“You’re releasing them?”
“A condition of your Ms. Duncan’s. I expected it.” He gave Soldono a cool glance. “You were wise not to make the attempt to get them out before this. I was a little worried you might not be as intelligent as I thought you to be. You might have set my plan back severely if you’d made me use violence when I’d tracked you down. I’m being forced to strike a very delicate balance with Eve Duncan.”
Soldono met his gaze. “If I’d found a way, I would have done it.” He turned away. “And I wouldn’t have been as easy as Aquila.”
Montalvo laughed. “Good for you. A break at last in your demeanor. I was getting tired of you being so diplomatic with me.”
“There was a man’s life at stake. I did what I had to do.”
“And now the man is going to be freed and you can be yourself. It will be a relief to both of us.” Montalvo waved his hand. “Go get the woman and children. Miguel will give you cash to set them all up far away from me.”
“Why?”
“It may discourage me from obeying the rule I set up for the compound.” He paused. “Or it might not. So don’t tell me where you settle them.”
“You’re a strange man, Montalvo.”
“Strange is better than ordinary. I swore when I was a child that I would never be run-of-the-mill. I’ve kept my word.”
“That you have.” Soldono was heading for the door. “There’s no use me being here if you’re releasing Gonzales. I’ll be boarding the plane with them.”
“No, I want you to stay here.”
“Why?”
“Eve Duncan will feel safer here with you on the scene.”
He hesitated. “I’ll have to check with Venable.”
“We both know there won’t be a problem. Not only will you be providing security to a U.S. citizen, but you’ll continue to be in a position to spy on my operations. After all, that’s how all this started in the beginning.”
“I have to warn you that I’ll provide her with all the security of which I’m capable. I won’t be a cardboard figure, Montalvo.”
“Good. The safer she feels, the more productive she’ll be.”
Soldono shook his head and strode out of the room.
Montalvo stood up and moved across the office to the window to stare out at the jungle. Excitement was tingling through him.
She was coming.
It had been a hard fight but he had won. He had been patient and not reached out and grabbed. He had used his mind and not muscle.
Are you as excited as I am, Eve? I believe you are. I could hear it in your voice. I could sense it.
I’m getting closer, you son of a bitch. One step at a time, one person at a time. You can’t stop me, Diaz.
She was coming.
Nekmon hesitated outside the bedroom door. Diaz had a new woman with him and he usually didn’t like to be disturbed. Screw it. Diaz had told him to report as soon as he knew anything about Aquila. If he didn’t do as ordered, he’d be in trouble anyway. Damned if he did, damned if he didn’t.
He knocked. “Nekmon.”
“Come in. Come in,” Diaz said impatiently.
The scent of perfume and marijuana hit his nostrils as soon as he opened the door. “I’m sorry to bother you, but you said—”
“I know what I said.” Diaz sat up, leaned back against the padded velvet headboard, and lit a joint. “Talk and get out.”
Nekmon carefully avoided looking at the naked woman lying next to Diaz. “Aquila reported in night before last. He didn’t have much. Montalvo has been very quiet lately and staying close to home. He did come up with one name several times during surveillance. Something about a job and an Eve Duncan.”
“Who the shit is Eve Duncan?”
“I went to the Internet. If it’s the same one, she’s some kind of big-time forensic sculptor.”
Diaz stiffened. “What?”
“My report’s on your desk. I could get it for you now.”
“No, not now,” he said absently. “But I want to know if Aquila calls with any other info.”
“We haven’t heard from him in twenty-four hours. He should be calling every eight hours per your orders.”
Diaz muttered a curse. “The idiot was probably clumsy.”
“That’s my guess. Do I send someone else?”
Diaz nodded slowly. “Send Duarte.”
Nekmon’s brows lifted. “You believe that will be necessary?”
“It can’t hurt. I like to be prepared.” He murmured, “Eve Duncan. The bastard must be getting close.”
“Can I do anything else?”
“Not in here. I don’t like sandwiches.” He handed the joint to the woman next to him.
Only it wasn’t a woman, Nekmon noticed. It was a girl not over eleven or twelve. He vaguely remembered seeing her working on one of the coca farms. Evidently Diaz had seen her, too, and decided he liked what he saw. It didn’t surprise him. Diaz usually liked the young ones. He often bought girls even younger from the whorehouses in Bogotá.
“I’ll go then. Good night, Mr. Diaz.”
Diaz didn’t answer. He was already moving over the young girl. “Now let’s see how well you’ve learned your lessons, little puta….”
“Again, Joe?” Eve’s voice was breathless as she cuddled closer to him. “Don’t tell me I’ve worn you out?”
“Okay, I won’t tell you.” He rolled over and was on top of her. “Now put up or shut up.”
“You mean put out.” She smiled up at him. “No problem.”
“I hope not.” His hand caressed her cheek. “That’s what I want for you, Eve. No problems ever.”
“There are always problems.” She turned her head to kiss his palm. “But moments like this make us forget about them. You’re a wonderful man and a hell of a lover.” She whispered, “I love you, Joe.”
