Eight Days to Live (13 page)

Paris
Bleinart Inn

“JOE SAID YOU’D BE HERE
at MacDuff’s Run,” Eve said when Jane answered her call. “Where the hell are you?”

“I’m still in France.” She had been bracing herself for this call. “Did MacDuff explain?”

“He explained as much as he could explain. He told me about Yvette Denarve and that you’d ditched him at the airport.” She paused. “He said that you were looking for this Ted Weismann and were trying to locate someone who could find him.”

“Weismann has all the answers. I have to find him, Eve.”

“I can see that you would. MacDuff said that you didn’t tell him who you were going to get to help you.”

“He wouldn’t approve my choice.” She added, “And I don’t have to tell you who it is, Eve.”

“Seth Caleb. He was the first one I thought about when MacDuff was telling us that Weismann would be difficult to hunt down.”

“Not for Caleb.”

“You’ve contacted him?”

“Yes. He said he’d help me.”

“Out of the goodness of his heart?”

“I don’t know how much goodness there is in his heart. I just know that he agreed, and I’m going to accept it.”

“You must feel desperate. If I remember, I was more inclined to be lenient with Caleb than you were.”

“You didn’t see Celine. You didn’t see Yvette. Yes, I was feeling desperate. I can’t have anyone else killed because I’m stumbling around in the dark. I have to know what’s going on.” She drew a deep breath. “I didn’t trick you into coming to the Run because I was afraid for you. I
am
afraid for you and Joe. I’m terrified. But I intended to join you there.”

“But then you thought about Seth Caleb and knew that he was your best shot.” She paused. “I know you’d never try to deceive me, Jane.”

“I just had to be sure. I’ll come to the Run as soon as I find Weismann. Will you stay there with MacDuff? It will make me feel better. If you were with me here, I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on anything but keeping you safe.”

Eve didn’t speak for an instant. “I’ll stay here until I think that I can help you more by going after you. Where are you? Or is that a secret from me as well as MacDuff?” Then she added quickly,
“No, don’t tell me. I don’t know how secure MacDuff’s communication setup is here.”

“I imagine Jock will tell MacDuff anyway. But I don’t know how long I’ll be here. As soon as Caleb finds Weismann, I’ll have to go.”

“Let me know when you do.”

“I will.” She changed the subject. “Are you working?”

“Of course. When don’t I? It keeps me functioning. I brought the skull of a little boy with me. I call him Ronald. MacDuff is going to set me up a grand workroom next to my bedroom in one of the towers. I’m sure it will feel very plush after my humble work area at the cottage.”

“There’s nothing humble about anything you do,” Jane said. Eve was reputed to be the world’s greatest forensic sculptor. She tried to stay out of the public eye except when it was to help public awareness of the need to find and identify missing children. Since years ago she had lost her little daughter, Bonnie, to a serial killer, it had been her passion. No, that wasn’t quite true. She was dedicated to helping those children and their grieving parents. But her passion was the desire to find her Bonnie’s killer and bring the body of her daughter home. Everything else paled in comparison. “But I’m glad MacDuff is taking care of you there at the Run. How’s Joe?”

“Restless. He’s going to join Venable in Rome tomorrow. He said he told you he would.”

“Yes, but I thought I was going to be there to take—”

“Care of me?” Eve finished for her. “Then you can’t blame me for feeling the same about you. Come as soon as you can.” She paused. “You know, I like this place. It’s very grand, but there’s a kind of ageless comfort about it. Ever since I stepped inside the gates I’ve been feeling a sense of . . . rightness. As if there was a reason why I should be here. Crazy, huh?”

“No, you should be there so MacDuff can keep you safe.”

“That’s not what I meant. I just feel . . . it’s as if there’s something here or something coming. Something . . . unfolding, and I have a part in it. Did you know there’s a painting of one of MacDuff’s ancestors who looks like you?”

Jane sighed. “Fiona. MacDuff would have to show it to you.”

“He didn’t. I noticed it myself. Too bad there’s not a portrait of his many-times great-great-grandmother Cira. She might look even more like you.”

“Don’t mention that to MacDuff. He’s insistent enough now that I’m part of his blasted family. I can’t convince him I’m done with Cira and her treasure chest and everything else connected to MacDuff’s Run.”

