Eve - Iris Johansen [62]
“You have my package?” She came down the steps as the truck stopped. “I’ll take it. I have to sign for it, as usual?”
“Yep.” The uniformed driver bent down and grabbed the box. The next minute he’d jumped down and was holding the clipboard out to her.
She took the pen and scrawled her name. “Thank you.” Her finger was tingling, and she absently rubbed it against her pants as she handed him back the clipboard and pen. “Always right on time.”
“Not this time. Long overdue.” He raised his head and looked her straight in the face.
She froze with shock.
John Gallo. Different, so different. Yet unmistakable.
“It’s okay,” he said quietly. “Don’t be scared. It’s nothing, really.”
Darkness.
* * *
EVE WASN’T ANSWERING HER phone. It was going straight to voice mail.
Not good.
Catherine frowned as she pressed the disconnect. There was a possibility that Eve might be ignoring her call to avoid an argument. But that wasn’t like Eve. She had no problem with confrontation.
She tried to call again. Same result.
Okay, bite the bullet. Eve might not be pleased with her, but Catherine wasn’t going to go against instinct. It had saved her neck too many times to ignore it. She dialed Joe Quinn.
“Catherine,” she said when he answered. “Are you at the precinct?”
“Yes.”
“Do me a favor. Call Eve. See if she answers. I need to know if she’s just not answering my calls.”
“And why would she do that?”
“Because I’m pushy, and she doesn’t want to be pushed. Just do it. Okay?”
Joe hung up.
He called back two minutes later. “What the hell is happening?”
“She didn’t answer?”
“I called three times.” His voice was harsh. “Voice mail. Why were you pushing her?”
“I’m in my car on the way to the lake cottage. But it will be several hours before I get there. Go home and check to make sure everything is okay.”
“Why shouldn’t it be?” he asked. “Dammit, answer me, Catherine.”
“John Gallo called Eve. He wanted to arrange a meeting.”
Joe muttered an oath. “And, of course, she was going to do it.”
“You know Eve. The chances are good. She thinks she should handle this herself.”
“I know. And she wouldn’t listen to you. She won’t listen to me, either. What else did Gallo tell her?”
“That Nate Queen won’t tell her anything. He said they have an arrangement. No, he said he owned Queen.”
“Yes, and that would be the only excuse she’d need. I’m getting in my car now. I should be home in thirty minutes. I’ll call you from there.” He hung up.
The deed was done. If nothing was wrong, then Eve was going to be very upset with her. Catherine sighed as she hung up the phone. At least she hadn’t told Joe the most frightening thing about Gallo’s call. No use worrying him unless necessary. Now all she could do was wait for Joe’s call.
The call came forty minutes later.
“She’s not here,” he said curtly. “The Jeep was still in the driveway. The house was left unlocked. A half-full coffee cup was on the front porch railing.”
“No note?”
“Nothing.”
“Shit.”
“My sentiments. If she went somewhere to meet Gallo, she would have used her own transportation. And she wouldn’t have left the house unlocked. We always use the alarm.”
“You think that Gallo decided he didn’t want to wait to set up a meeting?”
“Don’t you?”
“Yes.” She hesitated. “There’s something else you should know. Gallo admitted to Eve that he was unbalanced.”
There was a silence, then an eruption of oaths. “My God, and she was going to meet him anyway? No wonder you were on your way back down here. You should have called me right away.” He added roughly, “Oh, I know why you didn’t. You two have this bond, and everyone else is on the outside. But if anything has happened to her, I’ll break your neck, Catherine.”
“And I won’t blame you. But you’d do better to think of breaking Gallo’s neck as soon as we find him.”
“And that will be damn soon. Are you somewhere near a city?”
“Knoxville, Tennessee, is about thirty miles from here.”
“Go to the