“I only caught a glimpse of it after I woke up. It was parked at the edge of the woods.” She frowned, thinking. “It was a big car. Light-colored. I think it might have been a Lincoln Town Car.”
“New? Old?”
“Old. I don’t think the new Lincolns are that big.” She shook her head. “I only had a glimpse.” She closed her eyes. “And I was so scared.”
“I can see that you were. But you’re doing well.”
“Thank you.” Her lids opened, and she tried to smile. “After all, I have to please you. You appear to be the only game in town.”
Joe again felt that strong surge of sympathy. She wasn’t much younger than his Jane. He wanted to reach out and—Hell, he couldn’t even do that.
I’m so lonely, she had said.
“I’m going to leave now. I’ll come back if I have any more questions.”
She nodded. “I don’t know if I can come to you. I don’t know how it works. I’m going to have to experiment.” She looked at Megan. “She’s not afraid of me. You can bring her with you if you like.”
“That’s up to her. I thought she might help.” He started to turn away, then said, “The knife. Was there anything different about it?”
“The knife . . .” Her teeth sank into her lower lip. “I’m afraid to—”
“It’s okay. You don’t have to remember.”
“Yes, I do. My heart was beating so hard. I was trying to get out of the ropes. He held up the knife and showed it to me. He said ‘Gift to Gift.’ Then he sliced across—Blood. I’m bleeding. He has a cup, and he’s pressing it to my throat. What’s he—”
“Enough,” Joe said curtly. “You’ve said enough.”
“No, you want to know what it looked like. But it’s hard to get past the pain.” She was breathing hard. “It’s a dagger. It looks . . . black in the shadows. The handle has some kind of carving. A man with a knife. A man with a goblet. Or maybe I’m getting mixed up. My blood is . . . I’m getting weaker . . .”
“Stop it, Nancy Jo. Enough.”
She nodded jerkily. “Too much. Go away. I don’t want you to see me this way. I don’t want anyone to know how scared he made me. I think he liked it.”
“He probably did. Most serial killers enjoy a feeling of power.”
“So clinical. You’re going by the book. Generic-case types. Well, he wasn’t generic,” she said fiercely. “He was a monster who drank my blood. Go away and don’t come back until you’ve found him.”
“Right. Whatever you say.” He wheeled and strode toward the edge of the woods.
“CONVERSATI ON OVER?” MEGAN was hurrying to catch up with him. “Are you going to tell me what it was about? I only heard your side.”
“She’s lonely. She wants to keep her father from being a victim if he goes after her killer. She wants revenge against the bastard who slit her throat, and then drank her blood.” He was walking fast, carefully not looking back at the woods. “And for a dead girl, she seems very much alive and very human. She’s not tough like Jane, but I kept thinking that if Jane hadn’t grown up on the streets, she might have turned out like Nancy Jo. Same determination, same affectionate nature.”
Megan was silent until they reached the car. “Then you’re convinced that she’s not a figment of your imagination?”
“Hell, no. I don’t know if I’ll ever be certain. But I’m operating on that assumption since I can’t do anything else. I made my decision that I refuse to believe I’m crazy and that leaves only the option to accept and use this damn thing that’s happened to me.”
“You’re quite a man, Joe Quinn,” Megan said quietly. “I don’t believe many people would handle all that’s happened to you this well.” She paused. “I’m sorry, Joe. I tried my best not to hurt anyone.”
“Your best wasn’t good enough.” He opened the car door for her. “But I’m going to let you make amends. I don’t know a tinker’s damn about this spook business.” He shook his head. “Who the hell does know anything? Does our friend, Renata?”
“When I called her, she said she’d look into it and get back to me.”
“Then she’d better get back to you quick. I have questions to ask.”
“You may have to find out the answers yourself. After all, you’re the one who can talk to them.”
“I’m not going to go along with that. Nancy Jo didn’t seem to know much more than I do.” He got into the driver’s seat and started the car. “And one of the questions is why you didn’t hear any echoes.”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Megan said. “Echoes come from empty spaces. Maybe there would be no echoes if the spirit hadn’t passed on and left the place where the death had occurred. Nancy Jo is refusing to go anywhere, so she leaves no lingering echo.”
Joe was silent a moment. “What about Bonnie? You said that you heard no echoes from Bonnie on that island. Could she have been killed on that island, and you didn’t hear an echo because she refused to pass on?”
“It’s possible. I hope so. Then I wouldn’t feel guilty about not doing what Eve will probably ask me to do.” She looked at him. “You’re going to have to talk to Eve about seeing Bonnie.”
“Do you think I don’t know that?” His hands tightened on the steering wheel. “But not yet. Bonnie is the center of Eve’s world. Hell, every day revolves around her. I’ve got to get a handle on this mess before I bring her into the picture. That could open a whole new can of worms.”
