“What are you trying to say?”
“I’m saying that I’ve made some giant strides, but I’m still second banana to Bonnie.”
“And I suppose that’s why you lied to me?”
“No way. I would have done the same thing even if I thought I was number one on your hit parade. I wanted your search for her to end.”
“By lying to me.”
“It was a mistake. But it wouldn’t have been a tragedy if you’d fought your way back to the land of the living before it happened.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said shakily.
“No one knows better how far you’ve come. I watched you battle your way back from pain and depression and madness. Why do you think I love you so much?” He gently touched her cheek. “You just have to come a few more steps.”
“I’m . . . confused. You’re trying to turn this all around.” She blinked back tears. “And you were never a supplicant, blast you.”
“Yes, I am. I’m asking you to let me stay. Let me help you take those final steps. It’s all out in the open now. We can make a fresh start.”
“Joe . . .”
“You love me. You were happy here. You can be happy again.”
She stared at him helplessly.
“Okay.” He took a step back. “I’m not pushing you.” Then he took a step forward and kissed her, hard. “The hell I’m not. I’m tired of being patient. We need each other, and I’m not going to let you blow it.” He headed for the front door. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
She flinched as the door slammed behind him. The air seemed to vibrate with the passion he had emitted. And not only Joe’s passion. She was shaking from emotion. All the barriers she had erected between them seemed to be toppling. She lifted her hand to her lips. She could still feel the pressure of his lips.
Joe . . .
Why didn’t you marry me?
Why hadn’t she? Why had she shied away from that final commitment? Joe thought he knew, and had still been willing to accept second best.
He wasn’t second best. He’d never be second best to anyone.
She was being defensive, trying to protect him, she realized. But she was the only one who could hurt him. How much had she hurt him during these past two years?
He was walking down the path, every movement suggesting pent-up emotion ready to explode. His attitude was so different from the last time she had watched him and Jane together just a few weeks ago.
But then, nothing was the same now.
She turned away from the window. She was too upset and confused to sort out her emotions now. So stop staring after Joe and think about something else.
Yeah, sure.
“Jennings is coming.” Joe had thrown open the door again and was striding into the room. “Galen just called from the checkpoint at the main road. Jennings is alone in one car, but he’s accompanied by a police vehicle.”
“What?”
Joe shrugged. “I don’t know what the hell is happening. This isn’t Jennings’s style.”
Eve went past him out on the porch.
Headlights were coming down the road.
Nathan got up from the porch swing. “What’s happening?”
“Jennings. He probably wants Victor.”
He frowned. “Why the police car?”
Joe didn’t answer. “If you don’t want anyone to know you’re involved, you’d better disappear, Nathan.”
Nathan hesitated, and then slowly shook his head. “I’m tired of skulking around. You came out in the open. It’s time I did, too.”
“Suit yourself.”
A few minutes later Jennings’s car was pulling up before the cottage. He got out of the car and started up the steps. “Sorry to do it this way,” Jennings said quietly. “But I have to have that reconstruction, Ms. Duncan.”
She bristled. “I don’t like to be pushed, Jennings. You’ll get it when I’m ready to give it to you.”
“I know you’re angry with me, but don’t let that get in the way of your good judgment. You did your job; now let us do ours.”
“Or you’ll break down the doors and take it?” She glanced at the patrol car. “Do you have a search warrant?”
“Oh, yes.” He pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to Joe. “I couldn’t take the chance of your refusing me again. Since the condo was blown up, my superior, Agent Rusk, has been on my ass about finding Hebert.”
“I’m not done. I’ve finished the reconstruction, but I haven’t done photo and video confirmations.”
“I’ll do it. I have photos of Bently in the car. Rusk wants me to check it out right away. I have to get on the horn and call him as soon as I leave here.”
“It’s not the same. I want to do it myself.” Eve’s lips firmed. “Did it ever occur to you that Hebert might come after it? Why don’t you stake out the cottage instead of taking the skull away from me?” My God, she had just suggested she be used as bait. What the hell was wrong with her?
“Actually, we may set up a similar situation to lure Hebert. That’s one of the reasons we have to have the skull.”
