Eve - Iris Johansen [99]
“Montalvo told me the records show he was born in Macon, Georgia.”
“Queen altered the records. He was protecting his pet cobra. It was part of the arrangement they had together. Queen protected, and Black did all his killings.” He held her eyes. “But he didn’t only do Queen’s killings. There are all kinds of indications that he was a serial killer before Queen took him under his wing. Very clever, very bloodthirsty. He liked it, and he wanted to keep on doing it. The only way he could see himself staying alive to appease his appetite was to find someone like Queen, who didn’t care what he did as long as he performed well for him. According to all the books and reports I’ve read, a serial killer of that magnitude has a tremendous ego. He has to be all-powerful.”
“The terrible thing is that they usually are,” Eve said. “They don’t stop. They just keep on killing.”
“I must have damaged Black’s ego badly when I managed to escape him and stabbed him in the belly. I told you that he had a tremendous opinion of himself. He would have wanted to hurt me. In any way he could.”
A little red-haired girl in a Bugs Bunny T-shirt.
Eve nodded slowly. “But why didn’t he go after you again?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know how he thinks. It might be that ego. He might have felt vulnerable after I almost killed him and convinced himself that he didn’t have to murder me to inflict the most hurt. He may not have known she was my daughter. Though it would not surprise me that he’d found that out. But anyone looking at me the day I came to see her would know how much I loved her.”
“Are you sure he killed her?”
“Do I have proof? No, and I won’t know until I hear it from his lips. But I believe he killed her. I’ve been tracking him over Asia and half of Europe, and there’s no question in my mind that he’s killed at least a dozen people in that time.” He paused. “Though he’s very smart. He’s like a phantom, moving in and out and away. I think when the police do come too close, he calls on Queen to help him.”
“Then he’s just as guilty of those murders as Black.”
“Yes.” He met her eyes. “But then I’m guilty of them, too.”
“What?”
“Oh, I wasn’t an accessory, but I wasn’t able to stop him. That should qualify.”
“That’s nuts,” she said flatly.
He smiled faintly. “I’m not going to address that statement. It would be redundant.”
“In all these years, you haven’t gotten close enough to catch him?”
“I got close a couple times but he slipped away.” He put his cup back on the saucer. “So I put Queen on the job.”
“What?”
“I told him that I’d give him his ledger if they gave me Black. He was pretending that he’d had nothing to do with him. I knew they were using him. It was only a matter of time until he decided that getting the ledger was more important to him than an assassin who probably knew too much about him anyway.”
Excitement was beginning to build. “Then you can get Queen to tell us where he is? Or do you know already?”
“I knew a few days ago. I’d traced him on my own to Samoa and was going to go after him myself. But I didn’t get the chance. His house was blown up, and his housekeeper and an unknown man were incinerated.”
“Then Black could be dead?”
He shook his head. “I doubt it. They’re checking the dental records, but the height and bone structure aren’t right. I think Queen sent someone to kill Black, and it went wrong. Which for me wasn’t all that bad. It meant that Black would be stirred into action against Queen.” He inclined his head. “And probably me. I can’t imagine Queen not throwing me under the bus at the earliest opportunity. When he burned my place, he was behaving with a recklessness that wasn