Kendra shrugged. “Not many people do. Sometimes it strikes a bell.” She turned to Joe. “Wait, do you have a photo?”
“I thought you’d never ask,” Joe said dryly. He pulled up a photo on his phone. “This is Drogan.”
The woman looked at the photo. “Maybe I’ve seen him.”
“Yes or no?” Joe added softly, “If you lie, I’ll make your life hell.”
“I’ve seen hell before. But I’m not going to stick my neck out for someone who doesn’t mean a damn to me.” She looked again at the photo. “Yeah, I’ve sold oil to him. Several canisters in the last month. Surly son of a bitch.”
“Does he live near here? Or does he drive in from another state?”
“He’s local, I think. I was driving out in the desert gathering supplies a few weeks ago, and I saw his truck. It was near a beat-up old shack with a broken door.”
He straightened. “What color was the truck? Where? Which direction?”
“Red truck. Sort of rust red. The shack is … East.” She waved a vague hand. “And I don’t know where. I told you, I was driving around, trying to locate some of my ingredients.”
“Eye of newt?” Newell murmured.
The woman gave him an ugly glance. “I think maybe it was southeast. That’s all I can tell you.” She started to close the door, then stopped. “He’s … kind of creepy. He carries a snake around with him. I’ve heard it rattle in the cage.”
“And you’re not accustomed to creepy clients?” Kendra asked her, as Joe turned and headed back to the car.
“Yeah, but he’s in a class by himself. Don’t tell him I told you where to find him.”
She slammed the door.
“But she didn’t tell us,” Joe said tightly. “It’s going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack.” He started the car. “Southeast. Dammit, but where?”
CHAPTER
18
THE MOONLIGHT WAS BRIGHT and the ground soft and giving beneath Eve’s feet as she went ahead of Drogan out the back door of the shack and across the sand.
“Here,” Drogan said roughly.
She had almost stumbled into the grave Drogan had dug. She stared down at the open coffin in the three-foot-deep hole.
“Are you afraid?” Drogan asked.
“No.”
“You’re lying.”
“No, I’m not afraid of facing what’s beyond. There are times when I’d welcome it.” Because Bonnie was there and would welcome her. “But you should be afraid, Drogan. I think you are. I think that’s what all this voodoo business is all about.”
He was cursing beneath his breath. “Jump down in the coffin and lie down.”
Should she do it? The death he had planned for her was hideous. She could make a move on him now and she might get lucky.
And she might not.
Joe could be near. God, she hoped he was near.
She jumped down into the coffin and lay down. It was narrow and barely held her slender frame. She tensed, waiting.
She didn’t have long to wait.
Drogan dropped the snake on her chest. The rattler was striking in all directions.
Don’t move. Don’t breathe. Don’t give the snake any reason to strike at her body.
Darkness.
Drogan had dragged the lid over the coffin.
She could feel the snake slowly move up her body toward her throat.
* * *
BARREN DESERT, CACTUS, MOONLIGHT stark on shadowy dunes.
No shack.
No truck.
No Drogan.
“Try farther east,” Newell said. “It’s got to be near here somewhere.”
“No, it doesn’t.” Joe’s hands gripped the steering wheel with a white-knuckled grip. “Not if she lied.”
“She wouldn’t have a reason to lie,” Kendra said quietly. “She didn’t like the idea of being involved. You’re not thinking clearly.”
That was without question, Joe thought. The only clarity to his thinking was of Eve with Drogan. It was making him sick to his stomach with fear.
“East,” Newell said.
Joe nodded jerkily. “I’m changing direction. For God’s sake, keep an eye out for that truck.”
* * *
THE SNAKE WAS LYING across her throat, and Eve was afraid that the pounding pulse beat in the hollow would cause the rattler to strike out. There was nothing but darkness and the heavy scent of the oil coating the snake’s body.
Don’t swallow.
Breathe shallow so that her neck would not move.
The triangular head of the rattler was in her hair, and it was still.
Why wasn’t it moving?
* * *
BECAUSE IT’S AS SCARED as you are, Mama.
