Текст книги "Eve"

Автор книги: Iris Johansen

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Текущая страница: 12 (всего у книги 19 страниц)

He moved quickly down the hall and down the stairs.

“John!” Eve had followed him and was standing at the top of the stairs. She was wearing one of Judy’s sweatshirts, her red-brown hair was rumpled, her expression intense. She looked almost as young as she’d been when he’d first met her. “Dammit, I’m not going to let you go without telling me about Paul Black. Where is he? Talk to me.”

“Sorry. No more time. You’ll have to be satisfied.” He opened the door to the basement and ran down the stairs.

She called after him. “How can you say that? I’m not satisfied.” He went around the corner of the landing, and she was lost to view.

Check to see how close Quinn was to gaining entrance.

John punched the video button on the panel by the exit door that accessed the passage to the outside. He couldn’t see Joe Quinn, but Catherine Ling was almost directly beneath the camera. She was working quickly to disable the house alarm. The expression on that beautiful, exotic face was intent, totally focused.

Suddenly she stopped and looked up.

He inhaled sharply.

She knew he was watching her.

What the hell? He knew she couldn’t see that camera, but she still knew. Incredible instincts. Catherine Ling was remarkable. He’d be interested to explore those instincts.

Not now. No time.

He keyed in the exit code for the door, and it swung open. The next moment, he was closing and locking it behind him.

He pulled out his phone as he moved down the ramp that led to the outside passage.

CHAPTER

13

“I THINK THEY KNOW WE’RE HERE.” Catherine turned as Joe came around the side of the house. She clipped the final wire on the alarm. “We should get the hell out of this courtyard.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” She shook her head. “No. But I’d lay odds I’m right.”

“You go. Take the mountain road back down to the car. I’m going in.”

“The alarms are off.” Catherine moved toward the French doors across the veranda. “Divide and conquer. You take the kitchen door. Be careful.”

“I’m not going to barge in with guns blazing,” Joe said sarcastically. “And I’m not leaving here without Eve.” He added curtly, “But I don’t need you. Get out of here.”

Catherine was bent over the locks on the French doors. “Shut up, Joe. I’m busy. I’ll see you inside.”

Joe didn’t argue. He shrugged and hurried around the side of the house toward the kitchen door.

Catherine didn’t like this.

It was too quiet.

Queen’s map and plans had said there were no courtyard guards, but she had still expected it to be harder. Queen had been too wary of Gallo and Intelligence’s own chance of infiltrating the compound. If it was this easy, why hadn’t they tried their luck before?

The French doors swung open.

Darkness.

She drew her gun and threw herself into the room and to the side.

She waited.

Nothing.

But she could hear someone in the hall.

“Joe?” Eve’s voice. “Joe, it’s okay. He’s not here.”

Catherine rose to her feet. “Eve!”

Eve threw the door open. “John didn’t mention you, Catherine. Are you okay? Where’s Joe?”

“Here.” Joe was standing in the doorway, a gun in his hand. “Where’s Gallo?”

“I don’t know. Gone. He knew you were coming.” She moved across the room toward him. “How did you find out where I was?”

“Queen.” His gaze was narrowed, moving around the hall. “Gone? You’re certain?”

“He told me that he was leaving. He gave me back my phone and said to try to intercept you. I tried, but I guess you had your phone off. He didn’t want you hurt.”

“I bet he didn’t,” Joe said bitterly. “And did he hurt you, Eve?”

She shook her head. “No, I was a little scared and uneasy at the beginning, but I’m—”

Joe had pulled her close and kissed her hard. “Thank God.”

“He didn’t mean to hurt me, Joe.”

“The hell he didn’t.” Joe let her go. “He’s nuts. Ask Queen.”

“John’s not crazy.” She made a face. “Though he might deny that himself. Emotionally disturbed on some subjects? Yes. But he’s not insane.”

“He evidently managed to convince you,” Joe said. “Let’s see if he can convince me when I catch up with the bastard. We didn’t see any vehicles leave the garage. How did he get away?”

She shook her head. “When he came to my room to tell me he was leaving, he had a backpack.”

“And how long ago was that?” Catherine asked.

