“I’m following his trail from where he entered the canyon,” Catherine said. “I’ll call you if I spot him.”
Shit, Joe thought. “Twenty minutes.”
Too long.
Panic.
“Joe!”
He didn’t pay attention to the priest’s shout as he started to run.
Twenty minutes. Who knew what could happen in that time?
Eve …
CHAPTER
15
SOMETHING WAS DIFFERENT, EVE thought.
The ground was sandy, and the trees were thinning on either side of them since they’d made that last turn. The sky was still a cold gray, the trail misty, and she could make out very little in the dimness.
But something was different.
“You said we were going to Providence,” Eve said. “When do we get there?”
“We don’t.” Danner didn’t look at her. “It’s Providence National Park, and it’s four miles from here. We don’t have to go through the main part of the park. We just have to border the edge. I found this path years ago, and it saves me time when I just have to check.”
“Check?”
“Hurry.” His pace increased as the ground beneath their feet began to climb. “You said you wanted to be here, didn’t you? I wanted it, too,” he asked roughly. “Well, you’re here.”
And Danner’s voice was jerky and his face pale and taut in the dimness.
She was here.
Eve felt an excitement that was part eagerness and part dread.
Bonnie?
“Look at you,” Danner’s gaze was fixed on her face. “They say I’m crazy, but you know what I’m going to do, and it doesn’t matter to you.”
“It matters. But I can deal with it.” She wanted him to stop talking. The excitement was building, and she had to control it. Why wasn’t it just sick horror? This had to be her daughter’s murderer. He had not said the words, but it had to be true. “I’ve tried to find answers since the day Bonnie disappeared. I’ve been searching for my daughter for a long time.” Her stride unconsciously quickened.
I’m coming, Bonnie. I’m going to bring you home. You’ve always said it didn’t matter to you. But it matters to me.
“You shouldn’t have wasted your time looking for her,” Danner said.
“Waste? It wasn’t wasted.”
“It did you no good. And it didn’t help her. You couldn’t keep them away from her.”
He was talking about his demons again, Eve realized, and she was sick to death of it. And she didn’t have to put up with it now. The end was near. Either he was taking her to Bonnie, or it would all be revealed as a big lie spoken by this madman. “I’ve told you before. I can take care of my little girl. There are no demons who could touch her. They’re all in your mind. I’m sure your doctors have told—” She stopped. They had suddenly come out of the pine trees and were standing on a summit overlooking the canyon. She inhaled sharply. “Dear God. Where are we?”
The sun had not risen, but the dawn sky was shaded with pink and violet, and streams of golden light were falling on the canyon and the trees below. A silver ribbon that must have been a creek wound around the land at the bottom of the canyon. Beautiful. Lord, it was beautiful. It took her breath away. “I … didn’t expect this.”
“It’s the place, the canyon. I searched for a long time before I found it.” Danner had already turned away from the canyon and was starting to climb again. “It’s the only place I could find where the demons couldn’t come. But I think they’re here now, too. I … have a bad feeling.”
It was happening again. She could see the tension beginning to grip him. She’d been aware that it was growing for the last ten minutes. The violence was beginning to fester within him as it had once before. She had been able to deter that violence, but could she do it now? How much time did she have before that tension broke, and he turned on her? She’d have to fight him, and whether she lived or died, the knowledge of what happened to Bonnie could be lost.
Make him talk now. Make him tell her. Be bold. It seemed to work with him. Don’t let him think of her as a victim. “Stop hiding behind those tall tales, Danner. You’re a coward. You couldn’t even say her name. You made up a fantasy about those so-called demons because you didn’t want to face your own guilt.”
He whirled on her. “It’s not true.” His eyes were blazing in his taut face. “They’re here, they’re everywhere. I had to stop them.”
“Stop them from what? Killing my Bonnie? But you couldn’t do that. No demon murdered her. It was you, Danner.”
His hands reached out and clutched her shoulders. “It was a demon. A demon killed the child.”
“Bonnie. And it was you. No one else.”
His hands slid to her throat. “I wouldn’t have done it. Why would I do it? She belonged to John.”
“She belonged to me. I told you that I didn’t want John to have her. So you were angry and decided to punish me by killing my daughter.”
His hands tightened on her throat. “I didn’t kill her. I wanted to save her.”
His grasp was bruising, cutting off her air.
“You’re hurting me. You didn’t want to do this, remember? You wanted to take me to her first. And we’re so close now.”
“Close enough,” he muttered. His eyes were glittering. “I can take you to her later.”
“But then you’d break your promise to me. John always said you’d never break your word. Is he wrong?”
His grip was loosening but not releasing her. “I never lied to John.”
“Except about your mental illness.”
“That wasn’t really a lie. I wasn’t sick. They wouldn’t believe me. They weren’t there. They didn’t see the demons kill those children in the mountains.”
“No one is seeing the demons but you. Why should I believe you?”
“Because it’s true.”
“I don’t know that. You’re afraid of Bonnie, aren’t you? You’re willing to do anything to make her leave you alone. Why would you be afraid if you didn’t think there was a reason for her to come after you?”
“Because she doesn’t understand. She thinks I did it. She doesn’t know.”
“Neither do I.” She held his gaze. “Tell me.”
His eyes were glittering. “It was the demon.”
“And what was the name of the demon? Does he have a name? Is it Ted Danner?”
“No. It’s Black. Paul Black.”
A ripple of shock surged through her. Black, the assassin that Gallo had killed weeks ago, the man who had been hired by Queen and Jacobs to take the blame for killing Bonnie. But Black had told Eve before his death that he had not done that killing.
And she had believed him.
She still believed him.
“You’re lying, Danner.”
He shook his head. “No, he was a monster. I saw him watching the little girl, and I knew what he was. He was standing outside your house on Morningside Drive, and I could see the shadow he was casting against the flames.”
“Flames?”
“No, that’s not right.” He moistened his lips. “That was the house in the village. That other time. No flames. Just the little girl getting off the bus and running up the street toward home. The sun was shining, and she was laughing.”
How many times had Eve stood on the porch and watched Bonnie run toward her, laughing and telling her something that had happened at school? “You saw Black standing there watching my Bonnie? Why were you there?”
“I had to stop him. I knew that he hated John and wanted to hurt him. John had made him look like a fool in front of Queen and Jacobs. They’d hired him to take John out, and he’d failed.”
“How did you know about Queen and Jacobs and how they’d victimized John?”
“When they told me that John was dead, I had to find out what had happened to him. John was smart. John was good. And those bastards used him and threw him away. I went after them. I searched for years until I found out what they were. I was going to take Queen and Jacobs out, but then I heard that John had escaped from that prison. I went to Jacobs and Queen and told them I was going to tell John everything and that I was going to blow the whistle on their drug dealing.”