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picked up a paper crane from the floor and held it out in his palm.
    â€œThis yours?” he asked with a smile that chilled Mary Alice to her very core. “I always loved origami. Some guy once told me about a Japanese legend. Seems if you fold a thousand of these things, your wish will come true.”
    Mary Alice said nothing.
    Ellis Cooper glanced around. “Looks like you’ve got a ways to go.”
    Mary Alice refused to look up. She would not meet the man’s gaze. She would not stare into that dark abyss.
    But she could feel his eyes on her.
    â€œYour daughter’s told me a lot about you,” he said with a liquid smoothness. “I’ve sure been looking forward to coming to see you. If you don’t mind my saying so, this is a pretty special day for me.”
    â€œEllis,” said the angel. “Would you leave us alone for a moment?”
    â€œOh, you bet. Take all the time you need. I’ll just wait outside.”
    He bent suddenly and put his face very close to Mary Alice’s so that she could no longer avoid his gaze.
    And this time, he grabbed her hand before she could pull it away. He held it very tight between both of his. His skin was cold and dry, and there was something reptilian about those terrible, gleaming eyes.
    â€œI expect we’ll meet again very soon, Mary Alice. And I do so look forward to that encounter.”
    He released her hand then and straightened, and though Mary Alice still kept her gaze averted, she sensed something pass between the man and her daughter. A smile maybe. Or a brief, intimate touch.
    A smaller, softer hand took hers once they werealone. “Everything’s going to be all right now. You’ll see.”
    Mary Alice placed the angel’s hand between both of hers and clung for dear life.
    â€œIt’s okay, Mama. I know what I have to do. I’ve always known.”
    That soft hand came up to stroke Mary Alice’s cheek.
    â€œYou taught me well. And now that I have Ellis helping me, it’s going to be so much easier.” The angel’s blue eyes shimmered with excitement as she leaned forward and lowered her voice to a whisper. “Mama…he’s one of us!”
    No, Mary Alice thought in despair. That man is not one of us.
    Ellis Cooper was one of them.
    Â 
    Ellis leaned a shoulder against the wall as he peered through the reinforced glass panel in the door, watching in fascination as the little drama unfolded inside.
    Every so often, he would glance up the hallway in front of him and then over his shoulder behind him to make sure one of the patients or someone on the staff didn’t sneak up and catch him unawares.
    He was probably being a little paranoid, Ellis realized, but he knew only too well of the trickery and deception that went on in a place like this. You couldn’t trust anyone.
    Ellis had spent a couple of hitches in state mental wards, the first when he was only fifteen years old. Given his experience, he couldn’t say he was exactly happy to be back in one. But at least today, he had the freedom to walk out whenever he chose. That was something.
    Normally, he steered clear of any type of institution, be it a government office or even a regular hospital. He had a fundamental distrust of anything that smacked of authority, of any place in which he was not in complete control, but he’d found the prospect of a meeting with the infamous Mary Alice Lemay too irresistible to pass up.
    So he’d temporarily disabled his aversion, if not his paranoia. Ellis knew from past experience that he could stand anything for a little while, even the worst kind of torture.
    Now that he was here, though, all those old feelings were creeping up on him again. And dear God, the memories!
    The slack jaws and vacant stares.
    The unholy smells that drifted from the open doorways.
    He glanced up at the surveillance camera at the end of the hallway. There was another one at the opposite end