Chasing the Night (32 page)
Authors: Iris Johansen
Tags: #Kidnapping, #Eve (Fictitious character), #Duncan, #Women Sculptors, #Fiction, #Kidnapping - Investigation, #Investigation, #Suspense Fiction, #Facial Reconstruction (Anthropology), #Thrillers, #Suspense, #Espionage
“Was she a pretty little girl?”
“Yes.”
“Like your Bonnie?”
A tiny disturbance rippled through Eve. “She didn’t look at all like Bonnie. Why are we talking about Bonnie, Catherine?”
“Because I think Joe is jealous of your obsession with Bonnie. Not of your daughter. Just of your feelings for her. He’d have to be a saint not to feel a little put in the shade by the way you feel. Isn’t that true?”
She didn’t speak for a moment. “Yes. But friend or not, I don’t want to discuss this with you, Catherine.”
“I have to discuss it with you. Do you think I want to do it? I was even thinking of walking away and forgetting about it. But I can’t do that, Eve.”
Eve frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“You and Joe have a giant problem, and I don’t want to make it any bigger.”
“How could you do that?”
“Easily.” Her lips twisted. “I’m good at what I do. I’m an expert. I just set my mind to it and cause the sky to fall.”
Eve slowly rose from the swing and went to stand beside Catherine. “Talk to me.”
Catherine looked away from her again. “I told you I’d pay you back, remember. I was so grateful, I wanted to give you what you wanted most in the world.”
“And I told you to forget it.”
“That’s not in my makeup.” She was silent. “What you want most in the world is to bring your Bonnie home. To do that, you have to find her killer. When I came home from Hong Kong, I had lots of time to concentrate on thinking about your problem. Luke didn’t want anything but his books. I tried to look at the crime from an objective and fresh point of view. Then I started to dig. I used every contact and information-gathering unit I had at my disposal and at Venable’s disposal. We even tapped the NSA.”
Eve could feel her chest tightening. Don’t hope. The search had gone on too long for Catherine to just step in and perform a miracle. “Joe was FBI at the time Bonnie was taken. We didn’t exactly stop at local law enforcement.”
“But all the information wasn’t available then.”
“I know that. My friend Montalvo has recently given me a list of three new suspects. Two didn’t pan out, but I still have the third one to investigate. Paul Black. Is that the name you ran across?”
“His name popped up.”
Her gaze narrowed on Catherine’s face. “But?”
“I was more interested in someone else.”
“Who?”
“He had opportunity. He might have had motive.” She was speaking quickly, tersely. “In this type of crime, there’s ample precedent for this kind of perpetrator.”
“Dammit. Why are you being so evasive?”
“Joe. I can see you’re having to walk very carefully where he’s concerned. He’s very emotional about your obsession with Bonnie. He’s nuts about you.” Her hands tightened on the porch rail. “And he doesn’t need to come face-to-face with this to tear him apart. Hell, it might tear you both apart.”
“Catherine.”
“Okay.” She drew a deep breath. “Joe has been thinking about you as being totally his own since the moment you met. It’s been the saving grace when he had to come to terms with your obsession with Bonnie. It would disturb the hell out of him to lose that security.”
“There’s no way he would lose it.”
“No? You’re very cool, very controlled, but it wasn’t like that always. There was a time when you lost your head and spun out of control over a man.”
Eve was beginning to see where Catherine was going. No, it couldn’t be. It was impossible. “Catherine, who killed my Bonnie?”
“I didn’t say I was certain.”
She was shaking. “Tell me. Tell me the name.”
“You want a name?” Catherine drew a deep breath. “The name you didn’t even see fit to put on the birth certificate, Eve,” she said gently. “Bonnie’s father, John Gallo.”
Also by Iris Johansen
Shadow Zone (
with Roy Johansen)
Eight Days to Live
Blood Game
Storm Cycle (
with Roy Johansen)
Deadlock
Dark Summer
Quicksand
Silent Thunder (
with Roy Johansen)
Pandora’s Daughter
Stalemate
An Unexpected Song
Killer Dreams
On the Run
Countdown
Blind Alley
Firestorm
Fatal Tide
Dead Aim
No One to Trust
Body of Lies
Final Target
The Search
The Killing Game
The Face of Deception
And Then You Die
Long After Midnight
The Ugly Duckling
Lion’s Bride
Dark Rider
Midnight Warrior
The Beloved Scoundrel
The Magnificent Rogue
The Tiger Prince
Last Bridge Home
The Golden Barbarian
Reap the Wind
Storm Winds
Wind Dancer
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
CHASING THE NIGHT.
Copyright (c) 2010 by Johansen Publishing LLLP. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Johansen, Iris.
Chasing the night / Iris Johansen. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN: 978-0-312-65119-0
1. Duncan, Eve (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Facial reconstruction (Anthropology)—Fiction. 3. Kidnapping—Investigation—Fiction. 4. Women sculptors—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3560.O275C47 2010
813’.54—dc22
2010029216
