The Psychiatrist: Trilogy to The Doll Collector

Chapter 18: Maria

I couldn't get Zach out of my mind. I needed to know now just what had happened to Loraine. From what I remembered all Charley had said was that she had a breakdown brought on by Kris. I had to pack up all of her things to move in mine. Her departure was clearly sudden.

Waiting was going to torture me, especially since I didn't have my patients to distract me anymore. I had been assigned to the sexual deviants. Apparently, Zach had too many patients to cover, so I would help handle some of them until this blew over.

What could I say? Sexual deviants just didn't do it for me the way killers did. Call me crazy, I probably was. Charley had gone through Zach's files and personally assigned me a large portion of his cases. Needless to say, that this seemed to be a personal attack on Zach. His facial expression was less than amicable. He didn't speak a word, and instead left his office to let Charley rifle through his cabinets. When she finished, she had me help her take my new case files into my office. My assignment for the next few days was to study my new patients and begin scheduling sessions with them.

I grabbed a stack of files and settled down in a brightly lit area near the lobby. I had the whole space to myself, so I made myself comfortable and kicked off my shoes.

The media frenzy had yet to cease, but the sheriff's deputies had taken their duty to fend them off very seriously. Reporters were not allowed within 50 feet of the entrance and were not allowed to harass anyone that entered or exited the premises. From what I'd heard from the chatter of other doctors, they'd formed a physical perimeter around the main hospital and the housing unit.

I couldn't focus on what was in front of me. I was too worried about my own patients being handled by someone else. I needed to get back to them. Not that any of them would likely notice that I was gone. Well Kris would, and the worst part was that I hadn't been able to tell him that I wouldn't be his doctor anymore. There was little time to speak during his breakdown. I only hoped that he wouldn't mistreat Dr. Davis.

The files sat in my lap untouched for over an hour. I took the time to fiddle on my phone, looking through memes to pass the time.

The morning had actually been very quiet despite the reporters, so it had been nice to gather my thoughts. There'd been too many changes within a short period of time. But everything's was okay, in a way, Charley was protecting me. I finally decided to try reading about my new patients. Thank goodness Zach took meticulous notes. I heard the automatic doors to the front entrance open. Some family members of the deceased had come through. They lived nearby and dropped in to get answers regarding their loved ones, if you could call them that.

A male voice reached my ears, but his words were indiscernible. The tone sounded familiar, so much so that I almost looked up, but even my curiosity wasn't enough to break my newfound focus on my files. If I lost focus now, that'd be it, I would be searching memes the rest of the day.

"She's sitting right there." The receptionist said.

Okay, now I had to look up. I raised my eyes, feeling quite the punch in the stomach. This could not be happening right now. If my world wasn't crumbling before, it had just been buried six feet under. The nails in my coffin were walking towards me. These were two men who I thought I'd left behind in LA. Jared and Adrian. That was it, the jig was up. Jared was going to screw me out of this job, and I would never in my life be able to work as a psychiatrist ever again.

I thought by now I had made peace with losing everything, but each time the fear renewed, it drove a stake through my heart. I locked eyes with Jared. He wore a determined look, whereas Adrian looked tired. Jared had probably dragged him across the country for this.

They met me at my seat at the same time, but neither one of us said a word for a few seconds.

We almost seemed too stunned to say anything at all. I bit back my rising anxiety and waited for one of them to say something. Crickets.