Iris Johansen - Bonnie

“No.” He jumped to his feet. “I don’t want to talk anymore. I want you to go away.”

“Joe,” Father Barnabas said.

He was afraid Joe was going to browbeat the kid. He had to admit that he was tempted. The stakes were too high and the time too short.

He couldn’t do it, not if there was any other way.

“I can’t go away,” he told Ben. “I have to stay until you decide to answer my questions. If I don’t, then someone I love very much could get hurt. Your friend might hurt her.”

“Ted? Ted wouldn’t hurt her. He wouldn’t hurt anyone who didn’t try to hurt him.”

Joe jumped on that last sentence. “And did you see him hurt someone who did try to hurt him? Is that what you can’t tell anyone?”

“I didn’t say that.” His hands clenched into fists at his sides. “You’re trying to trick me.”

Joe drew a deep breath. “Listen carefully, Ben. You don’t believe your friend, Ted, could hurt anyone. You may be right, but sometimes people can be kind to some people and unkind to others. Particularly if they’re sick inside. One minute they seem okay, then the anger comes.”

Ben nodded. “Like my dad.”

The boy had completely leapfrogged the explanation Joe had been trying to make. Try to bring him back around. “Was your father like that, too? Like Ted?”

“No, not like Ted. Ted never hurt me. Ted said my dad didn’t have a right to hurt me. He said he wouldn’t let him do it again.”

He stiffened. “Wait a minute. Danner knew your father?”

“No, he only said that when I told him my dad was on his way here to take me away from the camp. He’d gotten out of jail and wanted me to go back and help him.”

“But how would Danner stop him?”

Ben shook his head. “He said he’d tell him to go away.”

“And that would do it? I don’t think so.”

“You’re wrong. My dad never came to see me here. Ted met him before he got here and made him change his mind. He made him go away.”

Joe and Father Barnabas exchanged glances.

“Have you heard from your father since then?” Joe asked.

He shook his head. “But he might come back now that Ted has gone away.”

“I wouldn’t worry about that happening,” Joe said. He would leave it at that. The kid’s father was obviously a bastard who would use and abuse a boy like Ben, but the kid didn’t need to be made to feel any guilt about what had probably happened to him. “I think Danner probably frightened him away. That’s what I was trying to tell you about your friend, Ted. Sometimes, he can frighten people. If he frightened my Eve, she might try to run away and hurt herself. Some people deserve to be frightened, but not Eve. We have to find her and make sure that Danner doesn’t do anything to cause anything bad to happen to her.”

Ben shook his head. “He told me not to talk about him.” He turned and went into the tent.

“Very deftly handled. You were more diplomatic than I thought you’d be,” Father Barnabas said. “I’m impressed.”

“I’m not, I didn’t get what I needed. You thought I’d tear him up just to get what I want? Fate and life have done enough to that kid. For an instant, I was actually in full sympathy with Danner. I would have wanted to take down that bastard of a father, too.”

Father Barnabas shook his head.

“I didn’t expect you to agree,” Joe said. “But you’ll admit that Ted Danner could have been tempted to rid the boy of his father?”

“I’ll admit that Ted Danner has many temptations, and it’s difficult for him to know how to handle them.” His gaze went to the tent. “But it appears that the boy could be a help to us. He’s more familiar with Danner than anyone here. I was surprised that he said Danner took him when he went camping. All those people we interviewed were right. Danner was always a loner.”

“That’s what I’ve been hearing from everyone,” Joe said. “But maybe Ben didn’t represent a threat to him.” He remembered the boy’s luminous smile, which had reminded him of Bonnie’s in Eve’s sketch. It would have been hard for anyone to believe that smile hid anything threatening. “And Danner did have a relationship with Gallo when he was a boy. Perhaps he made some kind of connection.”

The priest smiled. “You’re analyzing. Would it be too difficult for you to accept that God might have brought them together for a reason?”

“But then that would mean that God wanted Danner to take out Ben’s father. Not exactly a merciful plan. How do you explain that?”

“I don’t. God has many faces, and I wouldn’t presume. I just believe that it’s easier to look at the big picture than try to take it apart. Though I’ve noticed you have a mind that tries to decipher at every turn. Since God gave you that brain, it would follow that He wants you to use it.” He glanced back at Ben’s tent. “So what’s your next step?”

“I go after him, I keep after him. There’s not much time. I have to find out where Danner is taking Eve.”

“You’ll be careful?” His gaze never left the tent. “I have a… feeling about him.”

And Joe knew what he meant. He’d been fighting that same protective instinct that Father Barnabas was experiencing. It was weird as hell. Ben was… unusual, like a light shining in the darkness. You wanted to make sure that light was never dimmed. In a way, that instinct was incomprehensible. The rough life the boy had evidently lived had never managed to extinguish that inner glowing. Why did Joe feel as if he had the responsibility of taking care of Ben? Was that what Danner had felt when he decided to guard the boy in his own lethal way?

Dammit, he didn’t want to worry about this kid. He had to find a way to use him to find Eve.

“I’ll be as careful as I can be.” He followed Ben into the tent.

The boy was cutting lengths of suede and didn’t look up when Joe stopped before him. “Go away.”

“I can’t do that. But I won’t try to persuade you to do what’s right. I’ll let Eve do that.” He reached in his pocket and drew out his wallet. “It’s hard to think of people if you only have a name. I thought you should have a face, too. This is one of my favorite photos of Eve.” He thrust the photo in front of Ben’s face. “It was taken at our home on the lake. She looks a little dreamy but there’s nothing really dreamy about her. She’s always thinking, always feeling. She had the dreams blown away a long time ago. I guess that’s why I like this picture. I want to give her back those dreams.”

“Dreams? I have dreams.” His gaze was on the photo. “They used to be bad. But now it’s different.”

“Is it? Because your father went away?”

“No, I don’t think so.” He put down the strip of leather and took the photo and stared at her. “She looks… nice. I think I know her.”

“You’ve probably just seen a photo of Eve. She’s in the papers a lot. She helps find lost kids.”

He shook his head, his brow knitted with a puzzled frown. “No, that’s not right. I know her.” He gave Joe back the photo. “I’ll remember. Sometimes I forget things, but I always remember.”

“You said she looked nice. She is nice, Ben. You don’t want anything to happen to her.”

“Ted wouldn’t hurt her.”

“But he won’t let her go. What if she fights him? What if she can’t persuade him that she-”

“You said that you wouldn’t talk about it.” He reached down and turned on his portable radio, and music suddenly blared. “I’m not listening to you.”

“Then I’ll wait until you decide to do the right thing for Eve.” Joe set the photo on the bench beside the boy. He dropped down on the floor and crossed his legs. “But there’s not much time, Ben. Accidents can happen very quickly.”