Sleep No More (22 page)

To hell with it, she thought recklessly. She would be honest and direct and forget about pity. It was the only way that she could deal with Beth Avery. She had an idea that Beth could take whatever she had to take. “Maybe I am angry. I don’t need a sister, and I don’t want one with all the baggage you’re bringing into my life. But I promised our mother that I’d make sure you’re safe, and I’ll do it.”

“My mother? I don’t know anything about her. I never wanted to know. They told me she gave me up when I was a baby. She didn’t care about me then. Why should I believe she does now?” She drew a deep breath. “So you can call your Joe Quinn and get him to take you out of here. I don’t need you.” She turned to Newell. “I’ll be right back, Billy. There’s a first-aid kit in the kitchen.” She turned on her heel and strode out of the library.

“She does need you,” Newell said quietly. “The cards are stacked against her. It has to be the Averys who gave the kill order. That’s a hell of a lot of power for Beth to have to go up against. She can’t even go to the police. Just the fact that she’s been in a mental hospital all these years will make it difficult for anyone to believe her. She’d end up back in the hospital, and, in a year or two, they’d find a way to kill her.”

“I’m not going to leave her.” She shrugged. “Even if she tells me to do it. It’s not totally my fault, you know. It appears that she’s taken a dislike to me.”

He smiled. “I noticed. It’s a little strange. I actually think it’s healthy. I’ve never seen her react like that toward anyone. She’s always been sweet and docile. It could be that the drugs are totally out of her system now. Or it could be spending this period alone, she’s had time to think, and her personality is beginning to assert itself.”

“Or it could be a natural antipathy.” She reached up and gingerly touched her jaw. “For any reason you choose to call it, her personality is definitely present and accounted for.” She turned away and dialed Joe. “Everything is fine here. Drogan was in contact with Beth, but he hasn’t shown up here. Anything suspicious out there?”

“No. How is Beth Avery taking all this?”

“Not tamely. Scared, but she’s no timid rabbit.”

“Do I detect an edge?”

“Probably. But I’m trying to work through it. Are you ready to come in? I’ll unlock the front door.”

“Not yet. I’ll call you. I’m going to drive back the way we came and check to make sure we weren’t followed.”

“I didn’t see anyone tailing us on the freeway.”

“Neither did I. But Newell said Drogan was a professional who knew what he was doing. He might have been good enough so that we wouldn’t have been able to notice him. It won’t hurt to take a little time to be sure.” He hung up.

“Okay?” Newell asked, as she hung up her cell.

She nodded as she turned back to face him. “He’s going to backtrack in case we were followed. He’ll call me.”

“Smart move.” He leaned wearily back in the chair. “Thorough.”

“That’s Joe.” She gazed thoughtfully at him. “You look like you’re ready to pass out.”

“I’ve been worse.” He smiled slightly. “But if I do pass out, you’ve got to promise that you’ll take care of Beth for me. I promised Uncle Hermie that she’d come out of this okay.”

“Is that the only reason?”

“No, I like her.” He chuckled. “And I’ve no ambition to be the prince who battles through the thorns to save her.”

“Yet you already have.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” He tilted his head. “But I feel more like she’s my sister. I’d do it for a sister. Would you?”

She didn’t answer. “She said that she didn’t know anything about her mother. But your uncle told you about Sandra. You didn’t mention it to Beth?”

He shook his head. “You have no idea how little time we had for small talk.”

“Hardly small talk,” Eve said dryly.

“It was for me. Everything I did, everything I said, was aimed at getting her off the drugs, clearing her mind so that she didn’t stay in that damn fog they tried to keep blowing around her. It was all present and a little future, no past. You weren’t important.”

“I’m still not, but Sandra wouldn’t agree.” She thought of something else. “Beth calls you Billy. William is your middle name.”

“And no one at the hospital would recognize it if she mumbled something by mistake during the time we were hiding those pills in the mattress. It protected both of us when she was still heavy into the sedatives.”

“You thought of everything. She owes you a great deal, Newell. Does she realize that?”

“Of course I do.” Beth was standing in the doorway with a bowl of water and a first-aid kit in her hands. “Why shouldn’t I? I’m not on those drugs any longer. I can think, I can feel. Stop talking about me as if I was that woman at Seahaven—I’m not that person any longer.” She came forward and set the bowl of water on the table beside Newell’s chair. “I
won’t
be her.”