Bonnie?
Yes, I’m with you.
Eve could not see her, but she could feel her there in the darkness. Why? Is this the end, baby?
I don’t know, you’re doing all the right things, but sometimes that’s not enough. I didn’t want you to be alone.
I’m not really afraid. I’d be happy to be with you. It’s just that it’s a natural instinct to feel like this. And Joe …
Yes, Joe.
And I don’t like snakes.
They’re just creatures like the rest of us. It’s afraid, too.
Drogan thinks the snake’s a she and may be his mother. Isn’t that crazy?
Pretty silly. Bonnie was silent. Mama, I’m going to leave you for a little while. That snake is too terrified for me to reach, but I may be able to do something inside the shack. Don’t move. Just keep on doing what you’re doing. I’ll be back soon.
* * *
BONNIE WAS GONE.
Eve felt a ripple of panic, and she must have swallowed, because the snake draped across her throat suddenly stirred.
She froze.
Keep on doing what you’re doing.
Which was absolutely nothing, dammit. If she was going to die, she desperately wanted Bonnie back with her for these final minutes. What was she doing in that shack anyway?
* * *
“I THINK WE’RE GOING AROUND in circles,” Newell said.
“No, we’re not,” Joe said. “That much I know. It just seems as if—”
“Smoke.” Kendra grabbed Joe’s arm. “I smell smoke.”
“I don’t smell anything.”
“You will soon. It’s faint. The wind is blowing it from that hollow over there to the west.”
It was over a minute before Joe caught a whiff of the smoke. “Yes.”
“It could be nothing,” Newell said.
“Or something.” He could only pray it was something. They had come up with zilch, and time was running out. Joe was already gunning the car toward the hollow. He inhaled sharply as they crested the hollow.
A shack, flames blazing, fire devouring it.
“Truck?” He bit out.
“There. To the left of the shack,” Newell said. “I can’t tell what color. It’s dark … could be red.”
“Close enough. We’re going in.”
“There’s someone near that stand of trees,” Kendra said. “Do you see him, Joe?”
Just a vague shadow, but the man was tall and slim.
Drogan was said to be tall and slim.
Joe stomped on the accelerator for the remaining distance separating them from the shack. He screeched to a stop as they came near the burning house. “Both of you get out. See if you can get into the shack and check and see if there’s anyone inside.”
Kendra and Newell were already out of the car and running toward the burning shack.
Joe turned the car and headed toward the stand of trees.
Drogan.
The headlights picked up Drogan in the beam. His eyes were wide, his expression vicious, and he was raising his gun.
Joe ducked as a bullet shattered the windshield. He jammed on the brakes, opened the driver’s door, and rolled out of the car. Drogan was coming toward him, firing.
/> “Welcome, Quinn,” Drogan said. “My plans were all disrupted, but here you are anyway. It must be fate.”
“Where’s Eve?” From his vantage point all he could see were Drogan’s legs on the other side of the car. “I may let you live if you tell me—”
A bullet hit the hubcap of the car next to Joe’s head.
“No, you wouldn’t let me live if I told you where she is,” Drogan said. “You’d be very angry with me. People seem to have a particular horror of the death I’ve planned for your Eve … and you. I hope I can keep you alive long enough to have you join her in her coffin.”
Coffin. It was what Joe had feared most. “Where did you bury her?”
Drogan laughed. “Guess. Either she’ll suffocate, or the snake I gave her for company will get her. I’ll leave it to your imagination.”
And Joe’s imagination was scaring him to death. If Eve was already in a coffin, he might have only minutes, seconds. He had to put an end to this. He took careful aim under the car. “I’d rather imagine you writhing in hell, Drogan.” He shot out both of Drogan’s kneecaps.
Drogan screamed, and his legs gave away.
Joe was on him before he touched the ground. His hands clutched Drogan’s neck. “You like the idea of suffocating? Let’s try it on you, Drogan.” His thumbs cut off Drogan’s air. “Where is she?”
Drogan gasped, his eyes bulging as he struggled to breathe.
