Bonnie

CHAPTER 10

IT WAS THE CHILD AGAIN.

Danner’s heart was pounding with fear as he stared at the little girl standing by the fountain. He had been hovering in the garden house, waiting impatiently for the chance to approach Father Barnabas, when Eve Duncan had appeared. It had shocked and disturbed him, but he had not been terrified.

Until the child had appeared when the priest had left.

Danner staggered back and leaned against the wall of the garden house, trying to fade into the plaster. He was sweating, his palms cold and wet.

It was the child again. What was the little girl doing here?

Had she known he would be going to Father Barnabas and meant to stop him?

Hide.

Hide.

Don’t let her see you.

He had to keep hidden until he was sure she had vanished, then go find the priest. Talk to him, and perhaps the priest would be able to tell him what he needed to know.

What do you want from me? he thought in agony as he stared at the child. I’ll do anything. Just leave me alone.

The sweat was causing his palms to slide down the wall behind him.

He drew a shaky breath as he realized that the child had now vanished. When her mother had followed Father Barnabas into the church, she had faded away. The threat was gone… for now.

Why had she followed him here? How had she known he was going to see the priest?

But she had not seemed to be aware he was here. She had not turned to him, called his name. She had spoken to Eve Duncan, then gone away.

Perhaps he had not been the child’s target. She had seemed to only want to be with her mother. When they had been speaking, the two had been totally absorbed, and even he could see the intense love that radiated between them.

He felt a jolt of pain as he remembered the way they had looked as they gazed at each other. Loneliness.

Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.

But it did no good to have regrets. The child would not accept it. She would keep coming until she got what she wanted. She would torment him until the day he died.

I’ll give it to you, he thought in agony. Anything you want. I just have to go to Father Barnabas and have him help me find out what it is that you want. Stop following me and let me alone.

He suddenly stiffened as a thought occurred to him.

Follow?

He inhaled sharply as the thought began to grow and formulate.

Yes, that was it!

That had to be it.

He had been wrong. It wasn’t the Delilah demon he had to kill at all.

The great load was being lifted from him.

He pushed away from the wall and opened the door of the garden house. He didn’t have to wait to see Father Barnabas. He had the answer now.

The little red-haired girl had not been in pursuit, following him to this garden.

She had led him here.

FATHER BARNABAS WAS NO longer with Gallo when Eve came into the sanctuary.

Gallo whirled to face her as she came toward him. He was clearly not pleased. “What the hell? I couldn’t do anything with Donnelly. He’s hard as nails.”

She nodded. “Frustrating. And I’m sure I didn’t find out anything more than you did. I was hoping that he might lean a little toward confiding in you since he has a relationship with your uncle.” She grimaced. “And it’s not as if we can physically ‘persuade’ him to tell us anything. He’s presumably doing what he believes is right. It’s his duty to keep his silence.”

“Presumably. Providing he’s not more of a criminal than my uncle. And if he is doing what he thinks is right, hell, someone may get killed while he does his damn duty.”

She tilted her head as she gazed at him. “You’ve been fighting desperately against believing that your uncle is guilty. Now you’re suddenly worried that he may go on a killing spree?”

“I’m still fighting,” Gallo said. “Father Barnabas said that he’d had years when he’d lived a good, productive life. Jacobs was a son of a bitch. My uncle may have had reason to kill him.”

“And the man at the alligator farm?”

“It was a struggle. Maybe it was self-defense.”

“And he was close to murdering Catherine.”

“What do you want me to say?” Gallo said tersely. “So it looks like he’s not sane. I can’t give up on him until I find him and know for sure.”

“He spoke to the priest about a child.”

“He wouldn’t kill an innocent child. He wouldn’t kill Bonnie.”

“You’re sure. I can’t be certain of anything connected to him. I was hoping that we’d be able to persuade Donnelly to break a rule of confidentiality when we found him.” She added dryly, “But that rule of confidentiality has suddenly become almost impossible to breach for more reasons than one.”

