Eve jerked open the door and looked down at the box. Jesus, she was shaking. 'What is it?'
'No wires. That doesn't mean that it's not explosive.'
She bent down and touched the top of the box. 'It's… cold.'
'Keep your hands off it. Evidence.'
'I don't care. Dammit, Montalvo wouldn't want to blow me up. Open it. If you have to preserve your damn evidence, do it. But open the box.'
'The two actions don't coincide. Oh, shit.' He took his penknife and carefully cut the tape binding and slowly opened the lid. 'Step back while I-'
Blood.
'Oh, my God,' Eve whispered.
Joe slammed the lid of the box shut.
'No.' Her voice was shaking. 'I'm okay. Open it again.'
'You've seen it. It's a man's head.'
'Open it.'
He hesitated and then opened the box again. Brown eyes stared blindly up at her from the man's head lying in the box.
'Gonzales?' she whispered.
'I don't know. We have no idea what he looks like. It could be Soldono.'
She felt sick. 'Why? I told him we'd talk.'
'He might be nuts. He might have recognized it as a stall. Who the hell knows?' He took out his phone. 'But I do know I'm going to get a forensic team out here to examine this box.'
She nodded. 'You're right. I probably shouldn't have asked you to-' She stopped, gazing down at the head. 'Wait. There's something wrong.'
'Tell me about it. Very wrong. The bastard beheaded him.'
'No. The eyes…' She extended her hand toward the head.
'Don't touch him.'
'I don't think…' She moistened her lips. 'At least, the eyes…' Her fingertips touched the left eye. She drew a deep breath. 'Bring the box inside.'
'I'm not moving it.'
'I want more light.' She picked up the box herself. 'If you won't help, get out of my way.' She could hear Joe cursing as she set the box down on the floor inside the door. 'It's not what we thought.'
Bonnie had said that about Montalvo, she thought absently. Or maybe Eve had sensed it from her conversations with Montalvo.
'What do you mean?' Joe asked.
'The eyes. They're glass.'
'You're sure?'
'I wasn't until I touched it. It just struck an off note when I was looking at him. I've put thousands of glass eyes in reconstructions over the years. And if he has phony eyes, he could-' She turned on the top light and looked at the bloody head. 'That son of a bitch.'
Joe muttered a curse. 'It's a fake.'
'Not even a good fake. If it hadn't been so dim on the porch, we would have been able to tell. And the blood didn't help. It was immediate shock value.' She was shifting the model from side to side in the box, examining it. 'Dry ice to make us believe it had to be refrigerated. Everything done very elaborately just to scare the hell out of me. It's like a bratty kid's practical joke. I want to-' She stopped as she caught sight of something lying in the pool of blood in the bottom of the box. An envelope. She picked it up and tore it open.
'A letter?' Joe asked.
'No letter. A photograph.' It was a photograph of a young, good-looking, dark- haired man with his arm around a smiling woman. Two children, a boy of about four and a girl who looked to be eight or nine, were standing before them. The little girl wore a stiff white dress and the boy was wearing a white shirt and tie. They looked like they were dressed up to go to church, Eve thought. 'What the devil is this?' She turned the photo over and brushed a smear of blood that had leaked through the envelope to obscure the writing on the back. The ink had also smeared but she could read it. 'Pedro and Maria Gonzales. Manuel and Rosa on her First Communion.' Her hands were bloody from handling the photo, she noticed dully as she dropped it. 'The head definitely resembles the man in the photo. I suppose Montalvo wanted us to know who he was. It's absolutely bizarre.' She whispered, 'I hope that's what he wanted to do.'
'We've got to call Venable.'
'Wait.'
'Why?'
'Montalvo's going to phone me.' She sat back on her heels. 'Any time now. He must have known we'd find out fairly quickly that his surprise package was a fake. He's going to do a follow- up.'
'Maybe.'
'No maybe.' Her gaze was fastened on the head. 'He's going to do it. I couldn't be more certain.'
The house phone rang.
She jumped to her feet and ran toward the phone.
'Did you get it?' Montalvo asked.
'What kind of sadistic bastard are you? What did you think to accomplish by that macabre joke?'
'You did get it. Then my timing is impeccable. I couldn't have my courier stick around to make sure. There was always the chance Quinn might set out on his trail, and the man is valuable to me.'
'I got it. And it didn't fool me for more than a minute. Whoever did it was no expert.'
'I didn't have a lot of time to have it done properly.' He paused. 'I had to examine my options. I was going to send you Gonzales's head, but I liked this alternate better. I figured it would get your attention.'
'Is Gonzales still alive?'
'Perhaps. Perhaps not.'
'Tell me.'
He didn't speak.
'I told you I'd talk to you about the reconstruction.'
'You were stalling me. I knew that would be your first reaction. Since I couldn't get a commitment from you, I thought I'd take our negotiations a step further.'
'Did you kill Gonzales? Soldono thought you would.'
'And Soldono believes he knows me very well.'
'What about Soldono? We couldn't reach him.'
He didn't answer her. 'Did you like the photo? I took it from Gonzales's wallet. It's a good likeness of him. Much better than that exhibit I sent you.'
'Is he still alive?'
'And his wife and children? A handsome family, aren't they? His wife and the boy and girl live in a village near the compound. He got a note from them yesterday. They don't understand why he didn't come to see them this weekend.'
'Then let him go.'
'I can't do that.'