“Fifteen minutes? I’m not sure. I’d followed him when he was going downstairs and ran back upstairs to throw on some clothes. Then I came down to see if I could open the doors and try to locate you.”

“And intercept me,” Joe said tightly.

She looked at him. “Yes. Even if he wasn’t here, he has guards on the property who might hurt you.”

“Bill Hanks, head of his security,” Catherine said. “Five others on the team. Besides the guards at the two checkpoints.”

“Queen, again?” Eve asked.

Catherine nodded. “I think he was planning a major assault. He’s not fond of John Gallo.”

“John’s not fond of him, either.”

“You said you followed him downstairs. Where did he go?”

Eve pointed to the door at the end of the hall. “I think it leads to the basement.”

Joe turned and headed for the door. “Stay with her, Catherine.”

Eve sat down on the bottom step. “I’m fine. You don’t have to guard me, Catherine. Go with him.”

“It’s easier to do what he says than to argue with him.” Catherine smiled. “Unless I have a reason to argue. I don’t right now. I’ll just let Joe work off some of that steam and let you fill me in while he’s not around.”

Eve nodded. “I can tell that his steam is scalding hot.” She frowned. “Dammit, it didn’t have to be this bad. I tried to get John to let me contact Joe and tell him I was all right.”

“I’m not sure that would have done much good. Joe would still have gone on the warpath.”

“But you might not have had to come with him. I’m sorry, Catherine. I didn’t intend to involve anyone but myself. John pulled the rug out from under me.”

“Well, I am involved. I started all of this by trying to solve all your problems. You should sock me.”

“I’ll think about it.” Eve grinned. “But I don’t believe that an—”

“What are you doing sitting on the steps?” Judy was coming down the hall, dressed in a navy robe and furry blue slippers. “For goodness’ sake, you look like an orphan sitting there, Eve. Come along to the kitchen. I’ve made coffee and I have doughnuts. They’re store bought, but they’re pretty good.” She turned to Catherine. “Who are you?”

“Catherine Ling. And you are?”

“Judy Clark,” Eve said. “She cooks for John Gallo.” She looked at Judy. “John’s left the property, Judy. You don’t have to wait on his guests any longer.”

“Yes, I do. John just called me and told me to take care of you.” She turned and moved down the hall. “So come on. I’ve told Bill Hanks to come to the house. John wants me to smooth the way and make sure there’s no trouble.”

“Why would he do that?” Catherine asked as she caught up with the cook.

“How do I know?” Judy said. “He doesn’t usually mind causing his share of trouble. I just take orders.” She opened the door to reveal a pristine, clean, bright kitchen. “Sit down. There’s another one of you, isn’t there?”

“Joe went down in the basement to see if he could track Gallo.”

“John is long gone now. Pour your own coffee. I’ll go after this Joe. I don’t want him bumping into Hanks when I’m not around.” She turned, and her furry slippers flopped as she hurried back down the hall.

“A character?” Catherine asked Eve.

“Maybe. But I think I like her.” She poured coffee into two cups. “And evidently John trusts her.”

“Then are we sure that she’s not doping the coffee?”

“Trust you to think of that.” She lifted her cup to her lips. “Though, as a matter of fact, getting doped was how I got here. John thought he would avoid complications.”

“Gallo doped you?” Catherine looked at the cup in front of her. “Then I think I’ll pass on this.”

Eve couldn’t blame her. “Then go make a pot of your own. But Judy will probably go on the attack for messing around her kitchen.”

Catherine studied her. “You appear to be very at home here. Comfortable.”

“Not comfortable. I’m just not afraid.” She looked at Catherine over the rim of her cup. “John never intended to hurt me, Catherine. And he wouldn’t have left if he’d wanted to hurt you or Joe. He was trying to avoid trouble.”

“Then he shouldn’t have kidnapped you and brought you here. Not a good way to avoid problems.”

“I’m not defending him. He was arrogant and completely wrong.”

“Then why does it sound that way?”

Because Eve was more confused and divided than she’d ever been in her life. She took a swallow of coffee. “He didn’t kill Bonnie, Catherine.”