“We’ll get beyond it.”

“Maybe we should call Catherine back.” Her lips twisted. “She could probably get a very sophisticated truth drug from her friend, Hu Chang. It’s a thought.”

He suddenly went still. “Not a bad one.”

She quickly shook her head. “I was joking.”

“I’m not. We get what we want. If Father Barnabas is telling the truth about his devotion to his vows, then his soul and conscience would be clear. He couldn’t blame himself.”

“How do you know? He might feel as if he should be able to resist the drug.”

“He’s a priest, not a saint.” He paused. “And he might not be doing a good job at being either one.”

“No, Gallo,” she said firmly.

“Catherine would agree with me.”

Eve knew he was probably right. “Then you won’t ask her, will you?”

He was silent. “It would be the most efficient way to handle it.”

“Gallo.”

“I’ll think about it.” He looked at her. “If you can suggest another way that we can get what we need from him.”

“He seemed confident he could reach Danner. We keep close to him and follow him.”

“But he said he didn’t know for certain where my uncle was.”

“Then he might be expecting Danner to come to confession. We just have to be patient for a little while.”

“With the emphasis on little,” he said. “I’ll play it your way for now, but if it appears to be going nowhere, I’ll call Catherine and ask if Hu Chang has given her anything that would be-”

“No.”

He smiled faintly. “I may not have to call her or do anything at all. When I talked to her on the phone, she said she and Quinn would be on their way here. She’ll analyze the situation and make her own decision.”

Eve should have expected that to happen. “You told her that we had a lead on Donnelly.”

He nodded. “They had already found out that Donnelly had become a priest at that college in Valdosta and taken the name of Father Barnabas. We just combined info and came up with this church as a reasonable meeting place. Quinn is going to be very suspicious. He isn’t going to be any more inclined to understanding the priest’s reluctance than I am.”

No, three warriors with a practical mentality about getting what they want. She might be fighting this battle alone. There was a certain logic to their argument, and she was tempted to go along with their reasoning.

But she had promised Bonnie that she would be careful with Father Barnabas. In her daughter’s eyes, that would include the possible disturbance of the priest’s conscience.

“Then I’ll have to explain my point of view.” She met Gallo’s eyes. “We have to find another way. There has been enough hurt to the innocents. I’m just as eager as you to find Danner, and we will.” She added crisply, “Now what’s the most efficient way for surveillance of Father Barnabas?”

He frowned. “I don’t like-” He broke off. “The most practical method is observation and maybe to bug his car.”

“And how can we do that? Where can we get the equipment?”

“We can call Quinn and get him to contact the local police and get them to help.” He shook his head. “But that would probably mean dealing with red tape. It would be quicker to get the equipment ourselves from one of those local spy-and-surveillance stores you see in some of the malls.”

“They can’t be that popular. Do you think they’d have a store here in Rome?”

He shook his head. “I’ll check on the Internet, but a small town would probably not be worrying too much about spying on nannies or checking to see if their kids are on drugs. But they’d have them in Chattanooga, and that’s right next door.”

“Then go get what we need.”

“You think our good priest is lying about knowing where my uncle is right now?”

“No. It’s hard to judge, but I don’t think he lied to me. But I don’t want to take a chance that he might make a good guess. Do you?”

He slowly shook his head. “We’re getting too close. Let’s go.”

She shook her head. “No, you go. I’ll stay here.” She held up her hand to stop him as he opened his lips to protest. “Observation, remember? One of us has to keep an eye on Father Barnabas.”

“And who would keep an eye on you?”

“Do you actually think Father Barnabas is going to attack me in this church?” She gave him a steady glance. “It’s not likely. He told me he had an appointment with a young couple who are going to be married. You’ll probably be back before he’s even finished with them.”

He didn’t move. “And you won’t try to follow him if he takes off?”

