Blood Game

  “Don’t even think about it,” Joe said.

  “I can’t think of anything else. Can you?” He got to his feet. “We can make it safe.” He started down the steps. “You’re going to get angry now, so I’d better leave. I’ll call you in the morning.” He stopped as he reached the bottom of the stairs. “I see headlights up the road. It must be Jane.” He stood, waiting until Jane was dropped off by the squad car and came toward him. “Hello. Have a good evening?”

  “Not bad. Charlie Brand is a good cook. Patty’s grandfather wasn’t unbearable and even seemed to like Charlie. Patty wasn’t too nervous about the killing.” She shrugged. “On the whole, it could have been a lot worse.”

  “And how do you feel about the Selkirk murder?” Caleb asked.

  “How do you think I feel?” Jane looked up at him. “You know damn well how I feel, Caleb.”

  Eve suddenly tensed as she looked at the two of them. The bond between them was almost visible. What kind of bond? And how had it been forged? Whatever it was, she wanted it broken. She said quickly, “Jane, there’s coffee in the carafe.”

  Caleb glanced at her and smiled. “Yes, give her a cup of coffee. It’s beginning to be a little chilly. Good night, Jane. I’m glad everything went well for you.” He smiled at Eve. “Good night, Eve. Thank you for bringing me into the fold. You won’t regret it.”

  “I hope not,” Eve said. “But I’ve always found if I make a mistake, I can just smash it down and start over.”

  “On your reconstructions?” He nodded. “I can see you doing that. You wouldn’t tolerate anything but perfection in a task so important.” He waved as he set off for his car. “It obviously works for you. I’ll have to see if it does for me.”

  Jane stood watching him walk away before turning and starting up the stairs. “He seems right at home. Things have obviously changed. You’ll have to fill me in about your evening.”

  “I will,” Eve said. “We know more about Jelak and his vampire obsession than I want to know. You’ll find it as bizarre as we did.”

  “And did you find out any more about Caleb?” She poured herself a cup of coffee. “He’s a little bizarre himself.”

  “Do I detect a note of resentment?” Joe asked. “Good. Keep it. We’ve agreed to use each other to get Jelak, but don’t trust him.”

  “There may be a time when we have to trust him,” Jane said. “I’d like to know more about him. You said you were going to check him out.”

  “I did. No criminal record. Thirty-seven years old. Parents dead. Born in Lucerne, Switzerland, but grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland, with his uncle, Rolf Mardell, now deceased. He was left a sizable fortune by both his parents and Mardell. He spends a lot of time traveling about the world.”

  “Hunting,” Jane said softly.

  Joe nodded. “Hunting.”

  Jane turned to Eve. “You’re being very quiet.”

  “I’m thinking that I should get back to work.” She stood up. “I didn’t get enough done before Joe brought Caleb home.” She gave Jane a level look. “I can control my work. I’m having trouble with everything else at the moment. I’m not sure what’s happening with either you or Joe.”

  Jane said quietly, “Anything that’s happened is because we care about you.”

  “Not good enough. I don’t like being an outsider because you think it will make me safer.” Eve didn’t wait for an answer. She went into the house and strode over to her studio corner.

  She took the towel off the head of the skull. “Hello, Matt. I’m relieved to get back to you. It’s much simpler when it’s just the two of us.”

  The little boy’s face was beginning to take form beneath her fingers. All the painstaking measuring of tissue depths was vitally important, but it was the actual molding that was Eve’s special domain. She relied on accuracy but also her instinct. At this stage she was always absorbed, almost mesmerized by the creative process. She had been in that state earlier in the evening when that sickening panic had struck her. It had been all the more frightening because it had jarred her away from the work that was her passion.

  Could an obsession as strong as Jelak’s have had the power to reach out and touch her?

  She didn’t know, she thought wearily. Stranger things were happening all around her.

  Give a face to this lost child. Bring him home. Let his parents have closure at last.

  Close Jelak out. Close out Caleb, who was almost as disturbing.

  Close out the thought of the blood.

