Halbert ran into Sprider in the main corridor of the asylum. Doc wore an obvious mask of trouble and concern.

“How ya doin’ today, doc?”

Sprider rubbed his squared-off chin. “ Been better, Mr. Halbert. No hiding that.”

Herb shoved a hand into his pocket. “Oh?”

Sprider led him back into the padded room and closed the door behind them. “She had an episode last night, detective.”

“Is Dorothy all right?”

Doc nodded. “She’ll be fine.” His gaze fell to the table. “The aftermath,” his eyes widened, “whew!”

Halbert whipped out his pocket notepad and flipped to a clean page. “Tell me.”

“By the time I had reached her,” Sprider said, “the damaged had been done. Dorothy had been cornered by the others in the east hall on the top floor.” The color drained from Sprider’s oval face. “One of our nurses witnessed the whole event, though.”

“I see.” Herb glanced in doc’s direction. “She around?”

Sprider wagged his blond spikes. “We had to send her out on paid leave.”

Halbert sighed. “Did you get her account of the episode at least?”

“Yeah,” doc said. “She was still pretty shaken up when the director and I took her statement, but I can paraphrase it for you.”

Herb rolled his pen in the air. “Please.”

Sprider drew in a chest full of air and let it fly. “The nurse said that she was making her usual evening rounds on the second floor. A commotion had broken out around the corner in the east hall. When the nurse arrived on scene, she said she had found the door to Gale’s room opened.” He crossed his arms, remaining on the edge of his seat. “She went into Dorothy’s room and found it empty. The nurse told us she then walked eastward along the corridor when the lights went out.”

Herb held up an index finger. “In the hall?”

Sprider shook his head. “To the whole damned asylum.” He groaned. “The nurse said she backtracked a little to one of the storage closets and got a flashlight. When she flicked it on, she discovered some of the cleaning supplies had been taken.”

Halbert’s hand scrambled to keep up. “Which ones?”

Sprider shrugged a shoulder. “Stripping solvents. Highly acidic.”

Herb’s stomach sank like a cheap Nazi submarine.

“Anyway,” Sprider said, “the nurse moved eastward in search of Gale. She said that screaming and fighting broke out down the next corridor – the north one. She raced around the corner and saw Dorothy in pursuit of another female patient.”

“Any idea on the ID of that patient?”

Doc bobbed his head. “I can’t release the name right now. We’re still trying to reach her next of kin.” He laced his fingers on the tabletop. “The nurse chased them to the far stairwell, and up two flights to the top floor. Our nurse described the smell in the stairwell as unreal. Said it reminded her of boiling ham. At any rate, she had lost them when she reached the fourth floor.” Sprider took a sharp inhalation. “This next bit --”

Herb cleared his throat. “It’s fine. I’ve developed a callous to it.”

Sprider searched his soul for the necessary resolve and finished it. “The nurse said she followed the sound of the gargled shouts and the growling. She rounded the corner and saw them at the far end of the east hall. She said that as she ran toward them, two orderlies had joined her.” Sprider’s eyes glazed over. “Gale was on top of her. Sh-she had one arm in both hands. Her teeth yanked on it – like a long pink rubber band, she said. The orderlies pulled Dorothy off. She had broken a wooden broom, and stabbed the victim in the chest multiple times. The other patient,” Sprider shook his head, tears welled, “most of one leg had dissolved. The left side of her face – m-melted and drooping to the tiles.”

Herb’s lower jaw hung ajar. “Fuck me.”

“I haven’t slept since.” Sprider held his quaking hand parallel to the floor. “That’s after four fingers of Bourbon.”

Halbert closed his notepad. “So, no interview today?”

“Oh, no.” Sprider rose from his chair. “You can still conduct your business. In fact, she requested to meet with you today.” He motioned Herb to join him in the stairwell across the hallway. “I need to take you down to her new quarters in The Cloud.”

Halbert’s face registered confusion.

“Big, white, puffy room. The Cloud.”

“Cute,” Herb said, bounding down the concrete step after the doc.

The asylum basement, to Herb’s surprise, was well lit and clean. A few pieces of broken lawnmowers sat in one locked cage, but little else occupied the dungeon. Insulated pipes hissed overhead as jets of heating steam pulsed around the complex.

“Charming lodging, doc.”

Sprider laughed as he guided them along the sloped drainage flooring to the last door on the left. “Given the nature of the incident, we had to put Ms. Gale back in her jacket.”