“I won’t do it without calling you.”

“And what if my uncle decides to show up for confession?”

“Then I’ll have to play it by ear.” She smiled faintly. “So stop borrowing trouble and get back here so that you don’t have anything to worry about.”

He hesitated, then turned on his heel and strode toward the door. “It shouldn’t take me more than a couple hours. Stay here.”

She didn’t answer.

He glanced back over his shoulder at her. “I don’t like this,” he muttered.

Then he was gone.

She was relieved that he had actually left her. The suggestion she had made was reasonable, but Gallo was very protective.

It must be because her argument about the safety of the sanctuary was reasonable and the time involved so little.

She did feel safe here.

She gazed around the sanctuary.

Peace. Beauty. Stained-glass windows depicting St. Francis and the animals. The crucifix over the altar.

She was not a Catholic, but there were many things she liked about the religion. The confessionals. Releasing guilt and pain by voicing them could only be healthy, both physically and mentally.

The idea that worshippers had followed the same rituals for centuries.

And the soothing silence of this sanctuary that closed out the present and brought back the past.

She sank down in the pew to the left of the aisle and closed her eyes.

Memories were flooding back to her.

Not bitter but gentle, precious memories.

Bonnie that moment in the hospital when Eve had first seen her.

Bonnie singing her special songs with Eve before she went to bed.

Joe holding Eve, smiling at her, tilting his head thoughtfully as he listened to something she said.

“Are you waiting for Father Barnabas? You did find him, didn’t you?” She looked around to see Father Dominic coming down the aisle. “You and Mr. Gallo seemed to be very intent on talking to him.”

“I found him.”

The priest’s brows rose. “Not a satisfactory meeting? It doesn’t surprise me. He’s pretty well rejected the life he led before he entered the seminary, but he’s very protective about his former patients. He can be very stubborn.”

“Yes, he can. But so can I. Where is he? He told me he had an appointment with a young couple.”

Father Dominic nodded. “He should be done now. I saw their car leaving about ten minutes ago. He’s probably still in the office.”

“And where is that?”

He nodded at a door to the right of the altar. He shook his head. “I know you must be in distress, but you’d be wise to accept Father Barnabas’s decision,” he said gently. “He won’t change his mind.”

“Thank you, I know you only want to be kind.” She headed for the door. She smiled over her shoulder. “And maybe also to protect a fellow priest from having to deal with an annoying person from his past. I’m not going to cause him any trouble… at the moment.”

The priest chuckled. “Father Barnabas can handle trouble. It’s what we’re taught to do in the seminary.”

“And what I was taught growing up on the streets. So we have that in common.”

“Though I doubt you’d handle it in the same way. You won’t talk to me instead? I can’t help you with information, but I’m a good listener.”

“And you’d like to defuse any situation for him.” She shook her head. “You’re a good friend to him. But you can call him and warn him I’m coming if you like. He might be able to escape out the back door.”

He shook his head. “He wouldn’t thank me for that.” He turned away. “If you change your mind, I’ll be in the confessional.”

“Waiting?”

He smiled. “Not for you particularly. We always hold confession at this time.”

He was a nice man, she thought as she moved toward the arched opening, and very loyal to Father Barnabas. It was interesting to know that Father Barnabas could inspire that kind of loyalty. But it also pointed out what an enigma was this man who had been Kevin Donnelly.

The oak door of the office was closed, and she hesitated before knocking.

She didn’t really think that questioning him again would do much good. She had principally wanted to make sure where he was in the church so that she could keep an eye on him as she’d told Gallo.

But she wasn’t sure that he was still in the office as Father Dominic had guessed.

She knocked on the door.

No answer.

“Father Barnabas.”

No answer.

Check to make sure.

She had been joking about him slipping out the back door, but he might have done that. She started to open the door.

“No! Get out!”

“Don’t be rude, Father. Let her come in.”

That last was not Father Barnabas’s voice.

