The Killing Game

  Her digital phone rang.

  “You're keeping late hours,” Dom said. “Are you becoming a little frantic, Eve?”

  Oh, God.

  “You woke me up.”

  “Not unless you're asleep at the wheel.”

  Don't panic. It could have been a guess. “You haven't called in a while. I was hoping I was rid of you.”

  “It's been only a few days. I've enjoyed watching you scramble to find the lovely soprano.”

  “You're bluffing. You don't know where I am.”

  “I didn't for a little while. You slipped out of Atlanta very quietly. But I knew it was only a matter of time before you figured out the identity of my soprano. I only had to stake out Debby Jordan's home.”

  “I never went to her home.”

  “But one of John Logan's men did. It was easy to track him to Logan and Logan to you. Is he the one who helped you get out of Atlanta?”

  “I don't know what you're talking about.”

  He chuckled. “You're trying to protect him. I'm not annoyed with Logan. He's just made the situation more interesting. Though I admit I was puzzled when you didn't show up on the grieving widower's doorstep and question him yourself. But I should have known you wouldn't do the obvious thing. Using Sarah Patrick is a stroke of genius. Too bad you went to the wrong places.”

  “I'll find her.”

  “I hope not too soon. I'm enjoying the hunt.”

  “Dammit, tell me where she is. You know you want me to find her.”

  “Not yet. Every day is making you more tired, more tense, more angry. I want it to go on.”

  “I'll find her tomorrow.”

  “That would disappoint me. I'd like the search to last at least a week.”

  “Then why don't you go dig her up and bury her somewhere else?”

  “You know moving a body is a killer's worst mistake. I could be discovered, leave evidence. Anything. No, I think I'd do better to slow you down. Did I mention how much I liked the idea of you taking Jane wherever you go? She's with you now, isn't she?”

  Eve didn't answer.

  “You're growing closer, aren't you? Older children are smarter. You're able to talk to them. Bonnie was a little too young for you to—”

  “Shut up.”

  “You see how tense you are? This hunt is terribly exciting. I'm beginning to wonder if little Jane is redundant. Killing her would slow you down, wouldn't it?”

  “It would stop me in my tracks.”

  “No, I think you'd be angry enough with me to continue. Anger and sorrow are almost as good as fear.”

  Damn vampire. “I'm hanging up.”

  “Maybe I'll take the little girl tonight.”

  Her hand tightened on the receiver.

  “Yes, that would slow you. Look in your rearview mirror.”

  Headlights.

  “Do you see me?”

  “It's not you. One of Logan's security men has been following us all day.”

  “He lost you at the last search site. But I felt bound to keep you company.”

  “You're lying.”

  “How long until you get home?”

  She didn't answer.

  “You'd better hurry.”

  She pressed on the accelerator.

  “Yes, I think it's time I took Jane.”

  He was only bluffing.

  Oh, God, the car behind her was going faster.

  Her heart was pounding so hard it hurt.

  Faster.

  Ten blocks more to the house.

  Were the lights closer?

  Yes.

  She went around the corner on two wheels.

  Jane murmured something in the backseat as the car jerked.

  “Did I ever tell you how I kill children? I do it slowly, since every emotion they emit is pure and singing. They're the only ones who deserve white. Fear and pain aren't clouded as they are in adults. Do you think Jane will be as brave as Bonnie?”

  She wanted to kill him.

  Four blocks.

  “I hear you breathing. How frightened you are.”

  Headlights blinding her in the rearview mirror.

  She dropped the phone on the seat.

  And stomped on the gas.

  Gates up ahead.

  The remote. Open the gates.

  They were moving too slowly. The car was right on top of her.

  She almost tore through the gates.

  Up the driveway.

  The lights were still behind her. Coming through the gates.

  She screeched to a halt in front of the house and leaned on the horn.

  Come. Somebody come before he—

  Knocking on the window. A face pressed against the glass.

