Your Next Breath (24 page)

She shook her head. “Not yet. You sound as bitter as I am.”

“Oh, yes.” He took a swallow of coffee. “I haven’t had time to think of anything but keeping Jane alive since I got here. But now I’m beginning to think of ways and means to castrate Santos, then tear him limb from limb.” His voice was almost pleasant. “Jane usually disapproves of my savage streak, but this time she’ll just have to suck it up.” He looked Eve in the eye. “Somehow I don’t believe you would disapprove of anything I’d choose to do to Santos. It’s very personal for you.”

“Terribly personal.” She shrugged. “But you may have to stand in line. Catherine is very angry, and so are the people who care about her.”

“I don’t like to stand in lines.” His gaze went to the ICU down the hall. “So much security … police, detectives. Practically tripping over one another. You’d think that would ensure there were no slipups, wouldn’t you? That isn’t always the case. People get overconfident and all it takes is one.”

“You think Santos will come after her.”

“Or one of his men. I’m starting to look very closely at everyone on the floor, to zero in on any possible Santos recruits. He’ll almost certainly go on the attack if they think she has a chance of recovery. Don’t you agree?”

“Yes. That’s why we’ll try to keep it from him.”

“But Santos has deep pockets, and that buys information.”

“You don’t seem upset by the prospect.”

“Let him come.” He smiled recklessly as he tossed his empty cup in the basket. “Then I won’t have to stand in line.”

CHAPTER

10

“You didn’t tell me you were going,” Luke said as he came out of the library when Catherine and Cameron walked in the front door. “Why not?”

“It was the middle of the night and—” She stopped. No deceit. She wouldn’t have appreciated it, and her son wouldn’t either. “I was afraid you’d want to go along, and I didn’t want to argue with you. I didn’t know what I was going to have to deal with in Guatemala. I wanted you here with Hu Chang, so I wouldn’t have to worry about you.”

“But I worried about
you.
” He turned to Cameron. “And you let her do it. I thought you knew that I wouldn’t—”

“Get in the way?” Cameron finished. “Oh, I did. I know your potential. I wasn’t much older than you when I was training in Guardian duties in the Himalayas. But I wasn’t about to try to overrule Catherine when it came to you.” He smiled as he glanced at Catherine. “It’s your job to battle it out with her. But you’ll have to be very patient and gentle. I’ll be very annoyed if you manage to hurt her feelings.”

Luke turned back to Catherine. “Why don’t you trust me? Did I do anything wrong when we went after Kelly?”

“No. It wasn’t that you did—”

“Stop interrogating her, Luke.” Hu Chang came out of the library. “Hello, Catherine. If you’d let me know before you arrived at the front door, I would have had a discussion with Luke on diplomacy and kindness.” He looked back at Luke. “Can’t you see that she’s tired and on edge? Clearly things didn’t go as well as she hoped, and now you make her feel unworthy of meeting your needs. I’d advise you to think about her and not yourself.”

Luke frowned. “Unworthy? That’s not what I meant. You know that, Hu Chang. But she should have—” He stopped and then reluctantly smiled. “I’m sorry, Catherine. I was just— And maybe I was wrong, but so were you. But I would never try to hurt your feelings.” He paused. “Things didn’t go well for you?”

“They could have gone better.” She reached in her knapsack and pulled out Montez’s book and handed it to Hu Chang. “But maybe this will start to set things right. Montez was very nervous about my taking this from him. He said no one would understand it but him, but he didn’t like it out of his hands.”

“Another challenge,” Hu Chang murmured, as his fingers moved over the rough, well-thumbed cover. “Unless Montez is of Einstein caliber, I refuse to believe he is correct. But his words hint of a certain originality, which may be intriguing.” He turned and moved toward the library. “I will get to work on this immediately.”

“Because you can hardly wait,” Catherine said. “You’re practically salivating.”

“That’s very crude,” Hu Chang said. “And makes intellectual curiosity appear to be deceptively uncomplicated.” He glanced at Luke as he stopped at the library door. “You will be courteous?”

Luke nodded. “I wasn’t discourteous. I was just asking—” He nodded jerkily. “Okay. Maybe I seemed discourteous. I’ll be careful not to do it again.”

“Good.” Hu Chang opened the library door. “Then you might make recompense by taking her up to your room and showing her the work you and Kelly have been doing while she’s been gone.”

