Greg Iles - Sleep No More

When Cole was naked, he slid under the covers beside her. Lily lay as rigid as a board, afraid he would try to mount her like an animal. But Cole did nothing like that. He turned onto one elbow, raised a hand, and began to stroke her hair above the ear, the way her mother had when she was ill as a child.

“I know it’s not your fault,” Cole said softly. “You didn’t know about me when you married John. What we really had.”

He continued to stroke her hair, and Lily tried to relax. After a time, Cole’s hand moved lower, but he did not go straight to her genitals, as she had expected. He took his time, his touch feather-light, then firm, as he caressed first her arms, then her thighs, her abdomen, and finally her breasts. The real Cole Smith would never touch her this way, she knew. The tenderness in his fingers now was essentially and empirically feminine. The knowledge and instinct in them belonged to Mallory Candler. Lily tried to blank her mind and let physical sensation override her conflicted emotions.

“That’s it,” Cole whispered, as her nipples began to respond. “I know it’s not easy, Lily.”

She closed her eyes and tried to convince herself that the fingers touching her now belonged to her husband.

“I’ll tell you how to make it work,” Cole murmured in her ear. “Think about John while we do this.” He kissed her neck, then her earlobe. “That’s what I’m going to do.”

Tom Jackson walked back into the interrogation room with the air of a man expecting to hear a confession. Barlow followed like a smug acolyte.

“Well?” Jackson said.

“Either arrest him or let him go,” Penn replied. “He’s told you what he knows.”

Jackson blew air from his cheeks and settled into his chair. “Penn, this is the wrong way to play this. It’s obvious that John knows a lot more than he’s saying. And if he wants to stay out of jail, he’ll tell us.”

“What do you want to know?” Waters asked before Penn could reply.

“You dated Mallory Candler ten years ago. Why do you have all those pictures of her in your office now?”

“I was cleaning out our storeroom and I found them. It was just a walk down memory lane.”

Barlow snorted.

“Did you and Eve ever have a third party in the bed with you?” Jackson asked.

“What?”

The detective’s eyes didn’t waver. “You know what I’m talking about. Another woman, maybe? A man?”

“Hell no!”

“What about a kid?” asked Barlow.

Waters came to his feet, his face hot. “What about kissing my ass?”

Barlow balled his fists and started forward, but Jackson stopped him with an outstretched arm.

“I don’t have to listen to this crap,” Waters said.

“Yes, you do,” said Jackson. “You’re not giving us any choice, John. We don’t know what the hell’s going on. I’ve got guys going through your computer drives now. Is there anything you want to warn me about them finding?”

“Like what?”

“We get a lot of kiddy porn over the Internet, even here in Natchez. I’m wondering if Eve and Danny Buckles were into something like that. Running a BBS or something. They’ve got these naked pictures of Mallory Candler, and you’re the only person involved with them who might have access to something like that, though I don’t see exactly how.”

Waters found himself speechless.

Penn said, “Those photographs were taken by Benjamin Candler. Mallory’s father. Mallory discovered them in the attic during her reign as Miss Mississippi, and she suffered a breakdown because of it. She gave the photos to my client for safekeeping.”

“Ben Candler?” Jackson asked. “The state representative?”

Penn nodded. “Tom, I believe Eve Sumner got sexually involved with John in order to blackmail him. I think she stole those photographs from his home during an attempt to find embarrassing materials to use in her scheme. And I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find Danny Buckles was involved in all of that.”

Jackson seemed unable to process what Penn had told him. Even Barlow had nothing to say.

“Ben Candler took those pictures of his own daughter?” Jackson asked finally.

“Benjamin Candler was a sexual deviant,” Penn said. “I think minimal investigation into that will bear out all I’ve told you. The point is, your suspicion that my client is somehow involved in the distribution of pornography is ridiculous.”

Jackson turned to Waters, who was staring in shock at his attorney. “Did Eve try to blackmail you with these pictures?”

“No.”

“Did Mallory’s father really take them?”

“Yes. I didn’t even know Mallory when she was that age.”

Jackson rubbed his eyes in frustration. “Tell me this. Did your wife know you were having an affair with Eve?”

“No. She does now.”

“When did she find out? Before Eve’s death?”

An alarm bell sounded in Waters’s head. “What are you suggesting?”

Jackson looked apologetic. “It happens, John. A wife gets suspicious, starts following her husband. What if Lily saw you having sex with Eve in your slave quarters that day? What if she knew about the suite at the Eola? She might have followed Eve back to it and-”

“That’s crazy. That would never happen.”

“Jealousy’s a powerful motive, John. Where’s Lily now?”

“I don’t know.”

Jackson turned to Barlow. “Let’s find out.”

Lily came awake in room eleven at the Stardust Motel and sat up in bed. Cole lay naked on his back beside her, his mouth open, his eyes shut, and breathing so deeply that he might have been drugged. Shivering in her nakedness, she got out of bed, went to the bathroom mirror, and stared at her reflection.

“I’m me, ” she said to the face in the mirror. “But I know you’re there. I’m the first person who’s ever known you were there.”

She rubbed her eyes and looked over at Cole again, then grabbed her clothes and dressed as quickly as she could. She found her keys on the dirty carpet by the door, picked them up, and started to leave. With her hand on the knob, she stopped and turned back to Cole.

She had to be sure.

Walking over to him, she reached down for his shoulder. The sight of his pale flesh filled her with revulsion, but she had to wake him. What did one touch matter after having sex with him? She grabbed the big shoulder and shook it. Cole groaned and pulled the covers up to his neck.

She shook him again. “Wake up!”

“Unnhh.”

“It’s Lily. Wake up. ”

Cole opened one eye, then squinted until it was nearly shut. “What the hell? Did I sleep over at your house?”

She looked into the bleary eyes, searching for deception.

“Where’s John?” Cole mumbled. “Jesus. Is it morning?”

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

Cole blinked, still more asleep than awake. “I don’t know…the office? Sybil said something about meeting me. Shit-I don’t know.” He drew his knees up into a fetal position and pulled the covers over his head.

Hurry, Lily told herself. You may not have any time at all….

She turned away from the bed and went toward the door. Her sense of balance left her, and she nearly stumbled. As she reached for the doorknob to steady herself, the room went dim. Pure terror flushed through her. That dimness wasn’t in the room-it was in her mind. That dimness was Mallory.

“No,” she whispered.

She slapped the door hard and focused on the pain in her palm. “I know you’re there. You’re inside me, but it doesn’t matter. I’m Lily Ann Waters, born June twelfth, nineteen sixty-three.” She opened the door and struggled toward her car. “My daughter is…Annelise. Born June fourteenth, nineteen ninety-five.”