Iris Johansen - Quinn

“You crazy bitch.” A man jerked Eve around to face him. He was in his early forties, and his features were twisted with pain and tears were running down his cheeks. Bill Verner, Joe realized. His son was one of the lost ones.

“Stay out of it.” Verner’s hands dug into her shoulders. He shook her. “Let them kill him. You’ve already caused us too much grief, and now you’re trying to get him off again. Damn you, let them burn the son of a bitch.”

“I can’t do- Can’t you see? They’re lost. I have to-”

“You stay out of it, or so help me God, I’ll make you sorry that you-”

“Leave her alone.” Joe stepped forward and knocked Verner’s hands away from Eve. “Don’t you see she’s hurting more than you are?” All those months of torture and torment Fraser had put her through had been enough to drive a less strong woman mad. And still, in the end, Fraser would not tell her where he’d buried Bonnie.

“The hell she is. He killed my boy. I won’t let her try to get him off again.”

“Do you think I don’t want him to die?” she said fiercely. “He’s a monster. I want to kill him myself, but I can’t let him-There’s no time for this argument.” She was suddenly frantic again. “There’s no time for anything. It must be almost midnight. They’re going to kill him. And Bonnie will be lost forever.”

She whirled away from Verner and ran toward the gate.

“Eve!” Joe ran after her.

She pounded on the gate with clenched fists. “Let me in! You’ve got to let me in. Please don’t do this.”

Flashbulbs.

The prison guards were coming toward them.

Joe was trying to pull her away from the gate.

The gate was opening.

The warden was coming out.

“Stop it,” Eve gasped. “You’ve got to stop-”

The warden gave her a sympathetic glance. “Go home, Ms. Duncan. It’s over.” He walked past her toward the TV cameras.

“Over. It can’t be over.”

The warden was looking soberly into the cameras, and his words were brief and to the point. “There was no stay of execution. Ralph Andrew Fraser was executed four minutes ago and pronounced dead at 12:07 A.M. ”

“No!”

Eve’s scream was full of agony and desolation, as broken and forsaken as the wail of a lost child.

Joe caught her as her knees buckled, and she slumped forward in a dead faint.

He turned and carried her quickly toward the parking lot, his eyes never leaving her face. Even unconscious, her features were frozen in agony.

But, as he watched, two tears brimmed and slowly rolled down her cheeks. The tears she had not been able to shed for her Bonnie. Was it the start of healing?

God, he hoped so.

“Sir.” A guard had followed him. “Is there something I can do? May I help you?”

“No.” He looked down at Eve, and suddenly the love was flowing over him in such a powerful tide that it was spiraling, cresting, filling him with hope. “We’ll get along fine. You can’t help.” His arms tightened around Eve as he started across the dark parking lot. “She’s mine. ”

St. Joseph’s Hospital

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Present Day

MINE …

All through the years. Always mine…

Even in the glowing soft darkness that was trying to take him away from her, Joe could remember what had been and was feeling a wrenching sadness.

Eve…

But Eve was far away, and he could barely feel her now.

“THEN GO BACK TO HER. She needs you.”

It was Bonnie. He could not see her, but the vision of her was there before him. A child, curly red hair and a smile that lit the darkness. Bonnie who had dominated his life since he had first known he loved Eve. He was not surprised to see her. What could be more natural than to have Bonnie here with him as he slipped away? It was not the first time he had seen the spirit of Eve’s daughter. When she had first come to him, he had thought he was going crazy, that the constant search had affected his reasoning. It had taken a long time before he had accepted that what he perceived as reality had an exception in the form of the ghost of Bonnie. It had not really affected his life with Eve, which was based on trying to find Bonnie, keeping Eve alive while she searched for her daughter, making life a gift instead of a burden through the long hunt.

“And you did all of that,” Bonnie said gently. “But it’s not over yet. Mama still needs you. Can’t you feel how she’s hurting?”

He could feel it. “I don’t think I can go back. You can stop it. She loves you.”

“But she loves you, too. And I love you, Joe.”

“Do you? There were times that I resented you. She wouldn’t let you go no matter how much it hurt her.”

“How could I not love you when you loved and cared for her? It didn’t matter what you felt about me. I knew you only wanted what was best for her. But you can’t leave her now, Joe. She’s going to need you more than ever soon.”

“Is she? Then I have to be there for her. But I don’t know if I can make it back.”

“You can make it. We’re walking together now, and now we have a destination. Can’t you see it?”

Eve.

And beyond her something else.

“The… end?”

“There’s no end in a circle, but there’s sometimes the loosening of a knot in the fabric. I guess you could call it the end. But she needs you to help her do it. We all need you, Joe.”

“Then I’ll be there. I’ll find my way.”

“No, take my hand. It will be easier for you.”

Somehow, she was clasping his hand, and he suddenly felt as if light was streaming through him, around him. “Dear God.”

“See, the darkness is going away. You can see her more clearly now. And you’re growing stronger, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“We’re almost there, Joe. Hold on. I won’t let you go. Just as you’ve never let her go.”

Brilliance. Radiance. Love.

His heart pounding with wild eagerness as he saw Eve at the window of the ICU.

I’m coming. Don’t be afraid. I’m coming, Eve.

“I’m letting you go, Joe,” Bonnie said. “For a little while. I’ll be with you again, but you don’t need me now, do you?”

“No.” He couldn’t look away from Eve’s face. Why had he thought that he could ever leave her? “It’s okay for you to go, Bonnie. I’ll take care of her now. After all, she’s mine.”

“No.” Bonnie smiled. “She’s ours, Joe.”

SHE WAS GONE BUT THE LINGERING golden radiance was still keeping the darkness at bay.

And he couldn’t wait to dispel it entirely.

He opened his eyes.

And then he smiled at Eve.

JOE WAS SMILING at her!

Eve could feel the tears running down her cheeks.

Good-bye? Surely not good-bye.

Bonnie had vanished only seconds before, and Eve had feared the worst. But there was a flush of color in Joe’s cheeks, and he was smiling.

“Oh, God, thank you.” She tore open the ICU door. “And thank you, baby.” She was at Joe’s bed in seconds. She took a deep breath. “Hi… took you long enough,” she said unsteadily. “No, don’t say anything. I just want to touch you.” She pressed the bell for the nurse. “I want to hold your hand.”

“So-did-she,” Joe whispered.

“Who?” She answered herself as she took his hand in both of hers. It wasn’t as warm as it usually was, but she could feel a faint pressure. He was alive and it was a miracle. The only miracle she knew had a name. “Bonnie?”