Yet she recognized it.

She pushed the door open.

Father Barnabas was sitting on a green-padded office chair at a desk across the room.

Ted Danner was standing behind him, a knife to the priest’s throat.

“Run!” the priest said. “Out! Now!”

“But she won’t do that,” Ted Danner said. “Because she knows that it might save her but not you, Father. I knew the moment I met her years ago that she was one of the givers, not the takers.”

Eve had been frozen, but now she took a deep breath. “Perhaps I’ve changed, Danner. It was a long time ago that you came to see me when I was pregnant with Bonnie. People do change.” She continued meaningfully. “Events change them. Murderers take away everything that makes life worth living. That can twist their lives and what they are.”

He flinched but quickly recovered. “You haven’t changed. Not really. You’re not going to go anywhere as long as you think that I may hurt the priest.”

And Eve couldn’t deceive him that she would be that hard. She could only try to go around the situation from another direction. “But you don’t want to hurt him, Danner. Why would you? He’s been your friend. He’s been trying to help you for years. Why are you here anyway?”

“Because you’re here. You’re the one who is causing the problems for the priest.” He said jerkily, “Do you think I want to hurt him? I thought he could save me, but now I know that’s not going to happen. I only want to do what’s right, but you’re against me. You came here to turn him against me. If you hadn’t shown up here hunting for me, he would have been safe. But I know now that’s the way it should be, how it’s meant to be. I should have guessed it.”

“I did come to ask his help, but he refused me.”

“But you wouldn’t stop, you’d keep after him. You’re determined, and you’d have convinced him to trap me.”

“Put the knife down, Ted,” the priest said quietly. “It’s you who will be hurt if you keep this up.”

“I can’t put it down. It’s all up to me now,” Danner said hoarsely. “You wouldn’t help me, you wouldn’t tell me what I needed to know. I asked you and asked you. You were probably protecting her and hoping I wouldn’t know. Now I have to do it all myself.” He stepped back and gestured with the knife. “Come in and close the door, Eve. Throw your handbag on that couch and come forward with your hands raised.”

“When you let Father Barnabas leave.”

“I can’t do that. He’s not my friend any longer. He would run and tell everyone where I am.”

“Do you mean tell your nephew, John? He’s not here.”

“I know. I watched him drive away. I would have waited if he’d still been here. He would have tried to stop me, and I might have hurt him. I mustn’t hurt John.”

“Because you love him,” Father Barnabas said gently. “Can’t you see that’s going to happen sooner or later unless you give yourself up to the authorities? How many times have you told me how much alike the two of you are? It will be either you or him, Ted.”

“It will be later, and, by that time, I won’t care if he kills me. It won’t matter.” He grabbed the priest’s arm and pulled him up from the chair. “Eve, go out ahead of us through the back door to the garden. Then we’re all going to go out the garden gate and up the street to where my car is parked. When we reach it, I’ll let the priest go.” He met Eve’s gaze. “Don’t try to run, don’t make any attempt to attract attention, or I’ll put this knife in his back.”

“No!” She quickly came into the study and closed the door. She threw her handbag on the couch. “You want me to come with you? Why?”

“You have to come with me. You’re the reason I came here.”

“She’s not a demon, Ted,” the priest said. “Tie her up and let’s get out of here. I’ll go with you somewhere, and we’ll talk.”

“I know she’s not a demon. I was wrong. I understand now. It’s not a question of demons.” He pushed Father Barnabas toward the door. “I know how to keep them under control now. Coming, Eve? She’s waiting for you. I’ll take you to her.”

Eve stiffened as if he’d struck her. “What are you talking about, Danner?” But she had a chilling idea that she knew what he was talking about.

“The little girl.”

Eve’s breath left her body.

“You’re not taking her anywhere, Ted,” Father Barnabas said. “This isn’t smart.”