  “Ms. Duncan. Are you okay?”

  Herb Booker.

  She rolled down the window.

  Headlights were still glaring in her rearview mirror from the car parked behind her. The driver's door was open.

  “Eve?” Jane was sitting up sleepily.

  “It's okay.” Her hand tightened on the steering wheel. “Is that your car, Herb?”

  “Sure. I've been behind you all day. Is something wrong? I got worried when you started speeding.”

  She slowly lifted the phone to her ear. “Damn you.”

  “Just kidding.” He hung up.

  “YOU LOOK BEAT.” Sarah's gaze narrowed on Eve's face. “You okay?”

  “I didn't sleep well. How are you?”

  “Fine. Monty and I are used to getting by with a few hours' sleep.”

  Eve got out her map. “We hit the areas south of the church yesterday. I thought we'd go west today.” She tapped a spot on the map. “This one first. Woodlight Reservoir.”

  “Are you sure? That will be a lot of ground to cover. You've got to pick your best shot,” Sarah said. “I'll give you until midnight tonight.”

  “You won't change your mind?”

  “No.” Sarah turned and tossed Monty's leash to Jane. “Come on, kid, we've got to get this show on the road.”

  Eve looked at her in despair. After last night, the search seemed futile. Why were they doing it? Just to entertain that bastard?

  No, they were doing it for the same reason Eve had in the beginning. The possibility that Dom might have made a mistake.

  God, let him have made a mistake.

  “WE HAVE TO stop now,” Sarah said quietly. “Sorry.”

  Eve's hands clenched into fists. “It can't be midnight.”

  “It's one-thirty.” She gestured, and Monty jumped into the Jeep.

  “I suppose I should thank you for the extra time,” Eve said dully.

  “You'd rather spit in my eye.”

  “That's not true.” Eve was frustrated, but she couldn't fault Sarah's work. The woman had worked from dawn until then with only short breaks for Monty to drink and rest. “I only wish you'd give in and let me have one more day.”

  “I can't do that.” Sarah didn't look at her. “I know you have good reason to search, but it's not my reason. My job is to protect Monty. I didn't want to do this job, and I've given you two days.”

  “It's not enough.”

  “I've given you all I can. And every hour of the past two days I've hoped we wouldn't find that woman.” She shook her head. “So maybe it's just as well I'm out. Maybe I'm not working as hard as you want me to work.”

  “Bullshit. You'd never cheat.”

  “Find someone else.”

  “You know I can't afford a delay.”

  “I can't help you.” She started the Jeep. “Sorry.”

  “If you were sorry, you'd help me. Finding bodies isn't pleasant, but I'd think you'd—”

  “Pleasant?” Her voice was strained. “My God, you don't know what you're talking about.”

  “I know catching Dom and protecting Jane are more important than any objections you have to working another day or two.”

  “Your opinion. You have a right to it. I know only that I have to protect my world the w
ay you're protecting yours.” She paused. “Sorry.”

  Eve's eyes were stinging as she watched the taillights disappear. She would feel all right soon. She was just tired and discouraged. She'd go back to the house and hit the Internet and see if she could find another Sarah Patrick.

  C H A P T E R

  TWELVE

  Monty whined.

  “Shut up.” Sarah pressed the accelerator. “You don't know when you're better off.”

  Sad.

  “I can't help it if she's sad. I have to take care of us.”

  Alone.

  “We're all alone.”

  Not us.

  She reached out and scratched his ears. “No, not us,” she whispered.

  He whined again.

  “I said no.”

  Child.

  That thought was tearing at Sarah too.

  “It's not our business. Eve will take care of her.”

  Sad.

  “Go to sleep. I'm tired of you nagging me. We're through. We got lucky and I'm not risking another day.”

  Monty settled down in the seat and laid his head down on his paws. Child . . .

  “WHERE IS SHE, Mark?” Joe asked.

