Sleep No More

by Iris Johansen

  “Maybe.” His mouth was dry, and his heart was beating painfully hard. She was all silken naked sexuality and every step she took toward him was giving him an electric, tingling jolt of pure lust. “I’ll let you know.”

  “You do that.” She slid onto his lap and wrapped her naked legs around his hips. “I think you’ll tell me to do it.” She rubbed her breasts against him as she made the adjustment. “Because you couldn’t do without me for more than a week or two, could you?”

  “Of course I could, you arrogant bitch. You’re not—” His head went back, and he gasped as she started moving.

  “Beg me,” she whispered. “I want you to beg me, Pierce. Like I’m going to make Gelber beg for it.”

  “No, damn you.”

  She laughed, and her pace increased. “You will, Pierce. You will…”

  * * *

  “SHOULDN’T JOE HAVE CALLED BY NOW?” Beth asked as she leaned back in the lawn chair and looked up at the night sky. “He and Billy have been gone over two hours.”

  “Unless he decided just to come back and pick us up.” Eve lifted her coffee to her lips. “Don’t worry. Either way, I have a feeling it’s okay.”

  “A feeling isn’t knowing,” Beth said. “And I can’t believe you’re taking this so calmly. They could be in trouble. Feelings don’t mean anything. I need to have facts.”

  “Can’t help you there,” Eve said. “And I’m so close to Joe that I believe I’d know if anything had happened to him.” She smiled faintly. “I’d feel it. Sometimes, you have to look beyond hard-and-fast reality to find answers.”

  Beth was silent a moment. “I … don’t know how to do that. All I know is reality. The reality of the hospital, the reality of school and sports and competition.” She paused. “Unless you mean when Rick asked me not to tell anyone I was his daughter. That wasn’t real, that was pretense.”

  “No, that’s not what I meant. It’s not the same at all.”

  “Now you sound angry.”

  “Not at you.”

  “Rick, again. You shouldn’t be angry with Rick. You wouldn’t be angry if you knew him.”

  “It’s better not to discuss him. We tend not to agree. As I said, by looking beyond reality, I believe I’d sense it if Joe was in trouble.”

  “Would you? That’s strange. Kind of spooky.”

  “I guess I believe in spooky stuff sometimes. I found it was the only way I could survive.”

  Beth didn’t speak for a moment. “I read about what happened to your little girl when I looked you up on the Net. I’m sorry. It must have been pretty bad.”

  “Understatement of the century.”

  “I know,” she said awkwardly. “I’m not very good with words. I don’t even know what I am good at yet. I just wanted to tell—you’ve gone through so much. You’ve lost a child. You’ve had a career. You found the love of your life. You’re still young, but you’ve lived through more than most people.” She said haltingly, “That makes you a person who—it makes you … rich inside … and wonderful.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “No, it’s true. Me, I’m still pretty much of a blank slate.”

  “That only means you have all the time in the world to write your own story on it.” She reached out and touched Beth’s arm. “I hope your story will be a little happier than mine from this time forward. You deserve it. We’ll have to see that it does.”

  “‘We’ll’? That sounds as if you’re going to stick around after this is—I’m not asking you to—I know you’re busy and you have Joe and Jane and your work—”

  “That you find very spooky,” Eve interrupted. “Stop stuttering. We’ll just have to see how this plays out. You may want to walk away and never see me again.”

  “I don’t think so. And I don’t mind your being spooky. I’ve just never felt anything like that myself.” Beth was silent. “Except maybe once. I had a dream about you, Eve.”

  “What? When?”

  “A few nights ago. I dreamed you were at the hospital, running away, running down the road. It was crazy.” She made a face. “Because I’d never met you. But I knew who you were. Oh, not that you were my sister. Just your name. I knew your name was Eve. I knew it. And when you showed up at the house, I recognized you. It kind of scared me. I guess that was one reason I reacted so … violently. Yeah, that was pretty weird.”

  Eve stiffened. More than weird. She touched her jaw. “Remind me not to scare you again.”