“You can’t expect a madman to be smart,” Danner’s lips twisted. “Do you think I don’t know you’ve always thought I was crazy? You were always so gentle, so patronizing. But you weren’t there. You didn’t see them.”

“You are smart. And you can choose to fight madness or let it destroy you. We’ve talked about that before. Come with me, let me talk to you.” He paused. “I can’t let you do this.”

Oh, Lord. Danner couldn’t see the priest’s expression, but Eve could. He was going to make a move on Danner.

And Danner’s knife was within six inches of Danner’s back.

She moved swiftly toward the desk. “Stay out of this, Father. This is between Danner and me.”

But Father Barnabas’s muscles were bunching, tensing.

And she couldn’t let him attack Danner to save her.

She was too far from Danner to attack him. But there was a granite paperweight on the desk.

The priest was going to make his move. He started to turn on Danner.

“No!” She leaped forward and snatched up the paperweight on the desk. She brought it down on the priest’s head, then moved to get between him and Danner’s knife.

The priest staggered and fell against the desk.

The edge of Danner’s hand sliced down on the side of the priest’s neck in a karate chop.

Danner stepped back as he watched Father Barnabas crumple and fall unconscious to the floor. “Fool,” he muttered. “I didn’t want to hurt him. I like him.”

“But you threatened him,” she said. “What did you expect? He’s a man who would try to guard and protect. It’s his vocation.”

“I know, I know. But he should take care of himself. He made me do it.” He glanced at the granite paperweight still in her hand. “Drop that and come along. Or you might force me to reconsider my feelings about Father Barnabas.”

She hesitated. It was her only weapon.

But it had only been effective because she’d had the advantage of surprise. She released the paperweight, and it fell to the floor. “You said something before.” She moistened her lips. “You said ‘she’s waiting. The little girl.’ What did you mean? Why do you want me to go with you?”

“Because she wants you to go.” He gestured with the knife. “We have to leave now. Someone might come.”

She didn’t move. “She?”

He opened the door to the garden. “I keep telling you, the little girl.”

She inhaled sharply. “What do you-”

He shook his head. “No more talk. It can’t happen here. It’s not the right place. Come on.”

She stared at him, her heart pounding. What was the right place?

Because she wants you to go.

The words of a madman?

Or a message from Bonnie? The opportunity to bring her daughter home.

“Why are you being stubborn?” He was frowning. “You have no choice.”

She had a choice, but if she made the wrong one, he might kill her right now, and Bonnie might be lost forever.

And wasn’t this what she had wanted? To find Ted Danner, to make contact and make sure that he was Bonnie’s killer? To find Bonnie? It might not be the way she wanted it to happen, to be helpless and at his mercy. Of course it wasn’t the way she wanted it to happen. But she might still be able to work the situation to her advantage. She had no weapons, but Joe had trained her in hand-to-hand martial arts and Danner might not expect her to be versed in any deadly skills.

She moved toward him. “I’m coming.”

“I thought you would once I got rid of the priest.” He stepped aside to let her precede him. “I knew everything was going to come out all right for me. I should have relied on myself in the beginning. But I was so afraid…”

THERE WAS A POLICE CAR parked in front of the cathedral, its lights blinking.

“Oh, shit.” Gallo pulled up behind the police car and jumped out of the car. A TV news truck pulled in right behind him, and techs and reporters were right behind Gallo as he took the steps two at a time and burst through the front entrance of the cathedral. Father Barnabas and Father Dominic were sitting in a pew talking to two men dressed in dark suits, and there was a uniformed officer beside the altar.

Gallo stopped short as the media crews poured down the aisle on either side of him and ran toward the priests and police.

Not good.

No Eve.

Father Barnabas looked up and saw him and fought his way through the ring of reporters and strode toward him down the aisle. “I’m sorry,” he said gently. “I tried to stop him.”

“My uncle?” Gallo said jerkily. “Eve? What the hell happened? I thought she was safe. I was gone less than two hours. Did he hurt her?”