“I’ve done most of the research. It’s up to Kelly now.”

“Then let’s let Catherine go up and ask her for a report,” Cameron said. “I need to tour the perimeter and check out security, Luke. I know Hu Chang and Sam have it well in hand, but I always feel better if I feel the reins in my hands. You can go with me.” He smiled. “If you wish. Entirely up to you.”

There was little doubt that Luke would do whatever Cameron wanted him to do, Catherine thought, as she watched Cameron exert that magnetism and charisma that was such a part of his character. She had seen it work before on his men, on strangers, sometimes on her. Usually he didn’t even have to tap that psychic ability he possessed.

Luke hesitated. “I’ll go.” He came down the rest of the stairs. “Sam moved a few of the sentries around to different parts of the grounds and street. I’ll introduce you to them.” His eyes were suddenly bright, eager. “But I know Sam would think it was okay if you decided something different.” He smiled at Catherine as he passed her. “Kelly doesn’t need me now. She thinks she’s beginning to see something in Dorgal’s chart. She’ll probably chase you out, too.” He fell into step with Cameron as he opened the front door. “I asked Sam to let me check on the sentries by myself, but he wouldn’t do it. He said that Catherine wouldn’t like—” His last words were cut off as the door closed behind them.

Catherine stood there, gazing at the door. Stupid to feel this sense of loss.

“What do you expect?” Hu Chang asked quietly. “Cameron is a Pied Piper whose job it is to move hearts and minds. He’s been trained to the task, and his natural abilities are enormous. Luke is very easy for him.”

“I know that.” She lifted her chin. “I’m surrounded by Pied Pipers. You’re one, too, Hu Chang. Occasionally, I just feel a little shut out to be the only one who can’t seem to reach Luke.”

“You reach him. That’s why he’s fighting so hard to keep you safe. But you’re in control, and he finds that … difficult.” Hu Chang turned away. “Now forget about how easily Cameron lured the boy away. You know he did it to distract him and let you have a little time to adjust. By the time he comes back into the house, I’d judge that Luke will have a different mind-set … at least temporarily.”

She frowned. “He’d better damn well leave Luke’s mind alone.”

“Only temporary. Go see Kelly.” He smiled. “I have no more time for you.” He lifted Montez’s book. “I have
Maggi
to decipher.” He closed the door.

She seemed to be having doors closed on her right and left, Catherine thought ruefully. All done for the best and most helpful of reasons. It shouldn’t have bothered her. It was totally immature.

It bothered her.

So forget it, get busy. Open doors of her own.

Go up and talk to Kelly.

*   *   *

“You’re back.” Kelly was sitting at her desk and looked up from her yellow pad as Catherine came into the bedroom. “You look exhausted.” She made a face. “And as if you’d gone through a war.”

“Just a rain forest. I’m getting very tired of trekking through the wilds trying to save Santos’s prey.” She dropped down in a chair across the room. “I tried to clean up on the plane while we were flying back to Louisville, but I definitely need a shower. You’ll notice I’m staying downwind of you.”

“Yes, I noticed.” Kelly smiled faintly. “But I also noticed you didn’t bother to shower first before you ran in to see me. Does that mean the trip was not a success?”

“You could say that. Contact, but no information. I told Hu Chang to call Venable and add Eduardo Montez to your list. Have you got any information concerning him yet?”

“Just the bare bones. I haven’t had time to study him.” She frowned. “But there may be something odd about Montez. I can see … gaps.”

“Gaps?”

“Spaces in his pattern as he was growing up in Argentina. Other spaces, when he was at the university in Rio de Janeiro.” She shook her head. “And there would be long periods when he’d go to visit his uncle in the hills outside Buenos Aires.”

“And that was unusual?”

“Some of those periods were when he should have been in school. Both in secondary school and the university. He was able to make the time up because he was a brilliant student, but it was still strange that his parents allowed him to miss school just to visit an uncle.”

“What was his uncle’s name?”

“Francisco Montez. I e-mailed Venable and asked for more information about him. He hasn’t gotten back to me yet.”

“I took a book from Montez’s backpack that he evidently wrote himself. Lots of chemical and mathematical equations. I gave it to Hu Chang to study.”

