Free The Sleepless by Graham Masterton

understand why you need me.’ 
    Joe let out a heavy sigh. ‘I need you, Michael, because I need somebody sensitive. I need somebody crazy. I don’t need a plodder, or an analyst. I need somebody who can jump to conclusions. What was that thing you were always going on to me about? “Downwind thinking”. That’s what I need.’ 
    ‘What do the cops say about Cecilia O’Brien?’ 
    ‘Squat. They won’t even admit that she wasn’t in the wreck.’ 
    ‘So who’s covering this up, and why?’ 
    ‘Give me some guesses.’ 
    Michael ran his hand through his tangled hair. ‘O’Brien was a liberal, right? He didn’t approve of the death penalty, he didn’t approve of racism or segregation or police discrimination against ethnic minorities. He campaigned in favour of abortion; he also campaigned against censorship. He hated bribery and he hated featherbedding. He supported the legalization of soft drugs; but he was down on crack and heroin and snow and he was heavily down on guns. In fact, he made himself a prime target for every drug dealer and every bent politician and every redneck and every religious whacko in the continental United States.’ 
    Joe said, ‘Exactly.’ But then he said, ‘Remember Rocky Woods.’ 
    ‘You don’t seriously think that I could ever forget Rocky Woods?’ 
    ‘No, of course not, I’m sorry. But remember who died at Rocky Woods.’ 
    ‘Three hundred and forty-five unsuspecting men, women and children. That’s who died at Rocky Woods.’ 
    ‘Including Dan Margolis.’ 
    ‘Dan Margolis?’ 
    ‘That’s right, Michael. Dan Margolis, who had just been selected by William Webster to head up the Drug Enforcement Agency, so that they could strangle the Colombian coke trade before it even climbed out of its crib.’ 
    Michael said, ‘I remember Dan Margolis. He used to work in the DA’s office, didn’t he? All fire and shit and pepper, the way I recall.’ 
    ‘The very same.’ 
    ‘So what are you trying to tell me?’ asked Michael. 
    ‘I’m not trying to tell you anything. If I knew the answers, I wouldn’t be asking, would I? I’m just trying to think downwind, the way that you think.’ 
    ‘And?’ 
    ‘And – well – nothing. Except that we have two fatal air crashes within two years of each other, both involving a well-known liberal campaigner; both involving the deaths of innocent people; and both involving the complete and unaccountable disappearance of a single female. In the case of Rocky Woods, it was Elaine Parker. In the case of John O’Brien’s helicopter, it was Cecilia O’Brien.’ 
    ‘Joe,’ protested Michael, ‘this isn’t downwind thinking. This is making shopping malls without straw. The most logical explanation for Elaine Parker’s disappearance at Rocky Woods was that she fell way outside the search area. A gust caught her, a piece of debris deflected her, who knows? Those people fell across nine square miles. As for Cecilia O’Brien – well, we just can’t tell yet, for sure. And there were at least three other people who died at Rocky Woods who could have been the target for revenge killings, or insurance scams. That’s quite apart from the fact that we never discovered what caused that L10-11 to blow up in the first place.’ 
    ‘Michael,’ Joe retaliated, ‘I’m trying to get you thinking. I’m trying to get you involved. ’ 
    ‘For Christ’s sake, Joe, I don’t want to be involved. I don’t want to know how that helicopter crashed, and I don’t want to know why it crashed; and more than anything else, I don’t want to see the people who died in it.’ 
    This time, Joe went silent and stayed silent. 
    ‘It’s all finished,’ Michael told him. ‘I’m an inventor now, no matter how badly you think I’m doing. I’m an inventor, and I’m making things, creating things. I’m not picking through wreckage; I’m not making my living out of other people’s grief. I’m not a carrion crow. I’m