Authors: Iris Johansen
Tags: #Mystery, #Missing Children, #Mystery & Detective, #Women sculptors, #Duncan, #General, #Suspense, #Women Sleuths, #Facial reconstruction (Anthropology), #Thrillers, #Mystery Fiction, #Fiction, #Eve (Fictitious character)
“It always did, Joe.”
“Maybe.” He stood there in the doorway, naked, confident, handsome, totally mature. Joe, who had been her salvation and her love. Joe, who could raise her to the realm of complete eroticism.
He smiled. “But I’m an overachiever. I think we’ll stretch our limits.”
He disappeared into the bathroom.
She lay there, her gaze on the door. Her body felt flushed, lazy, yet her muscles had an underlying tingle that wouldn’t leave her. It was as if they were waiting for the next touch, the next—
Her cell phone rang on the bedside table.
She reached over to get it.
Catherine.
“Sorry to call you in the middle of the night, but I thought you’d want to know as soon as I did. I just talked to Nate Queen.”
“And?”
“Nothing. He says he can’t find any more information than he gave me before. Bullshit. He knows something. He’s stalling.”
“So what are you doing?”
“I’m going to keep after him. What else? And if I don’t get answers, I’m going to zero in on him in person. I won’t let him weasel out on getting us what we need.”
Joe had come back into the room and was staring at Eve. “Catherine?”
Eve nodded, before saying to Catherine, “You thought he’d be able to tell us. What changed?”
“How do I know? His superiors stomped on him? He got panicky? I don’t know much about him. Queen wasn’t my original contact. I’d done a favor for Dan Murphy, an agent on the lower rungs at Army Intelligence, and I tapped him for help. He was willing at first, but he just handed me off to Nate Queen like a hot potato when I brought up Gallo. I’ll call you back when I know more. What did you find out from Montalvo?”
“Not much. As far as anyone knew, he never worked with a partner and was never in the service.”
“That’s a start. Elimination can be valuable, too. Bye.” Catherine hung up.
“Am I to be told what Catherine found out?” Joe asked quietly.
“Zero. Nate Queen, with Army Intelligence, thought he might be able to find John Gallo. He just told Catherine he was mistaken. She thinks someone got to him. She’s going after him.”
His lips tightened. “Maybe she needs help.”
“Believe me, she can handle him.”
“You’re probably right. It appears half the Intelligence community owes Catherine a favor, and the other half is wary of her.” He got into bed. “And she’s collecting all of their debts in your cause, Eve.”
“I told her she didn’t owe me anything. Catherine doesn’t listen to anything she doesn’t want to hear.”
“Single-minded? Is that the pot calling the kettle black?”
Catherine and she were alike in so many ways and also had a multitude of differences. “Whatever. This time, I’ll take what she’s offering.”
“Naturally.” He had not pulled her close. He was lying on his own side of the bed. “That goes without saying.” He was gazing into the darkness. “She’s offering you Bonnie.”
* * *
CATHERINE CALLED HER BACK AT TEN
the next morning. “Still no luck with Queen. He’s not taking my calls. I did find out that he wasn’t at headquarters. He was out in the field.”
“Where?”
“I couldn’t find out. He’s supposed to be back this afternoon and I’m going to fly up to INSCOM and ask him.”
Eve chuckled. “And Joe was wondering if you were going to need his help with Queen.”
“I might call him if I can’t get the bastard to talk. Joe and I could play good cop–bad cop. We’d be a good team. Is he at the precinct today?”
“Yes, it’s a wonder he keeps a job the way I constantly pull him away from it.”
“I didn’t notice any pulling. Are you working?”
“Not yet. My adopted daughter, Jane, just called me from London, and we talked for a while.”
“But I bet not about Gallo.”
“No. Why would I worry her? She’d want to jump on a plane and come here. This is my problem.” She added, “But I’ll be working soon. I’m expecting a skull from Austin, Texas, today. A little boy they found buried in the woods near the freeway.”
“I’m glad you have something to keep you occupied. Otherwise, you’d be a basket case. I’ll try to give you a heads-up as soon as I corner Queen.” She hung up.
Eve pressed the disconnect. Nice of Catherine to be concerned about Eve’s mental health, but she would be a nervous wreck whether or not she was working. It was all a matter of degree.
It was after ten. The FedEx truck should be bringing the skull from Texas. She got a cup of coffee and went out on the porch to wait for it. It was a sunny day and the lake was reflecting the incredible blue of the sky. It would be good to sit here and enjoy until she had to start work.
Her cell phone rang.
Catherine again?
She checked the caller ID.
She stiffened.
It was not Catherine.
CHAPTER
10
A NUMBER SHE DIDN’T RECOGNIZE.
Unknown number.
Why get so tense? It could be a marketing or sales firm.
She punched the button. “Eve Duncan.”
“You sound very curt and businesslike. But then you always were a no-nonsense woman … in some areas.”
The breath left her body. She closed her eyes, struggling for control.
John Gallo.
“I can almost feel your shock.” His voice was mocking. “But I don’t understand. The moment you decided to stir up the pot, you must have known that I’d have to contact you. I couldn’t just let you fade into the great beyond. Though God knows I did try.”