“Because he told you he didn’t? Queen thinks he’s a split personality.”

“From what I’ve heard about him, Queen may be a monster himself.”

“I won’t disagree with you. But he’s one of the monsters I deal with every day. Gallo is apparently a different breed.” Catherine picked up her cup. “Maybe I’ll chance this stuff. It doesn’t seem to have hurt you.”

“I was the official food taster?”

She grinned. “Well, you were going to do it anyway.” She sipped the coffee. “And maybe the dope is in the store-bought doughnuts.”

Eve smiled back at her. “Then we’ll skip them.” Lord, she was glad that Catherine had come with Joe. She needed her to lighten the tension gripping her as she waited for the confrontation with Joe. “John didn’t kill her, Catherine. I know it.”

“You couldn’t know it unless he’d prove it. Did he?”

A wild story about a little girl who sang songs to him in prison. “All the Pretty Little Horses.” A wild story she believed with all her heart. “No, he didn’t prove anything.”

“You were very emotionally attached to him as a teenager. Could that have influenced you?”

“I keep telling you, it was no love affair.” But it had turned into a love story for both of them. Though not for each other. A love story about Bonnie. “He didn’t do it.” She finished her coffee. “He’s trying to find out who did kill her.”

Catherine stared at her. “He told you that? Queen said he was very clever. Eve, he’d realize that was the most persuasive thing he could say that would make you believe he wasn’t her killer. You’d identify with him immediately.”

And Eve knew that was true. It didn’t make any difference. “I believe him.”

Catherine shook her head. “Look at it objectively from my point of view, Joe’s point of view. Gallo finds out that we’re on his trail. He has a choice of going deeper undercover, killing you and everyone connected with you, or convincing you that he’s not really the bad guy as you’ve been told. The first two choices are messy and would interfere with this nice life he’s built for himself. So he looks for a way to get you away to himself and go for option three.”

“He didn’t kill her.” Eve saw the impatience on Catherine’s face, and added, “I know you think I’m being unreasonable. You’re right. Reason has nothing to do with this. But he loved Bonnie, and he would never murder her.”

“He couldn’t have loved her. He didn’t know her.”

Eve couldn’t explain without seeming even more irrational than Catherine thought her to be. She could only repeat. “He didn’t kill her. If it will make you feel better, I’m not going to let him off with just accepting that as fact. There are so many things about this I don’t understand, but I think he’s way ahead of me in the search for Bonnie’s murderer. I believe he knows who did kill her, and I’m going after him and make him tell me who it is.”

“Or make him confess that he did it himself.” She was frowning down at the coffee in her cup. “I don’t like the setup, Eve. He swoops down and takes you away and hypnotizes you into thinking you have some kind of joint mission. The odds of his being able to do that are damn slim. He has to be a spellbinder. I knew when I was talking to Queen that Gallo was bigger than life. Yeah, I was feeling sorry that he was a victim, but I don’t feel sorry for him now.”

“I’m not going to try to convince you.” She stood up. “I’m going after Joe. I’m getting worried. He should have been back by now.”

“Wait. I’ll go with you.”

“Finish your coffee.” Eve was already at the door. “Judy said there was no way he could catch up with Gallo.”

“She doesn’t know Joe.” She joined Eve as she reached the hall. “I wouldn’t want him after me. He’s a driven—” She broke off as Judy opened the basement door.

Joe was not with her.

Eve stiffened. “You didn’t find him down there, Judy?”

She shook her head. “He found a hatchet among the tools down there and broke the lock on the exit door. There’s a passage that leads underneath the courtyard and down the mountain. John always left a vehicle in the trees about a quarter mile down the path. Your Joe Quinn is somewhere in the passage or already on the mountain path.” She paused. “I had to call Bill Hanks to go after him.”

Eve’s heart skipped a beat. “Why? You said John told you to make sure there was no conflict between them. You’re putting them in a hunt-and-chase position. That’s asking for trouble.”

Judy shrugged. “He was going after John. I couldn’t run the risk of him catching him. I told Hanks to try to be careful. But nothing is going to happen to John.” She looked Eve straight in the eye. “You have your priorities, I have mine. Too bad if your Joe Quinn gets hurt. If he’d stayed here, he would have been fine.”