  ________

  “WE THINK WE’VE LOCATED Jelak’s car,” Schindler said, when Joe walked into the squad room the next morning. “It looks like the same one that the security camera caught at Perimeter Mall. An old Lincoln Town Car. Maybe ’93.”

  Joe stiffened. Dammit, a break at last. “Where?”

  “Don’t get excited. GBI found it on the side of the road near Kennesaw Mountain about an hour ago. It was apparently abandoned.”

  “That doesn’t mean he didn’t leave something in it that we could trace. Is forensics there yet?”

  Schindler nodded. “They’re going over it with a fine-tooth comb. Do you want to go or wait for the report?”

  “I’m going.” He turned and walked out of the squad room. He was reaching for his phone as he reached the car. He dialed Caleb. “They’ve found Jelak’s car abandoned. Will you be able to tell anything about his whereabouts from it? You said you could feel him.”

  “Doubtful just from the vehicle. But I can try.”

  “Damn right, you can.” Joe pulled out of the parking space. “Kennesaw Mountain. I’ll give you exact directions when I’m closer.” He hung up and glanced at his rearview mirror. Blue Toyota. He was being tailed again. Ed Norris probably knew everything that he knew. What the hell. Joe probably wouldn’t know that much that the world didn’t. Caleb had not been encouraging, and Joe was probably an idiot for using spook tactics to try to find Jelak.

  At this point, he’d use anything he could to get a line on the bastard.

  FORENSICS WAS STILL GOING over the massive gray car when Joe arrived at the park.

  Caleb was standing to one side, watching them.

  “Well?” Joe asked.

  He shook his head. “All I know is that he’s nowhere near here.”

  “What good is that going to do us?”

  “Not a damn thing.” He grimaced. “What did you expect? That I’d touch the steering wheel and get a vision of him? Sorry, it doesn’t work like that. If he’s within two miles, and there’s low interference, I can feel him, track him. Otherwise, I’m blank.”

  “Some hunter.”

  “Shut up, Quinn. I could call Renata and see if she could send someone who can do the touchy-feely stuff. But it will take her a while.”

  “And by that time Jelak will have moved on.” He was gazing at the huge car. How many times had Jelak used it to stuff bodies in that trunk or in the backseat? “Those forensic boys are probably getting a hell of a lot of fiber evidence.”

  “For the trial,” Caleb said. “Which is never going to happen. He used that car when he kidnapped Nancy Jo Norris, didn’t he?”

  Joe nodded. “He picked her up in it at Perimeter Mall.” He stiffened as a thought occurred to him. “Are you sure you can’t trace him?”

  Caleb nodded, his gaze on Joe’s face. “I told you, I’m not touchy-feely. Why?”

  Joe didn’t answer. He turned on his heel and strode back to his car.

  “Answer me, Quinn.” Caleb was standing by his driver’s seat as Joe started his car. “You’re up to something, and I’m not going to be left out in the cold.”

  “Then follow me. I don’t give a damn.”

  “Where are you going?”

  Joe backed up the car. “To find someone who’s touchy-feely.”

  THE YELLOW TAPE WAS GONE from the crime scene at Allatoona. There were no longer media trucks parked out down the street.

  Thank God, Joe thought. It was broad daylight, and
the last thing he needed was for some reporter to come running up to him with a barrage of questions.

  He got out of the car and started across the glade toward the woods.

  He looked over his shoulder as he heard a car pull in behind him.

  Caleb.

  “Stay there. You’re not invited.”

  “Whatever you say.”

  “Right.” He had almost reached the woods, and he dismissed Caleb from his mind. He didn’t care if Caleb camped out there all day as long as he didn’t get in his way. The reason he was here was absurd and slightly mad, but it was on a par with the way the rest of his life was going.

  He stopped inside the shadowy confines of the trees and looked around. No one. No slim, blond girl in a red sweatshirt. Hell, she had said that Bonnie had told her to get away from the place where she had died. She might not even be around here. But he didn’t know what else to do.

  Okay, go for it.

  “I’m here, dammit. Where the hell are you?”