“John?” she whispered. She tried to pull herself together. “You’re damn right I’m shocked. I didn’t even know you were still alive until yesterday.”
“Really? Then it was all due to Catherine Ling that I have this excuse for our rapprochement? I thought you’d stumbled across something that led you toward me and were just using her. I must thank her when we meet. And here I was so annoyed with her.”
“She’s my friend. She knows how much I want to find my daughter’s killer.”
“Our daughter,” John corrected.
Shock rippled through her. “No, Bonnie was mine and always will be mine. You had nothing to do with her.” She paused. “Unless you were the one who murdered her. Catherine thinks it might be you.”
“What do you think?”
“I don’t know. It might be true.”
“And what would you do if you found that it was?”
“I’d kill you.”
“Interesting.”
“Is it? I’m glad you find the prospect entertaining. I mean it, John.”
“I know you do. That’s why it’s interesting. You’ve developed the killer instinct. Whenever I thought about you, I thought of you strong, driven, the huntress, yet never violent. What did you think about me?”
“You were out of my life; and then I thought you were dead. I didn’t think of you.”
“Yes, you did. You may have pushed it into the background, but the memory was always there, wasn’t it?”
“No, my life was too full to remember a kid who dropped into it, screwed me, then disappeared.”
“I had years of fullness, too, and of emptiness, and of darkness, and of a haze somewhere in between. But I always remembered you, Eve. You were something to hold on to in the darkness.” He chuckled. “And in the haze you could be anything I wanted you to be. I must tell you about that period in my life.”
“I don’t want you to tell me anything. Except the truth about Bonnie. Did you kill her?”
“Would you believe me if I told you that I didn’t?”
“I might.”
“No, you wouldn’t. You never trusted me even when we were … close.”
“You were here in Atlanta the month she disappeared. I know that much. Do you deny it?”
“I don’t deny it.”
Silence.
“Is that all you’re going to say?”
“I didn’t phone you to answer questions. Phones are so impersonal, and impersonal is something we’ve never been with each other.”
“If you won’t answer questions about yourself, what about Paul Black? What’s your connection with him?”
“I know him. He’s part of my darkness.”
“Dammit, don’t give me double-talk. Black confessed to his cellmate that he killed Bonnie. Catherine also said he had some connection with you. What connection?”
He ignored the question. “I want to see you.”
“What?”
“I thought talking to you might be enough, but I’ve changed my mind. It’s been very … provocative. I’ve decided that there has to be final resolution. I know who you are, what you’ve become, but I have to reach out and touch it.”
“No, you don’t. You have to tell me if you killed my Bonnie.”
“We’ve already discussed the absence of my credibility.”
“Answer me.”
Silence. “No, I did not. Do you believe me?”
She didn’t answer.
“You see, if I’d answered yes, you would have believed me. But denial is always the problem. Should I say I killed her?”
“I want the truth.”
“You always did. I want to see you, Eve.”
“So you can kill me, too?”
“Why should I?”
“Because I’m after you. I’ll find you. I’ll find out if you killed Bonnie. If you’re a murderer, that would be reason enough to kill me.”
“Good reasoning. And, add to that the fact that you’ve already said that you’d kill me if you thought I’d killed Bonnie, it should make me very lethal-minded.”
“You’re taking all of this very lightly.”
“No, I’m not.” The mockery was suddenly gone from his tone. “If I were, I’d be handling this in an entirely different manner. I’d disappear where you couldn’t find me. I’d find a way to rid myself of Catherine Ling in a manner of which you would not approve. But I found myself unwilling to do either. So the only other alternative is to come to terms with you.”
“After all these years?”
“A good many things got in the way. Not the least was Bonnie’s death.”
“If you didn’t kill her, why didn’t you contact me? I know she didn’t mean anything to you, but she was your daughter. Surely even you couldn’t be callous enough to ignore the fact that she’d been kidnapped.”
“I didn’t ignore it.” He paused. “When can I see you?”
“When you’re willing to come into an ATLPD precinct and make a full disclosure. There’s no way I’d risk meeting you one-on-one.”
“But of course you’ll do it. Do you think I don’t know how desperate you are? I’ve watched and followed your path for years. You’ve risked your life on much slimmer leads.”
“I’ll just wait until Catherine finds a safer way for me to contact you.”
“Like Nate Queen? He’ll never give her what she wants. He knows better.”
“How did you know she was dealing with Queen?”
“Why, I own him, Eve.”
“You pay him?”
“No, he pays me, and there are other elements to our arrangement. Fear does equally well. Actually, it’s sometimes more efficient.”
“He’s a government agent. Why should he be afraid of you?”
“Because I want him to be. Queen will not only not help you, but, if I choose, he’ll protect me from you. I’d really hate to ask him to do that. Will you come?”
“I’ve given you my answer.”
“But it’s not the one I want to hear,” he said. “Change your mind. I’ll let you know later where to meet me. In a public place, if you like. Though we won’t stay there.” He chuckled. “Doesn’t that sound ominous? One hand is stroking you; the other is holding the knife. Though, as I recall, you never had an objection to that method of doing things. You liked it soft, and you liked it rough.”
