Countdown - Iris Johansen [80]
He opened the box and carefully took away the protective plastic wrappings.
He sighed with pleasure. Beautiful . . .
Trevor met Jane as she reached the courtyard. “Bartlett said you were going after Mario. Did you talk to him?”
She shook her head. “But I talked to MacDuff. He told me that you’d made a deal to turn over Reilly to him.”
“Did he?” He paused. “And what do you think about that?”
“I don’t care who gets rid of Reilly as long as it’s done. And MacDuff seems to have a good reason for wanting him dead. Reilly has to be a complete slimeball.”
“I told you that before.”
“I understood it. I didn’t have an example thrown at me until MacDuff told me about Jock. Reilly is evidently a fit partner for Grozak.” She searched his expression. “MacDuff said you didn’t know about Jock’s connection with Reilly, but I find that hard to believe.”
“I suspected and I put out feelers to Venable to see if I could confirm it one way or the other. He hasn’t gotten back to me.” He smiled slightly. “And now he doesn’t have to. Jock was brainwashed and trained by Reilly?”
“And he almost sent him around the bend. He tried to commit suicide.”
“And that of course made you want to mother the poor lad.” His smile disappeared. “He’s a victim, but a victim who’s a trained killer and unbalanced to boot. Stay away from him, Jane.”
She shook her head. “Don’t you think I told myself that? It didn’t work. I can’t walk away from him. He was brutalized by that son of a bitch. He deserves help.”
“Then let MacDuff help him.”
“He’s doing his best.” She paused. “MacDuff said Jock refuses to remember anything much about Reilly, but he must know a lot. If we could tap that knowledge . . .”
“MacDuff must have tried like hell to do that.”
“He did. But maybe it was too soon. Maybe a different person, a fresh approach would do the trick.”
Trevor swore an oath beneath his breath. “You try to stir up memories and you’re likely to get your neck broken. He’s volatile as hell.”
“I wouldn’t deliberately hurt Jock.” She thought about it. “But having those memories buried can’t be doing him good either. If I could find a way to make him face reality that wouldn’t make him take a step back—”
“Dammit, no!”
“Don’t tell me no.” She glared at him. “You can’t find the gold and Brenner can’t find Reilly. I’m not going to let Grozak have time enough to get what he wants from Reilly.” She started across the courtyard. “If Jock can help, then I’m going to do my damnedest to get him to talk to me. I don’t want to do it. I’m afraid I’ll damage the progress MacDuff has made with Jock. So you get on the ball and give me a reason to back off from that poor boy.”
She could feel Trevor’s gaze on her as she entered the castle. She grimaced as she remembered the term she’d used to describe Jock. That “poor boy” had killed a number of people and had almost broken Mario’s neck. Yet she couldn’t think of him with anything but pity.
Well, she’d better get over it. It was going to take toughness as well as a certain ruthlessness to make Jock remember that horror he’d been through. It was going to hurt her but not nearly as much as it was going to hurt Jock.
But it had to be done. The stakes were too high for her not to make the attempt.
Reilly waited two hours after opening the box Norton had brought him to call Grozak. “How are you doing, Grozak? Progress?”
“Yes,” Grozak said warily. “Why do you ask?”
“Because I’m sitting here staring at an old book on ancient coins that I bought from a dealer in Hong Kong. I’ve been hearing stories about a certain coin and sent to get this book to find out more about it. Did you know that one of the coins Judas took for betraying Christ is rumored to still be in existence? Can you imagine how much that coin