"I know. The minute you showed up I knew I was safe."
"Shut up."
"Whatever you say."
"Yeah, sure. Catch me hurrying out to try to save your neck again.”
“You’d do it."
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Yes, she would. Without question and without thought. Because the concept of Joe hurt or killed was too frightening to contemplate.
To live without Joe…
Spiro arrived at the field at ten-fifteen the following morning. "Hello, Eve. You’ve been a very busy woman since I last saw you." His gaze went to the red flag. "That’s it?"
Joe nodded. "That’s it."
"We’d better hope that cadaver dog has a damn good nose. I’m going to look like an idiot if he’s found a dead gopher."
"He has a good nose," Eve said. "Sarah says he can tell the difference.”
“Sarah?"
"Sarah Patrick, his trainer."
"That’s right, Joe told me about her." Spiro turned back to Joe. "And what if it’s not Debby Jordan?"
"Then we start searching again."
"And I’m supposed to ignore the fact that I know Eve and the kid are here? You’re asking a lot of me. I could lose my job. Besides possibly facing criminal charges for harboring a criminal."
"Stop dancing around, Spiro. If you hadn’t intended to deal, you wouldn’t be here. You’d have sent a squad car of Phoenix’s finest to pick us up."
"And tell me why I shouldn’t do that?"
"We’ve given you one major lead. We may be able to get you more."
He was silent a moment. "The kid. Give her back to welfare and maybe we can—"
“No," Eve said flatly. "That’s not negotiable." Spiro turned to her. "Everything’s negotiable."
"I’m not returning Jane." She paused. "But I’ll make it easy for you. I’ll give you what you want."
"No," Joe snapped.
"Be quiet, Joe. I knew it was going to come down to this." She stared directly into Spiro’s eyes.
"I’ll give you my word to let you use me any way you want. But only if there’s no other solution."
"And who’s to decide if there’s no other solution?”
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“I will."
"That puts you in control. I don’t like that."
"But you’ll take it." She smiled wryly. "Because you’re an obsessed man, Spiro. You want Dom almost as much as I do."
"More. Because I know what he is and what he can do. You’re seeing him only from a personal point of view."
"You’re right, my interest couldn’t be more intensely personal. Deal?" Spiro hesitated. "Deal."
"May I speak now?" Joe asked grimly. "I seem to have been left out in the cold again."
"We need him, Joe. It was the only way to get him."
"You could have let me give something else a shot first." He turned to Spiro. "You’d better try damn hard to catch that bastard, or I may declare your little deal null and void. In the most violent way possible."
Spiro acted as if he hadn’t heard him. His gaze had shifted back to the grave site. "I’m calling the Phoenix PD to help excavate the site. That means I don’t want either of you anywhere near this place. I’ll tell them I received a tip about the grave from one of my informants." He looked at Eve. "I’m sending a man to your house with equipment for tracing and taping Dom’s calls. I don’t have much hope, but we’ve got to give it a try." He headed for the car. "I’m calling the Phoenix PD now. Get out of here."
"When will we know what you find?" Eve asked.
"I’ll phone you tonight with a preliminary report." He smiled sardonically over his shoulder.
"Just so you can be sure I’m working my ass off. Okay?"
"Okay." She looked at Joe. "I’ll see you back at the house, Joe.”
“I’ll be a while," he said. "I believe I’ll go down to the precinct, look at the files and talk to Charlie Cather. I’m feeling uptight as hell. I need to do something."
The call from Spiro came at eight forty-five that evening. "It’s Debby Jordan."
"Positive?" Eve asked.
"Too early for DNA, but we got a match on the teeth.”
“He didn’t pull her teeth?"
"I was surprised too. Or maybe not. And from what we could tell, he nearly carved her to pieces. He must have been in a frenzy."
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"Enough to forget something as important as her teeth?”
“I’m just telling you what we found."
"Anything else?"
"Yes, there was a candle in her right hand. A taper. Pale pink." She showed me the light and then I showed her the light.
"Can you trace the candle?"
"We’ll give it a try. The problem is that candles have become so popular, everyone’s manufacturing them these days."
That was true. Even Mom liked to light candles in the bathroom when she soaked in the tub.
"When will you get the autopsy report?"
"Tomorrow at the earliest."
"Call me if you learn anything else, Spiro."
"Oh, you’ve decided you’ve wrung me dry and are throwing me away? I’ll call you tomorrow."
He hung up.
Candles.
Light.
I showed her the light. What did it mean to him?
Frenzy. It was difficult to imagine Dom in a frenzy. He was too cool and deliberate. Yet he had said that Debby Jordan was a turning point for him.
"Eve."
She saw Jane standing in the doorway. "Hi. How’s Monty doing?”
“I don’t know." She shrugged. "Okay. I guess. I’m hungry. You want me to make you a sandwich too?"
Something was wrong. She was too indifferent. Why had she left Monty’s side? "Sure. I’d like that."
"You don’t have to come with me. I’ll bring it here to the office for you." She disappeared down the hall.
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feeling. But she was reaching out, and it was important that Eve be there for her.
She dropped down on the couch and rubbed her eyes. Too many things to think about. Too many needs to be met. Stop whining. At least things were moving forward.
"You asleep?"
She opened her eyes. Jane stood before her with a tray. "No, just resting my eyes. I didn’t get much sleep last night."
Jane set the tray down on the coffee table. "I brought my sandwich too, but I guess you don’t feel like company."
It was Jane who never admitted the need for companionship. "I was just thinking I was a little lonely. Sit down."
Jane curled up on the far end of the couch. "Aren’t you going to eat?" Eve asked. "Yeah, sure."
She picked up her sandwich and nibbled at it. "You’re lonely a lot, aren’t you?"
"It happens."
"But you’ve got your mother and Joe and Mr. Logan."
"That’s true." She took a bite of her sandwich. "Are you lonely sometimes, Jane?" She lifted her chin. "No, of course not."
"I just wondered. You haven’t asked about Mike lately."
"You said that your mother was trying to get him taken away from his father. He’ll be okay if they do that." She suddenly looked at Eve. "Why? Is something wrong? Did that lawyer toss him out and—"
"No, Mom says they’re becoming buddies. Nothing’s wrong." Not with Mike, but she was beginning to think something was wrong with Jane. "It’s hard being far away from friends, and I know you like Mike. I’ve always found loneliness sometimes sort of ambushes you."
"Not me."
Try another road. "I’m surprised you’re not with Monty. I’m sure he needs you." A silence. "He doesn’t need me. Sarah said I was helping, but he needs only her.
He barely knows I’m there."
Ah, there was the pain. "I’m sure he does."
She shook her head. "He’s her dog. He belongs to her." She didn’t look at Eve. "I wanted him to belong to me. I thought if I loved him enough, he’d love me more than Sarah." She added The Killing Game – Eve Duncan 02