The Face of Deception (16 page)

She shrugged. “I'm an artist and I've made it my business to learn a lot about facial expressions. When I first became a forensic sculptor, I even took a course in expressions and body language and how they relate to psychology. Expressions can make all the difference in identification. A face without expression is like an empty slate.”

“And what did you learn about Lisa Chadbourne?”

“She's a little arrogant, bold, but wary too. Perhaps a little vain.” She frowned. “No, not vain. She's too confident to be vain. She just knows who she is and she likes herself.”

“Smug?”

Eve shook her head. “No.” She hesitated. “She's . . . intensely focused . . . and maybe a little lonely.”

“Quite a crystal ball you have,” Gil said.

“Some of it's guesswork. Maybe a lot of it. People can usually control most of the muscles of the face. Except the ones around the eyes. They're very difficult to manage. But even a lack of expression can sometimes tell a story.” She returned to Lisa Chadbourne. “I'd bet she has a very small circle of friends and she'd keep everyone but those few at a distance.”

Logan raised his brows. “That wasn't my impression when I met her. I assure you no one could be warmer or more gregarious, and she handles people better than anyone I know.”

“And she's good enough to fool you. She turned on the charm and focused the full force on you. Men still rule the world, and she's made it her business to get along with them. It's probably second nature to her now.”

“But she's not good enough to fool you?”

“Maybe, if you hadn't provided me with the tapes that spotlight her every move and expression. She's quite wonderful and almost never steps out of character. When it happens it's for only a split second and then she's back in character again.” She shrugged. “Thank God for freeze-frame. It can be very illuminating.”

“So you've decided she's just a lonely, misunderstood woman who became innocently involved?” he asked mockingly.

“No, I think she could kill a man. She projects determination and intensity as strong as an atomic blast. I think she could do anything she needed to do and there's no way she'd be a pawn. It would be her way all the way.” She switched the television set back on. “I'm afraid I was too busy to watch the news for you. You can catch up on it yourself.”

“You're assuming a lot from just looking at those videotapes.”

“Believe me or not. I couldn't care less.”

“Oh, I believe that body language and facial expressions can be a dead giveaway. Studying them is one of the key courses in the negotiating seminars I send all my corporate executives to. It's just that we have to be very careful about assuming anything about Lisa Chadbourne.”

“We have to be careful about everything connected with her.” She headed for the front door. “I'm going down to the pier.”

“May I go with you?” Logan asked.

“No, I don't remember being invited when you and Gil wanted to talk.”

“Ouch,” Gil said.

She ran down the porch steps. The beach was deserted except for a few children playing volleyball several hundred yards from the pier. She supposed she should be worried about being recognized. CNN had probably shown a photograph of the crazy pyromaniac who had killed Logan.

Crazy
. She flinched from the word. Damn Lisa Chadbourne. She'd had to use the part of Eve's life that could still bring pain. She could almost see her going over the possibilities and then striking like a black widow spider at the heart of—

Why was she so sure it was Lisa Chadbourne who was responsible for the attack on her? She could be wrong. It could be Timwick.

She wasn't wrong. Lisa Chadbourne would never underestimate another woman. She had too much respect for herself.

She sat down on the pier and looked down into the water.

“You're assuming a lot just from looking at those videotapes.”

She
was
assuming a lot. She could be imagining the subtle nuances she thought she'd caught while watching Lisa Chadbourne.

The hell she could. She had trained herself to recognize and portray expression.

And her observations were more than clinical. She had felt the same gut instinct she experienced in the last stages of sculpting.

She
knew
Lisa Chadbourne.

Fraser.

She shivered as she looked down into the water. Lisa Chadbourne and Fraser were nothing alike. So why was she thinking of them as one?

Because the fear was back a second time. It had returned the day her lab had been destroyed so violently and she had thought of Fraser. Lisa Chadbourne had been the guiding hand then, just as she was now.

