Eve (14 page)

“Why do you think there’s a story?” She came over and stood beside him at the rail. “What a suspicious man you are, Joe.”

“Body language. I saw the two of you standing here on the porch over an hour ago. Pure tension. I was tempted to come and interrupt you, but I decided Eve wouldn’t like me barging in if I wasn’t invited to begin with. So I’ve been waiting. I don’t have to tell you that I wasn’t waiting patiently. It’s not one of my virtues.” He smiled recklessly. “Hell, I’m much better at the barging part, followed immediately by investigation and disposal.”

“I remember.” And her latest memory was of Joe in the Ivanova marshes in Russia, aiming at a gas tank and blowing up the car that was pursuing them. Damn, he had been good. Hell, he had been magnificent. “But you restrained yourself this time. Could it be that you’re acquiring diplomacy?”

“No way.” His smile faded. “I just know Eve. We have to walk very carefully around each other every now and then.”

“When it concerns Bonnie.”

He looked out at the lake. “Bonnie rules our lives. The moment she was taken, she stopped being Eve’s daughter and became her obsession.”

“I know that. Can you blame her?”

“No, but I did after a while. God knows we did our best to find her. I couldn’t see why she wouldn’t let go. I loved her, I ached for her pain, but I needed for that pain to stop.” He glanced down at her. “I’ve never told anyone that before. But you guessed, didn’t you?”

She nodded. “I care about Eve. I’m concerned about her happiness. You make her happy, Joe.”

He shrugged. “Sometimes.”

“Do you still resent her fixation on Bonnie?”

“Resent isn’t the right word. There are times when I love Bonnie and want to find her as much as Eve. But I never knew her, so it’s harder for me. I want Eve as well as Bonnie to be at peace and it’s like a constant open wound. So I hurt, and I get tired and angry.” He grimaced. “But it comes and goes. Other times, I try not to trigger anything that might upset the balance.”

“Like not barging in where Eve doesn’t want you? In this case, you don’t know that’s true.”

“Don’t I?” He smiled tightly. “Then tell me I’m wrong, Catherine. Then tell me why we’re here talking about Eve and Bonnie. Tell me why you turned your phone off so that even Venable couldn’t reach you. You’re a professional, Catherine. You’d have to have a pretty good reason. And then, instead of calling him back immediately, you decided to stay out here and chat with me. Am I that fascinating?”

Yes, he was. The combination of tough spirit and brilliant brain was totally fascinating. “I suppose you’ll do. But no, that’s not the reason I’m out here.”

He leaned back against the rail and crossed his arms across his chest. “So I repeat, what’s the story, Catherine?”

*   *   *

“CATHERINE’S GONE,” JOE SAID
when he came into the cottage thirty minutes later. “She said to tell you that she’d call you.”

His voice was quiet, too quiet. Eve’s gaze flew to his face.

No expression. That wasn’t good.

“She told me she’d get back to me as soon as possible.” Eve turned to the kitchen bar. “We still have steak from the barbecue. Would you like a sandwich?” Cripes, that was a dumb thing to ask. It just went to show how nervous she was feeling. This was Joe. She had nothing to be nervous about. Just try to get him to open up about it. She turned back to face him. “Catherine told you about John Gallo. How do you feel about it?”

“Initial reaction? Relief. A chance to get the son of a bitch who killed Bonnie.”

She was feeling relief, too, that his initial reaction had been so uncomplicated. “Yes, he could be the one.”

“Second reaction. I bristled. You didn’t want to talk to me about it, or you wouldn’t have sent Catherine.”

“I didn’t send her. I was going to do it.”

“But you didn’t want to do it.”

She wasn’t going to deny it. “I felt awkward, and I had to come to terms with it myself. She said she understood.”

“Yes, Catherine would understand. The two of you are a lot alike. But you didn’t think I’d understand. Third reaction. Curiosity and a touch of suspicion. Why not, Eve? Why would the possibility of John Gallo being Bonnie’s murderer make you not trust me after all these years?”

“I do trust you. What are you talking about? I’ve never trusted anyone as I do you.”

“Not even John Gallo?”

She gazed at him in disbelief. “I never trusted him. That wasn’t what our relationship was all about.”

“And what was it about?”

“Just sex.”

“And that’s supposed to fill me with confidence? You’d never have a sexual relationship with someone you didn’t trust.”

She didn’t answer. What could she say? The Eve Joe knew wasn’t the one who had been with Gallo.

But Joe’s gaze was on her face, and he could always read her. “Or could you?”

“Evidently I could when I was sixteen.” She drew a deep breath. “But that doesn’t matter. That’s not what this is about, is it? John Gallo may have killed Bonnie. I have to find him.”

“We have to find him. Together.” He met her gaze. “Nothing has changed. Or has it?”

“What the hell do you mean?” Her hands clenched into fists at her sides. “Do you think I wanted him to come back into my life? I thought I was going to be going after Paul Black and now John’s back and there’s some connection. And you’re acting weird as hell and as if you’re blaming me for—”

“I feel weird as hell.” He had taken three steps, and he reached out and grabbed her shoulders. “And I’m not blaming you for anything. I’m just trying to keep control while I sort this out. You didn’t expect this? What do you think about me? Bonnie is still everything to you. What about her father?”

“What about him? He may be a monster, he may be my daughter’s murderer.” She shrugged off his grip and took a step back. “Do you think that I’m thinking about anything but that?”

Joe stared at her for a moment and shook his head. “No, I’m being an ass.” He turned and dropped down on the couch. “She’s the only one who is really important to you. The rest of us are just hovering on the sidelines.” He held up his hand as she opened her lips to protest. “You can’t help it. We both know it’s true. I accept it. Gallo’s appearance on the scene just threw me for a loop. I’ve become accustomed to playing second fiddle to Bonnie. I won’t do it for anyone else.”

