Page 47

I summoned my warmest smile. “I have come to see Sister Marie-Thérèse.”

The girl’s expression tightened. “We are not to admit strangers today. The children are at their prayers. They mustn’t be disturbed. I am sorry…”

And before her words registered in my head, she shut the door tight. The scrape of the bolt in the latch followed shortly thereafter.

The rebuff only solidified my determination to speak with this Sister Marie-Thérèse. I blew out a breath, checking my pin watch. I had plenty of time before I was to meet Ruan down at the power station. I snapped the watch shut and hurried to the hospital in search of Dr. von Keller. If one approach failed, there was always another.

I hurried down the now familiar path to his office and knocked upon the door, waiting impatiently for him to answer. It was earlier than the last time I met him. Which meant he was likely still making his rounds. Yet anxiety grew with each passing second. I looked over my shoulder, watching as a young nurse hurried down the corridor.

“He’s not here today.” Dr. Peterson’s sudden appearance startled me. The young American had a notebook in his hand, his hair mussed from the wind outside. “I’ve been handling his rounds. He left before dawn, not long after returning with the bodies.” Peterson sucked his teeth. “Horrible business. Von Keller went straight away to the gendarmerie. I don’t know what help he thought he might find there, but he’s not been back.”

I stiffened. He must have found some clue when looking at the bodies. I could not conceive of any other reason for him to change course so suddenly. Von Keller had been adamant about not going to the authorities. “And Félix? How is he?”

“As he always is after one of these episodes. Talking nonsense about angels and devils on earth. Von Keller put him in the isolation room last night. I’ve just come from seeing him.” Dr. Peterson tucked his hands into the pockets of his white coat. “Poor old chap.”

I tucked my hair back behind my ear and lowered my voice. “Do you have any idea who might have wanted Narcisse or the man from the village dead?”

Something flickered in his expression at my words. Whether it was the bluntness of my question or something else entirely, I could not tell. He gave me a curious look. “Dr. von Keller mentioned you found Félix out by the lake. Said you came across them. I wondered if perhaps he’d harmed you, he can sometimes get carried away when he is having an episode…”

“No. Not at all…” I shifted where I stood, folding my arms tight beneath my breasts. “I heard a sound. I thought someone was injured.” It wasn’t a wholesale lie.

Cecil weighed his words, glancing back over his shoulder to be certain the hallway was empty before he leaned closer, whispering in my ear. “You mustn’t tell anyone else you were there last night. It won’t help him, you know.”

“Help who?”

He gave me an exasperated look. “Félix. I don’t know why von Keller protects him as he does. It’s clear the man is beyond saving. Anyone who can add two and two together would see he’s dangerous.”

I opened my mouth to protest but he saw it on me. His expression shifted yet again, softening as he pulled me aside against the wall.

“Von Keller believes they’re visions. I think they’re confessions. Does he see the deaths or does he simply admit to his own guilt?”

It was unthinkable what Dr. Peterson suggested. Félix was distraught at finding the men dead in the lake. No killer would have reacted that way.

The air in the corridor was clean and sharp with astringent that made my nose prick. I rubbed it with the back of my hand before leaning closer to him. “Dr. von Keller seems to think his visions are real enough.”

Dr. Peterson checked his watch absently, a look of disgust on his face. “Von Keller is obsessed with the possibility. Fixated upon thinking some people are predisposed to those sorts of extra abilities, and trauma”—he gestured down the hall, presumably in the direction of the isolation room—“war. Death. Privation. Those sorts of things can activate these abilities. Opens man up to his fullest potential.” His eyes took on a peculiar sparkle at the mention of activating these things. The notion made my skin crawl.

“He didn’t try to force the phenomena, did he?” I could scarcely voice the question.

Peterson tilted his head to one side. “Not that I’m aware of, but I wouldn’t put it past him. Besides, there are enough horrible things in the world, all he has to do is wait long enough and another will come along.”

“Are there others here—beyond Félix and my mother—that he took an interest in?”

If Cecil sensed my discomfort he did not let on. He stretched, rubbing his jaw with the back of his hand. “Djhan Wauters of course. Djhan was convinced he saw the dead. Could speak with them. Unnerved some of the other nurses here. He and Félix were thick as thieves, ever since Djhan was moved to the hospital here. Your mother of course was another as you mentioned…”

My chest seized up at the mention of Mrs. Wauters’s son, my legs feeling suddenly weak.

Dr. Peterson did not notice my discomfort and continued on. “I never spent much time with Wauters. He was another von Keller insisted upon seeing personally. Étienne as well, though Father Crawford managed to scoop him out of the hospital once he was fit to say mass. The old priest had been asking for help here for years but the diocese doesn’t feel we have enough parishioners to justify a second priest.”

Ruan was right all along, I should not trust von Keller. And yet I had. I’d believed him, when all the signs were clear. My head grew light, sweat pricking on my brow.

He made a peculiar face. “Étienne is like Félix, you see. The two of them just alike. See angels everywhere. But when a priest sees angels, he’s kissed by God. When a regular soldier does—he’s given a lifetime sentence here at Saint Oda’s.”

Nausea roiled in my belly as I thought of the three men: Étienne, Félix, Djhan. All from this same town. What were the odds of them ending up at the same hospital after the war?

“The three patients … Djhan, Étienne, and Félix. Did they request to be brought here together?”

Cecil Peterson paused and gave me a peculiar look before shaking his head. “Of course not. Patients don’t request to be brought to Saint Oda’s. Dr. von Keller sends for them. He handpicks the patients from different hospitals and brings them here for treatment and study.”