Sleep No More

“I need to stay out of jail. I don’t give a damn what happens later, but I need to stay free right now, for as long as possible. And to do that, I need an alibi.”

Cole looked at him with sympathy. “I’d like to help you. But it’s too late. Cowboy Tom Jackson called me an hour ago and asked where I was the night of the murder. I had to tell him I was home watching HBO all by my lonesome. I couldn’t say you were there, because for all I knew, you’d already told him you were somewhere else.”

“Shit.” Waters cursed his paranoia. Because he hadn’t trusted his friend, he’d screwed himself on the alibi.

“I warned you about this.”

“I know.”

Cole stood and squeezed his powerful hands together. “Sit down, Rock. You look like you’re about to pop a blood vessel.”

“I don’t want to sit.”

“Sit your ass down. I can’t think with you standing up.”

Waters took the leather chair opposite Cole’s desk, and the big man began to pace the room.

“How much time does Penn think you have before the cops bring you in?”

“Probably not much. They’re questioning me this afternoon.”

“Well, let’s just cut to the chase. Did you kill that crazy bitch or not?”

Waters looked at the floor. “My hands strangled her. But I didn’t kill her. I know that now. Not that it’s much comfort, given my situation.”

“But that’s your joy juice on the slides down at the crime lab?”

“Yes.”

Cole gave a theatrical groan. “What about Lily for your alibi? I’m sure she’ll swear you were home when the murder happened.”

Waters looked up at his partner. “Lily’s not Lily anymore. I can’t trust her to act in my best interest. That’s why I’m here.”

Cole stopped in midstep and stared as though Waters had just sworn the world was flat. “I thought the possibility of being cornholed for forty years in Parchman Farm had finally cured you of this Wuthering Heights, Mallory’s-back-from-the-dead bullshit. But it hasn’t, has it?”

“No. And I’m here because you’re the only guy I know who might be crazy enough to believe me.”

Cole scratched the back of his neck, amusement in his eyes.

“But even if you don’t believe me,” Waters continued, “I know you’ll do anything you can to help me.”

“Now you’re talking,” Cole said. “Okay, lay the weirdness on me.”

“Mallory’s inside Lily now.”

“Tell me I didn’t just hear that.”

“I’m serious. Mallory passed into me on the night Eve died. She killed Eve to shut her up, and to hold the murder over my head. Then she passed from me into Lily.”

Cole began to pace again, moving in a wide circle around Waters. “Why would she do that?”

“Because she thought I’d never leave Lily for Eve.”

“Huh. Would you have?”

Waters thought about it. “I’d like to say no, but I can’t honestly tell you. Did I risk losing Lily and Annelise just to sleep with Eve for two weeks?”

“I guess now we’ll never know.”

“Don’t be so sure. Last night, I convinced Mallory to leave Lily alone. To move into some other woman, on the condition that I would leave Lily for whoever it was. Now I’m afraid I might be arrested today. Penn says it won’t happen, but I have a feeling it’s going to. And if it does, Mallory might decide to stay right where she is. Inside Lily. She’ll be alone in the house with Annelise, and I’ll be stuck in jail.”

“That scares you?”

“What do you think?”

Cole stopped behind Waters and laid a hand on his shoulder. “What exactly do you want me to do?”

“If I’m arrested, I want you to bail me out. I’m going to give you access to an account with enough money to do it.”

“You don’t need me for that. Lily will bail you out of jail in a heartbeat.”

“I told you-”

“Lily isn’t Lily anymore…right.”

“That’s right. And I have no way of knowing what she’ll do until she does it.”

Cole took his hand from Waters’s shoulder, walked to his desk, and sat on its forward edge. “Okay, I’ll bail you out of jail. What else?”

“The charge will be murder one. The judge could deny bail. If that happens, I’ll need you to be my go- between with Mallory while I’m in jail. Obviously, she could visit me in jail as Lily, but only for a short time. I wouldn’t be able to monitor her movements or state of mind, or keep her calm if she starts to flip out. You have to do all that, and keep her moving forward with my plan. She has to move into another woman.”

“How do I do that?”

“Tell her I’ll get out of jail one way or another. And when I do, I’ll come to her. I’ll run away with her. You have to keep her convinced of that.”

Cole’s eyes narrowed as he studied Waters. “Is that really your plan? Or are you just trying to get Mallory out of the way so you can run with Lily and Annelise?”

“Christ, man. First things first. I’m not even in jail yet.”

“Seriously, John. I mean, Ward Cleaver gets the chance to run off to paradise…Does he take the wife and kid? Or his beautiful love goddess?”

Waters gripped the arms of the chair in frustration. “This isn’t some hypothetical game! The police want my ass. And I’ll be face-to-face with them at three o’clock!”

Cole held up his hands. “Easy, John Boy. I get the picture.” He got off the desk and walked to within a few feet of Waters. “So, what are you going to tell the cops? I mean, if your lawyer thinks you’re crazy with this Mallory stuff, how are you going to play it?”

“Penn may think I’m nuts, but he also thinks I’m innocent.”

“He does? Who does he think killed Eve?”

Waters gave a hollow laugh. “Are you ready for this? You.”

Cole blinked in surprise. “What?”

“Penn thinks you slipped in and strangled her while I was passed out.”

“No shit.” Cole folded his arms across his chest and looked at the floor. “Penn always was too smart for his own good.”

Waters started to laugh again, but something in Cole’s voice stopped him. “What do you mean?”

Cole stepped forward and crouched before the chair, his eyes inches from Waters’s own. Up close, the blood vessels in his nose were a ravaged red network of lines, like worms flattened by a car tire.

“I mean I killed her.”

The glint in Cole’s eyes left no doubt as to the truth of his words. The hair on Waters’s forearms stood erect, and a shiver went through his heart. He drew back in the chair, but Cole clutched its arms with both hands, penning him in.

“Penn was right?” Waters whispered. “It was you all along? You fed Eve all that stuff about Mallory and me?”

“You’re so lost,” Cole said, as though the subject were not worthy of discussion. “You don’t know which end is up, do you?”

Fragments of Penn’s merciless logic poured into Waters’s mind with the crushing weight of hindsight. Who’s in a position to know all about you and Mallory? Who would benefit if you were to go to prison for murder? I think we both know who we’re talking about…. I’ve seen things done between lifelong friends that you wouldn’t believe. There’s literally no depth to which human beings cannot sink….

Waters smashed his fists into Cole’s forearms, knocking them from the chair arms, and jumped to his feet. “Goddamn it, why?”