“But I’m out of it?”
Jennings nodded. “I don’t see why you’re objecting. You couldn’t wait for me to take the skull when I came to see you.”
“I don’t like to have my work taken away from me by force. If you’d waited, I’d have probably called you.”
“We don’t have time.” He paused. “I just got off a plane from Boca Raton. I’ve been there scouting around for the past few days.”
“And?”
“Nothing concrete, but something occurred to me when I was down there. I went over what you told me, and the answer just came out of the blue. It was all there right in front of me, but I didn’t see it. I may be wrong, but I have a hunch . . .” He shook his head. “I need to talk it over with Rusk and see if he thinks I’m nuts. If not, we’ll have to move fast to put everything together.”
Eve sensed an undercurrent of excitement. There was tenseness, an alertness in his manner that was unmistakable. “What hunch?”
Jennings shook his head. “Will you please go get the skull for me? Don’t make me take it.”
Joe took a step forward. “No way.”
“I wonder how this kind of harassment would play in the press,” Nathan said softly from his seat on the swing.
Jennings glanced at Nathan sitting in the shadows. “Who the hell are you?”
“Just a friend,” Joe said.
Jennings looked back at Eve. “Quinn is a policeman. Do you want to make him disobey a legal writ in front of men from his own department?”
So that was why he’d brought the police car. Smart. Very smart.
Joe never took his gaze from the FBI man. “I don’t give a damn about your writ. Eve?”
“No.” She turned on her heel. “I would have eventually given it to him anyway. I just don’t like the use of force, and I wanted to do the finish work myself. It’s not worth causing you trouble.”
“I can handle any trouble he’s dishing out.”
“No, Joe.” She went into the cottage and got the leather case with Victor’s skull from her bedroom. She took it back out on the porch and thrust it at Jennings.
“Thank you.” He unfastened the snap, glanced inside, and then fastened it again. He looked up and said soberly, “I apologize for causing you this disturbance. It wasn’t my choice. I would have been glad to give you a little more time, but the matter is too urgent.”
“Don’t you think I’m feeling a sense of urgency? My daughter almost died in that condo.”
“You can safely leave the matter in our hands now.”
“I left my daughter’s safety in your hands and you fouled up. Why should I believe you’ll be any more effective in finding Hebert?”
He flinched. “I deserved that.” He turned and went down the stairs. “I’ll try to keep you informed.”
“Not likely,” Joe said. “I was an agent. I know the drill.”
Jennings got in the car. “I’ll do what I can. That’s all I can promise.”
Eve watched the two cars wind down the road and around the bend. She should have felt relieved, she told herself. Victor was out of her hands, and the responsibility was entirely with Jennings. But she didn’t feel relieved. She felt strangely flat and . . . cheated.
“He was hard for you to give up,” Nathan said.
“I hadn’t completed the work. I needed to do the video overlay and the final comparison.”
“The Bureau will do it.”
“But Victor was
mine
.”
“You didn’t have to give him up,” Joe said. “I would have backed you.”
“Yes, you would have fought them all and probably lost your job.”
“Maybe.”
“And you love that damn job.”
“Yes, but it’s way down on my list. Shall I tell you what’s at the top?”
“No,” she said unevenly.
“I didn’t think so.” He started down the stairs. “Then I’ll go try to find Galen and tell him what’s happened.”
“I’m sorry, Eve,” Nathan said. “I tried to help.”
“I know. You should have kept quiet. Jennings may have been too absorbed to follow up on what Joe said, but later he’s going to remember you being here.”
“So what? It won’t kill me.” He grimaced. “I hope.”
Eve felt a chill go through her.
“Hey, it’s a joke.”
“Yeah.” She nodded jerkily and went into the cottage.
Chapter 15
Jennings waved the police car on past him and pulled over to the side of the road. He speed-dialed Robert Rusk in Washington. “I’ve got it, sir. It wasn’t pleasant. I
like
that woman, and if we’d given her another day she’d probably have turned it over without a protest.”
“You didn’t have time to be diplomatic,” Agent Rusk said. “We’ve got to know if this is Harold Bently. You brought the photos of him with you?”