  “I’m sorry. I always seem to be saying that to you, don’t I? But it’s true, I just struck out without thinking.” She looked away. “I was wondering … do you think my dreaming about you is a … sister thing? I was watching one of those paranormal shows on TV, and they said that sometimes dreams and stuff like that happen.”

  “Yes, it could happen.”

  “I thought maybe it was the drugs that could still be lingering in my system.” She moistened her lips. “Unless you had the same kind of dream … But I suppose you didn’t. That would be even more weird.”

  “No, I didn’t have the same kind of dream.”

  “Oh,” she said, clearly disappointed. “Of course you didn’t.”

  “When I dreamed about you, I thought I was dreaming about myself. I was at our cottage in Atlanta, and it was before I knew anything about you or your history. But I swear, I was feeling what you were feeling. Only I didn’t understand what I was thinking. It didn’t make sense.” She met Beth’s gaze. “Because I kept thinking about a hospital and someone named Billy.”

  “Oh, my God,” she whispered.

  “I told you that sometimes you have to look beyond hard-and-fast reality for answers.” Eve looked away from her and up at the stars. “So you’re not alone in this particular weirdness. Does that make you feel better?”

  Beth didn’t speak for a moment. “It makes me feel … not alone. It’s strange and warm and sad.”

  “Sad?”

  “Maybe I should have said scared. Because it means that we’re together in a special way and that if I don’t do something wrong, you might … want to be with me sometimes.” She lifted her chin. “Providing I want to be with you. I might not, you know.”

  “Beth, dammit, stop being so defensive.” Because Beth’s defiant, touching words were breaking her heart.

  “I should be defensive,” she said fiercely. “I want this. I like it so much, and what if it goes away? What if someone takes it away?”

  Eve felt her throat tighten with emotion. What, indeed? Beth had had her entire life before her, and all those years had been stolen, taken away from her. Why wouldn’t she doubt that it could happen again? She reached out and took Beth’s hand. “Why, then we’ll find a way to take it back. We’re a team. No one can do that to us.”

  Beth looked down at their joined hands, and a brilliant smile suddenly lit her face. Her gaze lifted to Eve’s. “You’re right, no one can beat us, can they?” Her hand closed tightly on Eve’s. “I knew that. I just wanted to hear you say it.” She released her grasp and gave a sigh of relief as she leaned back in the lawn chair. “Do you ski, Eve?”

  “What?” The abrupt change of subject took her off guard. “No, I tried once, but Joe had to pick me up out of a drift three times. I decided he was enjoying himself a little too much.”

  “I’ll teach you. I’m very good. I have an entire wall of trophies.” She stopped. “At least, I did have trophies. I wonder what happened to them…” She shrugged. “Oh, well, we’d have a great time on the slopes. You’ll really like it once you learn how. And you can teach me to—” She frowned, lost for a moment.

  Eve’s lips quirked. “If this is supposed to be a reciprocal arrangement, you may be getting the short end. I hardly think you’d enjoy my teaching you how to reconstruct a skull.”

  “No, what else do you do?”

  “Not much. I’m a workaholic. That eliminates a hell of a lot of potential hobbies.”

  Her frown vanished. “Then you need me. I’ll save you f
rom yourself.”

  “Heaven help me.”

  Beth threw back her head and laughed. “No, that’s the point. I’ll help you. We’ll have such fun.”

  “If you say so,” Eve said warily. “I’m not sure about all that snow, Beth.”

  “We could try swimming. I was thinking of trying out for the Olympic team. But it required taking time off from—”

  Eve’s phone rang. “It’s Joe.”

  “Sorry I didn’t call before. Gelber’s home security system is state of the art and I was looking for a way to circumvent that damn alarm.”

  “Did you do it?”

  “No way. We’ll have to corner him tomorrow after the autographing. I’m heading for Gelber’s office to see if Newell had any luck breaking in there. He called and told me the security system at the office is much less sophisticated, and we may have a chance. Everything okay there?”