“Shh.” Newell smiled at her. “You protest too much. Of course, you’re not her. I was just telling Eve how much you’d changed.”

“You were?” Her expression cleared, and she suddenly smiled. “I thought that I was learning and changing in the past few days, but it’s hard to know when there’s no one around that you trust to ask if it’s true.” She dipped a cloth into the water. “Now be quiet, and I’ll clean up these stitches and rebandage you.”

“I could do it,” Eve offered.

“Why? Because you think I can’t?” Beth was carefully cleaning the blood from around the stitches. “I took a first-aid course when I was competing at a ski competition in Switzerland before … before they took me to the hospital.”

“And you still remember?” Eve asked.

“I didn’t. It was only a blur. But it’s all been coming back to me for the past few days. Just bits and pieces, but the memories are as sharp as if it were yesterday.” She dried the wound, then carefully rebandaged it. “This was nothing. I remember CPR lessons and laughing at—” She broke off and stepped back. “I remember laughing a lot. Then it stopped.”

“Do you remember a Dr. Hans Gelber?” Newell asked.

“No. Why?”

“He was one of your first specialists at the hospital. I was just wondering if that was about the time that you forgot the laughter.”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. There were so many doctors. It doesn’t matter. I’ll know soon. It’s all coming back now.”

“You’re wrong. I believe it may matter very much,” Eve said slowly.

“I wasn’t talking to you.” Beth glanced at her. “And you’re looking angry again.”

“I am angry. But not at you.”

I remember laughing a lot. And then it stopped.

Eve was finding those words incredibly moving. Her own life had not been filled with laughter, but her laughter had not been smothered by some doctor who had been ordered to destroy memories, and with it, a woman’s laughter. “And I think that we should hurry the process along and track down that doctor Newell mentioned.”

*   *   *

JOE SLOWED DOWN TO A CRAWL
as he passed the long driveway of the estate next door to the Dendridge Tudor. It was dark, and there were several turns on the way up the hill. A good place to pull off and avoid possible scrutiny and yet be able to keep everything around him under surveillance.

Are you up there, Drogan?

If they’d been followed by Drogan, he could have pulled off at any of ten houses along this stretch.

And there was no proof that they had been followed.

No proof. But a nagging hunch that wouldn’t go away. Joe believed in hunches. They had saved his life too many times for him to ignore them. And he had felt that strong whisper of instinct the moment he had gotten out of the car back at the Tudor. That sense of being watched …

He had thought it might be Drogan somewhere on the grounds, but that hadn’t panned out. So he had decided to explore the road behind him.

Nothing.

Or nothing he could see.

He turned around and headed back toward the Tudor. He didn’t like the idea of not being with Eve when he knew that bastard was somewhere around. He’d come back later on foot and scour the neighborhood.

He dialed Eve. “No luck. I’m on my way.” He hung up, and his gaze once more traveled down the street of luxurious homes.

But I know you’re out there, Drogan. You can’t hide from me for long. I’ll find you.

*   *   *

“JOE’S ON HIS WAY BACK.”
Eve hung up the phone and turned to Beth. “Newell doesn’t look too good. Do you have any coffee in this place?”

“In the kitchen.” Beth headed for the door. “I’ll get it.”

“I’ll go with you.” She said over her shoulder to Newell, “Stay where you are and rest. We’ll be right back.”

“I’m not moving.” Newell closed his eyes. “It’s been a rough night. I deserve to relax.”

“Yes, you do,” Beth said soberly. “I’m so sorry, Billy.”

“No problem.” He didn’t open his eyes. “A little caffeine, and I’ll be fine.”

“Right away,” Eve said as she followed Beth out of the room and down the hall. “I assume we can’t turn on the kitchen lights?”

“No, but I always get the coffeemaker ready so I can have it in the evening.”

Moonlight was streaming into the kitchen from a huge window over the sink, and Eve could see Beth hit the button on the coffeemaker and moved from the sink to the bronze thermal carafe sitting on the granite counter. “Caffeine is an essential for quality living for Joe and me. I suppose Newell is the same.”

