Iris Johansen - Bonnie

Eve nodded. “And rented a place in a development a couple blocks from where I lived. That’s all I know. I’ve told you everything, Catherine.”

“You’re right, it’s damn skimpy.”

“I know.” But then everything about those weeks had been fast and volatile as the flicker of a motion-picture film. She had been so caught up in the sexual frenzy with Gallo that everything else had been as ephemeral as the fog outside.

And then there had been Bonnie, and nothing else had seemed important.

“And the only person who can tell us anything else is Gallo,” Catherine said. “And where is he, dammit?”

“It depends if Ted Danner is really alive,” Eve said. “And whether Gallo knew it. He’s either going to join him, or he’s going to try to find him.” She shrugged. “And what if Jacobs’s killer is just a Danner look-alike? It’s possible, isn’t it?”

Catherine just looked at her.

“Okay, it would be too coincidental.” Eve threw the sketch down on the table. “But I wanted to explore every possibility before I made a giant leap.”

“You made it,” Catherine said. “Now let’s go tackle the fact that Ted Danner is probably alive and not the tame pussycat you thought him to be all those years ago. We need to find out why Danner was said to be deceased and where we can find him.”

“And where he was when my Bonnie was taken.”

“That goes without saying,” Catherine said quietly. “Bonnie is always first, Eve. We just have to find the way to her. It will be-” She broke off and raised her head. “I hear a car. That’s probably Venable and his cleanup team.” She went to the window. “Yeah, that’s Venable. I’ll go out and meet him. I want to get him in and out as quickly as I can do it. It may not be easy. It just depends on what he wants and how badly he wants it.”

“You think he has an agenda?”

“Oh, yes, Venable doesn’t interfere with me unless he has reason. He knows me too well.” She went to the door and threw it open. “On the bright side, at least, he brought the cleanup crew. We would have had problems disposing of Jacobs’s body. After all, he was in the military and supposedly served his country.”

“He was a crook, a smuggler, and possibly an accomplice to murder.”

“We’d still have problems explaining him away. Military bureaucracy is almost as bad as congressional bureaucracy. It’s better that he just disappear.” She strode out of the house and called, “Venable, you took your time. We’ve been waiting for-”

“Don’t go there, Catherine,” Venable said sourly as he got out of the car. “I’m a little fed up with this fog and crawling along on these less-than-wonderful highways. Be polite. Be very polite.”

EVE WATCHED CATHERINEand Venable together for a moment before she turned away. They were sparring with the easy familiarity that spoke of a longtime association. Venable was a powerhouse, but Catherine was having no trouble keeping up with him. Catherine had no trouble keeping up with anyone.

She glanced at the Danner sketch again and suddenly shivered. How could kindness become malice? Or had the malice always been there, hidden and waiting to break free? She had a sudden memory of Bonnie in her stroller and Danner bending down to pick up a toy rabbit she had dropped while Eve and he were talking. No, it seemed impossible. She had sought out killers before whom she had thought might have killed Bonnie, but they had been monsters. Ted Danner was not a monster.

But the expression Eve had drawn of the face of the man who had attacked Catherine had been that of a monster. She pulled her eyes away from the sketch and tossed it on the table before she went out the front door. She needed to get away from the house and Jacobs, who was still lying dead in the bed upstairs. She had to think. The recognition of Ted Danner had come as a tremendous shock, and she was both bewildered and uncertain which path was best. Catherine might know what direction she was going to follow, but she had never met Ted Danner. It was Eve whose life had been the backdrop for this horror of pain and sadness to play out. Catherine had only her own experience and instincts to help her make conclusions.

And that seductive wild card that was John Gallo. Eve knew what confusion he could bring to any woman.

“Eve?” Catherine turned away from Venable as Eve strode past them.

“I needed some air.” She nodded at Venable but didn’t stop. A moment later, she entered the trees that bordered the bayou.

That was better. She drew a deep breath. Silence, except for the sounds of the bayou. The fog was a mere wisp drifting over the waters. Peace. No pushing and prodding for action from Catherine. She could relax and try to get her thoughts together.

“SHE ONLY WANTS WHAT’S best. Catherine doesn’t know any other way.”

Bonnie.

Eve stiffened, gazing out at the bayou, remembering the wisp of a spirit that she’d seen on the waters as she’d approached the house. Sad. Bonnie had been so sad, and it had frightened Eve.

“No, I’m over here.” Bonnie was leaning against a tree, dressed in her jeans and Bugs Bunny T-shirt, her curly red hair blazing against the gray bark. “I’m sorry I scared you, Mama. I was scared, too. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want it to happen.”

“Jacobs? Then why did you let it happen? Don’t you have any influence?”

Bonnie shook her head. “What do you expect? I’m kind of new here.” She smiled. “I know it seems a long time since I left you, but it was really only the blink of an eye.”

Bonnie always sounded so adult when she came to Eve. It was one of the reasons why Eve had had problems for years believing that she was anything but a dream. In spite of the fact that Bonnie had scoffed at her and told her that she shouldn’t expect her to be the same seven-year-old child when she had crossed over. “Blink of an eye. Don’t tell me that. It’s been an eternity,” she said unsteadily. “And I want it over. Catherine almost died. She shouldn’t have been caught up in this nightmare. It’s not fair. If someone has to die, it should be me.”

“Not you, Mama. We can’t be together yet.” She sighed. “How many times have I told you that everything has its time?”

“I don’t care what you told me.” She paused. “And you’ve been saying that we’re reaching the end, that’s what you told Joe when he was in that coma. He didn’t imagine that, did he?”

“No, it’s the truth.” Her luminous smile lit her face. “And I had to give him some reason to come back. It’s very difficult turning anyone around when they’ve gone that far. But I was betting that if he knew that you’d soon need him, I could do it.”

“I thought you meant that you were talking about… I was wondering if the end you were talking about was-”

“Dying?” Her smiled faded. “It could be, but I don’t know if that’s coming. I only know that the path is leading somewhere now, and we all have to walk it.”

“And it’s making you sad. You scared me when I saw you before.”

“I was scared, too. I didn’t want it to happen, but I couldn’t stop it.”

“Jacobs’s killing?”

She didn’t answer. “I have to leave you now, Mama. I only came because I knew that you were worried about me.”

“Don’t you dare go away.” Her voice was unsteady. “You’ve told me before that you can’t tell me about the person who killed you, that it’s lost in darkness. But I think that’s changing, isn’t it? Tell me who did it.”