“Talk.”
“Dead.” His eyes burned with malice. “I haven’t heard anything from her for almost ten minutes. She’s dead. Mama … Zela took … her.” He suddenly rolled to the side, breaking Joe’s hold. He grabbed a knife from the holster on his leg and lunged toward him.
The knife nicked Joe’s upper arm before he twisted Drogan’s arm and managed to jerk the knife away from his body. “Where is Eve?”
“I told you. I’m not saying anything more.”
“No?” Joe’s hands closed on his throat again. “You say you killed her. Then you’re of no use to me, and you’re wasting my time. One last chance?”
“You’re a cop. You won’t do anything to me.”
“You’re wrong, you know,” Joe said softly. “Good-bye, Drogan.”
His hands tightened, jerked, and he broke Drogan’s neck.
He jumped to his feet and didn’t look back as he moved toward the trees.
Newell was running toward him. “Quinn, did you find Eve?”
“No. She wasn’t in the shack, was she?”
“No.”
That would have been too much for which to hope. Drogan had been far too sure, too malicious.
“But Beth was in the shack, still alive,” Newell said. “She was crawling out the door when we got there. She’s hurt, but Kendra’s with her. Did Drogan tell you where—”
“No. She may be somewhere in this stand of trees. You go to the left. I’ll go to the right.”
Drogan had said he hadn’t heard anything from Eve for ten minutes. That meant she must be close.
Find her.
And pray Drogan had been lying or wrong.
* * *
“EVE!”
Footsteps.
Frantic cursing.
Joe’s voice.
Eve’s heart leaped into her throat, but she couldn’t even scream to him because it would have caused vocal-cord vibration.
“Eve.” The lid was torn off the coffin and thrown aside.
Joe. The bright beam of a flashlight. “Oh, my God.” He drew a long, ragged breath. “Stay perfectly still. I can’t shoot it. I have to grab the snake quick and throw it out of the coffin and away from you.”
He bent closer and moved with painstaking slowness. “He’s lifting his head out of your hair. I think he senses me.”
And would strike at him … or her, as soon as he was sure there was a threat, Eve thought.
Be careful, Joe.
Of course he would be careful. Joe would be careful, and sure and fast.
But things could go wrong, Bonnie had said.
Joe pounced, grabbing the snake behind the head. The next moment he had flung it far away from the coffin and across the yard. He grabbed Eve out of the coffin and up into his arms. “Shoot it, Newell.”
“No, let it go. Bonnie wouldn’t—” She was clinging desperately to him. He felt so good. Safety. Strength. Joe. “She said the snake was only scared, like me.”
“Bonnie,” he repeated. He was cupping the back of her head and rocking her back and forth in an agony of relief. “Hallucinations, Eve?”
“Maybe. I was scared enough. I desperately wanted her there. No, I don’t think so.” She looked beyond his shoulder to see the flames devouring the shack. “Beth! We have to get her out.”
“She’s out. She was crawling out the door when we got here. Kendra dragged her away from the house and is checking her over. Newell said she was hurt.”
“Drogan hit her with the butt of his gun.” She looked at Drogan’s body a few yards away. “He would probably have let Beth burn to death. It must have been the oil lamp. I didn’t think the fire was that bad.”
“Bad enough.” He held her closer. “Or good enough. The fire led us to the shack. It might have taken us a good deal longer if we hadn’t seen it blazing in the distance.”
“Drogan killed Rick Avery. I guess you know that.”
“Yes.” His hand was probing her side. “Are you bleeding?”
“I don’t think that—” She had a sudden memory of the instant when Drogan had thrown the snake down into the coffin. The faintest sting … “It may be a snakebite from the first couple minutes. It’s probably nothing. I didn’t even notice that it had gotten me.”
“It got you all right.” He was examining the two tears in her shirt. “Looks like a superficial bite, but we’ll take you to the hospital to have it treated.” He lifted her to her feet and shouted to Newell. “We’re heading for the nearest hospital. Tell Kendra to bring Beth.”