The priest shook his head. “I don’t think so. He wanted her to go with him. He threatened me to make her do it.” He smiled ruefully as he rubbed his temple. “As I said, I tried to stop him. Eve Duncan hit me on the head to keep me from rushing him. I wasn’t expecting that. She was evidently trying to protect me.”

“Yes, Eve can be unpredictable,” Gallo said absently. Unpredictable and brave and strong. Dammit, he should never have left her. “Did he give you any idea where he was going to take her?”

Father Barnabas shook his head. “When I woke up, they were gone, and Father Dominic was standing over me.”

“He didn’t say anything?”

“He said that he knew Eve wasn’t a demon.”

Gallo muttered a curse. “Is that supposed to be good?”

“Yes, Danner thought he was surrounded by demons, particularly of late. The last time I saw him, I even wondered if he included me in that group.” He paused. “And he believed he had to destroy demons. It’s a good thing that he doesn’t think Eve Duncan is one of them.”

Gallo felt a chill. But what if his uncle changed his mind? “Then why did he want her to go with him?”

Father Barnabas hesitated, then said, “He said the little girl was waiting for her.”

The little girl.

Shit. The chill he was feeling became pure ice.

“You believe he was speaking of Bonnie Duncan?” the priest asked quietly. “And the little girl who is waiting is dead?”

“Yes.”

“And that would mean he’s going to-”

“It doesn’t mean anything. Maybe he knows who killed Bonnie. There might be some other explanation.” No, he wouldn’t believe it. But it still scared the hell out of him. “Listen, you’ve got to tell me where you think I can find him.”

“I don’t know. If I did, I’d tell you.” He met Gallo’s eyes. “I’m not a fool. I know that she’s in danger. Danner has gone over the edge. He wouldn’t listen to me.” He paused. “But I may be able to help you find him. I don’t want to be left out of this. I know him very well.” He paused. “Better than you, Mr. Gallo.”

“You know him as some kind of sicko. That wasn’t the man I knew while I was growing up.”

“Then we’ll have a complete picture, won’t we? But I never considered Danner a sicko. All I knew was a man in torment, trying to find solace for his pain.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Those detectives will be getting restless. I was planning on asking them to allow me a few moments alone with you to break the news about Eve Duncan’s kidnapping. But you were lucky that you came in with that horde of reporters, and the police were too busy to pay any attention to you. But I’d better get back to them.”

“Did you tell the police who I was?”

“Of course, I wouldn’t lie to them. I skimmed over your connection with Eve, but as next of kin of her abductor, they’ll be very interested in talking to you.”

The last thing he needed was to have the police interested in him, Gallo thought in frustration. He was still wanted in Wisconsin for questioning, and there was no way he could waste time being grilled by the local police when he had to find Eve.

“I have to get out of here.”

The priest nodded. “I thought you would. Go on. You’d better be very quick. As I said, I won’t lie to them.” His lips tightened. “But I believe that the people who know Danner best have the best chance of catching him before he does something…” He trailed off as he turned. “Go. I’ll be very slow getting back down that aisle to them. Call me if you run across anything that I can help you with. I’ll be trying to remember any details about him that could make sense about where he might take her.”

“Or what he wanted with her. I can’t believe he wants to kill her.”

The priest didn’t answer as he moved slowly down the aisle.

Gallo whirled and ran out of the church and down the steps. In seconds, he was behind the wheel of his car and tearing away from the curb and down the street. Get away. Put some distance between him and the police.

Think.

He could do little else but think in those minutes of flight. Father Barnabas’s words were pounding in his mind like a drum. Why? His uncle would have no reason to target Eve.

But if they were right about him, his uncle was without reason.

He felt sick. So many memories were flooding back to him of those days of his childhood. Ted Danner had been hero and savior to him.

