“I phoned Hu Chang in Hong Kong after I got your call and told him to tell Luke you’d been delayed.”
“I called Luke myself the minute I got into Miami. He was down in Hu Chang’s lab and was so excited he could only talk about their latest experiment. Luke trails behind Hu Chang night and day.” She could hardly blame her son. Hu Chang was fascinating, and she had found herself trailing after him herself when she was just a few years older than Luke. “He probably won’t even miss me.”
“He’ll miss you. Though I admit your friend Hu Chang is something of a spellbinder. How long are you going to leave Luke with him?”
“I’m bringing him back to Louisville to go to school in two weeks.” She sighed. “At least, that’s what I was going to do before I found out about Eve. I’ll have to leave him a little longer now.”
“I hate to admit it, but you couldn’t ask for him to be in safer hands than Hu Chang’s,” Gallo said dryly. “As long as you get a promise from him not to teach the boy how to concoct any of his poisons.”
“He wouldn’t do that. He’d know that I’d kill him.”
“Would you? I’m never sure how much leeway you’d give Hu Chang to do anything he wanted to do. Sometimes, I think he has you hypnotized.”
“Don’t be absurd. He’s my friend.” He had been her only friend for years after they had met in Hong Kong when she was only fourteen. An unlikely friendship. She had been a street kid who had found her niche in selling information to the highest bidder, he was a master poisoner who traveled the world and sold his wares to whoever could afford them. When they had come together, they had found a closeness that had saved them both. “And he loves Luke. He wouldn’t hurt him.” But Hu Chang didn’t always have the same opinion of right and wrong as others. “He knows that it would break our friendship if he did something that I felt was wrong for Luke. He values that friendship as much as I do.”
“You sound as if you’re trying to talk yourself into something.”
“Nonsense. Hu Chang is brilliant, and Luke is learning more from him than he’d ever learn in school. These last months in Hong Kong have been wonderful for him.” She added, “But thank you for calling Hu Chang and telling him what happened. I’ll call Luke again tonight and explain.”
“You’re welcome. I was just clearing the decks for you. I knew you’d be on the hunt as soon as Quinn told you that you had a chance of saving Eve. Remember to tap Venable for any information you can squeeze out of him.” He hung up.
She pressed the disconnect and slipped the phone in her pocket. She felt a sudden rush of hope as well as excitement. John Gallo was on the move.
Time for her to move, too.
Brush aside that sleek, gray-haired guest Venable was using to run interference against her. Make the bastard talk to her.
Venable looked up warily as she strode purposely across the bank toward him.
* * *
“I WAS WORRIED ABOUT YOU.” Mark Trevor watched Jane coming down the porch steps. “Particularly since I saw Caleb practically push you up those stairs. Are you okay?”
“Fine.” She looked around the almost deserted grounds. “Better than fine now that I see everyone has gone home. I need to talk to Joe. I just needed a little stress-free rest.”
“On Caleb’s recommendation?” Trevor’s lips twisted. “It’s not like him to be a caregiver. You have to be careful of his motives.”
“I’m always careful with Caleb.”
“I know. And it makes me uneasy that you’re so aware of him.” He shrugged. “But that’s the way things stand. I should never have left you for so long. I thought it was wise to give you space, but I’m not sure now. But now I’m back, and I’m closing that space down to inches.” He reached out and took her hand. “And I’m an excellent caregiver. It’s what I want to do. I want to be there to protect you in darkness and sunlight.” He said softly, “Lately, I’ve been realizing that’s maybe what I’m meant to do. I’ve even had a couple dreams about it. Crazy, huh? All the passion and the laughter was good, but in the end it comes down to what’s really important. What role we’re meant to play in each other’s lives.”
She didn’t know what to say. This was completely unlike Trevor. He was sophisticated, sometimes dry, sometimes mischievous, never given to soul-searching. She searched his face for some hint of the Trevor she knew. No mockery. He meant what he said. She had known him since she was seventeen, but she had never seen him more sincere about anything. She laughed shakily. “Yes, pretty crazy. And I don’t want anyone to take care of me. You should know that by now, Trevor.”
“That doesn’t seem to matter any longer.” He added simply, “It’s my role. I’ll try not to let it get in our way.” He linked his fingers with hers and pulled her toward Joe. “He’s still talking to that police captain from Chicago. I’ll distract him and get him out of your way while you talk to Quinn.”
“How? You don’t have any background in police—” She stopped and smiled. “Never mind. What am I thinking? You never have trouble with accomplishing distraction and sleight of hand. It’s a product of your shady past. I forget occasionally what a checkered life you’ve led.”
“Right.” He smiled. “And it comes in handy to furnish you with what you need at any given time.” He gestured as she opened her lips to speak. “And you’ll take this little service from me because it could start the move toward helping Eve.” They had reached Joe and the police captain, and Trevor’s smile was suddenly brilliant, that powerful magnetism reaching out to envelop them. “Hello, Quinn, Captain Larimer, I just wanted to repeat my sincere condolences before I left.” He turned to Larimer. “I know you must deal with this kind of tragedy on a daily basis, but you have to admit that this is far beyond—”
For the next five minutes, Jane watched Trevor with bemusement. In that time, he’d smoothly moved the police captain to the buffet and was pouring him a cup of coffee while he continued to ask him questions.
“Trevor’s very good.” Joe smiled faintly as he watched the two men. “And I owe him. I tried twice to send Larimer on his way without being blatantly rude.” He turned to Jane. “Margaret said you weren’t feeling well. Should I be worried?”
“No, I was only tired.” She grimaced. “Yet everyone immediately assumes I’m on death’s door.” She changed the subject as she turned and led him away from the cottage to the edge of the lake. “But I would have come down sooner except that I was talking to Kendra. And then, after she left, I was reading the journal.”
He went still. “Journal?”
She quickly filled him in on her conversation with Kendra. “The stuff in the journal was sickening. Kevin was a monster. He was an egomaniac with a complete lack of conscience. The descriptions of what he did to those little girls were hideous.”
“Anything else?”
“It’s hard to get beyond the atrocities.” She tried to think. “There were a few references to Pakistan, but no names that might have been valuable to al-Qaeda.” She paused. “But there was a mention of his dealings with the CIA. Double dealings, according to him. A lot of money exchanging hands.”
“That’s not unusual. An embedded agent would pretend to be on the take.”
“I don’t believe he was talking about the embedded agents. He was talking about a specific CIA agent. And he was confident he’d persuaded the agent to go rogue. He was very happy about that. He said that he needed someone in a trusted position to pave the way to the project.”
“Project? What project?”
“He never spelled it out. I assumed it had something to do with Bin Laden. That’s who Venable told us was the target.”
“Maybe.” Joe frowned. “Maybe not.”
Jane’s gaze narrowed on his face. “Kendra didn’t want me to give the journal to Venable. Now you have doubts about him?”
“I don’t want to have doubts. I’ve worked with him a long time.” He nodded curtly. “Hell, yes, I have doubts. He’s not been listening to anything I’ve been telling him since this started. And I don’t like the way he gave the okay for that attack team to tear down the mountain and start shooting up that saloon.”
She could see his mind turning over, working through the facts and theories. “Anything else?”