“I didn’t like coffee at first. But I found it gave me a little zing and kept me awake while I was studying here. They never gave it to me at the hospital, and I only drank water and Gatorade before they took me there.”

No, Pierce had probably not wanted to mix caffeine with her drug regimen, Eve thought bitterly. “I guess you were too young to develop an addiction to coffee. I keep forgetting that you were only a teenager when you had your accident.” She paused. “What were you studying here?”

“Everything. Billy told me to catch up and learn how the world works these days.” She made a face. “I don’t like it very much. Maybe I didn’t notice all the corruption and bad stuff that was going on when I was growing up, but it seems as if it must be worse now.”

“Or maybe just more publicized. Media is all around us.”

“And computers. I was surprised how easy it was to work the one in the library.” She added, “Facebook. It’s very … intimate.”

“Only if you want it that way. Your choice. It can get in your way. It interferes with my work, so I usually ignore it.”

“What is your work?”

“I’m a forensic sculptor.”

“What’s that?”

“I reconstruct skulls. You’re not really interested in what I do, are you?”

“I suppose not.” She took the coffee and poured it back into the carafe. “Or if I am, it’s not because it has anything to do with you. I’m just curious. I’m curious about everything. At first, I was only doing what Billy told me to do, but the more I learned, the more I wanted to learn. It was like being … drunk.”

“If you know how that feels, you must have been drinking more than water and Gatorade when you were a teenager.”

“I went to parties.” She frowned. “I had a friend … She laughed a lot…” She was silent, then shook her head. “I can’t remember her name.”

“I’m sure it will come back to you,” Eve said gently.

“No, you’re not sure. How could you be sure when I’m not? But I think it will. I hope it will.” She took down cups from the cabinet. “It makes me angry that I can’t remember everything. I feel cheated.” She glanced at Eve. “You believe that this Dr. Gelber was responsible for making me forget things?”

Eve nodded.

“Drugs?”

“Maybe partially, but I’m leaning toward hypnosis.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know if I believe in hypnosis. Do you?”

“I don’t know everything that it can accomplish, but I do believe that hypnosis can work. Gelber is evidently a very skilled practitioner, and he spent many sessions with you.”

“Then wouldn’t I remember him?” She shook her head. “Not if he didn’t want me to, right? But why wouldn’t he? And why would he want me to forget everything before I came to the hospital?”

“The reason on the chart was removal of psychological trauma.”

“Billy says that I was injured in a ski accident. What kind of psychological trauma would I get from that? It doesn’t make sense.”

“I agree.”

She gave Eve a disgusted look. “Is that all you’re going to say? What help are you?”

“You said you didn’t want my help.”

“I don’t. But you might as well be useful if you’re going to stick around for a while.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” She added quietly, “But you have to come to terms with the fact that we’ve been thrown in this brouhaha together, and we have to cooperate. You appear to have some lingering resentment toward our mother because she abandoned you. Maybe you include me under that same umbrella. I should point out that since I had no idea you even existed, that’s totally unreasonable.”

“I don’t have to be reasonable.” Her lips tightened. “I’m mentally incompetent. Ask Pierce.”

“Don’t give me that excuse. You can’t have it both ways, Beth.”

“I can do whatever I want to do.” She didn’t speak for a moment as she screwed the top back on the carafe. “Okay, maybe you’re right. I’ve just realized since I’ve been out of the hospital and free how alone I’ve been all these years. I could have used a friend to help me. What do they call it? To watch my back? But no one was there. I was alone. You may not be to blame, but it’s hard for me to accept that there was no one there for me. Someone
should
have been there.” She impatiently shook her head. “Listen to me. I’m whining. I’ve always hated whiners.”

Eve smiled faintly. “I believe you have cause to complain. But suppose we strike a truce. We both have a motive to get you out of this mess. Let’s work our way through it, then I’ll go away and won’t bother you again.”

“I guess that would be okay.” She picked up the carafe and turned toward the door. Then she turned back and gazed at Eve. “But what if I don’t want you to go away then?”

Eve blinked. “What?”

“Never mind. That just came out. I don’t know why.” Her lips twisted. “It’s probably my lack of ‘reason’ again. Sometimes my mind is just a jumble, and I wonder if Pierce was right about my being crazy.”