“We’ve already discussed the absence of my credibility.”
“Answer me.”
Silence. “No, I did not. Do you believe me?”
She didn’t answer.
“You see, if I’d answered yes, you would have believed me. But denial is always the problem. Should I say I killed her?”
“I want the truth.”
“You always did. I want to see you, Eve.”
“So you can kill me, too?”
“Why should I?”
“Because I’m after you. I’ll find you. I’ll find out if you killed Bonnie. If you’re a murderer, that would be reason enough to kill me.”
“Good reasoning. And, add to that the fact that you’ve already said that you’d kill me if you thought I’d killed Bonnie, it should make me very lethal-minded.”
“You’re taking all of this very lightly.”
“No, I’m not.” The mockery was suddenly gone from his tone. “If I were, I’d be handling this in an entirely different manner. I’d disappear where you couldn’t find me. I’d find a way to rid myself of Catherine Ling in a manner of which you would not approve. But I found myself unwilling to do either. So the only other alternative is to come to terms with you.”
“After all these years?”
“A good many things got in the way. Not the least was Bonnie’s death.”
“If you didn’t kill her, why didn’t you contact me? I know she didn’t mean anything to you, but she was your daughter. Surely even you couldn’t be callous enough to ignore the fact that she’d been kidnapped.”
“I didn’t ignore it.” He paused. “When can I see you?”
“When you’re willing to come into an ATLPD precinct and make a full disclosure. There’s no way I’d risk meeting you one-on-one.”
“But of course you’ll do it. Do you think I don’t know how desperate you are? I’ve watched and followed your path for years. You’ve risked your life on much slimmer leads.”
“I’ll just wait until Catherine finds a safer way for me to contact you.”
“Like Nate Queen? He’ll never give her what she wants. He knows better.”
“How did you know she was dealing with Queen?”
“Why, I own him, Eve.”
“You pay him?”
“No, he pays me, and there are other elements to our arrangement. Fear does equally well. Actually, it’s sometimes more efficient.”
“He’s a government agent. Why should he be afraid of you?”
“Because I want him to be. Queen will not only not help you, but, if I choose, he’ll protect me from you. I’d really hate to ask him to do that. Will you come?”
“I’ve given you my answer.”
“But it’s not the one I want to hear,” he said. “Change your mind. I’ll let you know later where to meet me. In a public place, if you like. Though we won’t stay there.” He chuckled. “Doesn’t that sound ominous? One hand is stroking you; the other is holding the knife. Though, as I recall, you never had an objection to that method of doing things. You liked it soft, and you liked it rough.”
“Stop recalling,” she said through clenched teeth. “Forget everything that happened between us. None of it matters. It’s as if it never took place.”
“I can’t forget, and neither can you. What we were is the basis of what we are now. I’ll try not to be blatant about it, but I’m not going to ignore it.”
“I am.” She was silent a moment. “If I do come, will you talk to me? Will you tell me what I want to know?”
“You’re actually expecting me not to lie to you?”
“You never lied to me before.”
“You see, you can’t ignore our history, either. I could have changed. I have changed.”
“Will you tell me what I want to know?”
“I’ll tell you some things you want to know. I don’t promise to confess all to you.”
“Confess.” She jumped on the word. “Do you mean confess that you killed Bonnie?”
“Confess is just a word. Though it does bring up thoughts of courtrooms and church confessionals. I suppose I might indulge myself by cleansing my soul of a few sins. Do you know, I don’t believe I’d mind using you in that way. Very odd. I haven’t felt the need of sharing my sins in a very long time, perhaps never. Don’t you find that unusual?”
“There’s only one confession I want to hear from you.”
“Then step into my web. No one ever said that I was without guile. There’s no telling what secrets I may tell you.” He chuckled. “Though don’t tell Queen I said that. He doesn’t like the idea of my telling secrets. He may lose his sense of judgment and decide you’re a threat, too.”
“Evidently, you’re the threat.”
“I’ve never said that I wasn’t one. But I’ve always been honest about it. I even warned you, Eve.”
Yes, that was true. And she had ignored it and gone headlong into an affair with him. What an idiot she had been.
“You’re thinking that you would never make that mistake today,” John said. “You never know. My phoning you is probably a mistake, but I couldn’t resist. Every now and then, I have a lapse and just go for it.”
“Why? There’s an excuse for acting without thinking when we were that young, but all that’s behind us. We have responsibilities and knowledge of the consequences. We don’t have the right to ‘go for it.’”
“I have the right to take whatever I can take. It’s an integral part of my personality. One of my personalities anyway. Queen will tell you that I probably have several swirling about, causing turmoil to him and everyone else.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Ask him. He’ll be delighted to tell you about all my little foibles. He thinks I’m crazy.”
Eve felt a chill. “And are you?”
He was silent a moment. “Yes, occasionally.” He added mockingly, “But don’t let that keep you from renewing our acquaintance. Look upon it as a challenge. I’ll be in touch.” He hung up.
A challenge? Eve was shaking as she pressed the disconnect. This wasn’t the kind of challenge she needed or wanted. The entire conversation with John Gallo had been disturbing. Disturbing and frightening. His voice had been the same, and yet the intonations of mockery had been different. She had found herself trying to anticipate what he was going to say, but it had been like talking to a stranger.
For God’s sake, he was a stranger. What was she thinking?
She wasn’t thinking at all. Emotion had taken over.
Then throw it out and start thinking like the woman you’ve become and not the girl you were.
She drew a deep breath. What had she learned from that call?
Not much. He had admitted he had been in Atlanta at the time of Bonnie’s kidnapping. He had said he had not done it, but the underlying mockery had made everything he’d said suspect. Nate Queen and Army Intelligence evidently knew everything about him, but the odds were that Catherine wouldn’t be able to get anything out of them.
And he’d said that he was unbalanced at times. There had been no mockery in those words.
Crazy. It would take a man who was unbalanced to kill a helpless child, his own flesh and blood.
Bonnie.
The pain was always there, but the possibility of John Gallo’s being her killer had brought the agony alive again.
The agony and the bitterness.
He might well have killed her if he’d been gripped in a fit of insanity. If he had not killed her, then he could know who did.
Damn him.
All these years he had been alive, standing on the sidelines, watching her pain. What kind of monster had he become? If Catherine had not been able to unearth this connection, would he have continued to stand back and monitor the hell Eve was going through?
No way. She knew about Gallo now. There would be no more of his standing in the shadows like a vampire drinking in her pain and loss. She’d jerk him into the sunlight and burn him alive if she found he’d killed Bonnie.
She pulled out her phone and dialed Catherine. “I just talked to John Gallo on my cell. You’re going to find it hard as hell to find out anything from Nate Queen. Gallo says he owns him. I believe him.”
“Shit.”