Iris Johansen - Pandora's Daughter

It was near dawn but Neal Grady's voice was wideawake and alert when he picked up. The bastard had probably been expecting him to call, Phillip thought. "We may have a problem."

"That's no surprise. Since you haven't called me in the past three years." He paused. "Is she becoming volatile or erratic?"

"No, dammit, she's fine."

"Are you protesting too much, Phillip?"

"No, she's handling it, I tell you."

Silence.

"Okay, maybe she's a little volatile on occasion when she's faced with some of the things she deals with at the hospital."

"Mood swings?"

"I haven't noticed any."

"What about her personal life? I understand all that emotion could translate into high sensuality."

"I don't think so. Hell, don't you know?"

"I try not to know."

"Well, it's not the kind of thing she'd discuss with me."

"Maybe you should have persuaded her to discuss it. You should have discussed every possible sign of change. You know you have to be on the alert. Any nightmares?"

"Not many. A few after deaths of her patients. Nothing abnormal."

"I told you to steer her away from medicine."

"I tried. Megan's not easy to steer when her mind is made up. I was hoping she wouldn't make it through medical school. There's enough stress to discourage most people much less anyone as em-pathetic as Megan."

"You should have found a way. At least, you could have talked her out of choosing ER. Talk about high stress. I told you that you'd have to be careful when I turned her over to you."

"She thought she could make more of a difference in ER. Back off, Grady. You did turn her over to me and I've done a damn good job all these years. I don't need you sitting on your duff and criticizing me. Walk in my shoes for a while before you tell me what to do. Now shut up and listen. I didn't call to have you give me the third degree."

"Point taken. You're right. You've done an exceptional job." Grady paused. "Then if she's not showing signs that a change is coming, why are you calling me?"

"Molino may have found her."

"What?"

"I'm not sure. Someone driving a beat-up pickup truck tried to run her off the bridge tonight. The police think it was some local yahoo on a binge."

"Description?"

"She couldn't get a good look at him. He was just a silhouette against the freeway lights. Tall, thin, jeans, cowboy hat."

"Could the police be right?"

"Yes. But he kept hitting her, going after her. It sounds… determined."

"What's her reaction?"

"Anger. Indignation. She believes the cops are right. Just a drunk who deserves to be kept off the road." He tried to keep the anger from his voice. "You promised this wouldn't happen, Grady. You said they wouldn't find her."

"They shouldn't have found her. I buried every record on her and Sarah before I came to see you."

"Well, let's hope you didn't screw up. I'd say a mistake like that makes me not being able to talk her out of medical school look minor. What are you going to do about it?"

"Check it out. I'm in Paris right now. I'll take a flight as soon as I can tie things up here."

"Hurry. I'm not going to chance having them kill her." Phillip added deliberately, "It's time you took responsibility for her."

"You have no idea of the responsibility I've devoted to her over the years. Talk about a monkey on my back."

"I don't care about you. I care about Megan."

"That's why I chose you to look after her. You're all black and white, Phillip. Right is right. Wrong is wrong. I see too many shades of gray." He said wearily, "You've done a good job with her. I may not have stayed in touch, but I read every report you sent me. I wanted to hear good things about her. Believe me, I needed to see myself justified." He went on quickly, "And if it's Molino, he'll try again and again. You'd better tighten security just in case your redneck is bogus."

"You don't have to tell me that. I'll keep her alive and do what I can, but you'd better be prepared to step in if Molino does something to trigger Megan. That's one area where I can't help her." He hung up the phone and leaned back in his chair. He had done his job and told Grady of the threat but he wasn't sure if he felt any better about it.

Grady had always been something of an enigma to him. Yes, Phillip was grateful, but that didn't rule out resentment. He trusted his effectiveness but he had never been confident about which way he'd jump in a given circumstance. Maybe he had an instinctive rejection of the power he sensed in Grady. God knows, it wasn't as if he hadn't lived with some aspect of that power for most of his adult life. Grady's was just more intense and on a larger scope. He'd seen him do some pretty incredible things in the time he'd known him.

But Phillip couldn't worry now about what Grady might do. He was the one who had to be prepared to do whatever was necessary to protect Megan.

He got up from the chair, moved toward the desk across the room, and opened the top drawer. He pulled out the automatic pistol and checked it. Then he sat back down at the desk and leaned back in the chair. As he'd promised Grady, he would sit up tonight and keep watch over Megan. He had a bad feeling about what had happened tonight. He had no psychic talents like Grady or the others like him, but instinct counted for something. He had a hunch that there was a nasty storm brewing.

Sleep well, Megan. You may need it.

Gadsden, Alabama

THE TRUCK WOULD BLOW ANY MINUTE.

Tim Darnell backed away from the gasoline-soaked blue vehicle and watched the flame travel from the front seat toward the gas tank.

Too bad. Damn fine truck. But it had been damaged by contact with Megan Blair's SUV and probably had her paint on it. He'd made sure the registration was in a bogus name but he still couldn't risk keeping it. Could he get Molino to replace it?

Not likely. Molino didn't like failures and he'd be lucky to keep the assignment much less get him to pay him a bonus for it. Get it over with. Bite the bullet. He took out his cell phone and dialed Peter Sienna at Molino's office.

"I hope you're calling me to tell me that you've completed the job," Sienna said when he picked up the phone. "I expected you to phone hours ago."

"I had to drive the truck across the Alabama border to destroy it." He hesitated. "Things didn't go well. I'm going to need a little more time."

Sienna didn't speak for a moment. "Are you telling me she's still alive?"

"Right now." He added quickly, "But I'll take care of it. I tried to make it look like an accident. I expected her to lose her head but she didn't. She drove that SUV as if she was racing at Daytona. I'll have to try something else. Another day or two. That's all, I promise."

"Mr. Molino doesn't give a damn about your promises. He wanted the matter taken care of immediately."

Hard ass, Darnell thought sourly. If he didn't need the money, he'd tell him to go screw himself. "I've had her under surveillance for the last week. It won't take me long to work out another way to do the job. I'll make sure Mr. Molino won't be disappointed."

"He's already going to be disappointed," Sienna said. "Two days. After that, we'll have to replace you." He hung up.

That bastard was treating him like the scum of the earth. He and Molino thought because they had money and power, they could do anything they wanted to do. Well, he was smarter than both of them. Everyone made mistakes. How was he to know that the Blair woman would be that cool? She was only a woman and he had seen her fall apart only this evening in that waiting room when he'd been on watch at the hospital.

It's not as if he hadn't been prepared for a worst-case scenario. But he had covered his tracks and hidden his other truck in the brush in the woods here outside Gadsden. In moments the truck would be destroyed.