it.” He smiled ruefully as he rubbed his temple. “As I said, I tried to stop him. Eve Duncan hit me on the head to keep me from rushing him. I wasn’t expecting that. She was evidently trying to protect me.”
“Yes, Eve can be unpredictable,” Gallo said absently. Unpredictable and brave and strong. Dammit, he should never have left her. “Did he give you any idea where he was going to take her?”
Father Barnabas shook his head. “When I woke up, they were gone, and Father Dominic was standing over me.”
“He didn’t say anything?”
“He said that he knew Eve wasn’t a demon.”
Gallo muttered a curse. “Is that supposed to be good?”
“Yes, Danner thought he was surrounded by demons, particularly of late. The last time I saw him, I even wondered if he included me in that group.” He paused. “And he believed he had to destroy demons. It’s a good thing that he doesn’t think Eve Duncan is one of them.”
Gallo felt a chill. But what if his uncle changed his mind? “Then why did he want her to go with him?”
Father Barnabas hesitated, then said, “He said the little girl was waiting for her.”
The little girl.
Shit. The chill he was feeling became pure ice.
“You believe he was speaking of Bonnie Duncan?” the priest asked quietly. “And the little girl who is waiting is dead?”
“Yes.”
“And that would mean he’s going to-”
“It doesn’t mean anything. Maybe he knows who killed Bonnie. There might be some other explanation.” No, he wouldn’t believe it. But it still scared the hell out of him. “Listen, you’ve got to tell me where you think I can find him.”
“I don’t know. If I did, I’d tell you.” He met Gallo’s eyes. “I’m not a fool. I know that she’s in danger. Danner has gone over the edge. He wouldn’t listen to me.” He paused. “But I may be able to help you find him. I don’t want to be left out of this. I know him very well.” He paused. “Better than you, Mr. Gallo.”
“You know him as some kind of sicko. That wasn’t the man I knew while I was growing up.”
“Then we’ll have a complete picture, won’t we? But I never considered Danner a sicko. All I knew was a man in torment, trying to find solace for his pain.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Those detectives will be getting restless. I was planning on asking them to allow me a few moments alone with you to break the news about Eve Duncan’s kidnapping. But you were lucky that you came in with that horde of reporters, and the police were too busy to pay any attention to you. But I’d better get back to them.”
“Did you tell the police who I was?”
“Of course, I wouldn’t lie to them. I skimmed over your connection with Eve, but as next of kin of her abductor, they’ll be very interested in talking to you.”
The last thing he needed was to have the police interested in him, Gallo thought in frustration. He was still wanted in Wisconsin for questioning, and there was no way he could waste time being grilled by the local police when he had to find Eve.
“I have to get out of here.”
The priest nodded. “I thought you would. Go on. You’d better be very quick. As I said, I won’t lie to them.” His lips tightened. “But I believe that the people who know Danner best have the best chance of catching him before he does something…” He trailed off as he turned. “Go. I’ll be very slow getting back down that aisle to them. Call me if you run across anything that I can help you with. I’ll be trying to remember any details about him that could make sense about where he might take her.”
“Or what he wanted with her. I can’t believe he wants to kill her.”
The priest didn’t answer as he moved slowly down the aisle.
Gallo whirled and ran out of the church and down the steps. In seconds, he was behind the wheel of his car and tearing away from the curb and down the street. Get away. Put some distance between him and the police.
Think.
He could do little else but think in those minutes of flight. Father Barnabas’s words were pounding in his mind like a drum. Why? His uncle would have no reason to target Eve.
But if they were right about him, his uncle was without reason.
He felt sick. So many memories were flooding back to him of those days of his childhood. Ted Danner had been hero and savior to him.
And in a world in which Gallo could trust no one, his uncle had never once let him down. The man who killed Bonnie was a monster. How could that friend of his childhood be a monster?
It didn’t matter. Stop thinking of anything but the fact that Eve had been taken and could die. No matter what rejection he felt about the possibility, he had to admit that it existed. What to do next?
He didn’t pull into a rest stop off the main road until thirty minutes later.
He knew the first thing to do. Gather all the help he could around him to find Eve.
He pulled out his phone and called Catherine. “How close are you to Rome?”
“About an hour. Are you still at the cathedral?”
“No, but you’ll run into half the Rome police department there.” He paused. “I screwed up. I left Eve alone for less than two hours at the church. I thought she’d be safe there.”
She was silent. “What are you saying, Gallo?”
Lord, this was hard. “She wasn’t safe,” he said haltingly. “My uncle showed up and took her. I don’t know where she is.”
He heard Quinn cursing in the background, then suddenly Quinn was on the line. “I may kill you, Gallo.”
“I wouldn’t put up a fight. Except that it may take all of us to get Eve out of this alive.”
“You’re sure she’s still alive?”
“Father Barnabas said that he believes that she is. He said that my uncle said that she had to come with him.” He paused and then forced it out. “He said that the little girl was waiting for her.”
Quinn was cursing. “That sounds weird as hell. Tell me everything that’s happened since you arrived in Rome.”
Gallo quickly filled him in, and then ended with, “Now we have Father Barnabas’s cooperation. At least, that’s what he told me. He’s not going to attempt to reach out to my uncle on his own. He said he’d try to recall details of what he’d been told by him through the years so that we can make a pattern.”
“Try? He’ll recall every single detail, or he’ll wish he had.”
“The third degree? I thought that was no longer politically correct. Particularly when applied to a man of the cloth.”
“It’s Eve, dammit.”
And that meant every method was on the table as far as Quinn was concerned. And Gallo was feeling the same way. Father Barnabas could be totally sincere or the prime demon who had tormented his uncle over the years. “Then nudge his memory. Can you contact the local police and see what their investigation manages to unearth?”
“That goes without saying,” Quinn said curtly.
Then Catherine was back on the line. “What did Eve have with her when she was taken? Any weapon?”
“No, the priest said that she was forced to put down her purse when she entered the study.”
“What about her phone?”
“Maybe. She was carrying it in the pocket of her slacks.”
“Good. We can start there. I’ll call Venable and see if he can get a GPS trace.”
“My uncle is no fool. He’ll find that phone.”
“But we may have a little time before he does. We can determine a direction. For the rest, we may have to rely on Eve.”
“For God’s sake, how can she help?” he asked bitterly. “My uncle was a top-notch special services officer. If you’re right about him, he’s now also a maniac who would-” He stopped and drew a deep breath. “Sorry. I’m not thinking, only feeling right now. I should have been there to help her.”
“Yes, you should have been there,” Catherine said coolly. “But now we have to forget that and find her. Eve is very clever, and I’ve never met anyone more determined. A sharp mind can be more lethal than any weapon. Now