It was all very simple for Judy, Eve realized. If John Gallo was threatened, then Judy would cause the sky to fall to get him out of trouble. She wouldn’t care who else was hurt. Eve started for the basement door. “You get on the phone and get Hanks off Joe’s trail.”

“Where you going?” Judy asked warily.

“I’m going to find Joe. If you want to obey John’s orders to keep me safe, you’d better make sure Hanks backs off because I’m going to be with Joe.”

“No.” Judy took an impulsive step toward her. “You can’t get in—”

“But she can,” Catherine said softly. She gave Judy a look that stopped her in her tracks. “And you’d better back off, too, and do what she says.” She was following Eve down the basement stairs. “Then you can go to your cozy little kitchen, have one of your dandy ‘store-bought’ doughnuts, and wait for the flak to settle.”

*   *   *

TIRE TRACKS.

Joe dropped to his knees and examined the marks to the side of the trail. Fresh tracks. The driver was in a hurry. He had peeled onto the road. Heavy truck or van, probably an off-road vehicle.

How fresh? He listened, tuning out the night sounds. The sound of an engine, faint but …

Yes.

And that driver had to be John Gallo.

He felt a rush of fierce satisfaction.

He jumped to his feet and scrambled up on the shoulder of the slope, drawing his gun. Damn I wish I had my rifle. But his Beretta had a fairly long range for a handgun. It might be enough if he could get close enough to shoot out one of the back tires.

He ran to the top of the incline.

A Jeep Cherokee, descending the twisting mountain road, was coming into view around the curve a short distance below him. Not short enough for Joe. Gallo would have to come around the next curve at an angle closer to where Joe stood for him to use the Beretta.

That meant Joe had to get at least fifty feet down the mountain to reach that next twisting level of the road.

He threw himself off road. He skidded down the loosely packed rocks of the slope, falling, picking himself up, and skidding again.

Twenty feet.

He slipped and rolled down the incline until he was stopped by some low shrubs.

He caught his breath and jumped up.

Ten more feet.

Not as slippery as the incline above. No falls.

He was there.

And Gallo was coming around the curve only twenty feet below him!

He had him.

Go slow. He had maybe a minute until Gallo was out of sight again. The shot had to be right. He aimed carefully at the right-rear tire.

He started to squeeze the trigger.

Pain.

His arm jerked as a bullet tore through his forearm!

Shit.

Not from Gallo.

The shot had come from above.

Rage tore through him as he saw Gallo disappear around the curve.

Another shot. Grazing his ear. He had to get out from the middle of the road and into the pine trees on the slope.

He glanced up the mountain as he dove into the trees.

Two men. One short, thin, the other taller and burly. They were separating, fading into the trees on the slope, and coming down the mountain after him.

Good.

He was bleeding. He took off his shirt, tore it in two, and wrapped one piece tightly around his forearm. Now forget it and go on the hunt.

*   *   *

WHERE WAS THE BASTARD? Hanks wondered. He knew he’d hit him with that first bullet.

Hanks’s phone vibrated.

“He’s disappeared,” Brock whispered. “Dammit, Hanks, I’ve searched this slope, and he’s not here. Did you see him? Maybe he’s unconscious or something and fell off the slope.”

“No, keep looking.” He was uneasy. Quinn was more than they’d bargained for. He’d been seconds away from putting a bullet into Gallo’s Jeep, and now they couldn’t locate him. “I saw him go into those trees, and he’s wounded. He can’t be moving fast.”

“All I can say is that I haven’t seen him, I haven’t heard him and I’m damn spooked about– Shit!”

Hanks stiffened. “Brock? Are you—”

The sound of metal on shale. Brock’s phone dropping? He didn’t know, but he’d better get over there.

Fast.

When he reached him, Brock was lying crumpled on the ground.

Dead? No time to check. Hanks moved into the trees, his gaze searching the darkness.

“Quinn,” he called. “This isn’t necessary. We don’t want to kill you. We had orders to stop you, and we did it. Give up, and we’ll talk. That’s all I—”

Quinn dropped down from the trees, knocking him to the ground.

