Eve - Iris Johansen [61]
For God’s sake, he was a stranger. What was she thinking?
She wasn’t thinking at all. Emotion had taken over.
Then throw it out and start thinking like the woman you’ve become and not the girl you were.
She drew a deep breath. What had she learned from that call?
Not much. He had admitted he had been in Atlanta at the time of Bonnie’s kidnapping. He had said he had not done it, but the underlying mockery had made everything he’d said suspect. Nate Queen and Army Intelligence evidently knew everything about him, but the odds were that Catherine wouldn’t be able to get anything out of them.
And he’d said that he was unbalanced at times. There had been no mockery in those words.
Crazy. It would take a man who was unbalanced to kill a helpless child, his own flesh and blood.
Bonnie.
The pain was always there, but the possibility of John Gallo’s being her killer had brought the agony alive again.
The agony and the bitterness.
He might well have killed her if he’d been gripped in a fit of insanity. If he had not killed her, then he could know who did.
Damn him.
All these years he had been alive, standing on the sidelines, watching her pain. What kind of monster had he become? If Catherine had not been able to unearth this connection, would he have continued to stand back and monitor the hell Eve was going through?
No way. She knew about Gallo now. There would be no more of his standing in the shadows like a vampire drinking in her pain and loss. She’d jerk him into the sunlight and burn him alive if she found he’d killed Bonnie.
She pulled out her phone and dialed Catherine. “I just talked to John Gallo on my cell. You’re going to find it hard as hell to find out anything from Nate Queen. Gallo says he owns him. I believe him.”
“Shit.”
“But Gallo wants me to meet with him. Somewhere public.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I can’t be sure. He says he wants to ‘resolve’ our relationship. It sounds like some kind of whim.” She paused. “He admitted he wasn’t stable.”
“Then you stay away from him. We’ll set up a trap.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Think about it? You just said he was crazy. That’s the only way to handle it.”
“What if he gets spooked? He said his other choice was just to disappear. Evidently, he’s damn good at that. No one knew he was alive all these years.”
“You’re thinking about meeting him.”
“He may have killed Bonnie. Or he may know who did. It’s possible he could tell me where to find Paul Black. I’d lose all of that if I blow this chance.”
“That’s not all you could lose if you meet Gallo. He felt safe before. You’re a threat to him now that you know he could have killed Bonnie.”
“I can’t blow it,” Eve repeated.
“Stay where you are. I’m coming back to the cottage.”
“Catherine to the rescue? I didn’t say that I’m meeting him. He didn’t even set up a place yet.”
“I know you. I’m tempted to call Joe and tell him to—”
“No!” No threat to Joe. The hint that John Gallo was unbalanced had made the danger even more clear. If Eve was going to take a chance, it would not be with Joe’s life. “Joe can’t be involved, Catherine. I’d keep you out of it, too, but there’s a chance that you’ll be able to find out more from Nate Queen. We need all the help we can get. I’m having trouble getting anything but double talk from Gallo.”
“Then it’s a waste. Stay away from him.”
She wanted to stay away from him. It wasn’t possible. “I’ll try to keep in contact with you.”
“I’m on my way.” Catherine hung up.
Definitely Catherine to the rescue, Eve thought. Well, she would deal with her friend when she arrived. Catherine was at her rental house in Louisville, Kentucky. That meant that it would take her at least four or five hours to reach the cottage. Unless she took a helicopter. Eve wouldn’t rule out that possibility.
At any rate, she’d better marshal her arguments and start making plans to avoid Catherine’s machinations.
The FedEx truck was coming down the lake road to the cottage.
First things, first. She’d set up the skull that the