Fraser had been tainted with a madness that Eve had not seen in Lisa Chadbourne, but they both possessed the assurance that came with power.

The pleasure derived from power was a strong motivator. Fraser's power had come from killing. Lisa Chadbourne's motivation was obviously more complicated . . . and possibly even more deadly. The thirst for power on a global scale could be far more damaging than on a smaller personal scale.

To hell with global scale. Nothing could be more damaging than what had happened to Bonnie. The world was made up of personal stories, personal tragedies, and the brutal acts that Fraser had committed were every bit as evil as the killing done by Lisa Chadbourne.

Murder was murder. They had taken a life and life was sacred. She wasn't sure that Detwil was the danger Logan saw him to be. She didn't know about politics or plots or diplomatic implications, but she knew about murder. She had lived and eaten and slept with it.

And, God, how she hated it.

“Keep watching the mother, James.” Lisa's brow knit as she gazed at the Duncan dossier in the computer. “Duncan obviously has a soft spot for her. I think we can find a way to use her.”

“I am watching her,” Timwick said. “I've never stopped. We believe Duncan placed a call to her mother this morning. She was on a digital phone, but we had stationed a man with an amplifier outside the house. We got only snippets of the conversation, but I'd bet she's trying to remove her mother from the equation.”

Smart. Just exactly what Lisa would have done. Erase every weak point. “That mustn't happen. Deal with it.”

“Permanently?”

Christ, violence was Timwick's solution for everything. “No, we may need her.”

“She's being watched by Madden Security, Logan's team, as well as the Atlanta P.D. It may be difficult to make a clean move.”

“Do your best. Send Fiske. He handled the Barrett House matter exceptionally well. What about the forensic anthropologist?”

“We're watching Crawford at Duke University.”

“What about the people Eve Duncan worked with?”

“We're working our way through the list. That takes time.”

“We don't have time. It shouldn't be that difficult. He'd have to have qualifications and experience working in DNA.”

“There are more people with the DNA qualification than you'd think. It's the wave of the future.”

“We've got to cut the list down. Send it to me and I'll do it.” She checked her wristwatch. “I have to go. I'm scheduled for a meeting. I'll get back to you.”

She hung up and started to close Eve Duncan's file. Then she hesitated, gazing at Eve's image.

Eve was moving swiftly to prevent any more damage. Lisa had had a hunch that Eve would try to save the mother even though Sandra seemed to have done precious little for her. She'd let her daughter grow up on the streets and had done nothing to keep her from becoming pregnant and having that illegitimate child.

Yet Eve had obviously forgiven her mother and was loyal to her. Loyalty was a rare and valuable quality. The more Lisa studied the woman's file, the more she was coming to admire her . . . and know her. She kept seeing similarities between them. Lisa's own parents had been loving and supportive but she, too, had worked her way out of the tenements and fought the system against all odds.

What was she thinking? she wondered impatiently. She mustn't be swayed just because she was beginning to feel a certain empathy with Eve Duncan. She had set her feet on a particular path, and she must follow it to the end.

No matter who got in the way.

FOURTEEN

“Well, you made it,” Joe said sourly as he walked over to the car. “I'm surprised. This baby looks like it's seen some miles.”

“It attracts less attention.” Logan climbed out of the driver's seat and faced him. “Would you have preferred I drove Eve around in a red Lamborghini?”

“I'd prefer you didn't drive her around at all.” He stared at Logan. “I'd prefer that you'd never set eyes on her, you son of a bitch.”

Christ, he was uptight, Eve thought. Joe looked more menacing than she'd ever seen him, and Logan was bristling like a guard dog. She hurriedly got out of the car. “Get in the backseat with me, Joe. Logan, you drive us to Emory.”

Neither man moved.

“Dammit, you're drawing too much attention. Get in, Joe.”

He finally climbed into the car.

She drew a breath of relief, said, “Drive, Logan,” and climbed in.

Logan returned to the driver's seat and started the car.

