He had finished with what he had wanted to do with Joe and was going about his life.
Yet he had thought something was wrong …
She instinctively moved toward the front door.
And that wrong must not touch Joe.
Whenever Joe went into the woods, he was always armed, but she didn’t like him to be alone out there.
She stood on the porch, her eyes straining toward the west bank.
The beam of a flashlight.
Joe.
It was moving over the trees, down to the ground, around the bank.
“Joe,” she called.
He froze. “Go back inside, Eve,” he called. “I’ll be right there.” He paused. “Lock the door.”
She stiffened. That last order was scaring her. Joe never took action without reason. She was tempted to go to him.
No, Michael was in this house. Someone had to be here to protect him. That was the unwritten rule she and Joe lived by. One of them must always be there for Michael. Tonight that was her job. She went inside and locked the door.
Come on, Joe …
She went to the window beside the door and looked out on the porch and the woods beyond.
She could still see the beam of Joe’s flashlight bouncing, moving through the trees.
And now Joe was coming back toward the house, she realized with relief. But the flashlight wasn’t aimed straight before him, it was focused on the ground.
He was tracking.
And whatever he was tracking was heading straight toward this house.
She opened the door again as he reached the driveway. “What is it, Joe?”
“Well, it’s not a bear, unless it wears size twelve tennis shoes,” he said grimly. He was moving across the driveway, the beam focused on the soft earth bordering the gravel. Then he stopped, his gaze on the ground beside the passenger door of the Jeep. He flashed the beam inside the Jeep and slowly, carefully opened the car door. “What the hell,” he muttered. “Weird.”
“Tell me,” Eve said.
“It’s a box on this passenger seat.” He carefully examined the box before he took it out of the Jeep and placed it on the porch step. “It’s wrapped in some kind of gold foil. Like I said, weird.”
She started across the porch. “I want to see—”
“Stay where you are. I want to check it out first.” He strode toward the Toyota. “I’ll get that portable bomb-detector kit that I keep in my trunk and see if that box is giving out a reading.”
Joe had been trained in bomb disposal when he was in the SEALS, and Eve knew he still made a habit of carrying a portable unit with him as a detective with the Atlanta PD. He had used it more than once in past years.
She shivered as she looked at the glittering gold-foil box. Beautiful and glittering, and Joe thought it might be deadly.
But now he had the small mobile unit and was listening with the stethoscope to hear if there was anything that signaled a timer switch. “Nothing.” He looked at the edge of the box. “It’s not fastened.” He was placing the end of the water hose under the edge of the box and backing across the driveway to the water spigot. “Get back inside. I’ll turn on the water full force and blow this lid off as soon as I’m a safe distance.”
“And how do you know that it’s safe?”
“Inside,” he said curtly. “Michael.”
She went inside and slammed the door. Michael, the one unassailable argument. No matter what happened to either of them, Michael must survive. Her hands clenched on the drapes at the window as she watched Joe unwind the hose as he headed for the spigot.
She held her breath as she saw him connecting it to the spigot.
Then he turned on the water full force.
The lid of the box blew a foot in the air and then fell back onto the container.
No explosion. Just water pouring in a wild fountain over the gold box.
Joe jerked the hose aside and came back toward the box. “No C4.” He was looking down at the contents of the box. “I don’t know what the hell it is.”
“Maybe some kid’s idea of a practical joke?” She was coming down the porch steps now. “I feel a little foolish cowering inside.”
“I don’t,” he said. “Whoever was out there in the woods was there for a while, and he wasn’t a kid. That’s called stalking. And there are other people besides that kid, Gary, who think what you do is kind of scary.” He was examining the interior. “Or, what’s worse, that they don’t think it’s scary at all.” His fingers were carefully exploring something. “There’s a flat surface on the top that’s glittering in the light…” He leaned closer and muttered a curse. “It’s a mirror.”
“What?” She came down the rest of the stairs and looked inside the box. It was a mirror that occupied the entire upper diameter of the interior of the box. It was glittering, framed in gold and perfectly reflected her face.
And that reflection mirrored both her bewilderment and fear. Fear. It was only because this entire episode was so unexpected and bizarre that she was feeling this shaken, she told herself. It would probably turn out to be the practical joke that had been her first thought.
“That’s only the top layer, Joe.” She moistened her lips. “What else is in the box?”
“I’m working on it.” He was gently prying the frame of the mirror away from the sides of the box. “I’ll have it in a minute…” Then it came free and he lifted it out.
Glittering mirrored shards fell down into the box.
“Double mirror,” Joe said. “This side seems to be broken. It must have been cracked and, when I lifted, it broke entirely.” He reached down to pick up one of the broken shards. “It fell on this black—” He inhaled sharply. “Holy shit.”
Eve saw it too. The black velvet cloth had shifted to one side, uncovering something else equally black and very familiar to Eve. “It’s a skull.” She pulled the cloth completely away. Blackened. All flesh gone. “Burned. Someone burned this skull.”
“It’s the real thing?” Joe asked quietly. “Not just a good replica from a party store?”
