there.” He shrugged. “If you’re not, I’ll toss you to Dabala and let him deal with someone who is a possible informer.”
“You know I won’t inform. I’ve been with you too long.”
“And become rich. But we’ve never reached that level in the stratosphere where money can buy anything. But it’s only one more step, Russo.”
“A huge step. This is different. They’ll never stop searching for us.”
“And never find us. That’s why the money is so important. It can buy plastic surgeons, documents, politicians who turn blind eyes. All of those little luxuries that make a man feel safe and content.”
“They won’t turn a blind eye. Not to this. They’d be too afraid.”
“Russo.”
“All right, I’ll be quiet. But you may be sorry that you didn’t listen to me.” He turned on his heel. “Dabala said that if you didn’t call him, he’d come to see you. You don’t want him to lead the CIA to you.”
“I’ll call him.” He watched Russo leave the room. The CIA might be aware something was going on but couldn’t be permitted to know anything concrete about his deal with Dabala until he was ready to leave. Washington might accept nearly any corruption from him as long as he was a constant source of information, but even a hint of this business would cause them to bolt in panic. They were extremely sensitive to any Middle Eastern activity, and Rakovac had been careful to keep away from that contingent during their partnership.
But the Middle East was where the real money lay, and fanatics cared nothing how much it cost to grease the way to paradise. Naturally, he’d had to turn to them to find a way to his own paradise.
But paradise had its own restrictions, he thought regretfully. He wouldn’t be able to make those delightful calls to Catherine after he made his exit. It would be too dangerous not to break all ties to the outside world. The delicious game he had played all these years must be brought to an end. He reached out and touched Catherine’s throat in the photo. She had a lovely throat and many times when the anger had come to the surface, he’d wanted to slit it. Passing fancy. The mental torture he inflicted was much more enjoyable.
Oh, well, if he was going to end the charade, he would do it with style and ferocity. He had to have a plan that would be the crowning blow to his revenge on Catherine. It couldn’t terminate with just a final burst of agony from a sniper bullet. He’d bring her close to him so that he could watch every nuance of her pain.
And not only Catherine. That wouldn’t be in keeping with the grand finale.
“Who first?” he murmured. “Maybe a warning to punish you and show you what’s to come?” His finger moved to caressingly touch the lips of the woman in the photo. “Yes, that’s an excellent idea, Catherine. Let’s start with Eve Duncan.”
Chapter 7
Eve’s eyes flew open.
What had she heard?
It had been a small sound, but enough to disturb her restless slumber. She checked the bedside clock-5:42 A.M.
Probably nothing. The sound hadn’t been loud enough to wake Joe. She wasn’t accustomed to having guests in the house. She and Joe led an intensely solitary life.
She lay there, listening.
Movement? The creak of the couch in the living room? Kelly was only a young girl to have gone through so much. Perhaps she was having trouble sleeping in a strange place.
Eve obviously wasn’t going to be able to go back to sleep until she checked on her. She carefully moved away from Joe and slid out of bed.
“Eve?” Joe asked sleepily.
“Shh, I’ll be right back.” She glided toward the door. “I’m having trouble sleeping.”
“I know a therapy for that.”
She chuckled. “I’ll discuss that with you when I come back.”
“Do that…”
He was dozing off as she quietly closed the door behind her.
The hall was dark, but there was a light in the living room. Bright light.
She moved quickly down the hall.
No Kelly.
The couch was vacant, the covers tossed to one side.
Where the hell was-
“I didn’t mean to wake you.” Kelly was perched on the high stool at the desk usually occupied by Catherine. She was dressed in loose blue-striped pajamas, and her bare feet dangled above the floor. Her blue eyes were wide in her pale face, and she looked even younger than she had earlier in the evening. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t sleep.”
“I had trouble, too.” Eve stiffened as she saw the sliver of bone in Kelly’s hand. “Put that down.”
Kelly quickly put the bone back on the table. “I’m sorry,” she said again. “I didn’t hurt anything. I didn’t think you’d mind if I-”
“I do mind. This is my work, and it’s not something to play with.” She strode across the room. “Those bones are fragile, and I don’t need any more breakage than what’s already here.”
“I didn’t break anything. I was just-” She shook her head. “I only wanted to help.”
“You should have asked me, and I would have told you not to-” She stopped as she looked down at the table. “Dear heavens.”
“I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Take it easy. I can see that you didn’t.” She was still staring at the bones on the worktable. “When we went to bed, Catherine had only a quarter of Cindy’s face put back together. Now you have at least two-thirds of it completed. How?”
“I couldn’t sleep. I needed something to do.” Kelly moistened her lips. “There was a program pulled up on the computer. It seemed clear what you wanted done.”
“So you did it.”
She nodded. “It wasn’t difficult. It was just a puzzle.”
A puzzle that would have taken Eve days to solve. A puzzle that Catherine had strained and worked at for a full day. “How long did it take you?”
She shrugged. “A couple hours, I guess. I don’t want to do anything that would make you angry. I won’t touch it again.”
“You shouldn’t have touched it to begin with.” She held up her hand as Kelly opened her lips to protest. “No, you didn’t do any harm, and you might have done some good. But that doesn’t mean you can interfere with my work without permission. That’s not going to happen. Understand?”
Kelly nodded. “I just had to do something to unwind. I thought your puzzle might wear me out. Sometimes they do.”
“And did it?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Kelly hesitated. “It wasn’t hard enough,” she said simply.
And the girl had not wanted to hurt Eve’s feelings by telling her that that poor broken skull that had been a nightmare prospect to Eve had not even challenged her. “Catherine was finding it hard enough,” she said dryly. “And I wouldn’t have had an easy time of it.”
“Mr. Venable says you’re very clever,” she said politely. “I’m sure it’s just that I’m good at patterns.”
“Kelly, are you patronizing me?”
She frowned, distressed. “Oh, no. I didn’t mean that you-” She nibbled at her lower lip. “I said the wrong thing again. You can see why my mother doesn’t want to be around me.”
“No, I can’t see any such thing. My ego isn’t that fragile.”
Kelly smiled tentatively. “Sometimes I do off end people. It was terrible when I was younger. But even now I
