Chasing the Night

She shrugged. “A couple hours, I guess. I don’t want to do anything that would make you angry. I won’t touch it again.”

  “You shouldn’t have touched it to begin with.” She held up her hand as Kelly opened her lips to protest. “No, you didn’t do any harm, and you might have done some good. But that doesn’t mean you can interfere with my work without permission. That’s not going to happen. Understand?”

  Kelly nodded. “I just had to do something to unwind. I thought your puzzle might wear me out. Sometimes they do.”

  “And did it?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  Kelly hesitated. “It wasn’t hard enough,” she said simply.

  And the girl had not wanted to hurt Eve’s feelings by telling her that that poor broken skull that had been a nightmare prospect to Eve had not even challenged her. “Catherine was finding it hard enough,” she said dryly. “And I wouldn’t have had an easy time of it.”

  “Mr. Venable says you’re very clever,” she said politely. “I’m sure it’s just that I’m good at patterns.”

  “Kelly, are you patronizing me?”

  She frowned, distressed. “Oh, no. I didn’t mean that you—” She nibbled at her lower lip. “I said the wrong thing again. You can see why my mother doesn’t want to be around me.”

  “No, I can’t see any such thing. My ego isn’t that fragile.”

  Kelly smiled tentatively. “Sometimes I do off end people. It was terrible when I was younger. But even now I forget every now and then. I’m glad that you aren’t angry.”

  “I’ll be mad as hell if I examine that skull and find that those shards don’t match exactly.”

  “They’ll match.” She added quietly, “I’m never wrong, Eve.”

  “And modest, too.”

  She shook her head. “They tested me so many times. I hated it. But even when it seemed I might be wrong, in the end it always turned around. After a while, I refused to do it anymore. I didn’t want to know more than anyone else about what could happen.”

  “Why not?”

  “It could be…sad. Some patterns don’t lead to good endings. I didn’t want to think about it.” She glanced down at the bone fragments. “This wasn’t a good ending, but I can’t do anything about it. Except maybe give you something that you want. You were kind to me. I wanted to please you. I’m sorry it didn’t work out well.”

  “It didn’t work out terribly either.” She smiled. “Now get to bed and get a few hours’ sleep. Joe has to leave for the precinct in an hour, and I’d like you to be asleep by the time he has to come through here.”

  “I’m causing him trouble, too.”

  “Inconvenience,” Eve corrected. “‘Trouble’ is too strong a word. It takes a lot for Joe to consider it trouble. He just can’t get a handle on the situation, and it makes him upset. Now jump into that fine bed I made up for you and try to keep yourself from working on Cindy’s bones.”

  “Okay.” Kelly headed for the couch. “Are you going to tell Catherine?”

  “Yes. I could hardly keep it secret once she saw the progress you’ve made.” She pulled up the blanket around Kelly’s shoulders. “It’s pretty clear you—” She stopped and gazed down at the girl. “Or is that the aim of this exercise? Did you want to give a little demonstration of how much you can help Catherine?”

  Kelly stared up at her. “Maybe. Partly.” She shook her head. “No, probably. I didn’t think it through, but I wanted her to know that I wouldn’t be a burden.”

  “Kelly, Catherine was telling you the truth,” Eve said gently. “It’s the wrong time for you to be with her. Why can’t you understand that? I know that she saved your life, but you have to stand back.”

  She was silent a moment, then looked away. “I can’t do that. Ever since they found out my brain could do this weird stuff, they’ve been telling me that it was a good thing. That I could be another Einstein or help people in a hundred different ways. But when Daddy and I were in Munoz’s camp, I tried to put together what might happen, what we should do to keep alive.”

  “And you couldn’t do it?”

  “No, I could do it,” she whispered. “Munoz kept threatening Daddy, talking about how he was going to rape me if the government didn’t do what he wanted. Daddy nearly exploded whenever he’d do that. He got so angry…” She shook her head. “It was going to happen. Munoz’s anger and threats, Daddy’s anger. Something bad…I could see it coming. It was a pattern, and I was in the middle of it.” Her eyes were glittering with tears. “I tried to talk to Daddy and tell him that nothing Munoz did to me would matter, that he mustn’t ever fight him. He wouldn’t listen. I tried to think of a way to get away, to break the pattern, but I couldn’t.” Her voice was shaking. “They kept telling me how smart I am, but they lied. I’m stupid. Stupid. I couldn’t think of any way to stop it.”