“I gathered that by the way you seduced me tonight. You didn’t let me eat my supper before you set out to do your best to get me in the sack.”
“You were easy. It didn’t take my best. Are you complaining?”
“If I were, you should send me to a shrink.” He bent down and kissed her, slow, lingering. “God, I’m glad to be seduced. I was trying to be reserved and not use sex to influence you.”
“How stupid can you get? Use it.” She chuckled. “It won’t get you anywhere, but we’ll have a hell of a good time.”
“What a healthy attitude.” He started to move. “I believe I will….”
Joe was carefully getting out of bed and heading for the bathroom. The door closed silently and she heard the shower.
He didn’t want to wake her, Eve knew. It was six-thirty. He’d get dressed and be on the way to the precinct within thirty minutes.
She’d lie here and pretend to be asleep and hope he didn’t turn on the light and see the tears staining her cheeks. This was going to be the most difficult time. She wanted to talk to him, tell him everything. She wanted to draw him back to her and forget about Venable’s agent, who’d be here in a few hours. Why was she doing this when she could have Joe and hours like the ones that had spun by like molten gold?
Golden nights and silver mornings.
Who had said that?
Jane. After she had come back from MacDuff’s Run.
Last night had been golden. But this morning was anything but silver. It was shoddy metal and was leaving a taste of bitter brass in her mouth.
The decision was made. Good-byes were always hard. If she didn’t go today, she would go tomorrow or the next day. She knew herself too well not to know that.
She just had to hope that Joe didn’t turn on the light.
5
She got a call from Galen when she was boarding the private jet at the Atlanta airport.
“Do you have a minute, luv?” he asked. “I need to talk to you.”
“I have time. You’ve found out something?”
“Not as much as I’d like. Enough to make me uneasy.”
“You? Uneasy? It takes a lot to rattle you.”
“I’m not rattled. Don’t insult me. I’m merely a bit troubled.”
“And what about Montalvo made you troubled? We all knew he was bad news.”
“We didn’t know that there was a connection with Ramon Diaz.”
“Diaz…the name’s familiar, but I can’t—”
“Colombian drug lord. Scum of the earth. Very powerful. He controls half the politicians in the government.”
“And Montalvo is his buddy?”
“I don’t know. Digging for information about Montalvo is a study in frustration. I need to go down there and do the job myself.”
“No,” she said sharply. “That’s not what I asked. I want you to stay home and do any digging long-distance.”
“I may have sounded like a hausfrau yesterday, but I still do my job, Eve. Long distance isn’t cutting it.”
“What did you find out?”
“I think he’s forty-two and was born in a village in the south. I can’t trace his parents yet. As far as I know, he could have been hatched. The next info places him with the rebels when he was in his twenties. Very good. Very lethal. That’s all until he emerges years later as this weapons guru.”
“And Diaz?”
“I don’t know. My informant says it’s only a whisper, not a fact. But that whisper keeps repeating over and over.”
“Maybe it’s like the telephone game. It starts out as one thing and ends up completely different.”
“Maybe. But if there’s any connection at all you want to get as far away as possible from him. Diaz shoots priests because they preach against growing coca. I don’t know how nasty Montalvo operates, but if he works with Diaz, he’s bound to be an ugly customer.”
“A whisper.”
Galen was silent a moment. “And you don’t want to hear that whisper, do you? Why not?”
“I’m listening.”
“I can hardly hear you with all that background noise. Where are you?”
“I need to hang up anyway. Call me if you hear anything concrete.” She was climbing the steps of the jet. “But don’t you leave Elena and Elspeth. I don’t need the information that badly.”
“You sounded fairly urgent before. What’s different?”
The difference was that bad or good, she was going to find out for herself. “Thanks for trying, Galen.”
“I don’t try, I do. You know that or you wouldn’t have called me in the first place. I’ll get back to you when I know more. Good-bye, Eve.”
“Good-bye, Galen. Remember what I—”
He was gone. Dammit, she’d unleashed Galen’s boundless curiosity, and coupled with his pride in his profession, she’d never be able to call him off until he was satisfied.
The pilot came out of the cockpit. “We need to take off, Ms. Duncan.”
“Fine.” She settled in a seat and fastened her seat belt. It wasn’t fine. In a matter of hours Joe would be home and getting the note she had left. Galen might decide to leave his family and go to Colombia and she was on her way to a man who was not only a criminal in his own right, but hobnobbed with scum like Diaz.
No, nothing was fine at this particular moment.
The note was propped up on the coffee table where Joe couldn’t miss it.
He muttered a curse as he tore it open.
Joe,
I had to do it. I’m on my way to Montalvo. Don’t come after me. It will be much riskier for both of us if you’re on the scene. Montalvo doesn’t want to hurt me. He needs me. I won’t answer my phone for a while but I’ll keep in touch. Just don’t come after me. Please.
I can see you now, angry and frustrated as you read this. You’re thinking I’m stupid and blind and you’re asking yourself why I fell for the line he gave me. I fought it but in the end I couldn’t do anything else.
