101 Mystery Stories

28 Terror in the Night Robert Bloch

It must have been about two o’clock when Barbara started shaking me.

She kept saying “Wake up!” over and over again, and tugging at my shoulder. Since I’m generally a pretty sound sleeper, it took me almost a minute to come to.

Then I noticed she had the lights on and she was sitting up in her bed.

“What’s the matter?” I asked.

“There’s somebody downstairs, pounding on the door. Can’t you hear?”

I listened and I heard. It certainly sounded like the door was getting a workout.

“Who the devil would be showing up here at this hour?” I asked.

“Get up and find out,” Barbara told me. Which was a sensible suggestion.

So I walked over to the window and looked down. Sure enough, I could see someone standing down there, but in the shadows it was hard to make out any details. I got the funniest notion that whoever it was, was wearing a white sheet.

Now the doorbell began to ring, insistently.

Barbara said, “Well?”

“I don’t know,” I told her. “Can’t make out anything from up here. You stay where you are. I’ll go down and see.”

I went out of the bedroom and almost tripped on the stairs, because I forget about turning on the light. I still wasn’t used to staying here in the summer place.

Of course I remembered where the hall light was, and when I got down there I switched it on. All the while the doorbell kept ringing.

Then I opened the door.

There was a woman standing on the porch. She wasn’t wearing a sheet, but she had on the next thing to it — some kind of long white nightgown. Not lingerie, but a real old-fashioned nightgown that came way down to her ankles. Or used to. Now it was tom and there were stains on it: dirt or grease. Her hair hung down over her eyes and she was crying or panting, or both. For a minute I didn’t recognize her. and then she said, “Bob!”

“Marjorie! Come in.”

I turned my head and called up to Barbara, “Come on down, honey. It’s Marjorie Kingston.”

There wasn’t time to say anything more. Marjorie was off the porch in nothing flat, and she hung onto me as if she were afraid of drowning. Her head was right against my chest, so that I could feel her shaking, and all the while she kept mumbling something I couldn’t make out. At last I got it.

She was saying, “Shut the door, please. Shut the door!”

I closed the door and steered her into the front room. I turned on one of the lamps, and she looked at me and said. “Pull the shades, Bob.”

She’d stopped crying and her breathing was a little more relaxed by the time Barbara came downstairs.

Barbara didn’t say anything. She just walked over to Marjorie and put her arms around her, and that was the signal for her to really let go.

I finished pulling the shades and then ducked out to the kitchen. I couldn’t find any soda, but when I came back I had three glasses and the bottle of Scotch I’d bought when I went into town on Monday.

The two of them were sitting on the sofa now, and Marjorie had calmed down a little. I didn’t ask if anyone wanted a drink, just poured out three stiff slugs. I gave Marjorie her glass first, and she put the shot down like water.

Barbara took a sip as I sat down in the armchair, and then she looked at Marjorie and said, “What happened?”

“I ran away.”

“Ran away?”

Marjorie brushed the hair out of her eyes and looked straight at her. “Oh, you needn’t worry about pretending. You must have heard where I’ve been. At the asylum.”

Barbara gave me a look but I didn’t say anything. I remembered the day I bumped into Freddie Kingston at lunch in town and he told me about Marjorie. Said she’d had a nervous breakdown at school and they were sending her up to this private sanatorium at Elkdale. That must have been about three months ago. I hadn’t seen him since to get any further details.

I stood up. Marjorie sucked in her breath. “What’s the matter?” I asked.

“Don’t go,” she said. “Don’t call anyone. Please, Bob. I’m begging you.”

“How about Freddie? Shouldn’t he know?”

“Not Freddie. Not anybody, but most of all not Freddie. You don’t understand, do you?”

“Suppose you tell us,” Barbara suggested.

“All right.” Marjorie held out her glass. “Can I have another drink, first?”

I poured for her. When she lifted the glass up I could see her fingers. The nails had been bitten all the way down.

She drank, and then all at once she was talking, even before she took the glass away from her lips.

“You see, it wouldn’t do any good to tell Freddie, because he sent me there in the first place and he must have known what it was like. He has this Mona Lester, and he thought they’d kill me and then he’d be free. I had plenty of time to figure things out and I can see that now. I mean, it makes sense, doesn’t it?”

I tried to catch Barbara’s eye but she wasn’t looking at me. She kept staring at Marjorie. And then she said, very softly, “We heard you had a nervous breakdown, dear.”

Marjorie nodded. “Oh, that part’s true enough. It’s been coming on for a long time, only nobody knew it. That’s my fault, really. I was too proud to tell anyone. About Freddie, I mean.”

“What about Freddie?”

“Freddie and this Mona Lester. She’s a model. He met her last year, down at the studio. They’ve been living together ever since. When I found out, he just laughed. He said he wanted a divorce and he’d furnish me with all the evidence I needed. Glad to. But of course I don’t believe in divorce. I tried everything — I argued with him, I pleaded with him, I went down on my hands and knees to him. Nothing did any good.

