Read Online Swimmer by Graham Masterton - Free Book Online

too. Especially the high notes.’
    â€˜Mervyn … I woke up out of that nightmare and the clock said thirteen, six, oh one and it hasn’t moved since. This isn’t the
time
here, for God’s sake. This is the day that I’m going to shuffle off the mortal coil.’
    â€˜The what?’
    â€˜The mortal coil. That’s Shakespeare talk for buying the farm. This bedside alarm clock has just told me that I have nine days to live.’
    â€˜Oh, that’s ridiculous.’
    â€˜You think so?’ said Jim, and told him all about Jennie’s plea for help, and Susan Silverstone, and the watery figure that had risen out of the pool when Susan had set up her spirit-trace. For once, Meryvn looked serious. ‘Maybe you shouldn’t go to Washington, Jim. Maybe you’re cracking up.’
    â€˜But this little nine-year-old kid was drowned, and his mother asked me to find out who did it. And then I had specific warning that something bad was going to happen to me. Something to do with water, too.’
    â€˜A warning? Who from? You should tell the police.’
    â€˜I can’t. They wouldn’t believe me, would they? The warning … well, it came from the cards.’
    â€˜Oh, the
cards
. Well, you know what I think about those. They’re for menopausal women and lonely widows and middle-aged gays.’
    â€˜So what? Just because they appeal to vulnerable people, that doesn’t make them any less accurate. They’re real, Mervyn. They tell the truth. And there’s nothing wrong in being menopausal or lonely. Or middle-aged. Or gay, for that matter.’
    â€˜Hunh! You should try it sometime! I think I’m every one of those.’
    Jim said, ‘For God’s sake, Mervyn, I’m trying to tell you that I’m going to die in nine days from now. I think I’m going to be drowned.’
    â€˜In that case, you should stay away from water. I’m not just talking about pools, or the ocean. I mean, don’t even have a glass of water on your nightstand.’
    â€˜Get out of here.’
    â€˜I’m kidding around with you, Jim. I’m trying to make you see sense. That poor little Mike was dragged down under the water, but it was an accident, most likely. Faulty pump. Missing safety grille. The number of little children who get their hair all tangled up in swimming-pool filters, you wouldn’t believe. Those filters, they scalp more people than the Oglala Sioux. I know, I used to work for Valley Pool Pumps. The stories I could tell you. We found a guy who got his pony-tail tangled in his hot tub and he sat there for seventeen days, simmering. By the time we found him, he was guy broth.’
    â€˜Well, let’s leave those horror stories for now, Mervyn. What I need to know is, did you ever hear anybody else mention a water creature, a person all made out of water?’
    â€˜Oh, come on, Jim, I don’t think so. You’re just trying to spook me out. I guess the nearest we had was two of our operatives who worked on a pool in Sherman Oaks. They were refilling it, after somebody’s daughter drowned in it. And when the pool was almost full, one of our operatives pushed the other one in – you know, just for a joke. But that guy came out that pool in a total panic. He said that somebody had tried to pull him under, and drown him. But who, or what? There was nobody else there. The other guy could testify to that. And there was a neighbor leaning over the fence, and the neighbor didn’t see nothing, neither.’
    â€˜That sounds distinctly similar,’ said Jim. ‘That figure I saw … she was made out of nothing but water, I swear it. But she had arms that could drag you down below the surface. And she had such an expression on her face. Scowls weren’t in it. She gave me the feeling that she would kill me, as soon as she could lay hands on me.’
    â€˜Hm. You’re sure it wasn’t my