  “Fine. Except that I appear to be destined to spend a number of uncomfortable days fighting icy snow and my own lack of equilibrium.”

  “What?”

  “Never mind.” Her hand tightened on the phone. “Be careful, Joe.”

  “Always.” He hung up.

  “You lied to me.” Beth’s gaze was on Eve’s face. “You are worried.”

  “I didn’t lie. I don’t have a bad feeling about this.” Her lips tightened. “But sometimes fate slips in a wild card. So distract me, Beth. Tell me about skiing and your competitions and all those trophies and your friends at school…”

  * * *

  “IT’S NOT BAD AT ALL,” Joe murmured as he bent over the security alarm on the wall beside the door of Gelber’s office. “It’s clear he must have put more value on the things in his residence than here. Which doesn’t bode well for his clients’ confidentiality.”

  “We’ve got to hope that he was equally careless with his computer records,” Newell said. “Hurry.”

  “That does it. Try the door.”

  Newell cautiously opened the door. “Jackpot. Are you this good at cracking safes?”

  “I’m an amateur. But a good amateur.” Joe moved into the office. “And I’m not nearly as good at bypassing codes to get into computer files.” He jerked his head toward the paneled mahogany door beyond the reception area. “So get in there and see what you can find while I stay out here and act as lookout.”

  “Right.” Newell glided toward the door. “It may take a while. I’ve no idea what the password might be, so I’ll have to find a backdoor. And those records are old, and he may not have them in a current file.”

  “You’re wasting time with all those explanations.” He moved over to look out the window at the parking lot. “Just get in there and get busy.”

  The door closed behind Newell.

  Forty minutes later, Newell still had not reappeared.

  Another twenty minutes passed.

  No Newell.

  And he heard the faint sound of a siren in the distance.

  “Shit!”

  Joe strode toward the office and threw open the door. “I may not have been as good as I thought at disarming that alarm. I’m hearing sirens. We’ve got to get out of here.”

  “Give me one minute.” Newell didn’t look up. “I’m copying this file to disc.”

  “We don’t have a minute, dammit.” But Newell obviously wasn’t going to be budged. “Wipe the prints off everything you’ve touched and exit the file. I’ll do the same for the outer office.”

  “Right,” he said absently.

  Joe left the door open as he left the office and carefully wiped prints from the knob.

  The siren was louder.

  Joe wiped his prints off the windowsill and the door leading to the parking lot. “Newell! Now.”

  “Coming.” Newell was running past Joe toward the car in the parking lot.

  The siren was shrieking only blocks away.

  Joe pulled out of the parking lot but didn’t go to the cross street. Instead, he went left and turned the corner and parked a block away. “We’ll wait until they pull into the parking lot, then we’ll go to the cross street. We don’t want to pass them on the—”

  Two police cars, lights flashing, sirens blaring, had turned off the main street and were streaking toward the office building.

  “What the hell?”

  The police cars had gone past the entrance of the parking lot of the office and were driving straight down the street.

  “What’s happening?” Newell asked.

  Joe wasn’t sure but he had a good idea. “We’ll know in a minute.”

  It was less than a minute when the sirens cut off abruptly.

  “Gelber’s residence,” Joe said. “I didn’t trip any alarms here at the office. They got a call to come to Gelber’s residence.” He started the car. “Now why would Gelber call them?” He pressed the accelerator. “Let’s go see if we can find out.”

  “Do you think that’s a good idea? I believe a low profile would be in order,” Newell said dryly. “After all, we just robbed his office.”

  “We’ll park a block away, walk to the house, and stay in the trees until we can see what’s going on. Is that a low enough profile?”

  “No, but I’m curious enough to go along with you.” The house had just come into view. “Look, the house and entire area are lit up like a movie set. It was dark when we came— What are you doing?”

  Joe had abruptly pulled over to the curb and turned off the headlights. “The second team is right behind us.”

  “Team?” Newell watched as two vans drove past them and parked in front of Gelber’s house. “Who are they?”