Hanks struggled desperately beneath Quinn’s weight, trying to position his gun to fire.

“No way.” Quinn’s left arm was around his neck, jerking his head back. “Now we’ll talk.” His voice was low, fierce. “Tell me where Gallo was heading.”

“I don’t know.”

“That’s not the answer I want to hear. I’ll give you thirty seconds, then I’ll break your neck.”

“I don’t know. John never told—”

“Fifteen seconds.” Joe jerked Hanks’s head back farther and angled it. “I’m pissed. Can you tell? I’m not—”

“Let him go, Joe.” Eve Duncan came into his line of sight. “You don’t want to do this.”

“The hell I don’t.”

“Then I don’t want you to do this,” she said. “Everything is crazy, but I don’t want more violence added to the pot.” She suddenly saw the bloody shirt wrapped around Joe’s arm. “And you’re hurt, dammit.”

“Let him go.” Catherine stepped out of the shadows, her gun aimed at Hanks. “I’ll take care of it. He won’t be a problem.”

Joe hesitated, then reluctantly released Hanks’s neck. “He’s already been a problem.” He got off Hanks. “I would have been able to stop Gallo if he hadn’t interfered. I had that Jeep in my sights.”

“And John’s Jeep might have gone off the road and tumbled down to the valley,” Hanks said as he sat up and scooted quickly away from Joe.

“I was aiming at the right tire. Gallo could have controlled the Jeep if he didn’t lose his head. I didn’t want him dead … yet.” He turned to Catherine. “You said you’d take care of him. Get him out of my sight. My arm’s hurting like hell, and I want to make him hurt, too.”

Catherine gestured with the gun. “Move, Hanks. I need to get you away from here.”

Hanks didn’t move. “Did you kill Brock, Quinn?”

“Brock?” Joe gave him a cold glance. “He’s the other one with you? No, I had to work quickly, and I didn’t want to shoot and give away my position. He’ll be waking up soon.”

Hanks felt a rush of relief. He had had an idea that they had barely tapped the skilled savagery in Quinn, and they’d been lucky. Damn lucky. “Then I want to take him back with me.”

“You’re pushing your luck, Hanks,” Joe said. “Get out of here.”

Eve was standing next to Quinn. “You should be the one getting out of here. I need to take a look at that wound as soon as we get back to the house.”

Joe nodded absently, his gaze still on Hanks. “Don’t let him go anywhere until I can talk to him, Catherine. He might know where Gallo was going.”

“I don’t have any idea,” Hanks said roughly. “Do you think John would tell me? Not likely. Not that I’d tell you if he did.”

“Go,” Catherine said. “You’re being stupid, and I’m through with dealing with stupid, macho men tonight.”

Hanks hesitated, then strode up the path.

*   *   *

“HOW BAD IS IT?” EVE ASKED, as Catherine and Hanks disappeared in the trees.

“I could function,” Joe said. “Probably not too bad.”

But he wasn’t sure, Eve thought, and she’d seen Joe close out pain and focus efficiently many times before. It was part of the discipline and experience of his SEAL training.

And the instinct of the warrior in battle. “Is it still bleeding?”

He impatiently shook his head. “Stop fussing. I need to get back to the house and search it. We may be able to find something there that will lead us to Gallo.”

“I’m not fussing.” She felt a ripple of irritation that overcame the concern and worry she had been feeling. “By all means, let’s go back and search. I want to find Gallo as much as you do.”

He shook his head. “No you don’t.”

“You listen to me, Joe,” Eve said fiercely. “No one wants to talk to Gallo more than I do. I know nothing about Paul Black, and John seems to be the only one who can tell me anything about him. I might have had a chance of persuading him to talk to me, but you put him on the run. Do you think I won’t do anything on earth to find him and make him tell me everything he knows? Bill Hanks isn’t going to be able to help. He as much as told me when I first met him that John didn’t often confide in him. And Hanks preferred not to know.”

“He could have been lying.”