“Stop recalling,” she said through clenched teeth. “Forget everything that happened between us. None of it matters. It’s as if it never took place.”
“I can’t forget, and neither can you. What we were is the basis of what we are now. I’ll try not to be blatant about it, but I’m not going to ignore it.”
“I am.” She was silent a moment. “If I do come, will you talk to me? Will you tell me what I want to know?”
“You’re actually expecting me not to lie to you?”
“You never lied to me before.”
“You see, you can’t ignore our history, either. I could have changed. I
have
changed.”
“Will you tell me what I want to know?”
“I’ll tell you some things you want to know. I don’t promise to confess all to you.”
“Confess.” She jumped on the word. “Do you mean confess that you killed Bonnie?”
“Confess is just a word. Though it does bring up thoughts of courtrooms and church confessionals. I suppose I might indulge myself by cleansing my soul of a few sins. Do you know, I don’t believe I’d mind using you in that way. Very odd. I haven’t felt the need of sharing my sins in a very long time, perhaps never. Don’t you find that unusual?”
“There’s only one confession I want to hear from you.”
“Then step into my web. No one ever said that I was without guile. There’s no telling what secrets I may tell you.” He chuckled. “Though don’t tell Queen I said that. He doesn’t like the idea of my telling secrets. He may lose his sense of judgment and decide you’re a threat, too.”
“Evidently, you’re the threat.”
“I’ve never said that I wasn’t one. But I’ve always been honest about it. I even warned you, Eve.”
Yes, that was true. And she had ignored it and gone headlong into an affair with him. What an idiot she had been.
“You’re thinking that you would never make that mistake today,” John said. “You never know. My phoning you is probably a mistake, but I couldn’t resist. Every now and then, I have a lapse and just go for it.”
“Why? There’s an excuse for acting without thinking when we were that young, but all that’s behind us. We have responsibilities and knowledge of the consequences. We don’t have the right to ‘go for it.’”
“I have the right to take whatever I can take. It’s an integral part of my personality. One of my personalities anyway. Queen will tell you that I probably have several swirling about, causing turmoil to him and everyone else.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Ask him. He’ll be delighted to tell you about all my little foibles. He thinks I’m crazy.”
Eve felt a chill. “And are you?”
He was silent a moment. “Yes, occasionally.” He added mockingly, “But don’t let that keep you from renewing our acquaintance. Look upon it as a challenge. I’ll be in touch.” He hung up.
A challenge? Eve was shaking as she pressed the disconnect. This wasn’t the kind of challenge she needed or wanted. The entire conversation with John Gallo had been disturbing. Disturbing and frightening. His voice had been the same, and yet the intonations of mockery had been different. She had found herself trying to anticipate what he was going to say, but it had been like talking to a stranger.
For God’s sake, he was a stranger. What was she thinking?
She wasn’t thinking at all. Emotion had taken over.
Then throw it out and start thinking like the woman you’ve become and not the girl you were.
She drew a deep breath. What had she learned from that call?
Not much. He had admitted he had been in Atlanta at the time of Bonnie’s kidnapping. He had said he had not done it, but the underlying mockery had made everything he’d said suspect. Nate Queen and Army Intelligence evidently knew everything about him, but the odds were that Catherine wouldn’t be able to get anything out of them.
And he’d said that he was unbalanced at times. There had been no mockery in those words.
Crazy. It would take a man who was unbalanced to kill a helpless child, his own flesh and blood.
Bonnie.
The pain was always there, but the possibility of John Gallo’s being her killer had brought the agony alive again.
The agony and the bitterness.
He might well have killed her if he’d been gripped in a fit of insanity. If he had not killed her, then he could know who did.
Damn him.
All these years he had been alive, standing on the sidelines, watching her pain. What kind of monster had he become? If Catherine had not been able to unearth this connection, would he have continued to stand back and monitor the hell Eve was going through?
No way. She knew about Gallo now. There would be no more of his standing in the shadows like a vampire drinking in her pain and loss. She’d jerk him into the sunlight and burn him alive if she found he’d killed Bonnie.
She pulled out her phone and dialed Catherine. “I just talked to John Gallo on my cell. You’re going to find it hard as hell to find out anything from Nate Queen. Gallo says he owns him. I believe him.”
“Shit.”
“But Gallo wants me to meet with him. Somewhere public.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I can’t be sure. He says he wants to ‘resolve’ our relationship. It sounds like some kind of whim.” She paused. “He admitted he wasn’t stable.”
“Then you stay away from him. We’ll set up a trap.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Think about it? You just said he was crazy. That’s the only way to handle it.”
“What if he gets spooked? He said his other choice was just to disappear. Evidently, he’s damn good at that. No one knew he was alive all these years.”
“You’re thinking about meeting him.”
“He may have killed Bonnie. Or he may know who did. It’s possible he could tell me where to find Paul Black. I’d lose all of that if I blow this chance.”
“That’s not all you could lose if you meet Gallo. He felt safe before. You’re a threat to him now that you know he could have killed Bonnie.”
“I can’t blow it,” Eve repeated.
“Stay where you are. I’m coming back to the cottage.”