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closed the blinds, once more plunging myself into complete darkness. I felt my way to the door, stood there a moment, and, steadying my own breathing, listened for any sounds in the corridor.
    Only the usual cries.
    Behind me the old woman's respirations reverted to the fragmentary volleys of before, tapering out or choking off abruptly, then starting again. The gurgling noises made my skin crawl.
    I opened the door a crack.
    Nobody.
    But I could still hear the nurses' voices from the far end of the hallway. No surprise there. They'd be sitting on their asses drinking coffee all night. I got ready to slip out of the room and make for the back staircase. I swung the door open another foot and carefully glanced in both directions.
    The linoleum gleamed in the half-light, completely empty.
    Toward the stairwell, there was only welcoming darkness.
    I went to step out, and froze.
    Something had moved down there, along the far wall. It had been little more than a dark shape gliding through black.
    Then nothing.
    Had I imagined it?
    No, there it went again.
    A figure emerged from the murk, tall and amorphous. It crept slowly from door to door on the opposite side of the hallway, pausing now and then, the way I had done coming in.
    What the hell?
    I stayed absolutely motionless and remained inside the room, watching, not moving the door, hoping the shadows would shield me as much as they did the form in the corridor. Except as the person drew closer, compared to the darker shroud of protective clothing, the white mask and upper face emanated as a pale smudge and appeared to float along by itself, like a bodiless head. Which meant I might become visible too. And behind me the noises from the old woman grew louder, certainly enough to attract attention.
    My mouth went dry, and in a flash of panic I nearly leapt back into the room.
    But no. This had to be done slowly.
    The figure, paying no attention to the doorways on my side, continued to hug the opposite wall, focused only on the end of the passageway where the nurses' voices kept up a steady patter.
    Apparently it was someone who didn't want to get caught either. It might be a man or woman. Everybody looked androgynous these days. I tried to see the eyes well enough to make an ID but couldn't with the distance and semidarkness.
    The figure stopped and glanced back toward the stairs, as if making sure no one followed.
    Definitely up to no good.
    Nevertheless, I couldn't afford to be caught by whoever it might be, creep or not.
    The person disappeared into a room twenty feet away.
    I couldn't believe my luck.
    But neither did I dare risk making a break now.
    Whoever it had been might come back out.
    I slowly closed my door, leaving a crack wide enough to see when he, or she, left.
    It took me a few minutes to realize the old woman was no longer making any noise.
    Her breathing had stopped completely.
    Shit!
    When the nurses found her, they'd call a code. It shouldn't matter, but the prospect of some eager-to-be-a-star resident getting suspicious always worried me.
    Total silence now reigned at my back, and the quiet thickened around me, making it difficult to get enough air.
    At that moment the person who had snuck into the far room slipped back out and stole away into the darkness, heading for the back steps.
    Five minutes later I did the same.
    What could be going on? I wondered once I reached the stairwell. Hearing no one below, I started downstairs.
    Newspapers had accounts of the sick things male orderlies, nurses, or doctors sometimes did to comatose female patients of any age.
    But this could be anyone doing anything to the patient in that room. In the morning I'd check whether an incident of some kind had been reported. No question I had to find out. If some other scam was in the works, crossed paths might increase my own chances of getting caught. Hell, St. Paul's, with over five thousand employees, including doctors, had the population of a small town. Like any community that