Chasing the Night - Iris Johansen [9]
Atlanta, Georgia
Lake Cottage
Two days later
“Joe?” Eve opened her eyes to see Joe coming out of the bathroom, shrugging into his jacket. It was still dark, she realized drowsily. Where was he…
“Shh.” Joe’s lips brushed Eve’s forehead. “Go back to sleep. I got a call from the precinct. Something nasty on the south side.”
“What kind of—”
“I don’t know. No details. Go back to sleep,” he repeated. “You need it. It’s only five. You didn’t stop working on Cindy until two this morning.” He gave her another kiss and headed for the door. “I’ll call you.”
“Do that.” It must have been something urgent for them to call Joe from his bed. Urgent sometimes meant dangerous. “As soon as you know. Bye…”
A few minutes later, she heard his car start outside and tried to settle down and go back to sleep. She didn’t think it was going to happen. She usually worked late, but her eyes were strained and stinging from trying to put together the shattered puzzle that was Cindy. She should rest her eyes even if she couldn’t doze off again.
Fifteen minutes later she gave it up and sat up in bed. The longer she stayed in bed, the more tense she became. She’d get up, grab a cup of coffee, and go back to work on Cindy. She slipped on her robe and left the bedroom.
Joe had evidently grabbed a cup of coffee to go because there was a light burning in the kitchen. She chose a coffee pod and punched the button on the Keurig.
“That’s interesting. I’ve never seen a coffeemaker like that. But then I haven’t been in a civilized part of the world for a long time. Does it make good coffee?”
A woman’s voice.
Eve whirled toward the shadows of her lab across the room. “What the hell—”
“Don’t be afraid. I’m not here to hurt you.” The woman who spoke was sitting on Eve’s stool in front of the reconstruction of Cindy. “I just have to talk to you.”
“The hell you do.” Her gaze raked the woman from head to toe. Thin, dressed in dark jeans and sweater. No apparent weapons. That was good. Joe had taught Eve how to defend herself in any hand-to-hand battle. “Get out and call me on the phone. How did you get in here anyway? Joe always sets the alarm.”
“He did this time, too. It’s a good alarm. It took me a little while to get past it after he left.” She was gazing wonderingly down at the shards of bone on the tarp. “Are you really going to be able to put this face back together?”
“Yes. Get out.”
“I’m not handling this right.” She looked away from the bones to Eve’s face. “It’s just that when I saw those bones, it blew me away. My name is Catherine Ling. Venable might have mentioned me. I work with him.”
“Venable?” Eve relaxed a little. The invasion was still totally unacceptable, but if she was associated with Venable, there was no physical threat. “No, he didn’t mention you.”
Catherine Ling grimaced. “He didn’t even get that far? The age progression. He did call you about it?”
“Yes, I told him to get someone else. I’m too busy.”
“I want you. I need you.”
“Too bad.” She picked up her cup of coffee. “You and your CIA can go take a flying leap. I don’t work on Venable’s orders.” She went to the front door and opened it. “Now get out.”
Catherine didn’t move. “I don’t want you to work for Venable. I don’t want you to work for the CIA. This has nothing to do with them. It’s my job. I knew you had a relationship with Venable, and I thought if I could get him to offer it to you, that it would be easier to get you to do it.”
“Wrong.” She jerked her head at the open door. “Don’t come back. Next time, I’ll call the police.”
Catherine slowly rose to her feet. “Will you listen to me?”
“I might have listened to you if you hadn’t invaded my home like a cat burglar. Now you don’t have a chance in hell.”
“I was in a hurry. I didn’t want to have to argue with you. I thought if I hit the ground running, the shock would get us down to basics early.”
“Don’t come back.”
Catherine