“I don’t believe he was.” She took his elbow and nudged him forward. “You and Catherine are both working and analyzing this as if it were an objective problem. Well, I’m not objective. So you do your thing, and I’ll do mine. But don’t expect me to approve when you go running down a mountain and get yourself shot and then—” She drew a deep breath. “To hell with it. Let’s get back to the house and take care of your arm.”

*   *   *

JACOBS WAS SCARED, NATE Queen realized, as he held the phone a few inches away and listened to the spate of curses and questions. He should have expected it. Thomas Jacobs always fell apart when the going got tough. Queen sometimes wondered why he still kept Jacobs on as a minor partner instead of ridding himself of the coward. But Jacobs had been with him a long time, even at the initial recruitment of Gallo. He knew more than was comfortable for Queen. Besides, he was willing to set up all the little deals with which Queen didn’t want to bother.

“I know all that,” Queen said. “I didn’t handle it well. But are you telling me you would have been able to handle Catherine Ling and Quinn? They were nasty as hell, and there was no way I was going to end up dead.”

“Of course not. But there should have been a way to stop them.”

“It’s done. I only told them what I had to tell them.”

“You said you gave them the map.” Jacobs paused. “What are the chances they’ll get into the compound?”

“I wouldn’t bet against them. They disabled my security system, and it’s fairly sophisticated. They’re both tops in their fields, and they work well together. After they get in, it’s a different proposition. They’ll have to deal with Gallo.”

“But you said Quinn is lethal. That could be a problem. We can’t afford to have Gallo dead before we get our hands on the ledger.”

“I’m sending a team to Utah to move into the compound if we hear Gallo has been killed.”

“It may not even be in the compound. Gallo warned us it would go straight to the Washington Post if you moved against him. It may be in a damn lawyer’s office somewhere. You blundered big-time, Queen.”

The prick. He was getting pissed. “How was I to know that he’d go after Eve Duncan after all these years? He kept talking about Ling. Who the hell could tell what he was thinking? Ling is CIA. Duncan was no threat.”

“Then why did he take her?” Jacobs was silent, thinking. “Was it to frighten her into keeping silent that he was still alive and might be a suspect? Or was it something else? As you say, he’s unstable. Who knows what’s going on in his head?”

“Frighten? Gallo doesn’t bluff. She may be dead by the time Quinn gets to her. Serve the bastard right.”

“And if she is dead, we’ll have to do a cleanup for Gallo. You’d better hope that she’s still alive. So what do we do?”

“We find out what’s going on in the compound. Who’s our man on the payroll there?”

“Lon Davarak. He’s a perimeter guard. It’s as close as we could get to Gallo. Hanks is damn careful of the guards for the house.”

“Then call Davarak and get him to scout around and see if he can find out what the hell is happening.” He was silent again. “Eve Duncan…”

“What are you thinking?”

“He had a kid with Eve Duncan. When he made no attempt to approach her after Korea, we assumed that she was nothing to him, just a good lay. Even the reports on her he demanded could have been just to protect himself.” He paused again. “But we know he’s emotionally disturbed. What if those emotions are focused on Eve Duncan? It could be an Achilles’ heel.”

“I don’t think so. He’s not vulnerable in that way. He’s cold as ice.”

“You have no imagination. We have to accept that Gallo’s temperament can change like a weather vane and take advantage of it.”

“And how are we supposed to do that?”

“Why, if Gallo hasn’t already cut her throat, we might do well to look deeper into the possibility of Eve Duncan.”

*   *   *

JUDY WAS IN THE STUDY, emptying the contents of desk drawers into boxes, when Eve and Joe came into the house.

“What are you doing?” Joe asked.

“What I’ve been told to do.” Judy glanced at his blood-soaked arm. “Got yourself hurt, didn’t you? It wasn’t Hanks’s fault. He was only protecting John.”

“Where are Catherine and Hanks?” Eve asked.

“In the living room. She tried to stop me from packing up, but I told her she’d have to shoot me. I do my job, and Gallo told me he wanted these out of the house before those military guys decided they’d come calling.” She straightened her gaze on Joe’s arm as she added grudgingly, “But I guess I could bandage that up for you first. There’s a first-aid kit in the kitchen cabinet.”