  No answer.

  “If you think I’m going to stay out here yodeling for a damn ghost, you’re mistaken. Either show up, or I’m out of here.”

  “You don’t have to be rude.”

  He whirled to see Nancy Jo only a few yards away. “I feel rude,” he said curtly. “And like a blasted idiot. How did I know you weren’t tripping the light fantastic in the Great Beyond?”

  “I told you I wouldn’t leave Daddy. He needs me.” She was gazing searchingly at him. “And I think you need me too. Or you wouldn’t be here. Is it something to do with Margaret Selkirk?”

  “No.” He added, “Though I’m not surprised you know about her. You belong to the same club.”

  “Yes, we do,” she said sadly. “My heart aches for her.”

  “But evidently she decided to cross over and not stick around. I wasn’t honored by her presence.”

  She shook her head. “You’re wrong. She’s still here.”

  “Then thank God I don’t figure in her afterlife. I didn’t see her.”

  “If you’d gone upstairs with Seth Caleb, you’d have seen her. She was with the children.”

  Joe felt as if he’d been kicked in the stomach. The idea of walking into that room where the children were grieving and seeing their mother with them was shocking even in retrospect. “How do you know?”

  “I was there too. I was trying to help her. I know how lonely and scary it is at first,” she said. “But she wouldn’t listen to me. She kept trying to get through to the children. Then Seth Caleb came and it got a little better. But she can’t leave them until she knows they’re going to be all right.”

  “Another woman with a mission,” Joe said.

  “Stop trying to be hard,” Nancy Jo said. “I know that you’re hurting for her just as I am. Daddy will survive if I can get him through this. But those children will be scarred.”

  “Hell, yes, I’m hurting.” Joe’s hands clenched into fists. “And I’m confused and sorry and scared shitless. I’ve got to get Jelak before he does this again.”

  “And you think I can help you.”

  “So you’re suddenly a mind reader?”

  “Why else would you have come bellowing for me like a cow in labor?”

  He made a face. “You could have chosen a more appropriate comparison, Nancy Jo.”

  She smiled faintly. “But not one more accurate. You like me. You want to help me. But every time we’re together, you’re fighting it. So yes, you do bellow.”

  “Maybe,” he said. “You said you could sense Jelak, that you thought you could find him. If you had some of his possessions would that help?”

  “I don’t know. Perhaps.”

  “All I’m getting is maybes and I don’t knows,” he said in disgust. “Caleb came up with zilch.”

  “Which sent you bellowing to me,” Nancy Jo said. “What did you find that belonged to Jelak?”

  “His car. Probably the one he used to bring you here to Allatoona.”

  She stiffened. “The car. I’ve been thinking about it lately. It was as big and heavy as a hearse. Do you think that Jelak made that connection?”

  “It wouldn’t surprise me. It’s parked at Kennesaw Mountain right now. After forensics gets through with it, they’ll tow it in to the impound yard. Will you come and look at it before they do?”

  “Of course.” She moistened her lips. “I’ve got to look at it. I’ve got to see it, touch it. Right now, it’s not even real to me. It’s just part of the nightmare.”

  “That’s probably a mercy.”

  “I’ve got to get rid of the nightmare. Bonnie said that, and I didn’t understand, but now I’m beginning to see what she meant.”

  Bonnie, again. Eve’s daughter seemed to be moving in and out of Nancy Jo’s awareness as she did Joe’s.

  He turned. “Then let’s see if we can use that damn car to hang the bastard. Coming?”

  She smiled. “I don’t need a lift, Joe. I can find you with no problem.”

  He glanced back over his shoulder. “That’s right, you know the trick. I wish to hell I did. I wouldn’t have had to come here bellowing for you.”

  “Maybe someday I can teach it to you.”

  “Not if it means I have to be a ghost. I’m not ready for that.”

  “Neither was I.”

  No, nineteen years old and full of life and all that the future held. A beautiful life, and the longer he was with her, the more glimpses he was seeing of the extraordinary woman she would have become if Jelak had allowed her to live.