Herb slid his hands into his pockets. “I get it.”

“And, a mask for everyone’s protection.”

Halbert bobbed his head in stunned silence.

Sprider slid a narrow window on the room’s metal door open. “You can talk to her through this. Just show yourself out when you’re done.” His head hung on his neck as he moped back to the stairwell. “I’ve gotta get some shuteye.”

“Understood, doc.” As Herb neared the opening, he heard Dorothy singing that same lullaby again. Something about birds and rainbows.

He set an eye up to the slit. Dorothy paved around counterclockwise in a straight jacket. Dark brown leather straps crosshatched the back of her head, terminating in brass buckles. He backed away when she rounded the path toward him. A gray angular mask hid her features. Triangular ridges along either cheek made the girl appear more robotic. Inhuman. Six thin steel bars prevented any part of her mouth from escaping. Those once warm brown eyes now sat deep in a pair of menacing mask sockets.

“Dorothy?” Herb inched back up to the slit. “It’s --”

“Detective Halbert.” The mouth guard muffled her words. “Yes, I called for you.”

Without taking his eye off her, Halbert fished for his pocket notepad. “I heard about last night. What happened?”

Dorothy’s voice carried an unusual sing-song quality. “Oh, you know. A witch hunt.”

“In what way?”

She pretended to balance walk along an imaginary rope or fence rail. “She said she was a witch. Only one left that I’m aware of, Mr. Halbert.”

Herb went through the roll call in his memory. “South?”

“Uh huh.” She continued her game in his direction. “She tried to run, but I know how to deal with wicked witches.” Gale held her left foot in the air. Its red slipper jiggled. “She threatened to taken them from me. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Wound up like her sister from the West.”

Herb slapped his pad against the door and wrote: treated patient like Gulch. Did she eat Gulch before her death, too? “Okay. Let’s get back to your trek in Oz. The Tin Man joined you and the Scarecrow on your trip to see the Wizard. Where did you go next?”

Her body crouched as she acted out her story. “We crept through a deep dark forest. Lions, tigers, and bears! Then, he jumped out of the brush.” Dorothy curled her fingers and growled. “A fierce lion pounced on us. Chased poor Toto around in the trees.”

Herb bent down, opened his briefcase, and fumbled for the Series of Events folder. “Uh huh. Keep goin’.”

She giggled. “Once I slapped his nose, he showed his true colors.”

Herb returned to the window. She had disappeared from his view. “Oh?”

“Yup.” She sounded closer. “A big old softie. A coward through and through.”

“Did this lion join the rest of you?”

Her voice softened to a sultry whisper. “Oh, yes. He wanted to ask the Wizard of Oz for some courage. So, we went through the forest until, at last, we saw it.”

Herb’s voice weakened and broke. “Fou – excuse me. Found what?”

A playful chuckle. “Emerald City. We ran trough beautiful rolling meadows. So close, but so far away.”

He glanced around his truncated field of view. No sign of her anywhere. “How do you mean?”

Dorothy sighed. “ The Witch of the West set a trap. Her poppies put us all to sleep in the meadows.”

“All of you went to sleep.”

Her fingers slithered up to the wire on her side of the window, caressing it with her dirty nails. “Deep sleep. The Good Witch came to our rescue with her snow.” Her palm slammed against the wire. “You see. It all worked out in the end. Snapped us out of her spell.”

Her masked face popped into the small rectangle. “It’s great to be freed from another’s will.” Her eerie mask tilted. “Wouldn’t you agree, Mr. Halbert.”

Everything in Herb’s body went numb. A sea of needles gouged his tissues from the inside out. After a few cleansing breaths, his composure returned. “Let me paint the picture from what transpired that day, Ms. Gale.” He leaned against the door and opened his file. “Zeke had heard all of the noise made from your hack job on Hickory. Chances are, he thought about tryin’ to stop you, but your revving chainsaw covered in guts changed his mind. Zeke did the one thing left for any sane person to do. He ran like hell. He sped off into the woods on the farm. You trailed Zeke.” He flipped to the next sheet. “From the look of this report, I’d say you chased him into a corner of sorts. I guess Zeke wanted anything other than winding up on the wrong end of your saw. Found him at the end of a thick rusty chain. Swinging from a hickory branch twenty feet up.” He glanced down at the report again. “The same place your Uncle Henry used to slaughter pigs. Sick, Gale. Real twisted.”