“Did you get the picture of Margaret to my mother?” she asked Joe.

“Last night.” His gaze was fixed on the back of Logan's head. “I scouted the area myself and ran across his security team. I almost threw them in the lockup before I got them to identify themselves.”

“Anyone else?” Logan asked.

“Not that I could tell. No obvious stakeout.”

“They wouldn't be obvious and they'd be good. Very good. With the most sophisticated surveillance equipment in the business.”

“Why?” Joe turned to Eve. “What the hell's going on? Talk to me.”

“Did you bring me the pictures of Timwick and Fiske?”

He reached into his jacket pocket and brought out an envelope. “And that's another thing. I checked into Mr. Fiske and he's real nasty. You shouldn't even be within shouting distance of the bastard.”

“I'll try not to be.” He didn't look nasty, she thought absently, more like a stereotypical butler. Hazel eyes gazed mildly out of the picture. His nose was long and aristocratic, and his gray-flecked, carefully trimmed mustache was the epitome of neatness. Though he appeared to be only in his late thirties, his barbered brown hair was slightly gray at the temples and receded sharply from a broad forehead.

There was nothing aristocratic about James Timwick. His face was broad, almost Slavic, and his eyes were a pale blue. He was younger than she'd thought he'd be, perhaps in his early forties, and his hair was jet black.

“Now tell me why you had me bring those to you,” Joe said.

Because I needed to see the face of the enemy, the men who might try to kill me. Not an explanation she could give Joe, who was already near meltdown. “I thought it might help.” She tucked the pictures in her handbag. “Thank you, Joe.”

“Don't thank me. Tell me what I need to know.”

She had to make one last try. “You don't need to know. I'd rather you opted out of this.”

“Tell me.”

He wasn't going to be dissuaded, she realized resignedly. “Okay, but let me tell it my way. Don't try interrogating me, Joe.”

They had arrived at Emory and were parked in the lot for a good ten minutes before Eve stopped speaking.

He was silent a moment, gazing down at the leather case at her feet. “Is that him?”

“Yes.”

“It's damn hard to believe.”

“I agree,” Eve said. “But it's Ben Chadbourne, Joe.”

“You're sure?”

She nodded. “And that's why I want you out of it. I don't know what will happen.”

“I do.” Joe's lips tightened grimly. “And so does Logan. He knew what he was getting you into from the beginning.”

“Yes, I did,” Logan said calmly. “But that doesn't change the present scenario. We have to do that ourselves.”

Joe gave him an icy glance and then turned back to Eve. “You can't trust him. It would be better if I got rid of him for you.”

“Got rid of him?”

“It would be easy enough. Everyone thinks it happened already anyway.”

Her eyes widened. “Joe.”

He shrugged. “I didn't think you'd go for it.” He opened the car door. “Stay here. I'll reconnoiter the area and feel out Kessler for you. What makes you think he'll want to become involved?”

“He has integrity plus curiosity and an obsessive nature. It's why he's in the profession.”

“Well, you should know about obsessions.” He slammed the door shut and moved quickly across the parking lot.

“A very violent man for an officer of the law,” Logan murmured.

“He's not violent. He's just angry. He wouldn't really have—”

“Oh, I think he would. For a few minutes my neck was definitely on the line. I think I'd better step very carefully around Quinn.”

“Joe believes in the law,” she said fiercely. “Dammit, he's a good cop.”

“I'm sure he is, but I'm equally sure his SEAL training gets in the way occasionally. Particularly when the law doesn't seem to be working and his friends are involved.”

“Joe doesn't kill.”

“Now. Did you ever ask him how many men he killed when he was a SEAL?”

“Of course I didn't. We were at peace when he was in the service.”

“But SEALs have missions even in peacetime.”

“Why are you doing this? Why are you trying to make me distrust Joe?”

“Maybe self-preservation.” He smiled grimly. “And because I want you to admit that one nod of your head and I would have been a dead man a few minutes ago.”

