Greg Iles - Sleep No More

After the police left the law office, Waters gave Penn an inquiring glance. Penn shook his head, as if to say, “Not until we’re outside.”

Once they were in the Audi, Penn started the engine and turned to Waters with curiosity on his face.

“You’re a hell of a liar, John. I think you could have passed a polygraph if you’d been hooked to one during those questions.”

“My family’s at stake,” Waters said quietly. “It’s really that simple. I’ll do whatever I have to do to save them. You’d do the same.”

Penn looked as though he was recalling something troubling, and Waters suddenly remembered that the lawyer in Cage’s novel had lied to the police about several important events.

“You have done the same.”

“Lying to police is tricky business,” Penn said. “They tend to get pissed off when they find out you did it.”

“But you said-”

“Nothing,” Penn finished. “Nothing at all.”

He pulled into the street and headed toward Waters’s office. “When the DNA match comes in and you recant your statements, I presume your position will be that you concealed adultery to save your marriage?”

“Does it matter? At this point, I don’t really care.”

“That worries me, John.”

“Don’t give it another thought.”

Penn stared but said nothing else as he drove down Main Street. In the parking lot of Waters’s building, Waters shook his lawyer’s hand, then got into his Land Cruiser and headed for home, his mind on the videotape that now rested in the glove box. The next few hours would be the most difficult of his life.

Waters found Lily asleep in the master bedroom and Rose sitting on the back steps, watching Annelise ride her motorized scooter on the patio. He sat beside Rose and watched his daughter make circle after circle on the stones, waving and smiling each time she passed them.

“Something ain’t right with Lily,” Rose said. “She usually goin’ like a top from the time she wake up till she lay down at night. You know that.”

Waters nodded soberly. “I think she’s been a little depressed lately.”

“Depressed? That girl been depressed since she lost them babies. You knows that too. What’s really going on, Mr. John? You playing around on that poor girl?”

“No.”

“You’d best not be. You need to get Lily to Dr. Cage. He’ll fix her up quick, or else get her to a specialist who can.”

“I may do that, Rose.”

“You promise?”

Rose’s words reminded him of the promise he had made Mallory so long ago. “I think I know what’s wrong, Rose. And I don’t think a doctor can fix it. I have to fix it.”

The black woman turned and looked deep into his eyes. “You sure you ain’t been goin’ in the street with somebody?”

“I’m sure.”

She shook her head in surrender, as if to say, “White people’s problems,” then grunted and stood and waved at Annelise. “I’m going on, girl. Your daddy got you now.”

“Bye, Rose!” Ana yelled. “See you tomorrow!”

“Mmm-hmm.” Rose waddled up the steps and into the house.

Waters let Annelise make a few more circuits of the patio, then took her inside and fed her the supper Rose had left in the oven. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, broccoli, and salad. Ana skipped the salad, but she put away two chicken legs and three helpings of potatoes and gravy. Waters wondered where the food went; his daughter still weighed only fifty pounds.

When he finished rinsing the dishes, Lily had still not appeared, so he took Ana into the den and listened to her read aloud from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Two Towers. She had quickly graduated from the Harry Potter series, and now loved nothing more than hobbits and elves. As the struggle of good versus evil played out in his ears, Waters realized he had rarely looked at his own life in those terms.

Despite all Mallory had done in his distant past, he had never attributed the word “evil” to her. But now…an image of Lily dangling the butcher knife over Annelise’s head flashed into his mind, and he knew in his bones that Mallory would not stop until Lily and Annelise had been wiped from the earth. He could see only one solution: Mallory had to be destroyed. And yet…she could not be killed without killing the innocent person who contained her-

“John?”

Waters got to his feet as Lily walked into the den in an old blue housecoat. Her eyes were puffy from sleep, and her newly cut blond hair was pressed flat against the left side of her face. Annelise looked up from her book, and her eyes went wide.

“Mom?”

“Sit down, babe,” Waters said, leading Lily to the sofa. “Do you feel all right?”

“Not really. I’m exhausted. I have been all afternoon.” She looked at Annelise, whose eyes were filled with confusion. “Hey, baby.”

“What’s the matter, Mom?”

“What did you do this morning?” Waters asked. “Did you run again?”

Lily squinted at her watch. “I’m not sure. What day is it?”

Annelise laughed, but the sound rode an undercurrent of fear.

“Wednesday.”

Lily shook her head, then covered her eyes. Waters feared she would begin crying in front of Annelise.

“Mom, what’s wrong? ” Ana asked.

“I’ve got a headache, honey. You keep reading.”

“I’m tired of reading.”

“Well…turn on the TV, then.”

“I don’t want to watch TV.”

Waters got up, switched on the television, and set it on the Disney Channel. Annelise sighed in frustration, but she began watching all the same. Waters did not sit again, but walked behind the sofa and massaged Lily’s shoulders. As he worked his way up to her neck and scalp, she moaned and leaned forward. He gave her about fifteen minutes of that treatment, and then Ana’s program ended.

“Time for bed,” he said.

“Why?” Ana asked, looking ready to throw a fit. “It’s not time yet.”

“Mom doesn’t feel good, and I have some work to do.”

“I can just stay in here and watch TV. I’ll be quiet.”

Waters shook his head and held out his hand. Ana hesitated, then got up and closed her hand around two of his fingers.

Lily said, “Is it all right if I don’t go up to tuck you in, baby?”

Annelise gave her a hug. “It’s okay. You better take a pill or something.”

Waters went upstairs and helped his daughter into her pajamas. He kissed her and stroked her hair for a minute, but he left without reading a story. He was anxious to get back downstairs before Lily nodded off again. With Mallory so unstable, he could not afford to wait another night. There was also the chance that Tom Jackson would turn up more evidence linking him to Eve, and that might be all it took for Jackson to arrest him.

Lily was back in the bedroom, sitting in her chaise with her feet propped on the ottoman. She still wore the old housecoat, and in the brighter light of the bedroom, he saw black rings beneath her eyes.

“Is Ana all right?” she asked.

“She’s fine.”

Lily squinted up at him. “You look worried.”

He walked over and sat on the ottoman, then laid his hand on her knee. “I want to talk to you about something.”

“That sounds ominous.”

“I don’t mean for it to. But this is serious. You’ve been having trouble with your memory for the past couple of days, haven’t you?”

Lily looked strangely at him. “How did you know?”

“Have you noticed anything else out of the ordinary?”

She looked away, deep in thought. “I don’t really feel like myself,” she said in a careful voice. “I’ve noticed some…physical things.”

“Like what?”

She looked embarrassed. “I’m bruised, John.”