No answer.
Joe’s stomach clenched as he hung up. She should have answered; she always had the digital phone on. If she were asleep, the ringing would have woken her up. But she’d been so upset, he doubted she’d fallen asleep.
And where the hell was Charlie Cather? He called the apartment phone.
Charlie answered drowsily on the second ring. 'Everything okay?' Joe asked.
'Fine. Locked up tight. Ms. Duncan went to bed a couple of hours ago.' He still didn’t like it.
Why hadn’t she answered her digital? 'She’s okay?”
“Fine. She was a little quiet, but that’s not unusual, is it? She’s concerned about the kid.'
'Yes.'
'Did Agent Spiro arrive?'
'He’s at the crime scene. I’m back at the precinct, but I have these damn reports to type up.'
'I hear you. God, I hate paperwork.'
She should have answered the digital, Joe kept thinking. 'Go check on her.” The Killing Game – Eve Duncan 02
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“What?'
'Dammit, go check on her.”
“Wake her up?'
'If you have to wake her, do it. Check on her.”
“She won’t thank me if I— Okay, I’ll check.'
Joe waited.
She was probably fine. It was unlikely Dom would try to get to her at the apartment. Besides, that wasn’t in his game plan. It would be too simple. He was using Jane MacGuire to bait the net.
And one woman had already been caught in that net. All afternoon and night Joe had been dealing with her murder. When he’d looked at Fay Sugarton, he’d thought of Eve. But when wasn’t he thinking of Eve?
'She’s gone.'
Joe closed his eyes. God, he’d known it.
'I swear, no one got into the apartment, Joe. I’ve been here all the time, and I checked the doors after Eve went to bed.'
'Did she get any phone calls?'
'Not on the apartment phone. And I didn’t hear her digital ring.”
“You might not have heard it if she was in another room.”
“She didn’t mention a call.'
Dom had called her. Joe knew it in his gut. Dom had called and she had left the apartment.
To meet him?
She wouldn’t have done that. It would have been stupid, and Eve was never stupid.
No, to lure her out of the apartment, Dom would have used a threat she couldn’t ignore.
Jane MacGuire. Shit.
He hung up and flipped his Rolodex for Barbara Eisley’s pager. It was the only way he could get the address of the halfway house at this hour.
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Eisley called back in less than a minute. But it took ten minutes for Joe to persuade her to give him the address.
Rage and fear were building inside him with every second. He wanted to strangle Eve. She had closed him out again. All the years of being together, and she had turned her back on him. He wished he’d never met the bitch. Who needed to have that kind of torment in their lives? Half the time he wanted to shake her and the other half he wanted to cradle her and take away her pain. She thought she was strong enough to take on anything, but she was no match for Dom.
Don’t run toward him, Eve.
Wait for me.
She was running.
The alley smelled of grease and garbage. Darkness.
A sound to the left.
Her heart leaped to her throat. Dom?