“I won't admit any—”

“Be honest.”

She didn't want to be honest, not if it meant admitting she didn't know Joe as well as she thought she did. Joe was one of the bedrocks of her life. He was everything stable and trustworthy. When everything else had been falling apart around her, Joe had always been there. She would not think of him as a killer because that would be comparing him to Fraser. No. Never.

“Has he ever talked to you about his time in the SEALs?”

“No.”

“Did you know he's killed three men in the line of duty since he's been in Atlanta?”

Her gaze flew to his face.

“I didn't think so. Quinn's smart and he knows you well. He'd keep that part of his life separate from you.”

“He's no murderer.”

“I didn't say he is. There's no question that those deaths were self-defense and that the scum he killed deserved to die. I'm just saying that Quinn is multifaceted and very dangerous.”

“You're trying to take away my trust in him.”

“And he's trying to take away any trust you might have in me. I'm just defending myself.”

“I have no trust in you.”

“You have a little. At least, you know we're on the same side. I won't have Quinn stealing that away.” His gaze went to Joe, who was now climbing the steps of the geoscience building. “And I don't want to have to fight Quinn along with everyone else.”

Eve followed his glance. It was as if she were looking at Joe in a different light. He was always confident, always moved with a springy grace, but now she could see the relentless efficiency in his entire attitude. Powerhouse, she had called him, and powerhouse she knew him to be, but not deadly.

She could sense the deadliness now.

“Damn you.”

“We're all savages,” Logan said quietly. “We all kill when it means enough to us. Food, revenge, self-preservation . . . But Quinn knew you couldn't take it, so he made sure you didn't see that side of him.”

“And would you kill too, Logan?” she asked bitterly.

“If the circumstances warranted it. And so would you, Eve.”

She shook her head. “Life is too precious. There's no excuse for murder.”

He shrugged. “Excuse no, but reason is—”

“I don't want to talk about it.” She leaned back and stared out the window, shutting him out. “I don't want to talk to you at all, Logan. Just leave me alone, okay?”

“Sure.”

Of course he'd agree. He'd turned loose a serpent and now was willing to watch it work its poison.

She wouldn't let him. She wouldn't let him destroy the trust she had in Joe. Logan was the outsider, not Joe. She wouldn't brood and wonder and let his words eat at her.

Logan said softly, “But it's true, you know.”

“It's okay.” Joe opened the car door for Eve and helped her out. “The coast is clear. Kessler's alone. His assistant, Bob Spencer, was there, but I had Kessler get rid of him.”

She picked up the case containing the skull. “What did you tell Gary?”

“Not what was in the surprise package, but I filled him in on everything else. You're right, he's curious.” He took the case from her and his hand closed on her elbow. “Let's get him started on it.”

“I'm beginning to feel a little de trop.” Logan got out of the car. “I trust you won't mind if I tag along?”

“I do mind,” Joe said. “But I'll put up with you as long as you don't get in the way.” His pace quickened as he guided Eve across the parking lot. “How long will this take?”

“Kessler's part won't take long if he can find a good source of DNA to extract. It's the lab work I'm concerned about. DNA testing can take months.”

“You worry about getting a good sample, I'll take care of getting the DNA testing pushed through.” Joe held the door to the building open for her. “No problem. I'm good at pushing. It's one of my—” His gaze suddenly narrowed on her face. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

She glanced away from him quickly. “I don't know what you mean.”

“The hell you don't.”

She shook off his hand and kept walking. “Stop probing, Joe. There's nothing wrong.”

“Maybe.” His glance shifted to Logan. “Maybe not.”

She opened the door of the lab and saw Kessler sitting at his desk, eating a sandwich.

He looked up and glowered at her. “I hear you're trying to get me tossed in the cooler. Thanks a lot, Duncan.”

“There's mustard on your mustache.” She took the case from Joe and went to stand before Kessler. She picked up the paper napkin on the desk and wiped his mouth and bristly gray mustache. “Christ, you have to be the messiest eater on the planet, Gary.”

