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“Or much else,” Pallas said.
“So much for the broken video camera story,” Ambrose said.
Pallas studied the image. “Why the lie?”
“With luck maybe we’ll find out,” Ambrose said.
Pallas watched the screen for a long moment. On the bed, Ambrose did not stir. Icy fingertips touched the back of her neck.
“You certainly appear to be deeply asleep,” she said.
“I told you, I went out like a light that night,” he said. “That is not normal for me.”
“But here you are, sound asleep.”
“I don’t want to sit here watching myself sleep for the next several hours.” Ambrose reached for the phone. “I’m going to speed up the video.”
An hour slipped by in a matter of minutes. In the video Ambrose scarcely moved on the bed.
A wedge of light abruptly slanted across the bed.
“Slow down,” Pallas said quickly. “I think the door opened. Yes. Someone entered the room.”
Ambrose adjusted the speed of the video. They watched a familiar figure move to hover over the bed.
“Fenner,” Ambrose said. “Watching him watching me gives me a very creepy sensation.”
The doctor did a quick check of the sleeping Ambrose, made some notes, and then, evidently satisfied, left.
“You didn’t move at all when he leaned over the bed and checked your vitals,” Pallas said. “You say you haven’t been able to sleep through the night since San Diego, but you are out cold in this video.”
Ambrose did not take his eyes off the screen. “I never sleep like that, even on a good night, and I haven’t had a good night in a very long time. It’s as if I was given a heavy-duty sedative before I got into bed, but I don’t see how that would have been possible. I would have been aware of it.”
“Did you eat or drink anything at the clinic that night?”
“No. I checked in, undressed, and got into bed. Fenner hooked up the electrodes. I read for a while and went to sleep. I remember thinking I was wasting my time, and that’s the last thing I recall until I heard a scream and went out into the hall. Or, at least I think that’s what happened.”
They went back to studying the sped-up video. Fenner entered the room two more times, but all he did was observe and makesome notes. As the night wore on, however, the sleeping Ambrose became somewhat agitated. He changed position a couple of times. There was no audio, but Pallas knew immediately when he heard the scream.
His eyes snapped open. He lay still for a moment and then bolted to a sitting position and swung his legs over the side of the bed. When he tried to stand he lost his balance and collapsed on the floor. The wires that connected him to the black box were ripped away. He lay still on the floor for a couple of minutes before grabbing the side of the bed and hauling himself upright. He took another few seconds to steady himself and then he stumbled toward the door.
He disappeared from the frame.
“I didn’t hallucinate that night,” Ambrose said, his voice low and fierce. “I wasn’t dreaming. I heard a woman scream and I left the room to see what had happened.”
“You heard something that you interpreted as a scream,” Pallas said gently. “But sounds can invade a person’s dreams. The sleeping mind comes up with odd ways to incorporate them into the dreamscape.”
Ambrose looked at her, not speaking.
She took a breath. “Okay, I think you heard a scream. But you can’t prove it with this video. There’s no sound.”
“No, but this video is proof that the camera was working that night. I was almost positive that Fenner was not lying when he said it was broken. I must have read his aura wrong. That’s beside the point. The question now is, why did Fenner lie?”
They watched Fenner steer the reeling, obviously drugged Ambrose back to the bed. Ambrose collapsed into what looked like a profound sleep. Fenner reattached the electrodes.
Toward the end another man entered the room.
“I assume that’s Geddings?” Pallas asked.
