Free Sleep No More by Iris Johansen Page B

later.
    She heard his shout behind her. “Wait. What are you doing here? I want to talk to you.”
    He was skidding down the dune behind her.
    No!
    Run.
    Keep on running.
    He was cursing.
    Was he gaining on her?
    Run …
    *   *   *
    RUN.
    The phone on Eve’s nightstand was ringing as she struggled out of the depths of sleep and the tentacles of the dream …
    Joe. She had been expecting him to call all evening. “What’s happening, Joe?” She tried to control the harshness of her breathing. “I thought you were going to call me before I went to bed.”
    “Sorry. I’ve been on the phone most of the afternoon and evening. I wanted to know more before I filled you in.” He paused. “You okay? You sound kind of blurry.”
    Rain and sand and a security guard chasing her down the beach.
    “I’m fine. You woke me. Why have you been on the phone?”
    He was silent. “Because I don’t like what’s going on here. When I went to the local police station this morning, I was told that the case was closed. Beth Avery had wandered back to the hospital last night during a rainstorm and was now safe in the hands of Dr. Pierce and his staff.”
    “Just what you said you hoped would happen. But it’s a curious coincidence. Beth wandered away and just wandered back?” She added dryly, “That’s a lot of ‘wandering.’”
    “It could have happened. But I went to the hospital to check it out and see Beth Avery. I saw Piltot, the human resources manager, I saw Dr. Pierce, but I didn’t see Beth Avery.”
    “Why not?”
    “According to Pierce, she was exhausted and disturbed and was to be kept in seclusion for the next few days until she recovered.”
    “They wouldn’t let you see her?”
    “They showed me a woman huddled in a bed, obviously drugged and out of it. They said to come back on Friday, and they’d see about letting me talk to her.” He paused. “But that wasn’t Beth Avery unless she’s changed beyond imagining. When I got back to the hotel, I called the records office of the private school she’d attended in Geneva and got them to send me a photo of her. I’ll forward it to you. Yes, she was younger and vibrant back then, but other than the dark hair, I couldn’t see any resemblance to the woman in that hospital bed. I’ve been calling that detective, Herman Dalker, but I haven’t been getting an answer. I’m trying to track him down.”
    “And I’m going to call the school and see what I can find out about Beth. I want to talk to someone who knew her before she went into that hospital.” She added grimly, “And I want to know what happened that led her to run away from it.”
    “I’m going to give you the answer that the hospital or a psychiatrist would give you: imaginary fears, schizophrenic delusions, or some other mental problem. And we couldn’t argue, Eve. We don’t have the facts.”
    Heart pounding, sand beneath her shoes, rain on her face. Don’t let them catch me. Figure it out. Why …
    “Speak for yourself. I can argue,” Eve said fiercely. She hadn’t even known the words were tumbling out until they were said. “You may have to have the facts because it’s your practical nature. I think she ran away because she was afraid. And not imaginary fear, Joe. She doesn’t know why, but she knows they want to kill her.”
    He was silent. “Would you care to explain?”
    “I don’t have an explanation. Not a reasonable one. I just think…” She drew a deep breath. “That dream the other night? I think it was Beth. It was the night she ran away from the hospital. I think I was running away with her. There was an ocean, a hospital … I was a part of her, feeling what she felt. I know it doesn’t make sense. Or maybe it does. I didn’t even know Beth existed when I had that dream. But perhaps she wasn’t meant to be alone any longer. Maybe God or fate or someone else decided that Beth deserved a break and needed a little help.”
    “Someone else?” He paused.