“Get hold of yourself. I was driving across the Mississippi River Bridge, and all of a sudden the guys working on the bridge stopped traffic. Somebody went through the rail.”
“I just heard that.”
“John…it was Lily’s Acura.”
Waters felt himself going into free fall.
“I’m stuck on the bridge now. The car floated for a while, but then it went under and…Jesus, she got out, John.
“My God. Where would they be taking her?”
“Has to be St. Catherine’s in Natchez.”
Waters hung up and got to his feet.
“What’s wrong?” Jackson asked. “John?”
“That car that went off the bridge was my wife’s.”
Penn jumped up and gripped his arm. “Are you sure? Who told you that?”
“Cole. He saw her make it to the bank. He saw the car sink. I’ve got to get to the hospital!”
Penn looked at Jackson. “Tom, I realize you may intend to arrest John today, but this is an emergency. You need to let him go deal with it.”
The unexpected turn of events left Jackson unsure what to do. Waters started to leave without permission, but Barlow laid a hand on the gun at his belt.
“I’ll stay with him,” Penn promised.
“Now look, Penn,” Jackson said. “I don’t know what-”
“For God’s sake!” Penn cried. “The man’s wife could be dying. Come with us if you have to!”
Jackson hesitated another moment, then threw up his hands. “Shit, we’ll meet you there.”
The emergency room of St. Catherine’s Hospital was abuzz with conversation about the freak accident. Over the years, several cars had gone into the river, but all from the banks, and most from boat ramps. Only the extensive repairs in progress had made the bridge accident even possible, and some nurses wondered aloud about the odds that someone would go off the road in the exact area that the steel was missing. More than once, Waters heard the words “suicide attempt” from behind a curtain down the hall.
He and Penn had beaten the ambulance to the hospital, but so had Tom Jackson. The big detective stood at Waters’s side during Lily’s transit to the ER, but it didn’t matter, because she was unconscious. As the ER staff worked to stabilize her, Jackson escorted Waters and Penn to the waiting room.
Penn’s father was Lily’s doctor, and his office was only a hundred yards from the hospital. While Lily was in X-ray, Tom Cage came out to the waiting room and told them he didn’t think Lily had suffered internal injuries- thanks to the air bag-but that she was still unconscious. Until they completed a CAT scan, they wouldn’t know about the condition of her brain. She also had a shattered wrist and thumb and some broken ribs.
Seeing Dr. Cage in the St. Catherine’s ER took Waters back to his father’s death. The doctor’s hair and beard had been black then. Now both were silver, but his strong hand on Waters’s arm combined with his deep, reassuring voice kept Waters from giving in to the fear and guilt that were eating their way through him.
They waited one hour, then two. Dr. Cage came out twice: once to tell them that an orthopedic surgeon was repairing Lily’s wrist, then again to say that he’d sent Lily’s brain scans via computer to the office of a neurologist in Jackson. Two local radiologists felt there had been only a slight concussion, but Tom Cage wanted to be sure. Lily had regained consciousness, but she seemed disoriented and confused about her identity.
This revelation chilled Waters’s soul. He wanted to ask more, but Tom Jackson was standing beside him, so he took Penn’s arm and pulled him over to a corner.
“Did you hear that? About Lily’s identity?”
“Don’t talk about what you’re thinking,” Penn advised. “Lily’s had a terrible accident. Anything could cause that confusion. All that matters right now is that she’s alive.”
“You’re wrong, Penn. You don’t know how wrong you are.”
Penn sat him down in one of the plastic chairs bolted to the wall. “I just found out Cole is outside. He’s been out there for an hour, but the police won’t let him in.”
Waters wasn’t sure if he was angry or glad. “Why not?”
“Tom Jackson knows Cole slept with Eve. He’ll want to question him separately about the safe deposit box evidence and so on. I just wanted you to know Cole’s here. Let’s get Lily out of the woods. Then we’ll go back to your legal problems.”
“John? Penn?”
Dr. Cage walked into the waiting room. “I just talked to the neurologist in Jackson. He says Lily’s brain looks good. No intracranial bleeds. No severe injury.”
Waters sagged with relief. Penn braced him.
“She’s much more alert now,” Dr. Cage said. “I’m going to admit her for observation. You can see her briefly.”
Waters nodded, but suddenly Tom Jackson stepped forward. “Could you give us a minute, Doc?”
Penn nodded, and his father went back to the treatment area.
“Listen, guys,” Jackson said. “I’m ecstatic that Lily is okay. It’s a goddamn miracle. But I can’t let John go back there and talk to her.”
Penn drew himself erect. “You can’t stop him unless you arrest him.”
Jackson sighed. “I’ll arrest him if I have to.”
“Damn it, Tom, would you
Looking at Penn’s face, Waters realized that surface identities like “lawyer” and “detective” had just gone out the window. They were three guys who had grown up together, and they could have been standing on a playground or a football field.
“What can it hurt for him to see his wife?” Penn asked. “She’s probably still in shock anyway.”
“I don’t know what’s going on with this Eve Sumner mess,” Jackson admitted. “But I know it’s no simple murder. I need to question Lily
“Then go do it. I’ll tell my father you’re going back.”
Jackson looked almost apologetic. “Do you have any problem with me doing it now, John?”
“Not if it gets me in to see her. We have nothing to hide.”
“Okay, then. I’ll go talk to her.”
Twenty minutes later, Tom Jackson came back to the waiting room and told them Lily was being moved upstairs.
“Did you learn anything that makes you think you should keep John from his wife?” Penn asked.
Jackson shook his head and looked at Waters. “You’re a lucky man. The Lord was watching out for that lady today. Go on up. She’s on the fourth floor.”
Penn and Waters went to the elevators. While they waited, Waters took out his cell phone and called Cole’s cell number. His partner answered immediately.
“John, what’s going on in there?”
“Lily’s going to make it.”
“Thank God!”
“Cole…what were you doing in Vidalia?”
“Rock, I wish to hell I could tell you. I honestly have no idea. I woke up naked in a room at the Stardust Motel. If I was a woman, I’d say somebody slipped something into my drink and raped me. I even wondered if some woman did that and robbed me, but my wallet’s full.”
“Did you see Lily anywhere near that motel?”
“The motel? Hell no. I saw her in the water, man. And I’ll never forget it.”
Waters closed his eyes and asked the question he most feared. “Which span was Lily on, Cole? Which direction was she going?”
“West to East. Louisiana to Mississippi.”
“And you woke up in a motel on the Louisiana side?”
“Right.”
The elevator doors opened. Waters and Penn got inside with a black nurse.
