Bonnie - Iris Johansen [28]
“The first is that Ted Danner is supposed to be dead.”
“That’s not bothering me too much. Deaths can be faked. Hell, the Army obviously faked Gallo’s death in Korea. Who told you that Danner was dead?”
“Gallo. When we were at the cabin on the property in Wisconsin, Gallo was telling me how his uncle had brought him up there when he was a kid. He told me that his uncle had died when Gallo was in prison in Korea.”
“And you thought he was telling the truth?”
Eve nodded. “I believed Gallo. It didn’t occur to me to interrogate him about his uncle.” She added slowly, “Though perhaps I should have questioned everything concerning him. Ted Danner would have done anything in the world for Gallo.”
“Questioning might not have done any good,” Catherine said curtly. “Gallo could have believed what he told you. Maybe he didn’t know that Danner was still alive.”
“Why wouldn’t he know?”
“How do I know?” She went still, her eyes narrowing. “Though it would explain why Gallo was practically in shock when he saw him on the bank. And, if they were as close as you say, he would have found it nearly impossible to try to take him out.”
Eve had been thinking about the reluctance to act that Joe had been so certain he’d seen in Gallo. Joe had assumed that it was deliberate, but Catherine’s explanation was also possible. She just didn’t know.
How could she know? She was still in shock from the moment she’d finished the sketch and recognized Ted Danner. Except it wasn’t the Danner she had known. That expression on the face she’d drawn during these past hours had been pure violence incarnate. “Yes, Gallo was very close to his uncle.”
“How close?” Catherine asked.
“I told you about their relationship.”
“Give me details.”
“I don’t know all the details. Gallo rarely talked about his feelings or the past.” She made a face. “We didn’t talk much at all. An exchange of thought or memories was last on our list of priorities. It was all about the physical.”
“Tell me what you do know.”
So that Catherine could put together all the pieces and come up with a defense for Gallo. Well, good luck to her. Eve wasn’t at the point where she could reason this out. “It’s pretty skimpy. John Gallo grew up in a housing development in Milwaukee that was probably a lot like the one where I lived. His family was dirt poor, and evidently his parents were terribly abusive. Gallo once mentioned that his father’s favorite form of punishment was putting cigarettes out on his back.”
“Son of a bitch.”
“That’s what I thought. Gallo’s only defense was to keep out of his way. It must have been hell on earth except for the times when his uncle came home on leave. When his uncle was medically discharged from the Army when Gallo was in his teens, they lived together, and I guess they took care of each other.”
“And they moved down to Atlanta to go to a VA specialist for Ted Danner’s back?”
Eve nodded. “And rented a place in a development a couple blocks from where I lived. That’s all I know. I’ve told you everything, Catherine.”
“You’re right, it’s damn skimpy.”
“I know.” But then everything about those weeks had been fast and volatile as the flicker of a motion-picture film. She had been so caught up in the sexual frenzy with Gallo that everything else had been as ephemeral as the fog outside.
And then there had been Bonnie, and nothing else had seemed important.
“And the only person who can tell us anything else is Gallo,” Catherine said. “And where is he, dammit?”
“It depends if Ted Danner is really alive,” Eve said. “And whether Gallo knew it. He’s either going to join him, or he’s going to try to find him.” She shrugged. “And what if Jacobs’s killer is just a Danner look-alike? It’s possible, isn’t it?”
Catherine just looked at her.
“Okay, it would be too coincidental.” Eve threw the sketch down on the table. “But I wanted to explore every possibility before I made a giant leap.”
“You made it,” Catherine said. “Now let’s go tackle the fact that Ted Danner is probably alive