“It’s the real thing.” She turned away as she saw the bullet hole in the temple. “And there’s nothing that even hints at a party. Bring it inside. I need to look at it.”
Joe didn’t move. “I could take it down to the precinct. It’s not really your problem. You don’t have to be involved. Forensics will have to go over it anyway.”
“I am involved.” She looked back at him, and added fiercely, “How could I not be? He delivered this skull to me. He went to a great deal of trouble on this presentation. He brought it to my home.” She gestured to the woods. “He stood there where my son could see him. Do you think that doesn’t make it my problem?”
“It makes it my problem,” Joe said. “I was hoping that I could keep you out of it.” He picked up the box and carried it up the porch steps. “Not going to happen.”
She nodded and held the door for him. “Put the box on my worktable and call Forensics and get them out here for testing right away.”
“I’ll do it while I take a look around the property.” He placed the gold-wrapped box on her worktable in the studio area. “Lock the door behind me.” He headed back toward the door. “I don’t have to tell you not to touch anything until Forensics gets through with the initial investigation.”
“Just get them here soon.” She followed him to the door. “Be careful.” She kissed him quickly. “And I’m not about to do anything with that skull until I make sure Michael is okay and safely in bed. I don’t like the fact that he was the one who sent you out there.”
“A bear,” he reminded her.
“Maybe.” She closed the door and locked it. Then she headed across the living room toward the bedrooms. She carefully averted her eyes from the gold box on her worktable as she passed by her studio. Beautiful gold paper covering a horror of blackened skull.
But skulls were never a horror to her, the horror was when monsters reached out
to make them that way.
Michael’s nightstand lamp was on, and she paused a moment in his doorway gazing at him. His eyes were shut, but she knew he was not asleep. Clean and shining and beautiful, wonderful and yet also full of wonder.
She saw Cara’s latest CD on top of the CD player on his nightstand. His photo of Cara was beside it. It was a picture he had snapped of her with his phone camera down at the lake. Cara was dressed in shorts and a white shirt and sitting cross-legged with her violin in her hands. She was smiling, her long dark hair pulled back in a ponytail and her brown eyes were shining with affection and humor. Eve had always loved that photo and searched out a frame for Michael when he had brought the picture to her. It showed more than the Cara who had a certain dark exotic beauty inherited from her Mexican father and Russian mother. It showed the depth, the spirit, the clean intensity of the young girl. And the heart, she thought, definitely the heart …
“Mama?” Michael opened his eyes that were so like the rich, tea color of his father’s. “You came to say good night?”
“Among other things.” She crossed the room and sat down on the bed beside him. “Don’t worry, I’m not about to lecture you anymore. That’s over.” She took his hand. “Bear, Michael? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You would have gone out to see for yourself.”
“I guarantee I wouldn’t have confronted a bear without protection.”
“But Dad is protection, isn’t he? No need for you to have to do it.”
She shook her head. “And you think we all have our places and duties? Sometimes it doesn’t work like that. So come to me and tell me if you see a bear.”
He smiled. “I’ll tell you.”
But he didn’t say when he would do that, she thought ruefully. And anyone would think she was crazy to suspect him of avoiding that commitment. He was only a child.
“I want you to do that,” she said quietly. “It will make me unhappy if you don’t.”
He hesitated, then nodded. “Then I have to do it.” He burrowed close to her. “Good night, Mama.”
“Oh, I’m dismissed?” She smiled down at him. “Okay, I’ll accept it, Michael. But there’s another thing I wanted to tell you. A few of the people your dad works with are coming over soon. They may make noise. I’ll close your door, but I didn’t want them to startle you. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
“I won’t be afraid of them.” His face was muffled against her. “Don’t you be afraid, Mama.”
She stiffened. “I won’t. Everything’s okay, Michael.”
“No. Not now.” He rolled back onto his pillow and pulled up his blanket. “Maybe soon…”
She sat there, gazing at him. “Soon?”
He smiled. “Cara’s coming. That should make it better.”
“She always makes things better. Did you play her CD when you got to bed?”
“No, I’ll do it tomorrow.”
But he’d been so eager to play it Eve knew. Though she knew she would not be playing it tonight either. “Tomorrow will be good, too.” She kissed him on the cheek and stood up. “You can look forward to it.” She headed for the door. “Remember, if you wake up, it’s only the people from your dad’s work.”
“I’ll remember.”
She stopped at the door. “A bear. It was so dark out tonight. Clouds. No moon. Why did you think it was a bear?”
“I only told Dad it might be a bear.”
“Why?”
He was silent. “Big, still, hungry, full of darkness. A bear could be like that, too, couldn’t it?”
Too?
She could feel a chill go through her. “I suppose it could. Good night, Michael.” She closed his door behind her. She stood there a moment while she recovered from that sudden icy fear.
Full of darkness.
Whatever Michael had seen or sensed out there had been full of darkness. In that moment, darkness had reached out and touched him. All his life she had been trying to see that he was only surrounded by joy and sunlight. That he would never be drawn down into the darkness that would mean he would leave her as Bonnie had done.
No!
