Eve had wanted to protect him from the inevitable explosion. She had been protecting him constantly in big ways and small since he had come out of the coma. Ordinarily, it would have frustrated him, but in this instance, he welcomed it. He needed to think, and no one could reason logically when Jane was upset. She would be hurt as well as angry, and it was terribly hard to hurt someone you loved.
He got to his feet and moved across to the window and looked down at the hospital parking lot.
Okay, Catherine had said to assume Gallo wasn’t guilty and figure it out from there.
But he didn’t want to assume Gallo wasn’t guilty. He was still having problems with the antagonism he felt toward him. Jealousy? Maybe. He had always been possessive of Eve, and he didn’t like the idea of any other man in her life, past or present. Or maybe it was the fact that Gallo had endangered Eve since the moment he had come back into her life. Either way, the antagonism was present, and he had to deal with it.
So deal with it. Use intelligence, not emotion. He was an investigator. That was his chosen profession and he did it damn well. This could be the most important case he’d ever been given.
Is it Bonnie? This was a strange twist in the path that he’d been on since he’d come back with her from death’s door. Strange or not, he could only do what he could, be what he was. Think. Concentrate. Look over the possibilities and see how the puzzle pieces would fit in different scenarios.
Deal with it.
He was still standing at the window forty-five minutes later when Eve came back into the room.
“Jane wants to see you. I couldn’t talk her out of it.”
“You shouldn’t have tried.” He turned to face her. “She has a right to vent her emotions on both of us.” He smiled. “Don’t worry, she’ll be easy on me. She’ll only try persuasion. She’s been almost as protective of me as you.”
“And it’s been annoying you.” She grimaced. “I can’t help it, Joe.”
“I know. It will take a little time.” He paused. “If it will make you feel better, I’m feeling very strong. Sometimes stronger than I’ve ever felt before. There are moments when I’m not so good, but then I feel a kind of … surge. I can get through this, Eve.”
She took step closer and laid her head on his chest. “And you won’t take stupid chances?”
He chuckled. “Not too stupid.” He took a step back. “Now give me fifteen minutes, then I’ll face our tigress, Jane. Let’s go over those notes about the flights leaving from O’Hare and Milwaukee. I think I know who Gallo and Catherine are going after. I just want to verify by the destination.”
Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
“NOT VERY PREPOSSESSING,” Catherine said as she looked up at the small two-story apartment building that looked more like a motel. “When I think of Georgetown, I think foreign diplomats and money.”
“That’s probably why he wanted an address in Georgetown. Even though he was short of cash most of the time, he needed to put up a front.” He was climbing the steps to the second level. “Apartment 26?”
“Yes.”
He stopped before the door. “Locked. And probably an alarm shared by the other apartment dwellers.” He leaned back against the jamb and crossed his arms across his chest. “Take care of it, Catherine.”
“How do you know I can?”
“I watched you on camera when you and Quinn were storming my house in Utah. You were obviously an expert. I was impressed. My alarm system was state-of-the-art. This will be a piece of cake for you.”
“You’re giving me orders again.” She was starting back down the stairs. “And I don’t think you’re an amateur, Gallo.”
“I’m not. But you’ll be faster. I’ll open the lock by the time you get back. Okay?”
She didn’t answer as she hurried down the steps and around the back of the apartment units. She would just as soon deactivate the alarm herself. She was accustomed to working alone, and Gallo was a little too domineering for her taste. His attitude was probably natural since he, too, was used to working alone. They would have to learn to keep pace with each other. She remembered that she’d had no real problem with working with Joe Quinn. But Joe had been her friend, and she’d respected him and felt comfortable with him.
There was no comfort about working with Gallo. She might respect his abilities, but there was a constant awareness that aroused an emotion that was close to antagonism whenever she was with him.
An antagonism caused by that physical disturbance that she couldn’t suppress or diminish.
She might not be able to suppress it, but she blocked it when she had a job to do.
Take out the alarms.
Piece of cake as Gallo had said. She was climbing the stairs four minutes later. The door was cracked open, and no Gallo.
She glided silently into the apartment and shut the door. She was instantly assaulted by darkness and the pungent smell of pepperoni.
“No other alarms in here,” Gallo said from across the room. He was going through the drawers of a desk, his LED flashlight piercing the darkness. “Very messy. Jacobs was either a complete slob or he was in a big hurry.” He took the Rolodex from the desk and stuffed it into his pocket. “No convenient receipts for airline tickets. I don’t see any credit-card receipts either.”
Catherine went into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. “German beer. A California wine.” She opened the bag on the second shelf. “And some kind of pasta in marinara sauce. He has international tastes as far as food is concerned.”
Gallo was heading for the bedroom. “I’ll go through the drawers of the bedside table. You check the bathroom.”
The heavy scent of a citrus aftershave coming from a bottle on the sink … No toothbrush. A half-used lemon soap left in a green soap dish. Catherine picked up the aftershave and held it up to read the name. “Italian. Naples.”
“Nothing here but a pack of prophylactics,” Gallo said from the bedroom. “It’s nice to know the bastard practices safe sex. We’re not finding out much more than that. Anything else?”
“No.”
“Then let’s get out of here and start going through this Rolodex.” He was heading for the front door. “If he traveled out of the country frequently, then he probably had a travel agent. When you’re uneasy or afraid, then you tend to go to ground in the place that you feel most comfortable.”
“And you can’t be comfortable unless you visit a place with some degree of frequency.” She closed the front door behind her and followed him toward the steps. “So we check and see where—” She suddenly halted on the top step. “Was this too easy, Gallo?” Her gaze was wandering around the parking lot. “I know we’re both thinking of Jacobs as a second banana to Nate Queen, but it makes me uneasy that we don’t know how he thinks, which way he’ll jump. I don’t like invisible men.”
“I have a general idea how he’ll react.” Gallo looked soberly up at her from the bottom step. “And I’m not underestimating him, Catherine. He’s a cornered rat, and he’s not going to like me going after him. He’s always resented me. He likes everything neat and able to be managed and manipulated, and I stepped outside the box.” He turned and started toward the car. “But I wouldn’t worry too much. I became an expert at killing rats in that Korean prison where Queen and Jacobs sent me.”
* * *
“GALLO AND CATHERINE LING just left your apartment,” Nixon said when Jacobs answered the phone. “They weren’t in there for more than thirty minutes. They didn’t carry out any boxes or anything big.”
“But they probably found my Rolodex,” Jacobs said through set teeth. Dammit, he should have grabbed it when he’d left yesterday morning. He’d known he’d have to go on the run soon, but he’d been trying to raise a stake to see him through. When he’d gotten word that his superiors had issued orders for him to be picked up for questioning he’d been thrown into a panic. He’d only grabbed his clothes and spare stash of cash and split. “Why the hell didn’t you go in after it?”
“That’s not what you paid me for,” Nixon said. “I don’t know anything about alarms. I’m clean with the local police. I don’t want anything on my record. I watched. I reported. If you’d given me the go-ahead, I would have taken care of them.” He paused. “I’ll still do it. I’m right behind them on the freeway. All you have to do is make an electronic transfer into my bank account.”