Bonnie - Iris Johansen [113]
She dialed quickly. “I’ve spotted Danner. He’s alone. Where the hell is Eve?”
“I don’t know. We lost them after he started climbing the west wall of the canyon. Joe and I split up to search.”
Catherine muttered a curse. “That’s not good. I have to find out where he left her.” She didn’t want to think of the question of how he’d left Eve.
Dead. Alive. Wounded.
“Where are you, Gallo?”
“Still on a path on the canyon wall.”
“Then you’re no help. Danner’s headed for the bottom of the canyon.”
“Wait for me. I’ll be there.”
“No time. I’m not letting him leave the canyon without telling me where he left Eve. If she’s unconscious, it could take us days to find her.”
“Wait for me.” The phone crashed in her ear as he hung up.
Screw it. The time was over for waiting and also for working as a team with Gallo. If she could lever herself from that overhanging oak tree down to the next level of the path, she would make up a good deal of the distance. She slipped her phone in her jacket pocket and started down the trail toward the oak tree.
* * *
RUN.
Don’t slip on this damn sandy shale, Danner told himself.
One false step would throw him off the path and into the canyon over a hundred feet below.
But he couldn’t see for the tears running down his cheeks.
He had killed Ben. Why had the boy come after him? He hadn’t wanted to harm him. He had been closer to Ben than he had been to anyone since the time he’d spent with John when he was growing up. He had wanted to protect him and take care of him. To keep all the demons away from him.
Dead. Dead like the little girl. He had killed him as he had Bonnie.
No!
It was the demon, Black, who had killed Bonnie.
He wouldn’t have killed the little girl.
But he had done it. If he could kill Ben, then he could kill Bonnie.
“Stop where you are, Danner.”
A woman had come out of the brush at the side of the trail, a gun in her hand. Long, straight, dark hair, slightly tilted dark eyes, framed in long lashes. He knew that face. Catherine Ling, who had been with John at the bayou.
“Where is Eve, you bastard?” she asked grimly. “Give me an answer in ten seconds, and you’ll live for a little while longer.”
Eve. He should not have run away even if he’d been sick about killing the boy. Eve was still alive. He had failed Bonnie. It would be okay. He could make it right. But he had to get away from here first. Then he could concentrate on finding Bonnie’s mother again.
“Is she dead?” Catherine asked.
He shook his head. “She fought me and ran away. She shouldn’t have done that. It’s not what the little girl wanted.”
“Where is she?”
“With the boy.” He was sobbing. “I killed the boy.” Too much pain. Get away. Get rid of her.
He dove sideways and kicked out and struck her gun with the toe of his boot.
It fired and the bullet ricocheted off the wall of the canyon. Then he was running into the brush, the thorns and branches whipping at him.
She was running after him.
Pull to the side and ambush her.
Not now.
Keep running.
Keep running.
Keep running.
Run away from those children in the flaming house in the mountains of Syria.
Run away from Ben, with blood blossoming on his shirt.
Run away from Bonnie, lying so still in the trunk of his car.
Bonnie.
“You have to stop.” It was John calling from behind him. “Don’t make me come after you.”
John was hurting. He could always tell when the boy was hurting. How many times had Ted chased after John when Ted’s brother had beaten him? John had always tried to hide it from him, but he always knew.
“You have to make it right,” John’s voice was hoarse with pain. “I’ll try to help you through it, but you have to give yourself up. And you have to tell me where you left Eve.”
He kept on running.
“Stop,” John said. “For God’s sake, stop. Or I’ll have to shoot you. Don’t make me do that.”
He looked over his shoulder and saw John aiming his gun.
He kept on running.
He didn’t hear the shot until the bullet entered his kneecap. Pain. He fell to the ground. Then, as he was levering himself