“Evidently not. Considering that I’m here right now. Well, it will be nice to look at the portrait since I can’t have you here.”

“Then for the first time I’m glad I look like Fiona,” Jane said. “But don’t let MacDuff try to persuade you that it’s anything but a coincidence.”

“MacDuff is too busy making phone calls and talking to all these guards he has tripping over each other around the estate to try to convince me of anything.” She chuckled. “And he probably realizes I wouldn’t give a damn anyway. It doesn’t matter who you are to him; it’s who you are to me that’s important.”

“Thank God.”

“Yes, I do thank him very frequently for bringing you into our lives. Call me as often as you can. Bye, Jane.”

“She wasn’t angry?” Jock asked, as Jane hung up.

“No, I didn’t really think she would be, but I had to explain. I never take our relationship for granted. It means too much to me.” She stood up. “Let’s go for a walk. I need to expend some energy. Eve said Joe was restless, and I feel a definite empathy.”

“I can see that you do.” Jock got to his feet. “You’ve been prowling this room like a tiger cub all morning. Your Caleb had better work fast, or you’ll be a nervous wreck.”

“No, I won’t. We’ll walk, we’ll have dinner somewhere, then I’ll come back and sketch you. Working always relaxes me, and I haven’t sketched you for years.”

“Since the first time you came to MacDuff’s Run,” he said quietly. “You gave me one of those sketches, and I sent it to my mother. She could never understand the monster I’d become. I told MacDuff that he had to tell her what I’d done. She couldn’t be allowed to think that there was no reason I couldn’t come back to her. But how could she comprehend a son who killed? She had done her best, raised me to believe in hard work, God, and the Ten Commandments. All the things to which a good Scottish lad should adhere. After MacDuff brought me home from the hospital, he kept telling me that she’d understand. That she’d only think of that time as a terrible sickness.” He shook his head. “I couldn’t go back to her. It would only have hurt her. But I think she liked the sketch.”

“I’m sure she did,” Jane said gently. “And I’m sure she still loved you.”

“Maybe. Mothers are pretty helpless about things like that.” He smiled crookedly. “I’ll be glad to have you sketch me again, Jane. It will be interesting to see the difference the years have made, won’t it?”

EVE SLOWLY PUT HER PHONE
in her pocket after she had hung up. She had been alarmed when she had first learned what Jane was doing, and she was still just as frightened. Caleb might be
able to find this Weismann, but he was probably a more ruthless and dangerous man than the man he was hunting.

Blood.

She shuddered as she remembered what she had seen him do to that serial killer, Jelak, only a few weeks ago. Yes, Caleb had saved Joe’s life and perhaps her own, but it had still been shocking. The blood running from the killer’s eyes, the screams as his brain hemorrhaged. It had been hard to accept that anyone could have the power to do that. She would never have believed it if she hadn’t seen it herself.

But she had seen it, and the memory wouldn’t leave her. Had she somehow known that Caleb would be back in their lives?

But not like this. Not this horror involving Jane. She had wanted to keep Caleb away from Jane. She had sensed something between them, a sort of bonding, that had made her uneasy. Dammit, she didn’t want Jane drawn into the darkness surrounding Caleb. Yet Jane was walking toward him like a moth to a flame.

No, she was insulting Jane. Jane was doing what she thought was right, and she was no helpless moth. Even Eve could see that Caleb could be the answer to finding Weismann. It was Eve who was feeling helpless and wanting to step in and whisk her away. It had taken all her will not to leave this haven Jane had set up for them and go after her.

Not now. Not yet. Jane didn’t need her attention diverted because she was worrying about Joe and her.

So she’d do what she could from MacDuff’s castle until it was time to make a move. There were a few things here that were making her uneasy, and she had to get clear.

She left her room and strode down the hallway toward the grand staircase.

MacDuff was coming through the massive fourteen-foot front doors.

She paused on the top step and looked down at him. The hall was all stone and rich tapestries, and simple chests. It had none of the dated furniture pieces she’d seen in other old manors. It looked as if it was a place one of MacDuff’s wild, robber-baron forbears could have walked into at any moment. And though John MacDuff was dressed in dark trousers and rolled-neck sweater, he fit effortlessly into that ancient setting. Yes, she thought, he belongs to this place in spirit as well as birth.