“Sure.” Jennings turned on the overhead light before taking the three pictures out of the briefcase and spreading them on the passenger seat. Then he opened the leather case and carefully pulled out the skull. “I’m doing a comparison now.”
“And?”
He studied the features of the skull and then carefully did the same to the photographs. He gave a low whistle. “Duncan’s really good.”
“Is it Bently?”
“No doubt about it.” Jennings studied the skull again. “It’s definitely Harold Bently.”
“You’re positive?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“Shall I bring it to the office right away? And I need to talk to you about Boca Raton. I may have found the—”
He never finished the sentence.
Eve heard the explosion first. The sound was so loud it shook the cottage.
She ran out onto the porch.
“What the hell?” Nathan was running down the porch steps.
Then the night sky lit up with a red glow.
“I don’t know what—” Eve stared in horror at the tops of the pine trees flaming on the horizon. She ran down the steps and up the path, followed closely by Nathan.
“Come on, we’ll get the car.” Joe was beside her, taking her arm and pulling her toward the jeep. “I think it’s on the road. But it’s got to be a couple miles away.”
Eve and Nathan jumped into the jeep and Joe stomped on the accelerator.
She moistened her dry lips as they raced down the road. “What is it?”
Joe didn’t answer.
The sky was still lit by a baleful red glow.
Fire.
But what had caused it?
As they turned a corner in the road, she saw billowing black smoke and a roaring inferno. At first she couldn’t tell what was at the heart of the flames.
Joe took a deep breath as he stopped the car. “Christ.”
A car, or pieces of a car.
“My God.” Nathan jumped out of the jeep.
Eve’s eyes widened in shock. “Jennings?”
Joe nodded. “That’s my guess.”
“Could he still be alive?”
She knew the answer before Joe said, “No chance. Whatever device blew that car was damn powerful. There’s not much left of the metal.”
And human flesh was so much more fragile. “It was a bomb? How?”
“It may take days of lab work to determine that. Somebody didn’t want any pieces left to put together.”
“Hebert,” Eve said dully. “He seems to be very good with explosives. The condo was—”
“I’m getting the hell out of here.” Galen was running toward them. “My guy at the highway phoned to say the police car is turning around and coming back. They must have heard the explosion.”
“I’ll talk to them,” Joe said.
“Fine. But that won’t help me. You two may be fairly above suspicion, but I’m not.” Galen glanced at the burning car. “And you may have a few things to explain yourselves. You tell me you’re hostile to Jennings, and a few minutes later his car blows up. Jennings was FBI. The least that could happen is that you’ll be grilled about your involvement. I’ll call you later tonight after all the hoopla dies down.”
“I’ll go with you.” Nathan got out of the car.
“Then you’d better move fast.” Galen turned and disappeared into the forest.
Nathan muttered an oath and trotted after him. “Wait, dammit, I’m carrying a lot more weight than you are.”
Eve turned and looked back at the burning car. Poor Jennings . . .
“Listen,” Joe said. “Galen’s right; there are going to be all kinds of questions. I’ll handle as much as I can, but I can’t keep you out of it entirely.”
Eve nodded numbly. She was so stunned, it was difficult to think what was best to do. She didn’t want to end up at either the police department or FBI headquarters answering interminable questions. On the other hand, taking off and running was not an option, either. “I don’t expect you to keep me out of it. I’ll be okay.”
“Tell me that after we get through this night.” He flipped open his phone. “I’m calling the chief and telling him to get a forensic crew out here right away. I want any evidence to be channeled first through our labs. There’s no guarantee that the Bureau won’t step in, since Jennings was one of their own, but if they do barge in and take over, at least they’ll be obligated to share results with the ATLPD.”
“Will your chief bow to pressure?”
“Probably. Like I said, if the tests are already underway before the FBI steps into the picture, the chief will have a legitimate gripe if the information isn’t shared. The Bureau is always saying that everything’s peaches and cream between the Feds and local police departments, but the antagonism is still there. It would be a bad public relations move for them to refuse access.”