“I’ll ask to see it after he finishes with it.” She smiled. “Not that I think I’d be able to detect anything that he didn’t. Luke would look at me with infinite scorn.”

“Who knows? Maybe you’d see an answer to the break in the pattern.” She changed the subject. “What about Santos? Anything that you noticed about him?”

“Besides the fact that he’s a monster with no conscience? He enjoys torture and thinks of himself as being above any law. He was deserted by his father, raised by a prostitute mother, involved in gangs from the time he was eight. He hooked up with Delores Janvier when she was sixteen, and she appears to have become the center of his existence.”

“I know that.”

“I thought you would. She was fabulously beautiful and spent a fortune on clothes and makeup to stay that way. She clearly knew that was one of her prime weapons to keep Santos interested. But what I found very interesting about Delores was that he actually listened to her. His pattern seems to have been merged with hers.” She paused, then said hesitantly, “I believe she may have been in control of the relationship.”

“What?”

“I found that kind of weird, too, considering what a powerhouse Santos appeared to be to everyone around him. But as I went over the material, I noticed that several decisions and opinions that Santos stated were later changed to those that Delores advocated. And when questioned, he acted as if he’d never meant anything else. They went on quite a few vacation trips together, and it was always places that Delores chose. He not only loved her, he evidently respected her and wanted to please her above anything.”

Catherine pounced. “What places?”

“Several islands in the South Seas, twice to Egypt, once to Moscow, Trinidad, Grand Cayman, Jamaica.” She paused. “Buenos Aires.”

“Montez. Was Montez still in Argentina at that time?”

“Yes.” She added, “I checked that after I read the report on Montez. Though I don’t know if they made contact with him or for what purpose. But as far as I could tell, neither Santos nor Delores ever went there again.”

“What about Montez? Did he visit either one of them in Caracas?”

“Not according to Venable’s surveillance reports on Santos.” She paused. “But Dorgal visited Buenos Aires two months after Santos and Delores went there.”

“Popular place.”

“Not for Montez. He left Argentina and took his entire family to Guatemala City six months later. He appeared to have plenty of money and set them all up in fine style.”

“Drugs?” she murmured.

Kelly shrugged. “You’d have to tell me. Santos’s cartel could have had something to do with it. I haven’t found the pattern.”

“What else did you find out about Dorgal?”

“Very close to Santos, as you said. From the moment Santos was arrested, Dorgal was moving with the speed of light, talking to politicians and military. Then he disappeared under the radar, and no one knew where he was or what he was doing.”

“Probably setting up Santos’s new compound for the time when they managed to get him out of jail.”

“Anyway, Dorgal surfaced again about six weeks later. He took over de facto for Santos, running his cartel while he was in prison. He visited him weekly, so the orders probably came directly from Santos.”

“Did he visit anywhere else while Santos was in prison?”

“Trinidad, Curacao, Jamaica, several other islands in the Caribbean. Probably cartel business. Overnight visits, then he’d fly back to Caracas.”

“Guatemala?”

“Only once.”

The day he’d arranged with Nagoles to kill Eduardo Montez’s brother and sent Eduardo running for the hills. “Anything else?”

She shook her head. “I only have what Venable gave me. I’m sure CIA surveillance is good, but that doesn’t mean that Dorgal wasn’t able to avoid it on occasion. Did I help at all?”

“I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it. Santos likes sunny places, and every location you mentioned is basking in sunlight. And that doesn’t mean that he might not have boarded a plane or boat out of one of those countries to his own private domain.”

“I’ll think about it, too,” Kelly said. “And I’ll double-check every stop they made and see if I can detect a pattern. Though I haven’t seen any sign of it yet.”

“You’ve done very well.” She got to her feet. “I didn’t expect you to pull a rabbit out of your hat. I knew it would take time, and I only hoped you could give me a clue.”

“I will. Maybe more than a clue.” She leaned back in her chair and rubbed her neck. “We’ll find him. It will all come together. I just have to relax and let the patterns form for me. It’s probably all here on this pad. I only have to connect the dots.”

“I can’t even see the dots,” Catherine said ruefully. “I’ll have to leave it to you.”

“You won’t do that. You’ll keep plugging along, just like I am.” She tilted her head. “And the reason you can’t see the dots is that it means too much to you. You’re overthinking the problem. My professors say that I do that sometimes. I reach for complexity and ignore simple applications.”