Quicksand

He probably expected Joe to toss the coffee in his face. Instead, Joe took off the lid and lifted the cup to his lips. 'None for Eve?'

'It would be smart of her to let us go at it face-to-face.' He leaned against the car and took a drink of his coffee. 'And Eve is very, very smart. She's probably gnawing her fingernails because she wants to run down and handle this meeting herself, but she let you go alone.'

And Montalvo knew her well enough to be able to predict that response. Joe smothered the flare of anger the thought brought him. Keep cool. 'That's right.' He lifted his cup to his lips. 'But as you said, she's very smart. She knows I'm not going to break your neck… yet.'

'May I go back to unpacking?' Miguel asked. 'Violent discussions upset me.'

'No, stay. I'm going to need you.' Montalvo smiled. 'But, I assure you, not to protect me. Drink your coffee and be quiet. Go on, Quinn.'

'I'm just here to say that we're going to work together on this. This isn't going to be another Clayborne Forest. No working alone, no competition. That suited me too. But this is different. Eve is going to be right in the middle of it. She's not going to be at risk because you want to make points with her.'

Montalvo's smile faded. 'I didn't expect this. I expected anger, perhaps an attempt to shut me out. Not this.'

'I'm angry. I will shut you out. But that's not what's important right now.' He took another drink of coffee, threw the rest of it on the ground, and crushed the coffee cup in his hand. 'And if your ego demands you try to operate on your own, I'll crush you like I did that cup.'

Miguel gave a low whistle. 'I really think the tent needs to be put up.'

Montalvo didn't look away from Joe. 'Relax, Miguel, nothing is going to happen. When I was a boy like you, I might have acted precipitously and gone for the jugular, but I have a tendency to think before I leap these days.' He finished his coffee. 'And I do have a certain amount of ego, but I control it, Quinn. It doesn't control me. I happen to agree with you in this case, so I'll ignore your warning and chalk it up to concern for Eve.'

'How kind,' Joe said sarcastically.

'It is, isn't it?' Montalvo turned to Miguel. 'Lay out those maps on the ground beside the fire.'

'Right away.' Miguel quickly reached into a box in the car and drew out several maps. 'Anything for a diversion.' He spread two of the maps on the ground. 'I brought boxes of books and magazines about the possible sites where we might find Kistle. And I bought three sets of maps. I can give you one set, Quinn.'

'And why am I supposed to want these maps?' Joe asked.

'Because according to Murdock, the informant who told us about Kistle and Bonnie, these were the areas where Kistle liked to go hunting. He talked about them all the time.' Montalvo pointed to the first map. 'Chattahoochee Oconee National Forest.' He pointed to the second. 'Okefenokee Swamp. The first place is fairly close, about two hours away. The second is in south Georgia. My bet is that he's going to lead Eve to one of those places.'

'Maybe both of them,' Joe said. 'I've been to Chattahoochee National Forest. It could be a nightmare. Rough terrain, bluffs, streams.'

'How well do you know it?' Montalvo asked.

'Pretty well. Several years ago I followed a lead that Bonnie was buried there. We didn't come up with anything.' His lips twisted. 'But that doesn't mean she's not there. We couldn't search every inch of that acreage and we had no coordinates.'

'What about the swamp?'

Joe shook his head. 'Never been there.'

'Swamps are a good place to dispose of bodies.'

'You speak from personal experience?'

'Very personal.' Montalvo looked down at the map. 'And, no, I haven't tossed any enemies into the swamp. We had to retrieve my wife from a swamp. She was murdered and thrown away like so much refuse.'

'I don't think Kistle would take a chance on a body being retrieved. He's too careful. Of course, he could lie just to bring Eve to him.'

'He could pick another place entirely,' Miguel said. 'But these were the only grounds where he mentioned hunting. It makes sense, if he was going to bury a body, that he'd have it planned out ahead of time, as he did with Bobby Joe.'

Joe nodded. 'He was younger then, but the basic MO was probably the same.'

Montalvo nodded. 'That's what I thought. That means we have to learn these places as well as Kistle.'

'No way,' Joe said. 'We've got a chance with the national forest since I've been there, but none of us knows anything about the swamp.'

'I'm going down there tonight,' Miguel said. 'I've paid lots of Montalvo's money to a park ranger who will take me through it and reveal all its secrets.'

'Optimistic.'

'I'm good in the jungle, even better in a swamp. You would have seen for yourself if the colonel had let me go into Clayborne Forest.' He held up his hands. 'But I've told him the park ranger will do all the work and keep my bandages pristine clean.'

'He'd better,' Montalvo said grimly. He looked at Joe. 'I was going to go to the national forest, but it would be a waste of time if you know it well.'

Joe's lips lifted in a sardonic smile. 'You'd follow my lead?'

'You wouldn't lead Eve astray,' Montalvo said softly. 'And I'll have to be close to her if I'm to protect her.' He got to his feet. 'Give him his maps, Miguel. I'll start to put up the tent.'

Joe took the maps Miguel handed him and stood up. 'I'll let you know when Eve hears from Kistle.'

He wheeled and started up the path toward the cottage.

MIGUEL STOOD WATCHING QUINN for a moment. 'I didn't think you would let him talk to you like that. It's not like you, Colonel.'

Montalvo shrugged. 'I'm sorry to disappoint you. Do you think I'm afraid of him?'

Miguel shook his head. 'No, but I don't understand.'

Montalvo drove the tent pegs into the ground before he spoke again. 'I would have handled the situation in exactly the same way that he did. It's hard to condemn a man who does that.' Montalvo remembered saying something to Eve about them being mirror images of each other. Strange. Now he was seeing his reflection in Joe Quinn.

He dismissed the thought. 'As soon as we get the tent up, I want you to get something to eat and sleep a few hours. I want you to be at Okefenokee by daybreak.'

KISTLE'S PACKAGE WAS DELIVERED by UPS late the next afternoon. It was the size of a shirt box and wrapped in brown paper.

Joe brought it up to the porch. 'It's very light. Do you want me to open it?'

'No, I'll do it.' Eve stared at the box for a moment before taking it. It wasn't going to bite her. Or maybe it would. She wouldn't put it past Kistle to put a tarantula in the box.

Nevertheless, she had to open it.

She tore off the brown paper and opened the white box.

A child's blue hair ribbon.

She felt sick.

'Is it Bonnie's?' Joe asked.

That had been her first thought. But Eve had seldom put ribbons in Bonnie's hair because she had too many curls. When she did, the ribbons were always yellow. Bonnie loved yellow. She said it reminded her of the sun. 'No, it's not Bonnie's.' She touched it gingerly. On closer inspection she could see traces of brown stain on the satin. Dirt?

Or blood?

'There's an envelope.' Joe took it out of the box and opened it. 'Two pictures.' He handed her one taken somewhere outdoors. There was a pine tree and close to it was a huge rock. Then he handed her the second one.

'Oh, God.'

It was a picture of a little girl with shiny brown hair tied back with a blue ribbon.