“Eating should be a pleasurable function when a man's alone. I shouldn't have to worry about a woman coming in and criticizing me. Particularly one who's come begging.” He took another bite of his sandwich. “What have you got yourself into, Duncan?”

“I need a little help.”

“If the news reports are right, you need help from a lawyer, not me.” He looked behind her. “You're Logan?”

Logan nodded.

Kessler smiled slyly. “I understand you've got a potload of money?”

“Enough.”

“Care to part with some? Things aren't the same as when I was a young man. It's a sad fact that we brilliant scientists need patrons these days.”

“Maybe we could come to an arrangement,” Logan said.

“Back off, Gary.” Eve unfastened Ben's case. “You know very well that if you're interested enough, you'll do the job for nothing.”

“You have a loud mouth, Duncan,” Kessler said. “There's nothing wrong with a little greed. And, besides, I might have become more of a philistine since we last worked together.” His tone was absent, his gaze fixed on the case. In spite of his words, she could sense his excitement. He reminded Eve of a kid waiting to see what was in a Christmas package. “And sending Quinn in ahead to try to rouse my curiosity is a pretty obvious ploy. I would have thought you'd be a little more subtle.”

She grinned. “If something works, I don't fuss with it.”

“It must have been something pretty interesting that pulled you into a mess like this.” His gaze never left the case. “You're not usually stupid.”

“Thank you.”

She waited.

He finally said impatiently, “So who is it?”

She opened the lid and carefully lifted out the skull. “You tell me.”

“Oh, shit,” he whispered.

Eve nodded. “Yes.”

He took the skull from her and put it on his desk. “It's no joke?”

“Would I be on the run if it was a joke?”

He stared at the face. “My God. Chadbourne.” He looked at her. “If it is Chadbourne. Did you know who you were working on?”

She shook her head. “I went at it blind. I had no idea until I finished.”

“And what do you want from me?”

“Proof.”

“DNA.” He frowned. “And what have I got to work on? I suppose you worked on the actual skull again? Why can't you make casts? There's no telling what you destroyed.”

“It was already clean. The body had been through a fire.”

His gaze narrowed. “Then what do you think I'm supposed to do?”

“I thought . . . the teeth. The DNA would have been protected by the enamel. You could split a tooth and extract the DNA. Is that possible?”

“Possible. It's been done before.” Kessler added, “But it's not a sure thing.”

“Will you try?”

“Why should I? This isn't any of my concern, and it could be big trouble.”

Joe spoke up. “I'll be here to guard you while you're working.” He glanced at Logan. “And I'm sure Mr. Logan would be glad to make it worth your while.”

“Within boundaries,” Logan said.

They were going about this all wrong, Eve thought impatiently. They'd had Gary from the moment he'd seen the face. He just needed a little push over the line. “Don't you want to know if it's really Chadbourne, Gary? Don't you want to be the one to prove it?”

Kessler was silent a moment. “Maybe.”

He wanted it all right. She could see the excitement he was trying to hide.

“It would be megadifficult,” she said. “Hell, you'll probably have enough for a book.”

“Not so difficult.” He scowled. “Unless you screwed up the teeth too.”

“I didn't touch them any more than I could help.” She smiled. “And you know my work doesn't interfere with yours. It's all there, waiting for you.”

He glanced up from the skull. “I know exactly what you're doing, you know.”

“Of course you do. Now, are you going to do it, or do we take the skull to Crawford at Duke?”

“Appealing to my competitiveness won't work either. I know I'm the best in the business.” He sat back down in the chair. “But I may do you the favor. I've always liked you, Duncan.”

“You'd do it even if you hated my guts.” Her smile faded. “But I'm not going to lie. The situation is more dangerous than getting in trouble with the law.”

“I gathered that.” He shrugged. “I'm an old man. I need a little something to keep the adrenaline pumping. Can I use my own lab?”