  “Stop this.” Eve’s hand covered Kelly’s on the blanket. “You were in a no-win situation. Just because you can see patterns doesn’t mean that you can change them.”

  “Then what good is it?” she said fiercely. “I can’t turn it off. It’s with me all the time. There should have been a way that I could have stopped Daddy from trying to—”

  “What way?” Eve asked. “He loved you. You help people you love.”

  “I couldn’t help him.”

  What can I say? Eve thought helplessly. There was no arguing with that statement. The girl had obviously wrestled with this painful truth since her father’s death, perhaps even before. “No.” She paused, seeking for a way to soothe that pain. “He didn’t want your help. He thought he was doing the right thing. It wasn’t your responsibility. You might just as well say it was Catherine’s fault because she didn’t get there in time.”

  Kelly shook her head.

  “She doesn’t want your help, Kelly.”

  “She has to take it. I have to know—”

  “Know what?”

  “First, I wanted to go to Catherine because I felt as if she understood—but the minute Venable told me about Catherine’s son, I knew that I might have another chance.” She moistened her lips. “If I help her, if I can work out her pattern with her son, then maybe this quirk I have isn’t stupid and worthless. Maybe I’m not worthless.”

  “There’s no doubt in my mind.”

  “There’s doubt in mine.” Her hand tightened on Eve’s. “I should have been able to save Daddy. Will you help me convince Catherine to let me stay with her?”

  “No, that’s up to you.” She straightened and turned away. “The most I’ll do is tell her what you’ve told me and let her judge.” She turned off the light. “Good night, Kelly. I’ll see you in a few hours.”

  “Good night.” In the darkness, Kelly’s words were a breath above a whisper. “I was wondering…”

  “Wondering what?”

  “As you work on those skulls, do you see a pattern, too?”

  A pattern of darkness and murder and violence. A puzzle that she hoped to solve every time her fingers touched the skulls. “Only in my imagination, Kelly.”

  Kelly rolled over and huddled under the blanket. “You’re lucky.”

  It was after ten o’clock when Catherine got out of the shower, dressed, and strode into the living room. The couch was neatly made up, and Eve was sitting at the bar drinking a cup of coffee. “Where’s Kelly?”

  “Out on the porch. I told her to go get some sun.” She poured Catherine a cup of coffee. “I wanted some time alone with you.”

  “Why? I told you when you came to my room last night that I couldn’t be either a sister or psychologist to Kelly. Not now.”

  “You were upset then, and you didn’t want to deal with her.” She lifted her cup to her lips. “But I think you’re going to find that you have no choice.”

  “I have a choice.”

  “Go over to the worktable and look at that work she did on Cindy’s skull last night.”

  “I don’t want to look.”

  “Are y
ou being stubborn?”

  “Yes.” She was silent a moment, then burst out, “Dammit, I’m not like you. I’m harder, more ruthless. Even though I don’t want her involved, I’m capable of ignoring what’s good for her if I decide she could help me find Luke. I don’t want to make that decision.”

  “You could limit her input, find ways to keep her on the sidelines.”

  “Anyone close to me may be a target if Rakovac decides to make a move. She’s fourteen years old.” She shrugged. “Besides, all that pattern business could be crap. I prefer to believe that it is.”

  “And I prefer to believe that it’s not. You have to face the possibility. Stop hiding your head in the ground. Go look at Cindy.”

  Catherine hesitated, then turned and strode across the room to the work desk. “Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe you are as ruthless as I am. I thought you—Oh, shit.” She was gazing down at the skull fragments put together by Kelly. “She did this in a couple hours?”

  Eve nodded.

  “Hell, I know how difficult—I nearly went blind straining to tell those pieces apart.” She murmured, “Incredible.”