“He started to stay away night after night, and weekends, too. Then he’d come back and tell me about what he’d been doing with Mona, in detail, everything. You can’t imagine the things he said, and the way he’d watch me while he told me. And he used to watch me at parties, too, when we had to go out together. He said he got a kick out of seeing me pretend that everything was all right. Because nobody knew about Mona. You didn’t, did you? Freddie was too smart for that. Even then he must have been planning the whole thing. Yes, I know he must, because I remember now what he said that one time — if I didn’t divorce him he’d keep on until I went crazy and then he could do what he pleased.” She paused for breath.

Barbara bit her lip. “Are you sure you want to talk about this?” she asked. “You mustn’t get excited...”

Marjorie made a sound. It took me a second to realize she was laughing, or trying to laugh. “Quit talking like a doctor,” she said. “You don’t have to humor me. I’m not crazy and I’m not psychotic. That’s the word the doctors use, you know. Psychotic. Or when they talk to the relatives they say, ‘mentally disturbed.’ It isn’t that way with me at all. When I broke down in class that day — English IV, my last afternoon class — it was just nerves. I had hysterics. God knows what the pupils thought. The principal had to come in and quiet me down. They sent me home and gave me a sedative, and the doctor came and he left some pills. Then Freddie came. He doped me up. I mean it. I was supposed to take two pills at the most. He gave me six. He kept on feeding me the stuff, all through the next week. When the other doctor came, and when he took me to see Corbel, and when we went to court. I was shot. By the time I came to, I was committed. He’d gotten the papers signed and everything. And I woke up in Corbel’s little private asylum.”

I didn’t look at her. I couldn’t. She went on talking, louder and louder.

“That was three months ago. I’ve kept track of the days. The hours, even. What else was there to do? Freddie has never come to see me. And nobody else has come, either. He has it fixed with Corbel not to let them. I tried to write, until I realized the letters weren’t being mailed. And if I got any letters, Corbel saw to it they weren’t allowed to reach me. That’s the way he runs the place. That’s why they pay him so much — to keep anyone from getting in, to keep anyone from getting out. It must be costing Freddie a fortune to have me there, but it’s worth it to him. And to the others.”

“What others?” Barbara asked.

“The other relatives. Of the other patients, I mean. Most of them are wealthy, you know. We’ve got some alcoholics and some drug addicts out there, but I wouldn’t say any of them were really mental cases. At least they weren’t when they arrived. But Corbel does his best to drive them crazy. You can have all the liquor and shots you want. He calls it therapy. What he’s really trying to do is kill them off as fast as he can. Maybe he gets an extra fee that way. He must. Particularly with the old people. The sooner they die, the sooner the relatives inherit.”

“This Corbel,” I said. “He’s a psychiatrist?”

“He’s a murderer!” Marjorie leaned forward. “Go ahead, laugh at me — it’s true! I can hear. I stay awake all night and listen. I heard him and Leo beating old Mr. Scheinfarber to death two weeks ago in the hydrotherapy room. They never use it for hydrotherapy at all, you know. But when he was done screaming they dumped his body in the water and left him there. The next morning they said he’d been taking a treatment and slipped under — committed suicide. Corbel signed the certificate. I know what’s going on! Poor old Mr. Scheinfarber, who only wanted to be left alone... And now that sneaky son and daughter-in-law of his get all the money. Leo almost admitted as much to me.”

“Who is Leo?” Barbara asked.

“One of the orderlies. Leo and Hugo. Leo’s the worst; he’s on night duty. He was after me from the beginning.”

“What for?”

“Can’t you guess?” Marjorie made that laughing sound again. “He’s after most of the women patients there. Once he locked Mrs. Matthews in isolation and stayed with her for two days. She couldn’t dare do anything about it; he said he’d see to it she starved to death if she wouldn’t let him.”

“I see,” I said.

Marjorie looked at me. “You don’t see. You think I’m lying to you. I can tell. But it’s all true. I can prove it. That’s why I ran away — to prove it. I want to get to the police. Not the sheriff or anyone around here; I think they’re in cahoots with Corbel. Otherwise, how would he be able to fix things with the coroner and even one so there isn’t any fuss? But when I get to town maybe somebody will listen. We could force an investigation. That’s all I want, Bob. Really it is. I don’t even want to punish Freddie. I’m past that stage. I just want to help those people, those poor, hopeless people stuck away to rot and die...”

Barbara reached over and patted her on the shoulder. “It’s all right,” she said. “It’s all right. We believe you, don’t we, Bob?”

“I know what it sounds like,” Marjorie said, and she was calmer now. “You tell yourself such things can’t happen in this day and age. And you see Doctor Corbel in town and he’s such a kind, brilliant man. You go for a drive past the sanatorium and look at the building up on the hill, in among all those trees — you think it’s a beautiful place, a wonderful rest-home for those who can afford it. You don’t notice the bars, and you never get inside the soundproof part where you could hear the screams and the moans, or see the stains on the floor in isolation. The stains that won’t wash off, the stains that never wash off—”

“Another drink?” I interrupted. I didn’t want to give her another drink, but I had to stop her someway.

