Iris Johansen - Eight Days To Live

“Who can blame her? She heard Weismann screaming?”

“Yes, he wasn’t exactly quiet.”

“He was hurting,” Jock said. “I confess I didn’t really believe what you told me about Caleb. I’m not even sure I believe what I saw him do tonight. He’s a very dangerous man, Jane.”

“Yes,” she said. “I’m going to send him away.”

“That might not be easy.” He was silent a moment. “Tonight, all the gloves were off. When he threw Weismann down before you in the dirt, he was pure, raw emotion. It was a gift that wasn’t easy for him to give you. But he did it, and I think that he’ll collect.”

“Then it’s not a gift.”

Jock shrugged. “You’re probably right. You know that I’d rather you send him packing. I’m just saying that we may have trouble doing it.”

“Not you, Jock. I’m the one who asked him to come.” She saw he was about to argue and changed the subject. “Lina translated the last of the ledger. Close the shed door. I don’t want Weismann to hear this. He seems to think he can make a deal with Venable, and I don’t want him to have any more information than he has already.”

“That was the only reason I agreed with Caleb that it would be better to rid ourselves of him.” Jock closed the door. “I take it that Adah had something interesting to tell us?”

“Yes, you could say that,” she said grimly. “Judas.”

RUN FAST, CALEB TOLD HIMSELF.

Keep the hunger at bay.

His blood was pounding in his veins as he ran down the hill into the small glade beside the road.

Find a reason.

Not that Jane would forgive him for being what he was no matter what reason he’d give her. But he would forgive himself, and that was enough.

No time for regret. He had jettisoned that emotion decades ago when he had realized that he could not change. He couldn’t live with regret. That was the way of hollowness and instability.

Yet he had felt a tingle of regret after he had met Jane MacGuire. Even though he had known that it would end as it had tonight.

She had looked away from him. She had not wanted him to see the dread and fear in her eyes. Fear that she refused to admit even to herself.

He had seen it, felt it.

And again, he had known regret.

Stop it. Crush it. There were ways to play the game with his own rules. He didn’t have to obey hers.

He could see Weismann’s car where he had left it in the glade. He ran toward it, the heat rising in him.

Search and find a reason.

If not a reason, an excuse, to take back the kill.

“JUDAS?” JOCK REPEATED. “The whole thing is totally bizarre.”

“I agree,” Jane said. “And we don’t know enough to make any sense of it. But we have to find out. Did you mention Alan Roland to Venable?”

He nodded. “Only that I wanted him to check into Roland. Nothing else.”

“Good. If the CIA is suspecting leaks, we don’t want to be too upfront with Venable.”

He smiled. “That’s what I thought. By the way, where is Caleb?”

“I have no idea. He stalked off without a word.” She frowned. “That’s not quite true. He wanted to question Weismann again, and I wouldn’t listen to him. He said he was going to find a good reason to do it.”

“Why?”

“How should I know? Because he’s a damn sadist? I can’t see any-”

A scream! Long. Shrill. Agonized.

From inside the toolshed!

“What the hell!” Jock turned and threw open the door.

Weismann was crumpled on the floor, his eyes bulging from their sockets, staring straight at them but not seeing them. His face twisted with unbearable pain.

“What happened to-”

“I found a good reason.”

Jane whirled to face Caleb, who was only a few paces away, walking toward them across the garden. “ You did this?”

“Yes.”

Her hands clenched at her sides. “What you did to him before wasn’t enough? You had to torture him?”

“No, it wasn’t enough. He’s stronger than I thought. He didn’t tell us everything.” He looked down at Weismann. “I had to go in and see if I could move him to tell me more.”

“How do you know he didn’t tell us everything? You hurt him, dammit.”

“He’s greedy. Sometimes greed overcomes everything.” He turned to Jock. “We’ve got to get out of here. We may have company anytime.”

“Who?” Jock asked. “You told us that you’d checked Weismann’s past cell calls and there had been none made to anyone tonight. That he was probably acting alone.”

“He didn’t make any calls on his cell.” He added grimly, “But he had a laptop computer in his car, and he had a remote setup there. He made a call an hour and thirty minutes ago to a number in London.”

“Roland?”

“Yes, that’s why I had to go into the slime in Weismann’s head and verify. He wasn’t only on Venable’s payroll; Roland had him in his pocket. He was paying him to bypass Millet and give him information about Adah. Weismann had to call Roland and tell him where we were and get instructions. Roland told him that he’d tell Millet that Jane was here and to grab the tablet and get out before Millet got here.” He glanced at Jane. “And maybe he wasn’t going to kill all of us if he wasn’t totally on his own. Roland probably told him to save you for the big show. You’re a very special key piece in this scenario.” He turned to face her. “You’re angry with me. Get over it. We don’t have time to do anything but damage control.”

She wanted to sock him. But if he was right, then she couldn’t afford to indulge in personal feelings. But there was one thing she had to know. “What about him?” She gestured to Weismann. She shuddered as she studied his pain-filled expression. “Is what you did to him permanent?”

He shrugged. “Sometimes. The brain is very delicate, and I wasn’t gentle.” He added, “Don’t feel too sorry for him. I came across all kinds of filth when I went in to see what else he knew. Besides murder, he had a passion for little boys. He tortured and killed a twelve-year-old he picked up in Genoa last year.” He turned away. “If he does survive, it will take him months to recover enough to cause us any trouble. It’s safe for us to leave him for Millet. Not safe for him. He’s just got to hope Venable gets here before Millet.” He walked out of the toolshed.

Caleb had already dismissed Weismann from his mind, Jane realized in astonishment. He had done what he had chosen to do and was going on his way. How hard did you have to be to destroy a man’s mind and just ignore the consequences? Even though she was disgusted and appalled by the evil Weismann generated, she would have found it impossible to be that cold. But he had said that it wasn’t coldness, she remembered. Hot blood, he had told her. If it was hot, the flames were enveloped in ice. Yes, that image definitely came to mind when she thought of Caleb.

“We have to move, Jane,” Jock said quietly. “Lina may be isolated here, but there’s no such thing as total isolation in this day of supercommunication and helicopters. All we can hope is to see them coming.”

“Lina.” She turned on her heel. “We can’t leave her here. They’ll kill her as they did Celine.”

“My thought exactly,” Jock said as he followed her from the toolshed. “Let’s see what we can do about it.”

“WE’RE TWENTY MINUTES AWAY FROM the Alsouk cottage, Roland.” Millet raised his voice to be heard above the rotors of the helicopter. “I’ve checked out the info, and there should be no one in the vicinity to cause us any trouble. Lina Alsouk lives alone, and we should be able to zero in on Gavin and Jane MacGuire within a few minutes after we land.”