He promised me Bonnie.
I love you.
Eve
Shit.
Joe’s hand slowly crushed the note. He wanted to strike out, to crush more than this damned piece of paper. He should have known that she was on the edge, preparing to move. Eve was always up-front and eager about sex, but last night she had been almost aggressive.
And damn wonderful.
If good-bye could ever be wonderful.
The son of a bitch. He had dangled the one bait Eve could never resist and done it with a cleverness that made it almost acceptable to her.
Yes, she was safe while she was working on the reconstruction. But she knew as well as he did that once the work was done, all bets were off. She didn’t care. The chance to find Bonnie was worth the risk to her.
Pain surged through him. Well, it wasn’t worth it to him. He wouldn’t lose her.
And her plea for him not to follow her was crap. No way.
He pulled out his cell phone. No use to call Eve. If she said she wouldn’t answer, she wouldn’t do it.
He dialed Galen and said when he picked up, “I need to know everything you can find out about Montalvo’s compound, how it’s manned, any weakness.”
Galen was silent a moment. “How soon?”
“Yesterday.”
Galen gave a low whistle. “Not easy. Would you care to give me a reason for the urgency?”
“Sometime tonight Eve will be going through the gates of that compound.”
“Shit.”
“Exactly. She left me a note to tell me to stay home and tend to my knitting.”
“Fat chance. I can’t believe she’d take that risk. Particularly after I told her about Diaz.”
“Diaz?”
“I called her this morning and told her that there might be a connection between Montalvo and Diaz. It would be a very nasty combo. Drugs and weapons.” He paused. “I think she was at the airport this morning when I called. The noise…”
Diaz. Jesus. What Joe had heard about him was ugly and lethal. “Montalvo is nasty enough. He played Eve like a maestro.”
“Eve doesn’t manipulate easily.”
“He promised her Bonnie.”
“Christ. That would do it. I’ll get on the phone and see what I can find out for you. When are you leaving?”
“Tonight.”
“Call Venable before you go and see if you can find out any information from him. It can’t hurt. We may need all the help we can get.”
“We?”
“I’ll meet you in Bogotá and we’ll go from there.”
“No.”
“Screw you. I’m going with or without you. Eve asked me to do a job and I haven’t finished it. You try to operate without me and you’ll be going in blind. My sources wouldn’t trust anyone but me.”
And Galen had the best information sources Joe had ever run across. “Then I won’t argue with you. Eve probably would. She was looking very mushy and sentimental when she was talking about your Elspeth.”
“I’ve no intention of not coming back. We go in, we get Eve, and we get out.” He paused. “If we can persuade her to go. That’s up to you.”
“Thanks. She’ll come back with us if I have to tie and gag her. I’ll call you when I have my flight information.” He hung up and sat there for a moment. Fight the panic. Galen was right. The big battle would be to persuade Eve to abandon her deal with Montalvo and come with them.
He’d find a way. He had to find a way. Stop sitting here and start moving. He’d call Venable on the way to the airport. He stood up and headed for the door.
San Cristal
It was after midnight when the helicopter Eve had switched to in Bogotá set down on the landing strip of the small village that was only a dot in the middle of the blackness of the jungle.
She drew a deep breath, trying to ease the tenseness of her muscles. Now wasn’t the time for nerves. Being here was her choice. So she felt isolated and uncertain. Suck it up and face it.
“Welcome, Ms. Duncan.” The door slid open. “Did you have a good journey?”
Montalvo. In the lantern light he
looked younger, stronger, more vibrant than his photographs. Also, considerably more dangerous; the photographs had not shown the gun that was holstered at his hip.
“Considering where I was going.” She unfastened her seat belt. “And why have I become Ms. Duncan when you were calling me Eve the last few times you phoned?”
He chuckled. “I thought it would put you more at ease if I was more impersonal. No?”
“No. Nothing is going to put me at ease until I get out of here. Call me what you like.” She ignored his hand and jumped down from the helicopter. “Where’s the Gonzales family?”
“Inside the hut. The children were frightened.”
“Of you?”
“Possibly.” He grabbed her two bags. “Is this all?”
“Clothes and my equipment.”
“I should have told you that you didn’t need the equipment. I have all you’ll need at the compound.”
“I like my own equipment.”
“I can understand that. I have weapons that I’ve used for years and the familiarity is comforting.” He threw the bags in the back of the jeep. “There’s a certain feel…”
Her gaze went to the gun on his hip. “Death?”
The smile never left his face. “I never thought about it. Don’t you think that your tools would reflect death more than mine? You actually work with human skulls.”
“Not to destroy them.”
“Good point. I do destroy on occasion.” He waved his hand at the hut. “We’ll get the Gonzales family on board and then get you to the compound. You must be tired.”
“I’m perfectly fine.”
He turned and met her eyes. “No, you’re not fine. You’re tense and a little frightened. Oh, not of me. I don’t frighten you. But you’re wondering somewhere deep inside if you’ve made a mistake. If it’s worth quarreling with your Joe. If I’ll do what you want me to do.”