Blind Alley - Iris Johansen [59]
But she did care, dammit. He had known that little alluring tidbit would intrigue her. Someone else who dreamed of Cira?
If it was the truth.
And she wasn't about to lay herself open to possible ridicule just to satisfy his curiosity.
And her own curiosity, blast his soul.
Dahlonega, Georgia
Three days later
Eve Duncan.
Joe Quinn.
Mark Trevor.
Aldo closed the lid of the laptop computer and leaned back with a sigh of contentment as he stared at the printout. He knew enough now to launch the plan into action. What a pity Cira's enemies had not had access to the Internet. Information would have been a formidable weapon to bring her down. She had been soft in many ways. About that bodyguard she had saved from execution. About the street child she had taken into her home. All Julius would have had to do was to find her weak spot and capitalize on it to kill the bitch. And information was always the key.
Maybe Julius had killed her. But if he had killed her, he hadn't prevented her from remaining a presence, able to torment and destroy. He should have wiped her from the face of the earth.
As he would do.
He'd cleared the path to Jane MacGuire as much as he could. Now he would reconnoiter, find out the obstacles, and then he'd be ready to move with all due ritual.
He smiled as he looked at the suitcase across the motel room.
Green fire. Lovely deadly fire.
Are you waiting for me, Cira?
Mail,” Trevor announced as he came up the steps. “Bills, a postcard from Eve's mother from Yellowstone. Two FedEx boxes. One for Eve and one for you.”
“I hope you enjoyed the postcard.” Jane set aside the computer. “You're learning a little too much about us.”
“There can't ever be too much.” He smiled. “And I didn't read the postcard, just the signature. Eve's package is from a university in Michigan. Your package is from a Mail Boxes Unlimited in Carmel, California. Do you know anyone in Carmel?”
She nodded. “Sarah Logan. She and John live on the Seventeen Mile Strip. She gave me Toby.”
“So of course she's a very good friend, indeed. Come on inside and we'll open the packages.”
“I can open mine here.”
“No, you can't. You don't open anything. I checked the box out and it seemed okay but you can never tell.”
“What?” she lifted her brows. “No bomb? No anthrax?”
“Not funny. As a matter of fact, I had Quinn get me a portable scanner to detect the presence of a bomb.”
“Why? A bomb is a modern weapon of destruction. They didn't have them in Herculaneum.”
“Right. But a volcano explodes and so does a bomb. It's a very tenuous linking but I'm not taking any chances. As for anthrax, I don't think so. But he may have found some other volcano-related powder, that's why I'm opening it.” He opened the door. “Coming?”
She rose to her feet. “It's not unusual for Sarah to send me presents. She has to travel all over the world and she picks up toys for Toby and little surprises for me and Eve.”
“Nice lady. Let's see what she sent this time.”
He was holding the door open for her and it was clear he wasn't going to give her the package. She shrugged and preceded him into the house. “I won't argue. But you said yourself that you thought Aldo would want a close kill.”
“I'm not the one who'd bear the consequences if I was wrong.” He smiled at Eve, who was working on a reconstruction in her studio across the room. “Mail, Eve. Your mother is enjoying Yellowstone.”
“You said you didn't read her postcard,” Jane said dryly.
“I didn't. From what I understand, everyone enjoys Yellowstone. I must go sometime. Where do you want your mail, Eve?”
“On the coffee table.” She held up her clay-coated hands. “If I handled it now, I'd mess it up and wouldn't be able to read it.”
“How's the reconstruction going?”
“Pretty good. I've done the measuring and I'm starting the molding. But I never know until the final stages.”
“That's what you told me.” He began to separate Eve's mail on the coffee table. “Interesting stuff . . .”
Jane gazed at the two of them in bewilderment. She hadn't realized until this moment how at ease they'd become