“You’re thinking of us as a team. We worked together because it was necessary.” She made a face. “And because a lot of the time we think alike. But we’re not joined at the hip. Remember that, Eve.”
“I will.” She opened the passenger door. “Have a good trip home, Catherine.”
“I’ll be placing a few calls to Venable and seeing if I can get a handle on where to find Hanks and Judy Clark.” She gave Eve a hug and looked at Joe as he started the car. “Take care of that arm, Joe.”
“Right, say hello to Luke for me.”
“If I can tear him away from the Lost Cities of the Ancient World. Since he found that book, he’s been glued to it.” She stepped back. “I think he may be planning on finding a couple of them. Luke is so independent, it wouldn’t surprise me if he got a plan together and took off on his own. But I’m going to work at it and make sure he includes me in that expedition. That may be my chance at bonding.” She turned back to the plane. “I’ll call you if I find out anything from Venable.”
Eve watched her as Catherine climbed the steps and boarded. Then she glanced at Joe. “She’s already in work mode again.”
Joe shrugged. “She’s CIA. And she has a personal interest. I’m glad to have her on board.”
She smiled faintly. “Because you think alike.”
“Yeah.” He drove out of the airport lot onto the street. “With some exceptions. She’s more inclined to giving the benefit of the doubt.”
He was talking about John Gallo.
She didn’t answer. It was difficult defending John, and she was too tired and drained to make the attempt.
She turned away and watched the skyscrapers and domes of the great city flow by the window.
“WHY DON’T YOU TAKE A NAP?” Joe asked Eve as he unlocked the door of the cottage. “You didn’t sleep on the plane at all.”
“I tried.” Eve looked at the blue-and-white notice she’d taken off the door. “FedEx tried to deliver my skull from Texas. I’ll have to call them and tell them to redeliver.” It seemed such a long time ago when she’d waited out on the porch for that delivery. She put the notice on the kitchen bar. “You didn’t stop at a hospital to have that wound looked at.”
“I’ll do it on the way to the precinct.”
“You’re going in to work?”
His brows lifted. “I do have a job.”
She gave him the ghost of a smile. “When I don’t interfere with it.”
“You could hardly help it in this case, could you? I’ll shower and change and be out of here.” He went past her down the hall.
She went back out on the porch and sat down on the swing. She would try to sleep in a little while, but she was too wired right now. She would sit here and let the peace of this familiar, beautiful place sink in and quiet her spirit.
Had Gallo gotten in the habit of going back to his place in the mountains for the same reason? To heal wounds and quiet his soul after the storms of life? But he no longer had a place to go for sanctuary now.
And she was identifying with him again. She mustn’t do that if she was to get what she wanted from him. Joe thought Gallo was the enemy, and perhaps that was true. But not for the reason that Joe feared.
She set the swing gently rocking, watching the morning breeze stir the tops of the trees.
Help me, Bonnie. I don’t know what to do. Everything is more of a mystery than I dreamed. I believed him, but is it true? If it’s not a lie, did you come to love him? And if you loved him, does that mean I have to help him? You healed his wounds and kept him sane. Is that what you want from me?
No answer.
No sudden wonderful, loving vision of her daughter to give her any of those answers.
Of course not.
Bonnie never came on demand, dammit. That would be too easy.
So work it out for yourself, Eve thought. That’s what life is all about. No easy answers.
“What are you thinking?” Joe stood in the doorway, looking at her. “You’re frowning.”
She forced a smile. “I was thinking that there are no easy answers. And that I was ready for a lightning bolt to flash down and illuminate all the darkness.”
“But that would be an easy answer.” Joe moved over to the swing and stood looking down at her. “Did I ever tell you how beautiful you look with the sunlight on you?”
“You’re blind. I’ve got to have circles under my eyes, and my hair looks like a haystack.”
“It doesn’t matter. You glow from inside out. And then the sun touches you, and it shows how your eyes shimmer with life and every character line.”
“Those are called wrinkles, Joe.”
“Those are called beautiful.” He bent down and gently brushed her lips. “Trust me.”
Lord, she loved him. She pulled him down and held him close. “Why are you saying this? Why now?”
“Because I looked at you, and I remembered that, no matter how many problems we have, it would be worse being apart,” he said gruffly. “I can’t be easy. It’s not my nature. But it’s my nature to love you.” He kissed her quick and hard and released her. “That’s all. Remember that when I’m being a surly son of a bitch and out to hold on to you through hell and high water.” He turned and ran down the porch steps. “Go to bed and try to get at least a little sleep before you call FedEx to bring back that skull. You don’t need to dive into work without any rest. I’ll call you later and bring home dinner.”
She watched him get into the car and back out of the driveway.
No, he’d never be easy. Joe was brilliant, complicated, and wary. He made friends with extreme caution and kept them forever. Dear God, how lucky she’d been that he loved her and wanted to keep her in that same golden circle.
Joe’s car turned the curve in the road and disappeared from view.
As a golden circle could be broken, as a life could so easily be lost.
Joe…
The key John had given her. Why hadn’t she told Joe and Catherine about it? At first, it had slipped her mind, but later it had been a conscious decision. But why had she made that decision?
She took out the cell phone that John Gallo had handed back to her in that bedroom. He had said that it was to communicate with Joe, but had he really meant that to be the purpose? She had come to realize that nothing about John was clear and absolutely straightforward. He had abandoned her to Joe and Catherine tonight, but wasn’t that the best way to avoid the complications he had been trying to skirt?
And then he had given her back her phone. Had he also given her a choice?
She slowly scrolled back to John Gallo’s call the first day that he had phoned her.
Choice?
She wasn’t prepared to make that choice yet. She was tired and emotionally drained. She had to give herself time to think and make sure she wasn’t going to stampede herself into doing something as impulsive as that sixteen-year-old kid she had been might have done.
She started to put the phone back in her pocket, then stopped and dialed the number of FedEx. She would have the skull delivered as soon as possible and start work.
Doing the reconstruction would remind her of who she was and how far she had come from that girl in the Peabody Housing Development.
JOE DIDN’T COME HOME UNTIL almost midnight. He’d called her late in the afternoon and told her he was going to have to work late on a murder case in Vinings.
He quietly slipped into bed. “Awake?” he whispered.
“Yes.” She yawned and cuddled closer. “I was working.”
“I saw the reconstruction on your worktable. I told you to take a nap.”
“I wanted to work. I didn’t do much. Only started the measurements.”
“Have you named him yet?”
“Dale.”
“Do you want to talk about him?” His hand was stroking her hair.