And in a world in which Gallo could trust no one, his uncle had never once let him down. The man who killed Bonnie was a monster. How could that friend of his childhood be a monster?

It didn’t matter. Stop thinking of anything but the fact that Eve had been taken and could die. No matter what rejection he felt about the possibility, he had to admit that it existed. What to do next?

He didn’t pull into a rest stop off the main road until thirty minutes later.

He knew the first thing to do. Gather all the help he could around him to find Eve.

He pulled out his phone and called Catherine. “How close are you to Rome?”

“About an hour. Are you still at the cathedral?”

“No, but you’ll run into half the Rome police department there.” He paused. “I screwed up. I left Eve alone for less than two hours at the church. I thought she’d be safe there.”

She was silent. “What are you saying, Gallo?”

Lord, this was hard. “She wasn’t safe,” he said haltingly. “My uncle showed up and took her. I don’t know where she is.”

He heard Quinn cursing in the background, then suddenly Quinn was on the line. “I may kill you, Gallo.”

“I wouldn’t put up a fight. Except that it may take all of us to get Eve out of this alive.”

“You’re sure she’s still alive?”

“Father Barnabas said that he believes that she is. He said that my uncle said that she had to come with him.” He paused and then forced it out. “He said that the little girl was waiting for her.”

Quinn was cursing. “That sounds weird as hell. Tell me everything that’s happened since you arrived in Rome.”

Gallo quickly filled him in, and then ended with, “Now we have Father Barnabas’s cooperation. At least, that’s what he told me. He’s not going to attempt to reach out to my uncle on his own. He said he’d try to recall details of what he’d been told by him through the years so that we can make a pattern.”

“Try? He’ll recall every single detail, or he’ll wish he had.”

“The third degree? I thought that was no longer politically correct. Particularly when applied to a man of the cloth.”

“It’s Eve, dammit.”

And that meant every method was on the table as far as Quinn was concerned. And Gallo was feeling the same way. Father Barnabas could be totally sincere or the prime demon who had tormented his uncle over the years. “Then nudge his memory. Can you contact the local police and see what their investigation manages to unearth?”

“That goes without saying,” Quinn said curtly.

Then Catherine was back on the line. “What did Eve have with her when she was taken? Any weapon?”

“No, the priest said that she was forced to put down her purse when she entered the study.”

“What about her phone?”

“Maybe. She was carrying it in the pocket of her slacks.”

“Good. We can start there. I’ll call Venable and see if he can get a GPS trace.”

“My uncle is no fool. He’ll find that phone.”

“But we may have a little time before he does. We can determine a direction. For the rest, we may have to rely on Eve.”

“For God’s sake, how can she help?” he asked bitterly. “My uncle was a top-notch special services officer. If you’re right about him, he’s now also a maniac who would-” He stopped and drew a deep breath. “Sorry. I’m not thinking, only feeling right now. I should have been there to help her.”

“Yes, you should have been there,” Catherine said coolly. “But now we have to forget that and find her. Eve is very clever, and I’ve never met anyone more determined. A sharp mind can be more lethal than any weapon. Now where are you?”

“About forty miles west of Rome. I couldn’t stick around the cathedral. The police would have checked me out and gotten that warrant on me from Wisconsin.”

“No, that would have been a nightmare waiting to happen. We’ll meet you, and- No, Joe is shaking his head. He wants to go to the cathedral and talk to that priest. He said if the priest knows anything about where to find Danner, he’ll choke it out of him if he has to. He can drop me off somewhere to rendezvous with you and go on there without me. The minute we find out anything about Eve from Venable or the priest, we’ll take off on the trail. I’ll call you when we get closer, and you can give me exact directions.” She hung up.

Gallo pressed the disconnect.

As usual, after talking to Catherine, he felt as if he’d had a shot of adrenaline. She always cut through every emotion that got in the way of accomplishing what needed to be done.

He needed that shot of pure, clear energy right now.

He needed Catherine Ling.