Eve continued to look at the flames as he spoke quickly into his phone, and felt her stomach clench. At first, she’d only been aware of the smell of gasoline and burning pine, but now she realized there was another scent. . . .
“You okay?” Joe’s gaze was on her face.
She took a deep breath and nodded. “But let’s go back to the cottage.”
“Sorry.” His gaze was on the road. “Here comes the patrol car. I’ll get you out of here as soon as I can.”
They didn’t get back to the cottage until after the forensic team arrived at the wreckage fifteen minutes later. Special Agent Hal Lindman from the FBI Atlanta field office arrived an hour later, followed closely by two detectives from Joe’s precinct. It was several hours after that when the questioning ended and the final statements were taken.
“It’s not over,” Joe said as they watched the police cars drive down the road away from the cottage. “The FBI is going to come down on this case like gangbusters as soon as the man Rusk is sending down from his office gets here. They’ll take over the investigation and be on our doorstep tomorrow morning at the latest.”
“We won’t be here.”
“What?”
“Call Galen and get him and Nathan to come back right away. I want to talk to them.”
Joe studied Eve’s expression, and nodded. “I’ll get them.”
She crossed her arms over her chest as she gazed out at the pine trees. The sky was no longer red, but the trees were scorched and bare.
Jennings was dead. Blown to bits. She closed her eyes, sick, as the memory of that blazing car came back to her. She had been angry with him for arbitrarily taking the skull, but she had genuinely liked the man. He didn’t deserve to have that monster kill him.
“They’ll be here within an hour,” Joe said. “They’ll have to take a speedboat from the opposite end of the lake to avoid the guards around the crime scene.”
The crime scene. It was an ugly phrase for an ugly act.
“Eve?”
Rage was beginning to supplant the horror. “I’m mad as hell, Joe. Hebert killed him because of Victor. When Hebert thought that he might not be able to find out who Victor was, he wanted to make sure no one else would know, either. He didn’t care that a decent man was blown up, too.”
“It may have been more than that,” Joe said. “Jennings was on the track of something in Boca Raton.”
Yes, Jennings had been excited. What had he said?
It was there in front of me all the time. I didn’t see it.
What had been there in front of Jennings?
She rubbed her aching temple. She couldn’t think. She was in too much of a rage for cool reason. She wanted to strike out again and again and again.
You have to stand toe-to-toe and slug it out.
Jane had said that, but Eve had backed away. Now there was another death, and once more Hebert had gotten away with it.
Damn him to hell.
She wasn’t going to crawl into a cave and hide again.
Galen cut the motor of the speedboat as he reached the pier. “You called, we came.”
“Come into the cottage,” Eve said as she walked back up the pier. “We may not have much time. Joe’s not sure when the FBI will show up again.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Galen gave a low whistle as he got out of the boat and followed her toward the cottage. “Whatever you say.”
Joe was sitting in the easy chair by the window. “Any trouble getting here?”
Nathan shook his head. “No problem. God, I need some coffee.” He moved toward the kitchen. “You talk, I’ll listen while I’m making a pot.”
His face was pale and pinched, Eve noticed. “You don’t look well.”
“I’ll be okay. I’m not used to this kind of thing.” He scowled. “I once thought I’d like to be a police reporter, but I never made it past the first gang shooting.” He poured water into the coffeemaker. “I hate violence. It makes me sick.”
“Join the club.” Eve shivered as she remembered Jennings’s burning funeral pyre. “It shouldn’t happen. We shouldn’t let it happen.”
Joe’s gaze narrowed on her face. “And do we have a way to stop it?”
“We’ve got to try.” Her hands clenched at her sides. “We can’t let him keep on with this. He almost killed Jane and my mother. He did kill Jennings and Capel and—” She stopped and drew a deep shaky breath. “Jane told me that I should ‘slug it out toe-to-toe,’ but I was too scared of what he’d do. That was a mistake. I have to stop him before he does anything else. No one is safe as long as he’s alive and free. I can’t let him go on like this.”
“To stop him, we have to find him,” Joe said.
She was silent a moment. “Or he has to find me.”
