Bonnie was gone.
Good-bye, my love.
She paused a moment, letting regret and memory flow out of her, then opened the door.
“Hello, you were gone longer than I thought.” Catherine Ling was sitting before Eve’s worktable with a laptop open before her. She glanced up, and her gaze warily raked Eve’s expression, trying to read it. “I was wondering if you were going to come back or send in the cops.”
“I don’t think you were worried. You have too much confidence in yourself.”
“I was worried.” She smiled faintly before adding, “That I’d have to start again and find another way to get you. Honesty is all very well, but it doesn’t work with everyone.”
“No?” She crossed the room and stood looking down at the screen of Catherine’s computer. “What are you doing?”
“Bones.” Her forefinger traced the lines of the skull on the screen before her. “I accessed a medical site on the Net. This is the skull of a female child. I thought I’d familiarize myself with the final product that you need to work with.” She pointed to a sliver of bone on the table before her. “That might be the bone beneath the orbital cavity.”
Catherine was already driving forward, grasping at opportunities and concepts, Eve thought. She hadn’t waited for Eve’s decision. In the short time Eve had been gone, Catherine had started to work. “And it might not.”
Catherine nodded. “I figured I’d try it there and be open to change.” She lifted her gaze to meet Eve’s eyes. “I’m always open to change, Eve.”
Eve stood looking at her for a moment. Then she smiled and moved her desktop computer to the other side of the worktable. “So am I. You’d better be extremely careful about every movement you make with those bones. One sign of clumsiness, and I’ll consider the arrangement blown.”
Catherine tensed. “You’ll do it?”
“I’ll do it. I’ve warned you that I can’t promise success, but I’ll make a try. There are a good many things I’ll need from you.”
“Anything. How do we start?”
“By calling Joe and telling him that he’s wasting his time.” She pulled out her phone. “And that you’re responsible for dragging him out of bed and sending him on a wild-goose chase.”
She nodded. “I always accept responsibility. I’ll talk to him. It’s what I expected.” She made a face. “From what I’ve heard, he’s a difficult man. I don’t look forward to it.”
“Very wise.” She was getting Joe’s voice mail. “But you have a reprieve. I’ll call him back later.” She hung up and focused on the program she was pulling up on the screen. She reached into the drawer beneath the table and pulled out her scanner. “Now let’s get busy. Give me that photo of Luke.”
Moscow
“She’s left Colombia,” Russo said as he hung up the phone and turned to Rakovac. “According to our informant, Prado, in the CIA, she boarded a flight out of Bogota yesterday afternoon.”
“Destination?” Rakovac asked.
“Houston, Texas. But she missed her connecting flight to Los Angeles.” He smiled. “But a woman of her description boarded a flight to Atlanta an hour later, a last-minute booking. She’s traveling under the name of Patricia Loring.”
“Atlanta,” Rakovac repeated. “Now what could the bitch be doing in Atlanta…”
“Venable could have sent her. There have been some communications between them, but Prado couldn’t determine what they were about.”
“Then we need a new man in Venable’s camp. He knows that Catherine Ling is one of his top priorities.” He leaned back in his chair, his brow furrowed in thought. “She could be making a move. I’ve been sensing that something was building the last few times I talked to her.”
“You don’t seem upset.”
“No, I look forward to it.” He suddenly smiled. “It’s been going on too long. I’m growing bored. She needs to bleed a little.”
“You’re going to go after her?”
“Or let her come after me.” He gazed at the framed photo of Catherine Ling he had on his desk. In all the years since he had taken her son, he had never put that photo away. It had served to remind him that he was the one in control, and she was only a victim to be punished. The bitch had almost taken him down. If he hadn’t scrambled desperately to right his empire, he’d have been back in the sewer where he’d been born. “Beautiful, isn’t she? If you can call a demon beautiful. I think it’s time I brought her closer.”
“Not a good idea,” Russo said. “She’s CIA. It’s not safe. As long as you kept her at a distance, there was-”
“I wouldn’t be where I am if I worried about safety,” Rakovac interrupted. “You have to take chances to become what you’re destined to be. You’ve always cringed at the bottom of the ladder, afraid to climb. That’s why you answer to me.”
Russo flushed. “And if you didn’t have men like me propping up your ladder, you’d be crashing down on your ass. I’ve never seen why you snatched the kid. He’s always been a threat to all of us. She’s always been a threat.”
Russo had surprised him. He didn’t often lose his temper with him. “No, Catherine Ling ceased to be a threat when I took her son.”
“It’s gone on too long. You should have killed her instead of stretching out this idiocy. There’s always the chance that the CIA will take action.”
“Not as long as I give them what they want.” He grimaced. “Or that they think that I’m doing it. It’s merely a question of striking a balance.”
“And how long can you do it? Venable isn’t a fool. You haven’t been spending enough time and attention on the business they’re paying you for. He’ll know that you’re up to something.”
It wasn’t the first time Russo had spoken out against Rakovac’s persecution of Catherine. Time to shut him down. “I’ll do what I have to do. Stay out of my business.” He gave him a cold glance. “You don’t understand. I don’t allow anyone to humiliate me the way Catherine Ling did. She came close to destroying me, and everyone knew it. I swore that I’d make her pay. And I’ve done it.”
“Yes,” Russo said. “But maybe it’s time to end it.” He paused. “Is the boy still alive?”
Rakovac smiled but didn’t answer.
Russo’s eyes widened. “Good God. You’ve killed him?”
He shrugged. “Perhaps. Again, that’s my affair. She thinks he’s still alive.” He smiled maliciously. “Sometimes. It’s the eternal seesaw. There’s nothing more painful. I’ve made sure she’s regretted that last mission in Moscow.”
“But not enough?”
He shook his head. “Not while I can squeeze one more drop of pain from her. And after she’s too numb to give me that pleasure, I’ll take her blood.” He gazed back at the photo. “But I have to find her first. Tell Prado to probe a little and find out if Venable made any phone calls to Atlanta recently.”