“It’s not true.” But it was clear that his reaction had been as volatile as Catherine had predicted. “You’re always front and center. Dammit, I love you, Joe Quinn.”

He didn’t respond directly. “Why does Catherine think that Gallo could be the killer?”

“Insanity. He had very bad treatment from the North Koreans, and she said it might have twisted him.”

“It’s possible. What else?”

“There have been many cases where a father has gone off his rocker and killed members of the family, including children.”

“And?”

“The fact that he was seen here in the city the month of Bonnie’s disappearance and made no attempt to contact me.” She said quickly, “But that isn’t an automatic red flag. His uncle may not have even told him about Bonnie after he escaped. It’s possible he wouldn’t have wanted to upset him if he was already subpar mentally as well as physically. As for not contacting me, seven years had passed, and our relationship was very brief.”

“But productive. Anything else?”

“I’ve been going over anything about John that I knew and might have a bearing. He could be very violent. He told me once that he enjoyed it.”

“So do I on occasion.”

“His background might have contributed to making him unstable. He was abused as a child. Many serial killers have that in common.”

“Are we considering him a serial killer? As far as we know, Bonnie may have been his only victim.”

“I don’t know what he’s become. I’m confused and angry and just trying to make some sense out of this.” She added, “That’s all I know right now. Is the third degree over?”

He nodded. “I had to know everything you know.” He took out his phone. “Because I’m not going to wait for Catherine. I’m calling Venable back myself, then FBI at Langley to see if I can pull some information out of them.”

“Catherine will get back to us soon.”

“No doubt. But I’d rather do it on my own.” He gazed at her as he dialed Venable’s number. “One way or the other, I want this over. And I’m not trusting Catherine to keep me in the loop.”

“What are you talking about? Catherine and you are so much alike that you could almost finish each other’s sentences. You’re two warriors looking for a battle. I’m the one who could be left out in the cold.”

“Not this time. Catherine is your friend and trying to pay a debt. She knows this is going to be difficult for you, and she’ll try to make it easier.”

“By leaving you out?”

He nodded, his lips tightening. “It’s already starting. I can see it coming. But it’s not going to happen. I’m going to find John Gallo or Paul Black or both and find which one killed Bonnie.” He began to speak into the phone. “Venable. Joe Quinn. We have some talking to do, and I want straight answers.”

Eve stood listening for a moment, then turned and went out on the porch. She didn’t know if Joe would be able to get what he wanted from Venable, but she was willing to step back and let him try.

Not that she had any choice. Joe in this mood was not pliable. He would travel his own path through hell or high water.

Was he right about her trying to close him out? Joe knew her so well that he sometimes knew what she was thinking before she was aware of it. From the moment she had heard about John Gallo, she had felt a shock and rejection. If John was the murderer, then Eve had brought him into their lives. She was directly responsible for all the hell and torment Joe had experienced in the past years of searching for Bonnie and her killer. She had no right to expose him to more danger because of a man who was part of her past before Joe had come into her life.

She gazed out at the moonlight on the lake. Beautiful and clean and safe. Just like her life with Joe. But the waters were placid, and her relationship with Joe seldom was. Comfortable at times, but the undercurrents of passion and turbulence were always just under the surface.

So different from what she had known with John Gallo. Joe didn’t know that girl, and she couldn’t explain her to him. By the time she had met Joe, she had experienced childbirth, motherhood, and the most terrible tragedy a woman could survive. It had burned out all traces of that girl she had been.

Burn.

“
You burn, Eve.
”

She should have forgotten those words John had spoken. Why hadn’t she? She was sure that he had only the most fleeting memories of her.

Unless Catherine was right, and he had twisted their relationship into the beginning of a horror story.

And, if that had happened, she could not let Joe be caught up in that horror story.

*   *   *

EVE RECEIVED A CALL FROM
Catherine an hour later.

“I heard from Venable,” Catherine said. “He’s been able to confirm the story about John Gallo’s being alive. He has a source who says that Gallo’s records were buried so deep that no one could dig them up in the next hundred years.” She paused. “And that at one time there was a contract put out on him.”

“By whom?”

“Military.”

“My God, the same people who sent him into North Korea put out a contract on him because of what he found.”

“That’s the way it looks.”

“What the hell happened to him there?”

“It’s what happened after he got out of that prison that we’ve got to know about. I got my call from Nate Queen at Army Intelligence, and I’m hoping that he’ll prove Venable wrong about how deep we have to dig to find out where Gallo is right now.”

“What did he tell you?”

“The word is that Gallo moves around a lot but that he may be located in Utah.”

“Where?”

“Somewhere in the mountains.”

“That’s damn vague.”

“It’s more than we had an hour ago.”

“What about Paul Black?”

“No mention of him other than that one statement. Not in connection with Gallo.”

“It’s crazy. Paul Black was a suspect himself, and yet it seems as if he’s a witness against John. Then you tell me that Black faded away in the investigation as if he’d never existed?”

“That’s what I’m telling you. I’m still probing.”

“Then I need to be doing some probing myself. I’ll call Luis Montalvo and see what else I can find out about Paul Black. He gave me the name as a possible suspect. He may know more than what was in the original report he gave me.”

“Montalvo?”

“Montalvo used to be an arms dealer in Colombia. I did a forensic reconstruction job for him, and in return he hired investigators to try to find leads to Bonnie’s killer.”

“It sounds like a devil’s bargain. Can you trust him?”

“Sometimes our association is a bit strained, but, yes, I can trust him.”