivered the thing to Jackson Memorial Hospital that day. He gets angry when he mentions it. "If I see that kind of thing again, I'm going to retire and start raising dachshunds." He shook his head. "The emergency room at Jackson Hospital is one of the busiest in the United States. It's where the weirdest patients in the world go, but that's a whole other story."

"What's the prognosis?" Deborah asked.