“He’s already destroyed the skull,” Nathan said. “He may not target you now. Particularly if he has other fish to fry in Boca Raton.”
“Oh, I think he’ll target me. I know too much, and he evidently likes to keep everything tidy for the Cabal.” She paused. “But it will add a little impetus if he thinks I’m going after evidence he doesn’t want to be discovered.”
“And that is?”
“Bently’s grave. I don’t have to have the entire skeleton. In this day of DNA technology, if I discover hair, a bone, even a tooth, I may have a chance of spoiling whatever game Hebert and the Cabal are playing.”
“How?”
“I’m not sure yet. But they don’t want him identified, or they wouldn’t have blown up Jennings’s car tonight.”
“And how are you going to find the grave?”
“I may not be able to. But if Hebert thinks I’m getting near it, he may be drawn in.” She opened her handbag. “On the other hand, I may be able to find it.” She took out a letter-size manila envelope and opened it. “If I can find out where this came from.”
Joe took the envelope and looked inside. “Dirt.”
“Galen called it ‘funny dirt,’ ” Eve said. “It’s a light color, and it has a large amount of tiny bones or shell chips. Victor had this caked mud in all his orifices.”
Nathan made a face as he poured coffee into his cup. “Pleasant.”
Galen smiled. “Isn’t it nice I’m so observant? You were so obsessed with Victor, I didn’t think you were paying attention when I made the comment.”
“I didn’t want to. It got in the way of my work. But after you left, it kept nagging at me. So I scraped some of the mud into an envelope and put it in my purse.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Joe asked.
“I forgot about it.”
He raised his brows. “Forgot?”
“Okay, I blocked it out,” she said defiantly. “I told you, it was getting in my way with Victor.”
Galen shook his head. “Obsession.”
“And what are you going to do with the mud?” Nathan asked.
“Take it to Louisiana State University. They have one of the best geology schools in the South there. I’ll see if they can give me a lead as to where dirt like this can be found.”
“And then?”
“I go there and Hebert follows me.”
“No,” Joe said flatly.
“Yes.” Eve looked him directly in the eye. “Toe-to-toe, Joe. I’m going to get the son of a bitch.”
He was silent a moment. “I wasn’t objecting to that. You said I, not we. I’m going with you.”
She opened her mouth to protest, and then slowly nodded her head. It was no time to worry about their personal conflict. They had worked together before, and there was no one she trusted as she did Joe.
Trust . . .
Galen nodded. “I think I’ll tag along, too.”
“No,” Eve said. “I want you to stay and watch over Jane. I need you here.”
“That wasn’t what I was hired to do.”
“I want her safe.”
Galen grimaced. “Okay, but Jane will have my head if she finds out that I’m not dogging your footsteps.”
She smiled faintly. “You’ll survive.”
“I’m not so sure. She’s a tough customer.”
Eve turned to Nathan. “Are you coming with us?”
He shook his head. “I’m heading for Boca Raton. If Jennings found out something down there, I might be able to do the same. I’ll be in touch.” He poured more coffee into his cup. “We don’t have much time. It’s already the twenty-fifth, and the twenty-ninth was the date Etienne was so concerned about.”
The ticking clock. She wouldn’t think about it. She would move as quickly as she could, but there was no sense in panicking. “Then we need to get going.” She turned to Joe. “Can you call your chief and get them to keep the FBI off our backs for a few days?”
He shook his head. “But I can try to get the chief to keep his mouth shut about where we are.”
“Good.” Eve turned to Galen. “I need Hebert to know what we’re up to.”
“He already seems to know a hell of a lot more than I’m comfortable with.”
“I have to be sure.”
“Any ideas?”
“I believe what Melton knows, Hebert will know.” She frowned, thinking. “Tanzer. He bragged that nothing went on in Baton Rouge that he didn’t know about. Can you finesse someone at the college to filter information to Tanzer after we leave there?”
“And Tanzer will call Melton.” Galen nodded. “I might be able to get one of my contacts to work it.” He smiled faintly. “After all, Tanzer is a
trou du cul
.”
Jesus, it seemed a long time since Marie Letaux had used that phrase. So much had happened, so many deaths . . .