Quicksand

lately about Kistle that's made me uneasy.'

Her hand tightened on the phone. 'What information?'

'I have to board my plane. We'll get together in Bloomburg.'

'I don't want to get together with you. I want to know now.'

'But Quinn probably uncovered the same facts and shared them with you.' He added, 'Just as he told you about Bloomburg.'

'Damn you.'

'I'll see you soon. I did want to tell you I'm calling Venable with the CIA and asking him to get the FBI on site in Bloomburg. Kistle has been crossing state lines for years and even a suspicion that he's a child murderer should give them an excuse to intervene.'

'It won't be easy. There's no evidence yet.'

'I can bargain with Venable. I'm a storehouse of information about the underbelly of crime in Colombia. And he owes you, Eve. That should be enough for him to be very persuasive with the FBI.'

'Why are you so determined to get the FBI involved?'

'I want all the help I can get. The best, most experienced help.'

'You really don't believe the sheriff's men are going to get Kistle, do you?'

'I hope they do. I have to go now. I'll see you in Bloomburg.' He paused and then said softly, 'I would have told you, Eve. It's your right. I would have taken you with me. I'd take you with me now if you'd come.'

'Good-bye, Montalvo.' She hung up.

It had been months since she'd seen Montalvo and yet it seemed like only yesterday. Their time together in Colombia had been fraught with danger that had bred a closeness that had dominated her life for that short period. The intimacy that had grown between them while she was working on his wife's skull had been too strong, too sensual, and she'd shut him out of her life.

'My God.' Jane's gaze was on her face. 'No wonder Joe doesn't like Montalvo.'

Eve was jerked back to the present. She should have been more guarded. She hadn't wanted Jane to be aware of the fallout from that reconstruction she had done for Montalvo. 'That's putting it mildly.'

'Did you have an affair with him?'

Eve felt a ripple of shock. She wanted to back away, change the subject, but she wasn't going to lie to Jane. 'No, it wasn't like that.'

'It might have been better if it had been. He disturbs the hell out of you.'

She couldn't deny that either. 'I love Joe. Joe is smart and sexy and we… mesh. We complete each other. I know how lucky I am. He's everything I want.' She moistened her lips. 'Montalvo is just…' How could she explain it to Jane when she had trouble understanding it herself? 'He knows me. Maybe it's because he went through the same pain with his wife that I did with Bonnie. Maybe it's just that there are some people who are instinctively in tune. He said we were mirror images of each other.'

'And do you believe it?'

'Sometimes. We shared pain and obsession. No one can actually understand how that feels unless they've been there.'

'Joe said Montalvo plays you like a song.'

'He tries. And he's good at it.' She stared Jane in the eye. 'That's why I told him that I didn't want his help finding Bonnie's killer. We made a deal when I did his wife's reconstruction, but now that he's given us a lead, Joe and I can find Kistle by ourselves. I value the life I have with Joe and I won't have it turned upside down.'

'You sound determined.'

'I couldn't be more determined. As long as Joe wants me, I'll never leave him.'

'He'll always want you.'

'I hope so. He's put up with a lot from me over the years. Sometimes I think he's getting a little tired.'

'People don't get tired of you, Eve. Joe wouldn't. I wouldn't. Now stop talking nonsense.' Jane reached out and touched Eve's cheek. 'But if I can help you work it out, let me know.'

'There's nothing to work out. That's not what this is about. It's about Kistle… and Bonnie.' She turned toward her bedroom. 'I'm going to pack. Will you call and make me a reservation to Bloomburg?'

'Two reservations,' Jane corrected. 'I'm going with you.'

'You said you had to start the work for your next show.'

'I can paint anywhere. Do you really believe I'd let you go after that son of a bitch without having me in your corner?'

She smiled. 'I guess not. Whatever was I thinking? By all means, come along. It seems as if my entire world is flocking to Bloomburg.'

'Right, I'll pack a bag. We can drop Toby off at my friend Patty's, so she can take care of him while we're gone.'

'Let's hope that won't be long.' She closed the bedroom door. It would be good to have Jane with her. They were so much alike in spirit and background that they might well have been mother and daughter. Jane had appeared years after she had lost Bonnie, and her presence had warmed and enriched her. Jane always insisted that she wasn't hurt that Bonnie dominated Eve's life. She said that friendship was enough. Maybe it was, when the friendship was this close. Daughter or friend, Eve had been lucky to have Jane come into her life.

And to have Joe come into her life and choose to stay.

She reached for her phone and dialed Joe again.

Still no answer. The phone was still turned off. Surely the plane must have landed by now.

He's not even going to be able to take a breath before he's pulled down into the quicksand.

She felt a chill go through her as she remembered Bonnie's words.

She moved over to the closet and pulled out her duffel. Pack and then call Joe again. Dammit, answer me this time, Joe.

Quicksand…

QUICKSAND.

Kistle could feel his muscles strain as he pulled himself hand over hand through the trees twenty feet above the bog. Most quicksand wasn't as dangerous as most people thought, but it could slow you down.

And it made an excellent trap.

He'd left a few scraps of his shirt material on the branches of the path leading here as bait. Then he'd covered the first few yards of the bog with branches. Everything was working out splendidly. The sheriff's men had split up and were scouring the entire forest and he hadn't had to isolate them individually. Two of the pricks were heading this way now, trotting like cattle to the slaughter.

'Come on,' he whispered as he settled in the crook of a tree and lifted his rifle, checking the silencer and the scope. 'Just a little farther. Come and get me.'

A minute later a man burst from the shrubbery at a run. The next instant he was followed by a second man. They were three yards from the camouflaged bog.

A few more steps.

He took aim three feet ahead of them.

Into the quicksand!

He didn't wait to watch them flounder helplessly as they sank.

Two shots.

One bullet in the head of the first officer. The other in the throat of the second man…

He was already moving toward them as they fell. He grabbed the two men by the shirts and dragged them out of the bog, dripping with mud and sand. They had been nothing, no challenge at all. Just as he'd thought. Cattle to the slaughterhouse.

He could feel the excitement tingling through him as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the messages he'd scrawled on scraps of paper he'd ripped from his notebook.

It was starting.

'DETECTIVE QUINN?'

Joe looked around to see a uniformed officer coming toward him across the terminal. 'Yes.'