  “Two hours.”

  “But this was a physical puzzle, it doesn’t mean she’d be that good at anything more abstract.”

  “Like finding a lost boy?” Eve nodded. “That’s right. We have no proof. Other than Venable thought she was promising enough to be interesting to the CIA.”

  She shook her head. “Too vague.” She studied Eve’s expression. “Why are you trying to convince me to use Kelly? I thought you’d be against it.”

  “I want you to bring your Luke home.” She smiled. “I’ve grown attached to him. It doesn’t seem to me that you have a plan that is even close to being foolproof.”

  “I’m working on it.”

  “I know you are,” Eve said quietly. “But Kelly is offering you an opportunity that could be…hopeful. I think you should explore the possibility. Face it, she’s going to be hard to get rid of, so let her help you, but keep her out of the line of fire. As I said, I’d be glad to have her stay with me.”

  Catherine frowned, then shrugged. “I’ll think about it.” A faint smile curved her lips. “And I thought I was obsessed. Luke has you, and you’ve only seen his photo.”

  “What do you expect? I’ve been watching him grow up before my eyes,” Eve said. “Or should I say within my computer?” She turned and headed for the door. “Let’s bring Kelly in and have breakfast. I want to get back to work on him.”

  Kelly was sitting on the swing, and her expression became wary as she saw Catherine. “Am I in trouble?”

  “Yes and no,” Catherine said. “You shouldn’t have touched Eve’s work without her permission. But since she’s forgiven you, I don’t have the right to be angry.”

  Kelly looked relieved. “I just thought I’d get it done for you.”

  “Since I was being so slow and inefficient,” Catherine said dryly.

  Kelly shook her head. “I think you did a fine job since you were going at it blind.”

  “Blind?” Catherine asked curiously. “Do you actually see where you’re going when you start working on a pattern?”

  “Sometimes. Sometimes I have to jump from piece to piece and hope it comes to me as I travel.” She turned to Eve. “Is that how it is when you do a reconstruction?”

  “In a way. During the last stage of the reconstruction.” She looked at Catherine, and said meaningfully, “But it’s much better to not go at any endeavor blind if there’s any way around it.”

  “Point taken,” Catherine said. “But not necessarily accepted.”

  Kelly was focused and oblivious of the undercurrents. “I knew where I was going with the skull the moment that I saw the pieces,” she said. “That’s why it went so fast.”

  Catherine gazed at Eve, then back at Kelly, and finally said, “Then, in the name of speed and efficiency, I think you should finish what you started.”

  Kelly’s face lit. “You’ll let me help?”

  “Only with the bone fragments. And with Eve’s permission.”

  “She has it.” Eve made a face. “Though I can’t believe I’m saying that. I never let anyone touch my work, and now I’ve let both of you help me. But it’s only under my strict supervision.”

  Kelly’s gaze was on Catherine’s face.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. The idea was to free Eve to work on the age progression. I’m not going to be hurt because you’re doing it better than me. I can spend the time reading the Rakovac e-mail surveillance report.”

  “Come in and eat breakfast, Kelly,” Eve said. “You haven’t had anything but orange juice since you got up this morning.”

  “And I think I’m hungry.” Kelly’s voice was surprised as she stood up and moved toward the door. “I haven’t wanted to eat since—a long time.”

  “That’s obvious,” Catherine said. “A breeze could blow you away.” She stepped aside so that Kelly could enter. “You’re not going to be any good to anyone if you let yourself get weak and puny.”

  Kelly nodded. “I’ll remember. I won’t disappoint you.”

  “Disappoint? Kelly, it’s only the bone fragments,” Catherine said.

  “I won’t disappoint you,” Kelly repeated.

  Catherine gazed at her in frustration. “Kelly, I’m not going to—”

  “Breakfast,” Eve said firmly, and whisked both of them inside the house.

  “What’s wrong, Kelly?” Catherine had been studying Kelly’s expression from where she was sitting reading the e-mail report on the couch across the room. “You’ve been working for five hours on that skull. You only had a little left to do. I thought you’d be finished before this.”