She would not have it. Never again.
Yet that darkness had come, wrapped in gold and mirrors, and it had called Michael toward it.
But she would fight it with all her strength.
And she would not let it come near him.
* * *
“They want to take the skull back to the lab,” Joe told Eve in a low voice. “In case they decide to do some more tests.”
“No.” She glanced at the four techs who were gathered around the skull. “They’ve taken DNA, tooth impressions, X-rays, made an impression of the skull itself. Taken samples around that bullet hole, done a dozen other forensic tests. They’re done, Joe. The skull is mine now. I’m going to do the reconstruction.”
“A reconstruction may not be necessary if they can get another form of ID.”
“It’s necessary for me.” She added jerkily, “It was necessary for him, or he wouldn’t have delivered her to me.”
“Her?”
“Female Caucasian from what I can tell. Forensics hasn’t let me get close enough to determine anything positively. I certainly can’t judge age or if this skull suffered additional trauma other than that bullet wound in the temple before he burned her.”
“You might run into a fight trying to keep her,” Joe said. “Forensics will want to be in control.”
“They can have control of the box. They can have the mirrors. They don’t get the skull. I’m ready for a fight.”
“I can see that.” His eyes were searching her face. “Would you care to elaborate?”
“I’ve been sitting here watching all those experts working on that skull, and I’ve been thinking of that man standing out there in the woods with that box in his hands. You said he must have stood there a long time.” She met his eyes. “That means he was there when you and Michael drove up.”
“Yes.”
“And you left Michael in the car.”
He went still. “Are you blaming me?”
“No, don’t be ridiculous. Michael was within calling distance. The property is usually safe. How could you know … that … he was out there.” Her voice lowered. “What I’m saying is that he saw Michael. And when he brought that skull to the house, he didn’t put it on the porch or in front of the door. He put it on the passenger seat of the Jeep where Michael was sitting when you drove up.”
“Son of a bitch.” Joe was swearing softly. “Why didn’t I put that together?”
“You’ve had a few other things on your mind,” Eve said. “I’ve just been sitting here looking at that skull.”
“And thinking that putting that skull on Michael’s seat was a warning.”
“Or a prediction. Either way, I’m not letting that skull leave the house until I know who she is, maybe not then. He wanted me to have it, and he took a lot of trouble to do it. Perhaps it means something to him. Maybe he’ll come back for it.”
“That’s the last thing I want to happen,” Joe said. “I’ve already started to think about how to keep you and Michael safe.”
“I’m not worried. Like Michael says, you are the protection. You’ll just take extra precautions.”
“Damn right I will.”
“Then go and tell those forensic people they can’t have my skull. As you said, it may be a fight.”
“Screw it.” Joe turned away from her and headed back to her worktable. “Possession is nine-tenths. In this case, it’s a big number ten.”
CHAPTER
2
Eve took the black velvet cloth off the skull and started to set it up on the dais. “I’m surprised they left the cloth. It’s evidence,” she told Joe over her shoulder. “Those forensic techs weren’t pleased when they stomped out of here.”
“They took a sample. I’ll call and ask them if they want me to bring it to the precinct in the morning.” He checked his watch. “Whic
h is only about six hours away.” He watched her work on the skull placement. “I know you’re eager, but you’re not going to start it tonight?”
She shook her head. “Tomorrow morning.” She stood back and wiped her hands on her towel. “Maybe after Michael goes to school. He takes my reconstructions as a matter of course, but he’s never seen me work on one that’s been burned and blackened like this. It might shake even him a bit.”
“I doubt it.” He put his arm around her waist. “But use your own judgment. Now come to bed. You need your rest.”
She let him lead her back to their room. She had to ask it. “You think he’s gone?”
“I know he’s gone. No footprints after they disappeared when they reached the main road. He probably had a car hidden there. And when I sent Forensics on their way, I took another look around.” He opened the bedroom door. “No one outside. The alarm is on, and you have me to watch your back.” He smiled. “And all your other exceptional physical attributes. Now get undressed and let me hold you.”
“I’m on it.” She was already undressing. A moment later, she was in bed and cuddling close to him. He felt so good, so safe.
No darkness here …
* * *
“Your breakfast is on the bar. It’s eggs and sausage,” Eve told Michael as he came into the living room. “Then you need to hurry a little. You’re not taking the bus from down the road. Your dad is going to take you to school today, and we don’t want to make him late for work. Okay?”
“Okay.” He’d crawled up on the stool and was eating his breakfast. “Why?”
“Just a change from the school bus. Everyone needs a change.” She gave him his orange juice. “He’ll be picking you up, too. Or I will if I’m not busy.”
“But maybe you will be busy.” His gaze had wandered to her studio worktable across the room to the black-draped skull. “I didn’t see that yesterday. You have a new one?”
“Yes.”
“A kid?”
“Not this time. I think it’s a young woman.”
“You don’t do many of those.” He finished his eggs. “Why?”
Because children were so much more vulnerable than grown-ups. But she didn’t want to say those sad words. She modified them. “When you’re grown-up, you can take better care of yourself.”