Mike had seemed anxious to cut their conversation short tonight. He’d claimed he was tired and said he planned to unplug the phone and go right to bed. Unplug the phone? Stan had thought that was crazy until Mike had explained what had happened. Three wrong numbers in the early hours of the morning, and Mike hadn’t been able to get back to sleep. That had put a different light on things. Mikey needed his sleep. There was something happening with Mike, and it made Stan nervous. His brother had changed in the past few days. He wasn’t as pliable as he’d been before and he didn’t seem to need Stan’s advice. Even more frightening, Mike didn’t require the long chatty conversations they’d held in the first few days after his escape. That wasn’t a good sign, according to the psychiatrists. Everybody needed someone to talk to, and Mike had seen no one but him. Stan could only conclude that his brother was becoming introverted and secretive, one of the first signs of a deteriorating personality.