“No thanks. I’m all right now, really I am. You’ll see. It’s just all this running—”

“You need rest,” Barbara nodded. “A good night’s sleep before we decide anything.”

“There’s nothing to decide,” Marjorie said. “I’ve made up my mind. I want you to drive me into the city tonight so that I can make a statement right away. I don’t care if they believe me or not, just so they come out and investigate. Once they get inside, they’ll find proof. I’ll show them. All I’m asking you to do is drive me.”

“I can’t,” I said. “The car’s in the garage but the battery’s out of whack. I’m having the garage man out to fix it in the morning.”

“It may be too late then,” Marjorie said. “They’ll cover things up once they realize I’m liable to go to the authorities.”

I took a deep breath. “How did you manage to get away?” I asked her.

Marjorie put her hands down in her lap and looked at them. Her voice was very low.

“For a long while I didn’t even think about escaping. Everyone said it was impossible, and besides, even if I did, where could I go? Certainly not to Freddie or the local police. And how could I get to town safely without any money? Then I happened to remember that you folks had this summer place, and you’d be up here. It isn’t too far from Elkdale. All I needed was a good start. So I knew the thing to do, then.

“I told you about this Leo, the night orderly — the one who was always after me? I kept fighting him off all the time; I’d never take sleeping pills or even doze off while he was on duty.

“Well, tonight Leo was drinking a little. I heard him coming around in the hall, and I asked him in. I even took a drink from him, just to get him started again. He had quite a few. And then... I let him.”

She didn’t say anything for almost a minute. Barbara and I waited.

“After he fell asleep, I got his keys. The rest was easy. At first I couldn’t get my bearings, but then I remembered the creek running next to the highway. I kept close to the creek and waded in it at first. That was to throw them off the scent.”

“Throw who off the scent?” Barbara asked.

Marjorie’s eyes widened. “The bloodhounds.”

“What?”

“Didn’t you know? Corbel keeps bloodhounds out there. To track down the patients, in case they ever escape.”

I stood up.

“Where are you going?”

“To fix your bed,” I said.

“I won’t sleep,” Marjorie told me. “I can’t. What if Leo woke up? What if he got Corbel and they called out the bloodhounds to look for me?”

“Don’t you worry about a thing,” I answered. “No bloodhounds can get in here. We won’t let anyone harm you, Marjorie. You’re overtired. You’ve got to rest and forget about—”

“The asylum! You’re going to call Corbel!”

“Marjorie, please try—”

“I knew it! I knew it when you stood up, from the look on your face! You’re going to send me back; you’re going to let them kill me!”

She jumped up. Barbara reached for her and I started forward, but not in time. She hit Barbara in the face and ran. I tried to head her off from the hall, but she got there first and tugged the front door open. Then she was running, jumping off the porch and circling through the trees in back. I could see her white nightgown waving behind her. I called, but she didn’t answer.

If the car had been working, I would have tried to follow her. But even so, there wouldn’t have been much chance of catching up, because she wouldn’t stick to the roads.

After a couple of minutes, I went back into the house and closed the door. Barbara took the glasses into the kitchen, but she didn’t say anything, not even when we went upstairs. It wasn’t until we switched off the light and settled down in bed that she spoke to me.

“Poor Marjorie,” Barbara said. “I felt so sorry for her.”

“Me, too.”

“You know, for a while she almost had me believing her. Sometimes those crazy stories turn out to be true after all.”

I grunted. “I know. But all that medieval stuff about killing patients in asylums — that’s just delusions of persecution.”

“Are you sure, Bob?”

“Of course I’m sure. I admit I had my doubts for a while, too. But you know what tipped the scales?”

“What?”

“When she got to that part about the bloodhounds. That did it for me. Only a nut would dream up an idea like that.”

“It bothers me, though. Don’t you think we ought to call the sheriff after all? Or this Doctor Corbel, or Freddie?”

“Why get mixed up in it?” I asked. “I mean, look at the mess we’d get into.”

“But the poor girl, running around out there all alone...”

“Don’t worry, they’ll get her. And she’ll be taken care of.”

“I can’t help thinking about what she said, though. Do you think the part about this Leo was true?”

“I told you, it’s delusions of persecution, Barbara. The whole works; about Freddie and his woman, about the killings — everything. Now just forget it.”

She was quiet for a minute and I was quite for a minute, and then we heard the noise. Faint and far away it was, but I recognized it.

“What’s that?” Barbara asked.

I sat up in bed, listening to it, listening to it get closer and closer. I was still listening to it when it faded off in the distance again.

“What’s that?” Barbara asked, again.

“Oh, just some damned dogs on the loose,” I told her. “Lots of strays out here, you know.”

But I was lying.

I’m a Southerner, born and bred, and if there’s one thing I can recognize, it’s the sound of bloodhounds. Bloodhounds, unleashed and on the scent.