“I’ll tell her. I need to see her.” Eve was running toward the shack. “Drogan hit her twice, and it was—” She stopped beside Beth and Kendra, who were a few yards from the burning house. “How is she, Kendra?”
“Not great.” Kendra was bathing the deep cut on Beth’s temple. “But she comes in and out of consciousness. She asked about you a minute ago.” Kendra’s gaze raked Eve’s face. “And how are you?”
“Okay.” She fell to her knees beside Beth. “I have to go to the hospital to have a bite checked out. Beth’s in much worse shape than I am. When she threw that glass into Drogan’s eye, I thought he’d kill her. We have to get a doctor to look at—”
“No … hospital.” Beth had opened her eyes and was staring up at Eve. “Not again.”
Eve’s hand closed tightly on Beth’s. “This time it will be different. I’ll be there with you, and I won’t leave until you go with me.”
“Promise?”
“Yes, believe me, Beth. I’ll never let anything happen to you again.”
Her eyes closed. “I do believe you. Is the little girl … safe?”
Eve stiffened. “Little girl?”
“The little girl in the shack. When she came, the fire kept growing and leaping and she was right in the middle of it. It was swirling around her … She kept telling me to crawl, to get out the door. Is she safe?”
Eve looked back at the blazing shack.
I may be able to do something inside the shack.
Evidently, Bonnie had found a good deal she could do in the shack.
“You’re not answering me.” Beth’s eyes were open again. “She’s just a little girl. If she’s not safe, we have to help her.”
Eve smiled as she brushed the hair back from Beth’s forehead. “It’s okay, don’t worry,” she said softly. “She’s not in danger any longer. The little girl couldn’t be more safe now.”
* * *
“GET OUT OF HERE, EVE. The doctor said Beth’s going to be fine,” Kendra said as she came into Beth’s hospital room.
“You’ve been hanging out here for the last thirty-six hours. You should go to a hotel and get a good night’s sleep. I’ll stay with her if you like.”
Eve shook her head. “I promised I wouldn’t leave until she did.”
“I should have expected that.” Kendra smiled. “I did, really. And, of course, Joe won’t leave you.”
“He’s busy anyway. He’s trying to get a permanent release for Beth from the mental hospital. It’s not easy. The board is all in a turmoil because of Pierce’s death, and they hate the idea of saying they were criminally negligent.”
“In this age of lawsuits, you can’t blame them.”
“I do blame them,” she said fiercely. “I blame everyone for not paying attention to what was happening to her. They just drifted along, and time passed. There should have been tests and reviews of Pierce and his staff.”
“Hindsight.” Kendra put up her hand to stop her protest. “I agree. I’d feel the same if I were you.”
“Eve…”
Eve’s gaze flew down to Beth’s face. Her sister’s eyes were open, and she was looking up at Eve. “Back with us? How do you feel?”
“As if I’ve been hit by a gun butt,” she said hoarsely. “And most of the time, I haven’t been sleeping. I’ve just been lying here thinking. I’m sorry, Eve. I’m to blame for everything. And I wasn’t much help to you.”
“What are you talking about? You almost took Drogan’s eye out. If I’d been faster, we’d have stopped him in his tracks.”
“I should have done something before that. It was just that I felt as if I was in some kind of terrible fog.” She drew a deep breath. “But that’s an excuse, and I don’t have the right to try to excuse myself when I should have been there for you.” Her gaze fell on Kendra. “You were at the shack. You helped me.”
Kendra nodded. “I’m Kendra Michaels. I’m glad you’re better.” She smiled and turned toward the door. “And now I’ll go try to find Joe and see if I can help him. My mother is wonderful at cutting bureaucratic red tape. She gets a vicious pleasure doing it. We’ll have you out of here in no time.”
Beth looked at Eve when the door closed behind Kendra. “Red tape?” She moistened her lips. “Trouble, Eve?”
“Nothing we can’t handle.”
“I won’t go back there.”
“I’d never let you go back.” She smiled as she clasped Beth’s hand. “So stop worrying and start thinking about what you want to do with the rest of your life.”