Joe smiled faintly. “It’s a deal. Do you know, you sound like me a few years ago. I promise I won’t try to ram any of this weird bullshit I feel down your throat.”
“You’d better not.” She smiled back at him. This was the Joe Quinn she knew and respected, her friend, her partner. “So, I take it that we’re not going to sit around and wait for Eve to call for help? You can’t count on her doing that.”
“I think I could. She realizes that we’re part of the equation. She’s just trying to strike a balance, and right now, Gallo is on the upswing.”
“You’re being very reasonable.” She gazed at him appraisingly. “I’m not sure why.”
“Maybe getting so close to the hereafter had a sobering effect on me.” He grimaced. “Nah, near-death experiences give you an appreciation for life. And maybe a glimmer of what people are all about. That may be it. I thought I knew Eve before, but it’s different now. When I have time, I’ll have to analyze what I went through. But I don’t believe it made me any more reasonable.”
But there was a difference in him, Catherine thought. It was the first time she had been with him for any length of time since he had gotten out of the hospital. He was familiar, yet there were … depths. Good God, she was thinking like someone from a soap opera. “I’ll take your word for it. But I still don’t believe you won’t go after Danner.”
“Of course I will. That’s what I told Eve. Only I’ll give her space.” He leaned back in the seat. “But not too much.”
“What did you find out about the fingerprints?”
“What I suspected. No prints on the truck from anyone but the kid he stole it from. But I think we might have gotten a couple from the storeroom at the alligator farm. The minute you told me about the sketch of Ted Danner, I asked Julian to run a match check through the National Database. He’ll call me as soon as he gets the report.”
“And then we’ll know for sure if Danner is alive.”
“Presumably,” Joe said dryly. “Ghosts don’t leave fingerprints. Now let’s head for the airport.”
“Where are we going?”
“You tell me. You said Venable was supposed to start checking on Ted Danner. Get on the phone and see what he’s found out.”
* * *
GALLO WAS TEN MINUTES late pulling up before the Marriott in a gray Mercedes.
“You know this isn’t a good idea,” he said, as she got into the car. “Can I talk you out of it?”
“You know you can’t. We’ve already discussed it. Drive.” She leaned back in the seat. “And tell me everything you know about Ted Danner. You can bet that Catherine will have a report from Venable anytime now and will be sharing it with Joe.”
“And will he share it with you?”
“If there’s anything that might threaten me. Otherwise, he’ll probably try to beat me to the punch.”
“To protect you.”
She nodded. “To protect me. Since Danner almost killed Catherine, I have to assume that he has reason to think it’s needed. Tell me about your uncle.”
He glanced away from her. “You know he’s supposed to be dead. We’re not sure that he’s not.”
“You’re sure,” she said. “No one knows Danner better than you do.”
“I only got a glimpse of his profile.”
“And it shocked you so much that you couldn’t move.” She paused. “I didn’t see his face at all. I only saw him moving toward Catherine. That was why I couldn’t even make a connection with Danner until I saw the finished sketch. That man at the bayou moved like an athlete, a young man. There was a springiness to his step. The Ted Danner I met was almost crippled. He moved slowly, like an old man.”
“Yes, he did.”
She was studying his face. “But you still recognized him.”
He nodded jerkily. “He wasn’t always crippled like that, only after that last mission. All the time I was growing up my uncle was strong as a bull and could beat me in any race. When we were up in the woods, he was so quiet, so good, that he could get within a yard of any forest animal before it knew he was there. I watched him do it any number of times.” He paused. “Just as I watched him when he was coming up behind Catherine. It was as if he’d turned back the clock.”
“Or had an operation on his spine that turned it back for him. Was that on the books before you left for basic training?”
He shook his head. “He said they had to do all kinds of testing.”
“I saw him when Bonnie was six months old, and he still looked crippled. That’s a long time to wait for surgery.”
“Maybe they weren’t sure they could do it.” His lips tightened. “He had spells when he was in terrible pain.”
“You told me once he was on prescription drugs.”
“But he kicked the habit. He wouldn’t let himself fall into that hole.” He glanced at her. “You’re trying to build a case for his being a drug addict, and that would be a reason for his killing Bonnie.” He shook his head. “He hated drugs. He told me he’d rather have the pain than mess up his head like that.”
“I don’t know what I’m trying to do,” she said wearily. “Yes, drugs were a possibility. They can turn men into monsters. I thought your uncle was a gentle man, but the man who almost stabbed Catherine wasn’t gentle. He was a monster. So I’m trying to make a connection.”
“He’s not a monster. Killing Jacobs doesn’t make him a monster. Jacobs was a total son of a bitch. You don’t know why he did it.”
“Catherine,” she reminded him. “Why would he hurt Catherine? He could have just avoided her.”
“The truck. She was standing next to it. He needed the truck to escape.”
“You’re reaching.”
“I know,” he said jerkily. “I don’t know why he would do any of this. Uncle Ted was a good guy. Nobody better. None of this makes sense.”
He was in pain. She could see it in the tenseness of his every muscle, the set of his mouth.
Well, she couldn’t help him. Not now. She said again, “Tell me about Ted Danner. When did you get to know him? Was he your mother’s brother?”
“My father’s half brother. They were nothing alike. Ted was younger, and they grew up together in the slums. My father became an alcoholic by the time he was twenty and went straight downhill. Uncle Ted joined the service at seventeen and got out of there. They didn’t like each other, and I don’t know why Ted visited him when he came back on leave.” He shook his head. “Yes, I do know. I think it was me. He wanted to help me. He always tried to step in and keep them from hurting me. He even used to tell me what I should do to keep them from getting angry.” He grimaced. “Though that didn’t work so well after I got older. I hated them as much as they hated me, and I let them know it. I was lucky I survived.”
“Why didn’t your uncle persuade them to give you into his custody?”
“He was in the Rangers. He only had his pay. He didn’t have a home or a family. He couldn’t take on a kid. He tried to be a friend to me. I couldn’t expect anything else from him.” He added, “He came home on medical leave when I was seventeen, and we got to spend some time together. It was great, like I had real family. My parents were killed in a house fire about four months after he came home. My father fell asleep in bed smoking a cigarette. My uncle and I moved into a flat together. I was planning on going into the Army when I finished high school, but I took off with a couple buddies to see some of the country first. When I came back to Milwaukee, I found out that Uncle Ted was worse and had to go to Atlanta for treatment. I decided to go with him and get him settled before the treatments began.” He glanced at her. “You know the rest.”
Yes, she knew the rest. She had met John Gallo, and they had gotten caught up in a sexual maelstrom that had altered both their lives and produced Bonnie. “You told me that the death certificate was signed by a doctor at the VA hospital. What was the cause of death?”
“Pneumonia contracted after surgery.”
“And what was the name of the doctor who signed the certificate?”
“Lawrence Temple.” He paused. “I called the hospital, and he’s no longer at the facility. He’s now in private practice somewhere in San Antonio. I tried to check on any record of surgery being performed on a Theodore Danner, and they refused to give me any information on the phone.”