  “The first van is forensics.” Joe’s mouth tightened grimly. Questions were being answered, but it was looking as if he might not be able to get Gelber to answer the most important one. “The second is the L.A. Medical Examiner.”

  CHAPTER

  14

  “GELBER’S DEAD,” JOE SAID BALDLY to Eve when he strode out onto the patio, where she and Beth were still sitting an hour later. “I don’t know all the details. It happened sometime between midnight and three this morning. Unknown perpetrator, stab wound to the heart, several other wounds on his body.”

  “Drogan?” Eve crossed her arms across her chest as a chill went through her. “Knives. He used a knife on Newell.”

  “That’s my bet,” Newell said as he came out on the patio. “Maybe he was trying to get the same information we were from Gelber.”

  “He didn’t try too hard,” Joe said. “That wasn’t his main objective. I’d say it was only important to him to get rid of Gelber in the quickest manner possible. Otherwise, he would have spent more time on Gelber before he killed him. You said he enjoyed torturing you.”

  “Oh, yes, he did that,” Newell said grimly. “Every little stinging wound. You’re probably right. Drogan was going to leave any cleanup retrieval from his office for later.”

  “Dead,” Beth repeated dazedly. She couldn’t seem to take it in. “Gelber’s dead? But we were going to see him.” She shook her head as if to clear it. “Three people died yesterday. Now Gelber? Because of me?”

  “No, because a son of a bitch is trying to cover his tracks,” Eve said bluntly. “And he doesn’t care whom he hurts to do it. Stop blaming yourself. All you’re doing is trying to survive.”

  “I’m not blaming—” Beth lifted her shoulders as if to ease the tension. “Well, maybe I was, but it’s difficult—” She took a deep breath. “So we won’t be able to find out what Gelber knew about my accident and the therapy that—”

  “I didn’t say that,” Joe said. “We managed to get into Gelber’s office, and Newell was able to access the records and make a disc. That should tell us a lot. But it seems you had over six months of in-depth sessions with him. Newell has to go through it and try to organize the information and eliminate repetitions. Evidently Gelber drummed several points over and over into your mind.” He paused. “One of them concerned Cara Sandler, Beth’s friend who was with her at
the ski lodge.”

  “Cara? Why?”

  Newell raised his hand. “Don’t ask me anything yet. I just noticed the repetition of the name when I located the records. I didn’t have time to do anything but copy the record before we had to bolt out of there.”

  “We haven’t had time to make any inquiries about Cara Sandler since you told us about her,” Eve said. “I believe we’d better get moving on it.” She turned to Joe. “I’ll do that if you want to concentrate on the disc.”

  “Newell will be doing most of it, but I’d like to be available to help.” He glanced at his watch. “But we’d better get a little sleep before we go into high gear. Agreed?”

  “Agreed,” Eve said as she turned to Beth. “I think we all need to stop and get our breath, don’t you?”

  She smiled crookedly. “If that’s possible. I feel like curling up in bed and pulling the covers over my head. I guess I shouldn’t admit that. You all seem to be so cool and calm.”

  “You’re doing fine, Beth,” Newell said gently. “No one expects you to accept murder without flinching.”

  “I can’t help what you expect of me.” She turned and moved heavily toward the glass doors leading to the house. “I’m just trying to work my way through this. I know Hans Gelber was probably a scumbag and that he might have done terrible things to me, but it’s too remote to me right now. It’s not real. All that’s clear is that he’s dead. I’m going to bed. I’ll see you all in the morning.”

  Eve frowned as she watched her go into the house. “We’re throwing too much at her at once. I keep forgetting that she just woke up into a world that she can’t possibly understand. Hell, even if she hadn’t had that kind of experience, she might still be responding in the same way. Murder isn’t exactly common.”

  “Understatement.” Newell’s gaze was on the glass doors. “But she’s making a good adjustment. I admire her resilience. You can see how torn and confused she is about believing that any of this is real.”