  He was suddenly furiously angry. “Then, dammit, let’s go get the son of a bitch.”

  Kennesaw Mountain

  “WHY DID YOU SEND THE forensic team away?” Caleb asked. “They didn’t seem pleased.”

  “Too bad. They can do the rest of the tests later.” He watched the last van go down the hill. “Why don’t you go back to the precinct and wait for—”

  “I wouldn’t think of it.” He leaned against his car and crossed his arms across his chest. “I’m too interested in all this erratic behavior you’re showing me.”

  “It’s not erratic.” Where the hell was Nancy Jo? He’d been hoping that he’d be able to get rid of Caleb before she arrived on the scene. It wasn’t going to happen. Caleb was sticking closer than glue. It didn’t really matter. At this point, he didn’t give a damn if Caleb thought he was nuts or not.

  “Maybe erratic wasn’t accurate. Then unusual.”

  “I’ll grant you unusual.” The van had gone around the turn of the road. Where was she? “But that’s the pot calling the kettle.”

  “He’s much blacker than you, Joe,” Nancy Jo said. She was standing in front of the big Lincoln, staring at it in fascination. “It frightens me. Why should it frighten me?”

  “I don’t know. Memory?”

  “Memory?” Caleb repeated. “What are you talking about?”

  Joe made an impatient gesture and turned away from him. “Let’s get it over with, Nancy Jo.” He opened the trunk of the car. “He probably stashed you in the trunk after he put you out. Do you have any recollection?”

  “No.” She put her hand on the rust-colored carpet lining the trunk. “It seems strange not to be able to feel things. Bonnie said if I stay long enough some of it will come back. Sunlight . . . rain . . .”

  “You don’t sense anything?”

  “Nothing about him.” She shuddered. “But I wasn’t the only one Jelak stuffed in this trunk. One, two, three . . . Five. I think there were five. Four of us were unconscious but Kerry was still awake, and she fought, her nails were bloody from trying to get out.” She reached out and touched a tiny brown stain on the carpet. Tears rose to her eyes. “I feel her, but I can’t help her.”

  “You have sensation when you touch the blood?”

  “Yes, but I can’t help her.”

  “It’s all right, Nancy Jo.” He closed the trunk. “She doesn’t need your help anymore.” He went to the driver’s door and opened it
. “Get in and see if you get anything.”

  “He sat there.” She came to stand beside him and stared at the seat. She swallowed, hard. “Dear God, I don’t want to do it.”

  “You said you couldn’t feel anything.”

  “I can remember,” she said fiercely. “I can remember his face.”

  “You won’t do it?”

  She drew a deep breath. “Of course I’ll do it. Give me a minute.”

  “All the time you need.”

  Two minutes later she slowly slipped into the driver’s seat. She closed her eyes. “He was in this car the night he killed Heather Carmello. After that, he decided it wasn’t safe to keep it. He’d have to steal another car and abandon this one.”

  “What kind of car?”

  She shook her head. “He hadn’t decided. He liked big American cars, but he was leaning toward a smaller foreign job. He kept thinking about Seth Caleb and the way he’d tracked him at the lake cottage. He doesn’t want to admit it to himself, but he’s afraid of him.” She opened her eyes. “May I get out now? I feel as if he’s here with me. I can almost hear his heart beat.”

  “Just a little longer. I need to know where he is.”

  “I can’t tell. All I know is how he was feeling the last time he was in this car.”

  “Run your hand along the dashboard.”

  She hesitated, then lifted her hand and ran her fingers along the leather dashboard. “Nothing.”

  “The cup holder and the passenger seat.”

  She took a deep breath and touched the cup holder. She snatched it back as if burned. “Heather Carmello’s blood. He had the goblet in the holder when he took it to Patty Avery’s house. It was only a short distance, and he was in a hurry.”

  “Try the passenger seat.”

  She didn’t move. “When can I get out of this car?”

  “After the passenger seat.”

  “Dammit, Joe.” She swallowed and reached out her hand to touch the dark fabric. “It had better be worth this—” She gasped and bent double. “No!”