“No, they let me leave yesterday. That man, Venable, told the people at the hospital that they could release me into his care. He must be a good guy.”
“Venable?” Joe repeated warily. He wasn’t sure that he liked this. “Yeah, sometimes.”
“I told him I wanted to call you and tell you that I have to come and help right away.” Ben’s voice was desperate. “He thought that was a good idea. Where are you, Joe? Mr. Venable didn’t know.”
And Joe would just as soon he didn’t know anything more than Joe wanted to tell him. He had learned his lesson in Colorado, when Venable could have gotten Eve killed when he’d tried to control the situation to suit himself. It was clear Venable was trying to manipulate Ben to get what he wanted, he thought grimly. “Is Venable there with you, Ben?”
“No, we’re at a motel. He’s in the next room. He said that he’d help me come to you if you’ll tell me where you are.”
“Look, I know you want to help, but by the time you get here, we’ll already have Eve safe.” God, he hoped he was telling the truth. “We’re close, Ben. She’s going to be okay. Stay where you are, and I’ll have Eve call you as soon as she can.”
“No, why are you telling me that? Bonnie says she’s not safe. She says he gets angry with Eve, and she almost died last night.”
Joe couldn’t breathe. He felt as if he’d been kicked in the stomach. “What are you talking about, Ben?” Keep calm, fight through the fear. “Talk slowly and clearly. You had another dream about Bonnie? When?”
“A little while ago. That’s why I have to get to you. Bonnie said you have to get her away from him right away.”
“I know that, dammit. What do you think I’m—” He tried to temper the harshness of his voice. “What else did she tell you? Eve hasn’t been hurt yet?”
“I don’t think so. Sometimes I think Bonnie doesn’t tell me everything she knows. But Eve is still alive, Joe. She was asleep, not dead. Like that princess in the fairy tale. Bonnie said Eve even joked about it to her. A sleeping princess in a cottage not a castle and not a garden of thornbushes but a graveyard of driftwood.”
He frowned. “What is all this nonsense? You’re not making sense.”
“I think Bonnie was trying to tell me where Eve is now. She didn’t know exactly. She could only see what Eve was seeing, what Eve knew about the place.”
“A graveyard of driftwood to keep everyone away from sleeping beauty?”
“He gave Eve something to keep her asleep,” Ben said simply. “Bonnie was afraid she’d never wake up.”
Joe muttered a curse. “Anything else? Did Bonnie tell you anything else, Ben?”
“You’re scared, aren’t you, Joe? I’m scared, too.”
Joe closed his eyes. God, yes, he was scared. “Yeah, I’m afraid for her. You’ve got to think hard and tell me everything about your dream.”
“It wasn’t very long. Bonnie said that she had to fight to get through, that someone…” He thought for a moment. “Kevin was keeping her from reaching anyone close to Eve. I’m the only one…”
“Anything else?”
He was silent, thinking. “Only that it was Kevin’s castle, I mean cottage, where Eve is now. Is that enough? I repeated everything she told me just like she wanted. Can we find her now?”
Garden of thorns, graveyard of driftwood, a cottage belonging to a man dead for the last five years. Pitifully slim clues given to a special boy from a spirit from beyond. He should be in hopeless despair.
He was not in despair. He would not let that happen. He was desperate, but he was reaching out to grasp this fragile straw that Ben was handing him. “We’ll find her. I just have to think and put all this together. You did good, Ben.”
“Then let me come to help you find her. I won’t get in the way.”
“I’m on my way to Seattle. That’s a long way from you. I can’t wait for you to get here. Bonnie wouldn’t want me to wait, would she? She was worried, or she wouldn’t have come to you. She’d want me to find Eve as soon as I can.”
Ben’s silence was troubled. “No, you can’t wait. Eve almost died. I’ll find my own way. Maybe Bonnie will help me.”
“Ben, stay where you are. I don’t want you to—” It was no use arguing with the boy. He would do what he thought was right. “Take care, Ben. Keep in touch.” He hung up.
His stomach was tied up in knots.
Eve almost died.
Stop thinking about Ben’s words. Move forward.
But one thing to do first.
He dialed Venable. “I assume you bugged Ben’s phone?”
“Would I do that to a fine boy like Ben Hudson?” He paused. “What do you expect. You’ve all shut me out. Even Catherine offers me only crumbs about what she’s up to. I have to take what I can get.” He added dryly, “Though that hogwash Ben was spewing wasn’t worth the planting of a very fine piece of electronic equipment.” His tone roughened. “I won’t have roadblocks put in my way, Quinn. The risk is too great. This isn’t only about Eve. I want Zander. He may be the only bargaining chip I have to get Doane and the location of those nukes.”
“I’ll get your damn bombs. And I’ll throw Doane’s body at your feet as soon as I get my hands on him. But I won’t have you dangling Ben on your string to force me to play the game your way. He’s a good kid, and he’s trying to help.”
“Yeah, dreams and ghosts and all that crap,” Venable said. “I can offer you a hell of a lot more help. I sent a team from Homeland Security into Seattle as soon as Catherine told me she was heading there. I also sent a team to Chicago to back any play there. Just keep me informed, dammit.”
“If I can do it without risking Eve. Otherwise, I’ll handle it myself.” He listened to Venable curse. “And I don’t care if you think Ben’s words were crap or not. Pretend you believe him and see if you can unearth any records about a cottage outside Seattle that Kevin may have purchased five years ago.”
“The information is probably buried, and it could be a waste of my time.” He paused. “We could make a deal.”
“I’ve told you how it’s going to be. You’ll do it because you’re scrambling for any clue to lead you to Doane.” He changed the subject. “Now, Ben is going to try to get up here. That’s okay as long as someone is looking out for him. That means you, Venable. You’ll be heading up here anyway now that you know Catherine and Zander are in this area. You take good care of Ben, or I’ll make you pay, Venable.”
Silence. “Threats? We used to be on the same side.”
“Not if your side considers Eve expendable.” He didn’t wait for an answer. He hung up.
He drew a deep breath. Don’t think, don’t feel, just move forward efficiently and at top speed. He dialed Gallo’s cell.
Gallo answered on the second ring. He said warily, “I take it that Catherine contacted you, too? I assure you that I don’t like the idea of our working together any more than you do.”
“I agree, but I’ll accept it because I may need you.”
“What?”
“It depends if you can swallow what Venable calls Ben’s hogwash,” Joe said curtly. “If you can’t, I don’t want you.”
Gallo was silent as moment. “Ben Hudson? What hogwash?”
“He dreamed of Bonnie, and she told him a few things. She was scared for Eve, but she couldn’t reach the people closest to her. She said Kevin was keeping her away.” He paused. “Well, simpleminded hogwash, Gallo?”
“Because he dreamed of Bonnie?” he asked quietly. “Then call me simpleminded, too, Quinn. I was in a North Korean prison for years, and I dreamed of Bonnie. I didn’t even know she was my child. I had no idea Eve was even pregnant when I left to go into the Army. All I know was that when I was on the point of death from starvation and torture, a little girl with red hair came down into that darkness and kept me alive. Yes, I believe that Bonnie could come to Ben. Do you?”
“Yes, I didn’t for a long time, years. I had to learn to suspend disbelief.” He cleared his throat. “And Bonnie’s let me keep Eve through all these years, so I have no trouble believing she wants us to find her. Though as far as clues go, she didn’t give us a hell of a lot.” He tried to think of Ben’s exact words. “Bonnie said Eve was joking about her being sleeping beauty but instead of a castle it was a cottage, and instead of a garden of thornbushes, it was a graveyard of driftwood.”