Iris Johansen - Blood Game

Like Eve and her Bonnie.

Don’t think about Bonnie. He had enough of a nightmare being forced to come to terms with Nancy Jo Norris.

He turned and strode down the hall toward forensics.

“I BROUGHT CHINESE,” JOEsaid as he walked into the cottage. “I know I should have called first. Have you eaten?” He set the bag down on the kitchen table. “Where’s Jane?”

“Out for a walk. Patty dropped Jane’s dog off a few hours ago.” She held up her hand as he opened his lips. “And we know Toby is gentle, but he doesn’t give that appearance. No one is going to bother her with Toby near.”

“I’m glad you’re sure. I’m not.”

“And I called one of the officers in the squad car and asked him to follow her. And, no, we haven’t eaten dinner yet. We ate a late lunch and thought we’d wait for you.” She began to unpack the cartons in the bag. “Did you get a report on the blood in that goblet we found?”

“Human blood. Type A negative.”

“I was afraid of that.” She threw the empty bag in the trash. “A warning of some sort?”

“I have no idea. It’s a definite possibility.” He got plates down from the cabinet. “Do you remember the carving on the cup?”

“How could I forget? I stared at the damn thing for a couple hours while I was waiting for it to be picked up. Some kind of medieval dining hall, nine seated men and one standing with a goblet in his hand. Unusual.”

“Not that unusual. We found one that was identical to it in Nancy Jo Norris’s hand.”

She went rigid. “What?”

“Same carving.” He was getting out the cutlery. “They’re checking the blood now. But the blood wasn’t Nancy Jo’s. She was B positive.”

“Dear God. If it wasn’t her blood, then it had to come from another victim. You’re saying her murderer is-”

“I don’t know.” He suddenly whirled and threw the cutlery on the table. “Dammit to hell. I don’t know anything .” In two strides he was beside her, and she was in his arms. “It’s all crazy.” His voice was muffled against her hair. “Just hold me, okay?”

“Okay.” Her arms went around him with fierce protectiveness. “What’s wrong, Joe?”

“What could possibly be the matter? Other than we have a ritual killer who seems to have picked you as a victim? Everything is just fine.”

There was something very wrong. There was an element of desperation in Joe’s voice Eve couldn’t remember ever hearing before. She had known from the moment he walked through the door that she’d been wrong in thinking that whatever had been bothering him had gone away. “It will be fine. It’s not as if we haven’t dealt with-”

“I’ve never dealt with this.” He pushed her back and turned away. “It’s crazy.”

Crazy. That was the second time he had said that word in the past few sentences. Eve felt a sinking sensation as she stared at him.

You’ll call me if he doesn’t behave normally, Megan had said.

But she couldn’t believe that Joe’s behavior had anything to do with all that Pandora business. As she had told Megan, that was too far a reach for her.

He had a perfect right to be upset. He was a very protective man and he was worried about her.

Upset, not desperate.

And he didn’t want to admit that he was feeling that desperation. He seemed to view it as an admission, a loss of control.

All right. Handle it his way. He had come home to her. Now she had to be patient and let him come the rest of the way.

“Yes, it’s crazy.” She began to spoon the rice out on the plates. “I guess we’ll have to try to make sense of it. You’d better call Jane before this food gets cold.”

“WHEW.” EVE WAS PANTINGas she rolled away from Joe to her own side of the bed. “That was… interesting.”

“Did I hurt you?”

“No. It was just intense. Nothing wrong with that.”

The sex that night had been explosive and completely draining. Desperation again. She had an idea that demand hadn’t been about any carnal need. “A little different…”

She felt him stiffen beside her. “Different? What the hell do you mean different? I either hurt you or I didn’t.”

“You didn’t. I told you. It was damn well incredible.” As sex always was with Joe. She rolled closer and tucked her head in her favorite place in the hollow of his shoulder. “Stop being so defensive.”

He relaxed. “Sorry. I told you, I’m a little on edge.”

“I noticed.” She was silent a moment. Okay, go for it. “I didn’t tell you. Megan called me twice today. She was pretty upset.”

“More psychic mumbo jumbo?”

“You’re being very scathing. You told me that you believed her when she told you about hearing those dead children.”

“I also told you that I wouldn’t go to her on another case.” He kissed the top of her head. “I’m a little too pragmatic. There have to be reasonable explanations. It’s the way I live.”

“Megan is an ER physician. What’s more practical? But when she had to face the fact that she had this so-called gift, she had to come to terms with it.” She paused. “But she’s having trouble with this other facilitating gift she says she has. It’s erratic, and she doesn’t understand it.”

“Then I’m sure I wouldn’t either,” he said flatly. “Let’s drop it.”

He didn’t want to talk about anything to do with psychic gifts, Eve realized. “Okay, I just wanted to tell you that Megan was full of warnings because of what happened in the swamp. Remember that she didn’t want to be touched? She said that sometimes if she touched someone, it released latent psychic talents in them. Some people can’t adjust. She was afraid for me because I touched her.” Don’t mention that she’d included Joe in the warning. It might cause him to instinctively reject it. Let him draw his own inferences. “I told her I was fine and that I’d contact her if there was a problem.”

He didn’t speak for a moment. “She thought you’d hear dead people like she does?”

“She said it depended on the person. She said it might cause them to read minds or be a healer or be able to make flowers grow. Any special talent that might be within them.” She cuddled closer. “And I told her that I found all of this a little hard to swallow.”

“Of course.” His tone was absent. “Totally ridiculous.”

“Nothing about Megan is ridiculous. It’s just out of my realm of experience, so I can’t imagine it.”

“I can imagine it.” He added with sudden roughness, “And I find it ridiculous as hell.”

“Don’t get upset about it.”

“Why not? It’s bullshit. Dead children speaking from the beyond, corpses walking around. It’s bullshit .”

“I’ll tell her that when she calls again. She’ll probably agree with you. But it’s the bullshit she has to live with.”

“Well, I don’t have to live with it.” He sat up and swung his legs to the floor. “I can’t sleep. I’m going to call the M.E. and see if he has a report on the Norris autopsy.”

“It’s almost midnight.”

“They’ll still be there. We’re working around the clock on this one.” He shrugged on his robe. “Ed Norris will have his aides on our ass every step of the way.”

“Do you want company?”

“No, stay in bed. This shouldn’t take long.”

Eve watched him leave the room. She had done her best. She didn’t know if that would be good enough. It was like trying to walk along a precipice blindfolded. For the first time in their relationship, she had no idea what he was thinking. And it was only guesswork that it had something to do with Megan’s facilitator talent. She was grasping at straws. She could only allow him his space and hope that he would work it out for himself.