  “I’m almost there,” Kelly said absently. “These fragments are much more delicate. I didn’t want to risk breaking them.”

  “Good decision,” Eve said grimly as she glanced up from her computer. “I would have been most displeased with you. So displeased I would have felt like breaking you into fragments.”

  Kelly shook her head gravely. “I told you I wouldn’t disappoint you. I’ll be done in a few minutes.”

  Eve leaned back in her chair. “Then I’m ahead of you.”

  Catherine sat up straight on the couch. “You’re done with the progression?”

  “Yes, do you want to see it?”

  “Of course.” She jumped to her feet and was across the room in seconds. “Show me.”

  “I only had another two steps to go from the last transition.” She pulled up a photo on the computer. “Luke at nine. You’ll see the face has elongated a little. The chin is a trifle more square. The bridge of the nose is continuing to rise up, and the nostril size and width have increased. His permanent teeth are fully down.” She tapped the screen. “At this stage, the teeth seem too big for the face. But that’s entirely natural.”

  “Is it?” Every time Eve brought up a transition, it came as a shock to Catherine. This was no exception. A shock and a sharp pang.

  Eve’s gaze was on her face. “Are you ready for the last one?”

  “Luke at eleven?”

  Eve nodded. “Luke as he is now.”

  Catherine was experiencing an odd mixture of eagerness and dread. Foolish. This was what she wanted, what she needed. “By all means.” She swallowed hard. “Luke as he is now.”

  Eve accessed the final progression.

  For an instant Catherine felt her breath leave her body. “He’s…beautiful.”

  “At this age, he’d already have a masculine resentment of that particular description,” Eve said. “I’m sure he’d prefer ‘handsome’ or ‘good-looking.’”

  “Yes.” Catherine couldn’t keep her gaze from the boy’s face. “But he is beautiful.”

  Eve nodded. “I think so, too,” she said softly. She tapped the computer screen. “Luke at age eleven. You’ll notice the chin is now square and masculine. The bridge of the nose is still higher. His ears are a little too large for
his face.”

  “They are not,” Catherine said quickly. “They’re fine.”

  “Have it your way,” Eve said. “But you will agree that he’s lost almost all his baby fat, and the look of childhood has almost disappeared. The forms of his face are harder, more defined. He’s a juvenile now.” She paused. “On his way to becoming a man.”

  Catherine blinked hard. “Yes, I’ll agree that’s true.” She drew a long shaky breath. “Could you put all the transitions up together so that I can see the progression?”

  Eve nodded. “No problem.”

  “May I see him?” Kelly was at Catherine’s elbow, her voice tentative. “Please.”

  “Okay.” Catherine stepped closer to Eve so that Kelly could see the screen. “That’s my son, Luke.”

  Kelly studied the photo. “He’s beautiful.”

  “Are you saying that because you think that’s what I want to hear?”

  “No.” Then she smiled. “Yes. But it’s true. He looks like you, Catherine.” Her gaze was on the collage of photos Eve had just brought up on the screen. “All those transitions look so different, but for some reason I’d know they were the same person. Why is that?”

  Eve’s forefinger went to the area around the eyes. “Some of it is here. Most people maintain a certain ‘look’ throughout their lives. It’s a certain ‘something’ that causes others to recognize someone even through age and changes. I tried to incorporate that quality in all the photos. Sometimes it’s ephemeral or hard to discern, but in Luke’s case, I thought it was centered around the eyes and lips.”

  “Patterns,” Kelly murmured.

  “I never thought of it that way, but it doesn’t surprise me that you do.”

  “If it’s eyes and lips, then you’re talking about expression,” Catherine said.

  “Sometimes,” Eve said. “Luke has a dimple in his left cheek, and his eyes are alert and full of vitality. He may have retained that tremendous joie de vivre.” She paused. “Or he may have lost it if life was hard. But either way, there will be traces of that lifelong look. If you look at photos of JFK, you’ll see what I mean. From childhood on, he had that unmistakable, recognizable look.” She glanced at Catherine. “Have you seen enough?”