He looked up as Eve came down the grand staircase. “You’ve talked to Jane? Did you convince her to come here?”

“I didn’t try,” Eve said. “There would have been no use. She’s doing what she thinks is right. I’m the one who will have to go to her if I think it’s necessary.”

“It’s not necessary,” he said curtly. “If she needs someone, I’ll be there for her. I promised to keep you safe.”

“Why?” She gazed at him searchingly. “You’re turning your life here upside down. All for Jane.” She smiled faintly, “And I don’t think it’s entirely because you have this idea that she’s family.”

“She helped Jock when he needed her.”

“And that’s admirable, too. But you’ve been trying to coax her back here for at least two years. I’ve been standing in the background looking on, but I’ve wondered . . .”

His gaze narrowed on her face. “You’re a brilliant woman, Eve Duncan. I’d wager that you’ve done more than wonder.”

“Well, I’ve made a few guesses.” She paused. “You’re a driven man, MacDuff. You love this property. It represents your roots, your family. Jane told me that you’ve almost lost this estate several times to taxes and exorbitantly expensive upkeep but managed to save it at the last minute.”

He smiled. “Are you thinking I want to make a rich marriage to save it? I’m afraid Jane doesn’t qualify. She’s only a struggling artist.”

“No, marrying for money wouldn’t suit you at all. You’re too much like your ancestors who preferred to rob and pillage. I’m talking about the chest of gold coins hidden by the first MacDuffs that you’ve been searching for all these years. At one time you thought Jane could lead you to it.”

“She assures me she cannot.”

“But do you believe her?”

“I believe she thinks she cannot.”

“That’s no answer.”

“You want an answer?” MacDuff smile was suddenly reckless. “I think there’s a chance that someday she’ll be able to tell me where to find it. Look, Jane didn’t just happen into my life. She came here because of all those dreams she was having about my ancestress, Cira. Yes, she was a student and fascinated by stories of Cira and her escape from Herculaneum during the Vesuvius eruption. But that wasn’t what drew her here. It was the dreams. And in those dreams there was a chest of antique gold coins. It figured prominently in them.”

“But her dreams didn’t tell her where the chest was hidden.”

“Because Jane didn’t care about the gold.
I
care about the gold. I won’t let my family home go to strangers.” The passion vibrated in his voice.

“But dreams, MacDuff?” Her brows lifted mockingly. “I wouldn’t judge you to be one to pay attention to such nonsense.”

“Is it nonsense? I don’t believe you think that’s true. No one knows Jane the way you do, Eve.”

She was silent. “I know that sometimes she’s had dreams that were . . . strange. Most of them had to do with the past and people she had never met. But she hasn’t had any dreams like that for a long time that I know about.” She smiled faintly. “And my hardheaded Jane would deny with her last breath that they were any different from the run-of-the-mill dreams you or I have.”

“Then I’ll deny it for her. You’re right; I’m not a man who believes in foolish flights of imagination. But this is different. Those dreams started a chain reaction that not only enabled us to kill that bastard Thomas Reilly but brought Jock home to heal and become whole again. That’s good enough for me. There has to be a reason that happened. I
know
that Jane was sent to help me keep MacDuff’s Run from going out of the family. Someday she’ll understand that, too.”

“And in the meantime it suits you to keep her alive,” Eve said dryly.

“No, I’ll keep her alive because she’s deserving and a part of my family. I have feeling for her,” MacDuff said curtly. “The gold is a separate matter.” He stared her in the eye. “And I wouldn’t have been honest with you if I hadn’t intended you to share what I said with Jane. I know how close you are. Tell her what you wish. It’s not going to make a difference. I think in her heart she realizes that she’ll have to come back and finish our story. Soon. I have a feeling that it’s coming around full circle.” He was silent, then asked, “Do you wish to know anything else?”

She studied him for a moment. He was full of arrogance and contradictions, but he was being honest with her. He was no threat to Jane even though he might want to lure her here for his own purposes. She had wanted to make sure of this piece of the puzzle. She was already feeling very powerless stuffed away in this castle. “You really believe Jane is your distant cousin?”

“You saw the portrait of Fiona.” He smiled. “But I think she resembles the woman she was having dreams about much more.”