Bonnie - Iris Johansen [78]
“You mean you’ll try to talk me out of it.”
“What’s the starting point?”
“The little girl.”
“What? Bonnie?”
“He never mentioned her name. When I asked who he was referring to when he spoke about a little girl, he never answered. He just continued talking about her.” He frowned thoughtfully. “For a little while, I thought that she was a fantasy in one of his delusions. Then I believed I caught a hint of pain, and I wondered if he couldn’t bear to recognize her, put a name to her. That could be more likely if he killed her as Eve thinks.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe it. He loves children.” Then he said soberly. “Or perhaps I can. A sin like that could turn a man to madness. But I can’t promise that the child Danner talked about is Bonnie. He spoke about her as if she were alive.”
“He’s crazy. It’s got to be Bonnie,” Joe said impatiently. “It can’t be a coincidence. His nephew is Bonnie’s father. And Danner took Eve, dammit.”
“It seems likely. As I said, I believe we have to look to the child. We have to find her, and we may find him.”
“So simple,” Joe said bitterly. “We’ve been trying to find Bonnie for years, Father.”
The priest nodded. “Danner has been talking to me about the child for the last four years.”
Joe shook his head. “Bonnie was taken long, long before that.”
“Maybe God didn’t want her to be found. He does things in His own time.”
“I can’t be that philosophic. Why do you think that we’ll find Danner when we find her? It could be a hallucination. And what makes you think you can find her anyway?”
“If it’s a hallucination then it has a home, a place where Danner thinks he interacts with the child. I have a general idea where that is.”
“A home? What do you mean?”
“Four years ago, Danner left his job with me to go to work for a charity in south Georgia. The Rainbow Connection. It’s a camp for disadvantaged kids. I tried to persuade him to stay so that I could keep an eye on him. But he said he couldn’t do it, that he was too far away from the child. She might need him. He kept his job with that charity for almost two years, then gave it up. But Max Daltrop, the head of the organization, told me he remained in the area. And I know it for a fact because Danner mentioned it whenever he came to confession. He said he couldn’t leave there although the demons were always surrounding him. He had to protect the child.”
“How?”
The priest shook his head. “He was usually irrational by the time he started to speak of the child. And his attitude changed as time went on. She was suddenly no longer a child to protect but to fear. Toward the last, he was frightened, agitated. He wanted her to go away. But he said that she wouldn’t go until he gave her what she wanted. He seemed to think that I should be able to know what that was. He’d ask me several times in the periods that we came together.”
“And you believe whenever he left you, he’d go back to the child?”
“I can’t be positive. As I said, he was irrational. But I thought at the time that was what he was doing.”
“And you believe that would be where he would take Eve? How certain are you?”
“Enough so that’s where I was going to go to find Danner when Eve Duncan told me that he was wanted for murder.”
Joe began to feel a flare of hope. It was a slim chance, but it was something to go on. “And where is this charity camp? South, you said?”
He nodded. “Near Jasper, Georgia.”
“Will you give me the telephone number of this administrator … Daltrop?”
“I’ll call him myself … on the drive down to see him. I’ve already phoned him and asked him if he could give me an address for Danner, and he didn’t have one. But he’ll make his staff available for questioning, and they may know something.”
“I didn’t say I was going to go down to the camp. As you said, it’s definitely not a sure thing. I don’t have time for mistakes. I’ll talk to—” His phone rang, and he glanced at the ID. Catherine.
“I have to take this, Father.” He punched