  There was silence on the other end of the line. “How did you track me down?”

  “It wasn't easy. The station was very cagey about giving me your new digital phone number. You changed it two days ago. Why, Mark?”

  “I get a lot of nuisance calls. All media people do.”

  “And you took a two-week leave from the station.”

  “I was tired. I decided to come down here to Florida to bask in the sun.”

  “Or you knew I'd be searching for you.”

  “Really, Joe, I'd hardly go to all that trouble to avoid you.”

  “I think you would. Where is Eve, Mark?”

  “How would I know?”

  “She didn't have the address of the welfare house. It took me fifteen minutes to bully the information out of Eisley. Yet Eve was able to go there and take the kid away. I put two and two together and came up with you, Mark.”

  “Do you think Eisley would tell me where it's located?”

  “I think you know where every body in the city is buried.”

  “That's an unfortunate turn of phrase.”

  “Where is she, Mark?”

  “I've invested a lot of time and effort in this story. Eve doesn't want you to know where she is.”

  “I'm going to find her.”

  “Then you'll do it without my help.”

  “I don't think so. I'll find her or I'll find you. Believe me, you'll prefer that I find Eve.”

  “Is that a threat, Joe?”

  “You'd better believe it. Where is she?”

  “Let's just say that she's following Dom's lead.”

  “What lead?”

  “That's for me to know and you to find out,” Mark said silkily. “I don't like being threatened, Joe.” He hung up.

  Joe leaned back in his chair, chilled to the bone.

  Christ.

  Don't let fear get to you. Just find her. Keep at Mark until you've wrung every drop of information out of him.

  He dialed Mark's number again.

  Just find her.

  MONTY WAS HOWLING.

  Sarah sat upright in bed.

  Monty almost never howled.

  She turned on the bedside lamp and swung her feet to the floor.

  He howled again and then broke off.

  Oh, God.

  She was through the front door in a heartbeat. “Monty?”

  No answer.

  She turned on the living-room light, then walked back outside, keeping the door open.

  “Monty?”

  No sound. Her hands clenched at her sides.

  “Monty, where are—”

  Something beside his water dish.

  A large steak with bites taken out of it.

  She never gave Monty red meat.

  “No.”

  She ran out into the darkness. “Monty!”

  She tripped over something furry. Something limp that—

  Please. Please. No.

  “Monty!”

  SOMEONE WAS HONKING, lying on the horn until it ripped through the night.

  What the hell?

  Eve pushed away from the computer and stood up.

  The phone on the desk rang.

  “We have an intruder at the gates,” Herb Booker said. “Please stay inside the house until we check it out.”

  “For God's sake, it has to be a drunk. I can't imagine anyone very menacing waking the entire neighborhood.”

  “Please stay inside.”

  “He'll wake Jane up, dammit.” She headed for the front door.

  The horn was still blaring as she walked down the driveway toward the gates. Juan Lopez was there before her.

  Sarah Patrick's Jeep was stopped outside the gates. “Let me in, dammit.”

  “Open up,” Eve told Lopez.

  He pressed a remote and the gates swung open.

  Sarah drove past Eve and up to the front door.

  “It's okay,” Eve told the security men.

  Sarah was climbing out of the Jeep when Eve caught up with her. Eve took one look at her face and asked, “What's wrong?”

  “What's not wrong?” Sarah said. “Son of a bitch. Dirty son of a bitch. I want to kill him.”

  “Dom?”

  “Who else? No one else—”

  Fear suddenly surged through Eve. “Sarah, where's Monty?”

  “Dirty son of a bitch.”

  “Sarah.”

  “He tried to kill him.” Tears were running down her face. “He tried to kill Monty.”

  “Tried?”

  “He scared me to death. I thought he—”

  “Sarah, what happened?”

  “He threw a slab of beef next to Monty's water bowl. It was poisoned.”

  “You're sure?”

  “A coyote got hold of it. He was dead when I found him.”