“I’m going to do it.” Eve’s eyes were on the boxes. “Why doesn’t he want Queen to see those records?”

“We’ll see for ourselves,” Joe said. “And the only thing in which I’m interested is Gallo’s name and address.”

“The only names and addresses you’d find are banks and account numbers,” Judy said. “John spread his funds in banks all around the world. He said that as long as Queen and his buddies didn’t know where it was, they couldn’t find a way to confiscate it.” She looked him in the eye. “I’ll let you take a look if you don’t believe me. I don’t think you’d tell Queen anything about the banks. You want John, not the money.” She turned away. “I’ve got to finish up here. John said that if they found out that he’d gone on the run, Queen would move in quick.” She glanced at Eve. “And to tell you that you should watch out for them.”

“I’ll watch out for them,” Joe said grimly. “And John Gallo.”

“Come into the kitchen and let me clean that arm,” Eve said. “You can go through those boxes after I make sure that wound’s taken care of.” She suddenly turned back to Judy. “You talk as if John’s been preparing to go on the run for a long time. Why? And why now?”

She shrugged. “I just know that he told me right after I came to work for him that there was a good chance that it would happen. He told me what to do. I’m doing it.” Her lips tightened. “He told me to take care of Hanks, too. If you hadn’t gone running after John, this would never have happened. Are you going to have Hanks thrown in jail?”

“Maybe. It depends on what he can tell me.”

Judy shook her head. “He’s a good man. You shouldn’t have—” She stopped and opened another drawer. “Talk to him, Eve. It’s your responsibility. This wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t come here.”

“She hardly had a choice,” Joe said dryly.

“I don’t know anything about that,” Judy said. “But John didn’t hurt her, did he? Everything’s okay.”

“Come on, Joe.” Eve knew she’d better get him out of there before Judy’s simplistic approach to the situation made it infinitely worse. “And a wounded arm isn’t exactly okay, Judy,” she said as she drew Joe out of the room.

“The place seems to be reeking of Gallo’s fans,” Joe said sarcastically. “Everything he does is just fine as long as no one is dead.”

Eve pushed him down in a kitchen chair. “You didn’t hear that from me. I’m a Joe Quinn fan.”

“Are you?” He watched her unwind the bloody shirt from around his arm. “That’s nice.”

“Are you being sarcastic?” She examined the wound. “It’s a flesh wound, but it’s not pretty. I’ll clean it up as best I can, but I want a doctor to give you an antibiotic.” She went to the sink, filled a bowl of water, then searched for and found the first-aid kit. “We’ll get out of here as soon as we can and find a hospital.”

“After I take a look at the documents in those boxes,” Joe said. “Though I’m not sure it will do me any good. Gallo’s cook-slash-majordomo was being very careless about throwing everything in those drawers into the to-go stacks. No selectivity. She may have been telling the truth.” His gaze was on Eve’s fingers as she carefully washed the wound. “But money is important to most people. Maybe I can use those records as bait for Gallo.”

She opened the first-aid kit. “No.”

His gaze lifted to her face. “You object?”

“I’m just telling you it wouldn’t work. It would hurt him, but it wouldn’t bring him back.”

His eyes narrowed. “How do you know? Have you become an expert on Gallo in such a short time?”

“He has a purpose. He wouldn’t let himself be distracted.” She put antiseptic on the wound and flinched as he inhaled sharply. “Sorry.”

“It doesn’t matter.” His gaze was on her face. “What purpose, Eve?”

She was silent as she began to wrap the wound.

“Eve.”

“You won’t believe me any more than Catherine did.”

“What purpose?”

“He’s trying to find Bonnie’s killer,” she said quietly.

Joe began to curse beneath his breath. “He gave you that bull, and you—”

“There are two cars coming up the mountain.” Catherine was standing in the doorway. “Hanks got a call on his phone from one of the perimeter guards, and I let him take it. Hanks thinks it may be MI. He said Gallo warned him to expect a call from Army Intelligence if anything disrupted the status quo.” Her lips twisted. “I think we may constitute a disruption. They may not know Gallo has flown the coop, but they must know we’re here and are using it as an excuse to invade the property.”