The Key to Midnight

nurse. Heavyset. Gray hair. I don't like her. She has a… strange smile.'
        'Do you know her name?'
        'I can't remember.'
        'Take your time.'
        Her face clouded with puzzlement as she struggled to recall the nurse's name. At last: 'No. It's gone.'
        'Who else visits you?'
        'A woman with brown hair, brown eyes. Sharp features. She's very brisk, businesslike. She's a doctor.'
        'How do you know that?'
        'I… I guess maybe she told me. And she does things… doctor things.'
        'Such as?'
        'She takes my blood pressure and gives me injections and runs all kinds of tests on me.'
        'What's her name?'
        'I don't know.'
        'Have you just forgotten - or did she never tell you her name?'
        'I don't think she ever told me.'
        'Is there anyone else who conies to see you in that room?'
        Joanna shuddered. Although she didn't reply, she crossed her arms protectively across her breasts, and a shadow of fear fell across her face.
        'There is someone,' said Inamura. 'Who, Joanna? Who else comes to see you?'
        She chewed on her lower lip. Her hands were fisted. Her voice faded to a tremulous whisper: 'Oh, God, no. No. No.'
        'Relax. Be calm,' Inamura instructed.
        Alex fidgeted in his chair. He wanted to take her in his arms and hold her, let her know that she was safe.
        Inamura persisted: 'Who else comes to see you, Joanna?'
        'The Hand,' she said thinly.
        'The Hand? Do you mean the man with the prosthetic device, the mechanical hand?'
        'Him.'
        'Is he a doctor too?'
        'Yes.'
        ,'How do you know that?'
        'The woman doctor and the nurse call him "Herr Doktor." '
        'Did you say Herr, the German form of address?'
        'Yes.'
        'Are the women German?'
        'I don't know.'
        'Is the man German?'
        'The… The Hand? I don't know.'
        'Do they speak German?'
        'Not to me. Only English to me.'
        'What language do they speak among themselves?'
        'Sometimes English.'
        'And at other times?'
        'Something else.'
        'Might it be German?'
        'I guess. Maybe.'
        'When they're speaking in English, do they have German accents?'
        'I… I'm not sure. Accents. All of them have accents. But not necessarily German.'
        'Do you think this room could be somewhere in Germany?'
        'No. Maybe. Well… I don't know where it is.'
        'The doctor, this man who-'
        'Do we have to talk about him?' she asked plaintively.
        'Yes, Joanna. We must talk about him. Just relax. He can't hurt you now. Tell me - what does he look like?'
        'Brown hair. He's going bald.'
        'What color eyes?'
        'Light brown. Pale. Almost yellow.'
        'Tall or short? Thin or fat?'
        'Tall and thin.'
        'What does he do to you in that room?'
        She rolled her head slowly from side to side on the chair, declining to answer.
        'What does he do to you?'
        The myna was suddenly frantic, rapidly circling the walls of its cage, plucking at the brass bars with its talons and beak.
        'What does he do to you, Joanna?'
        The plink-plonk-plink of brass was a cold, flat music, as though a draft out of Hell were stirring the music of damnation from a set of wind chimes.
        Inamura was insistent. 'What does he do to you, Joanna?'
        At last she said shakily: 'Treatments.'
        'What sort of treatments?'
        Her lashes fluttered, and from her closed eyes came slow tears.
        Alex reached out for her from his chair.
        'No,' the doctor said almost sotto voce but forcefully.
        'But she needs-'
        'She needs to remember.'
        Alex said, 'But I can't-'
        'Trust me, Mr. Hunter.'
        Anguished, Alex drew back from Joanna.
        'What sort of treatments?' Inamura asked again.
        'I'm dying.' She shuddered. She pressed her arms even tighter across her chest, shrank back defensively into the chair. 'Each time I d-d-die just a little more. Why not kill me all at once? Why not get it over with?' She was crying openly now. 'Please, just get it over with.'
        'You aren't dying,' Inamura assured her. 'You're safe. I am protecting you, Joanna. Just tell me about these treatments. What are they like?'
        She could not speak.
        'All right,' the