  “Thank God Monty didn't eat it.”

  “I didn't think he would. I've taught him not to eat anything I don't give him. But I didn't know—and then he wouldn't answer me.” She wiped her damp cheeks with the backs of her hands. “Shit.”

  Eve nodded. “I know.” She opened the door. “Come in.”

  “Just a minute. I've got to get Monty out of the back.”

  She couldn't see the dog. “Where is he?”

  “On the floor.”

  “Why? Did he eat any poison at all?”

  “No.” She knelt beside the Jeep and her tone became soft and loving. “Come on, baby. Time to go.”

  Monty whined.

  “I know. But we have to get out of the Jeep and go inside.” She put the leash on him. “Come on, Monty.”

  He finally got to his feet and jumped down from the Jeep. His tail tucked between his legs, he moved slowly toward the front door.

  “Are you sure he didn't get any poison?”

  “I'm sure.”

  “Then what's wrong with him?”

  “What do you think's wrong? He's sad. I had a devil of a time getting him away from that dead coyote. It must have been alive when Monty found it. Monty has trouble dealing with death.” She shrugged. “Don't we all?”

  “You're saying he has psychological problems?”

  Sarah glared at her. “What's odd about that?”

  Eve held up a hand. “Not a thing.” Looking at Monty, she could tell something was drastically wrong. His ears were pressed to the sides of his head, and his expression was terribly woebegone. “What can we do?”

  “He'll be okay. He just needs a little time.” She led Monty to the hall. “Is it okay if I take him to Jane's room?”

  “She's asleep.”

  “He won't wake her.”

  “But what good would that do?”

  “There's no one more alive than a child. It will help Monty to be near her.”

  “Therapy?”

&n
bsp; Sarah stuck out her chin. “Jane won't mind. She's crazy about Monty.”

  Who wouldn't be crazy about Monty? Eve thought. Those big, soft eyes were so sad, it almost broke her heart. “Up the stairs. First door.”

  “Thanks.”

  Eve watched her lead Monty up the stairs, then went to the kitchen and started brewing a pot of coffee.

  The coffee was almost done when Sarah appeared in the doorway.

  “Get him settled?”

  She nodded. “Sorry. Jane woke up.”

  “She'll go back to sleep.”

  Sarah said hesitantly, “He's in bed with her. But he's clean. I washed him off after I brought him home tonight.”

  “Do you take cream or sugar?”

  Sarah shook her head.

  Eve handed her a cup of coffee. “Stop looking so guilty. It's okay.”

  “No, it's not. Monty and I don't like to depend on other people.”

  “I don't think Monty minds as much as you do.”

  “You're right.” She made a face. “He's probably better adjusted than I am.”

  “Why did you come here, Sarah? I don't think it's because Monty needed therapy.”

  “I was mad.” Her lips tightened. “I wanted to kill the bastard. I still do.”

  “You're sure it was Dom?”

  “Aren't you? I've no near neighbors who could be annoyed by Monty. He always stays close to me. No one ever tried to hurt him before he started to look for Debby Jordan. Someone wants to stop you from finding her.”

  Eve shook her head. “Just slow me down. Dom's having too much fun to stop me cold. He didn't realize that you'd refused to help me any longer.”

  “So he tried to kill Monty.”

  Eve nodded.

  Sarah's grip on her cup tightened. “I won't stand for it. I'm going to get the bastard and hang him out to dry.”

  “I thought you were through.”

  “Don't be stupid. He tried to kill my dog. He might try again. The only way to protect Monty is to catch that son of a bitch.” She took one more sip of coffee and set the cup down. “Time to get to bed. We have only a few hours to sleep. We'll set out at dawn.”

  “We will?”

  “I'm staying here. It's safer for Monty. I'll need a room. Or if that's not possible, I can go get my sleeping bag. I'm used to roughing it.”

  “I can give you the bedroom across the hall from me.”