Iris Johansen - Chasing the Night

“But he only met with him once?”

“As far as the surveillance report shows. It would have been too great a risk. That first visit to Czadas was probably to set up the situation. Rakovac wouldn’t be stupid enough to show frequent visits to anyone. But he’d still want to keep in contact with Czadas and the boy. And he wouldn’t be able to resist calling Catherine afterward to taunt her. That’s part of his basic makeup.”

“Oh, yes,” Eve said bitterly. “That goes without saying. How would he do it?”

“All of these cities are where he met with his other clients.” She pointed to Krasnos, Vichaga, and the other Russian cities down the line of the graph. Then she put Sergriev in the middle of them. “They’re all within an hour-and-a-half drive to Sergriev. The meetings with all his clients on these particular days were at hotels, not their own offices, or on their own turf. Rakovac must have arranged them. He could conduct business, then slip away and go to meet with Mikhal Czadas at Sergriev.” She looked at Eve. “Connect the dots, Eve.”

Eve gave a low whistle. “Kelly, you may just be as brilliant as they say you are.”

“Of course I am.”

“Czadas,” Eve repeated. “You think Luke’s being held by Mikhal Czadas?”

“It’s only an educated guess.” Kelly’s grin widened. “I’m lying. And being modest. That pattern is pretty clear. I’d bet that Rakovac arranged with Czadas to keep Luke.”

“Rakovac boasted of making Luke kill.” Eve was thinking, trying to put the pieces together. “If Czadas is still active in the Georgian resistance movement, that would mesh with what he said. There would be an opportunity.”

“Call Catherine.” Kelly closed her computer and set it on top of her yellow note pad. “Tell her to come back.”

“I will.” Eve dropped down in her chair and took out her phone. “But first I’ll call Joe.” She started to dial. “He may be able to find out more information before-”

“No,” Natalie said. “Don’t call him.”

“Natalie, I know you’re concerned about Kelsov, but this will only-”

“No,” Natalie said sharply. “Hang up.”

The girl looked desperate, Eve thought. Why couldn’t she see that this might be a way to solve their problem? She had to convince her. She was getting Joe’s voice mail anyway, so she hung up. “Look, Natalie, Czadas may be the answer. We can rescue the little boy, and Kelsov will get what he wants, too.”

“It’s too late for the little boy. Rakovac will never let him go.” Natalie was moistening her lips as she reached into the cooktop drawer. “He told me so.”

Eve straightened, her eyes widening. “Told you-”

Natalie was pointing a.38 caliber pistol at them.

Eve froze. “What are you doing, Natalie?” Eve asked quietly. “Put that gun down.”

“You can’t tell anyone about the boy. Rakovac wouldn’t like it.”

“It doesn’t matter what he’d like. You’re confused. You told me you hate him, Natalie.”

“Oh, I do,” she whispered. “But that doesn’t matter. He’ll hurt me. He always hurts me. I tried to run away, but he found me and hurt me again. When Kelsov took me out of that…place, I knew he’d find me again.” Her grasp was shaking on the gun. “And he did.”

“Rakovac found you after Kelsov and Catherine freed you from that house?” Eve asked. “When?”

“Six months, seven…I don’t know.”

“I said, put that gun down, Natalie.”

“I can’t. You’ll call Joe Quinn and tell him about Czadas and the boy. You can’t do that. Rakovac told me if you got close, I had to stop you.”

“Wait.” Kelly was gazing at Natalie. “You’re saying that Rakovac knew where Kelsov was staying all this time? He knew about this place?”

Natalie nodded.

“And he knew that Kelsov was trying to hunt him down? Why didn’t he come after him and kill him?”

“Kelsov was helping Catherine. Rakovac knew that he only had to reach out to grab Catherine if she was with Kelsov. That was all he cared about. He knew she would come back. He thought it was funny that she thought she was safe here.”

Eve could see how Rakovac would get a malicious pleasure from having that power to scoop up an unknowing Catherine at any time. It would be a part of his damn cat-and-mouse game with her. “But she wasn’t safe from you, was she, Natalie? She helped Kelsov free you from that house. Didn’t that mean anything to you?”

“I didn’t want to hurt her,” Natalie said. “I don’t want to hurt anyone. But I have to do what Rakovac tells me. He was angry with me when I didn’t tell him that you’d gone to the marsh. I was so afraid he would hurt Kelsov.” She added eagerly, “But he says he won’t bother Kelsov if I do everything else he wants.”

“And you believe him?”

“I don’t know. I guess I have to believe him.”

“You don’t want to do this, Natalie.” Eve slowly stood up. If she could get close enough, she could dive for that gun. Though that might be just as dangerous as trying to get her to lay the weapon down. The woman was shaking as if she had a fever. No, not a woman, a child who had been so brutalized she might never emerge from that terrible cocoon where Rakovac had imprisoned her.

But Eve mustn’t let pity sway her now. Natalie was dangerous to Kelly and to her. Perhaps to all of them. Thank God, she hadn’t told Natalie or Kelsov about the possibility that the NSA phone trace might hold for them. Just move toward her and keep Natalie talking and her attention occupied. “What do you know about Czadas, Natalie?”

“Not much. Rakovac took me to his place once before I ran away from him. Savrin House. It’s on a lake somewhere in the north. Czadas is like Rakovac. He likes to hurt people.”

Eve took a step nearer. “Luke?”

She nodded jerkily. “And me. Rakovac gave me to him for a few nights. That’s when I knew I had to run away. The boy helped me. He heard me screaming, and he hit Czadas on the head with a wine bottle. Then he showed me a way out through the back door that led out of the house. He took me to the woods, then left me to go back to the house.”

She took another step. “Why didn’t he go with you?”

“He said I had a chance, but they’d never stop looking for him. He’d tried it before. He had to wait until he could steal enough money from Czadas to help him hide from them.” She moistened her lips. “He lied. I didn’t have a chance. He shouldn’t have told me to go. They found me four days later.”

“Luke was trying to help you. And he was obviously running a risk to do it.”

“But Rakovac found me.” It was clearly the only thing on which she could focus. “And he hurt me again. Worse than before. The boy shouldn’t have made me go.”

“Made?” Kelly repeated. “You were old enough to make the choice. He couldn’t have been more than nine then. And I’d say he had an amazing amount of guts.”

“Kelly,” Eve cautioned. Natalie was in an extremely emotional state, and they didn’t need to throw her into more of a tailspin. Not with that.38 in her hand. “Was Luke punished for it?”

“I don’t know. Rakovac took me away from there after he found me. He said he couldn’t stay at Czadas’s house for more than a couple days at any one time. I’d made him overstay his time.” Her voice was a whimper. “I didn’t care about the boy. Why should I? Rakovac kept hurting me. In all kinds of new ways he hadn’t tried before. It might not have been so bad for me if the boy hadn’t told me to run away.”

She kept calling him “the boy” as if he had no identity, Eve thought with annoyance. It reminded her of the killers who threw their victims into anonymous graves and walked away. Natalie might not be a murderer, but she had the same careless, selfish view as those predators. Eve was beginning to feel any pity she had felt begin to dissipate. But she mustn’t show the anger she was feeling. She moved a step nearer. “How can you be sure Rakovac will keep his word? You want Kelsov to live. Wouldn’t it be better to call and warn him that Rakovac knows where this place is?”