Iris Johansen - Quicksand

"Is she alive?" Joe asked as he watched her press the disconnect.

"I don't know. He says she is. He wouldn't let me talk to her. He said she was unconscious."

"He's using her as bait?"

Eve nodded. "He thought it might be a stronger motivation for you and Montalvo. He wasn't sure I'd care. For God's sake, what does he think I am? Of course I care." She drew a deep, shaky breath. "We have two days. Laura Ann is near where Bonnie is buried. We have to find Bonnie to find Laura Ann." She looked down at the picture of the pine tree and massive boulder. "And I guess this is our so-called clue." She got to her feet. "Dammit, it could be anywhere."

"But the chances are it will be either Chattahoochee National Forest or Okefenokee Swamp. He'll have figured out who must have tipped us off about him and will know we know about his old haunts."

"And what are we supposed to do? Flip a coin?"

"It may end up by us doing that." Joe took the photo and headed for the door. "But I'm banking on Kistle leaving us a little stronger clue. I'm going down to Montalvo's camp and look through those books Miguel unearthed. You start packing and call Patty and ask her to take Toby again. If we've only got two days, we'd better make tonight count."

"Wait."

He looked back over his shoulder.

"I want to go see Laura Ann's mother. Can you arrange it so that no one knows about it?"

"It will be difficult as hell. Her telephone lines will be monitored in case there's a ransom demand."

"Can you do it?"

"It would be smarter not to try, Eve."

"I don't care. I know what that woman is going through. Any information is better than none at all. She needs to know someone is doing something to help Laura Ann, that there's a chance of getting her back."

"Not the greatest chance." He lifted his hand as she opened her mouth to speak. "Okay, I'll set it up. I'll go over to her house and ask the captain if I can question her alone. Nina Simmons lives in a rental house in Marietta, right outside the Atlanta city limits. You follow me and I'll try to bring her outside and away from everyone else."

She nodded. "Thanks, Joe. I only want a few minutes."

"If she gets hysterical it may be a few minutes too long." He opened the screen door. "But we'll deal with that if it happens. You're right; she deserves any comfort we can give her. You're not the only one who remembers how those first days when Bonnie was missing tore you apart."

THE SUN WAS LOW IN THE SKYwhen Eve saw Joe and Nina Simmons walk out of the house on Meadow Place Drive and down the porch steps. Laura Ann's mother was a pretty woman in her thirties with brown hair cut in a breezy style and the same blue eyes as her daughter. Those eyes were swollen from weeping and she looked totally devastated.

Eve got out of her car and waited on the corner as Joe walked with her down the street toward her. Now that she was here, she felt helpless. She didn't know enough to give comfort.

But she could give hope.

Joe stopped and let Laura Ann's mother go the last few yards alone.

"Nina Simmons?" She stepped forward and took the other woman's hand. "I'm Eve Duncan. I won't keep you long. I just wanted to-"

"I know who you are," Nina Simmons said jerkily. "The detective told me. He said that you were looking for my daughter. He said you might have a chance of finding Laura Ann."

"We'll find her." Lord, she hoped she was telling the truth. "But you won't be able to tell anyone we may have a lead on her. It would be-it wouldn't be good."

"You mean he might kill her," she said baldly. "Have you talked to her?"

"Not yet."

"Then you don't know she's alive."

"I think the chances are that she's alive."

"But you don't know ." Her voice broke. "You don't know anything. You're like all the rest."

"I know we'll find her. We won't stop until we do."

"You've got to find her. You don't know how special she is. She's had to fight all her life just to stay alive. She had two heart operations before she was four and she came out of them like a champ." Tears were running down her cheeks. "She had a mother who couldn't be with her because she had to work twelve hours a day to keep food on the table and a father who didn't think that Laura Ann was worth sticking around for when the going got tough. Yet she never complained and she just keeps getting brighter and stronger every day of her life." Her voice became fierce. "So don't you dare let that monster do anything to her."

Eve wanted to reach out and touch her, comfort her, but she could see how frail the balance was that kept Laura Ann's mother's composure intact. "We'll bring her back to you. I think that I'll be able to talk to her soon. Is there anything that you'd like me to tell her?"

"Tell her-I love her. I'm proud of her. I know she'll come home to me." She turned on her heel. "Now get out of here and go find my daughter." She strode past Joe down the street and into the house.

Eve was barely aware when Joe took her elbow and nudged her gently back toward her car. "She's hurting so," she whispered. "Did I help at all, Joe?"

"You did what you could," Joe said quietly. "She'll get through it. She's tough."

"Yes." But being strong didn't stop the panic and pain. Seeing Nina Simmons had brought back all the agony of the time when she had lost Bonnie. She opened her car door. "Now let's get busy and see if we can keep that promise I made her. I'll meet you back at Montalvo's camp."

"IT COULD BE EITHER THEswamp or Chattahoochee National Forest." Montalvo opened a coffee-table book on the national forest and started quickly going through it. "Dammit, this is the third book we've gone through and there's nothing like that rock."

Joe tossed a boating travelogue on the swamp aside and picked up another book. "It's got to be here. If we don't get close, it won't be any fun for Kistle."

"Try the brochures you pick up in the lobby of hotels." Eve stood in the doorway of the tent. "He doesn't really want to fool us. He'll want to make this part easy for us. What's easier than one of those tourist brochures?"

"Good idea." Montalvo reached for a pile of brochures at the bottom of the case. He raked Eve with a searching glance as he pulled them out. "How are you doing?"

"I'll be better after we find where Kistle's set up his trap." Eve knelt beside them and started going through the brochures. "Good God, Miguel has everything here from Okefenokee to Stone Mountain."

"He believes in overkill," Montalvo said.

"So does Kistle." She systematically started to go through the brochures, carefully opening each one and scanning the inside pages.

It was five minutes later that Joe found it. "Chattahoochee National Forest." He threw the brochure down and pointed to the photo inside. "The bastard picked an all-American family to go with it."

The photo was of a mother, father, and little girl, all in hiking gear, climbing the hill where the rock and pine tree were clearly in evidence. The little girl's face was closest to the camera and she looked wonderfully happy and vibrantly alive. It was not Laura Ann, of course, but the choice of the little girl did what it was meant to do. It reminded them of life that could be so easily taken away.

"Where was it taken?" Eve asked. "It's not a landmark."

"That would be too easy." Joe got to his feet. "I'll call the precinct and get them to get me a telephone number for the people who did this brochure. In the meantime, let's hit the road. We can reach the national forest in a couple hours."

"It will be dark by then." Eve moved toward the SUV. The twilight was already beginning to fade from gold to purple. "How are we going to make our way through that forest? We've got flashlights, but that's rough territory and we don't know where we're going."