Quinn

CHAPTER 10

TWO HOURS LATER, SHE DREW up before Gallo’s cabin, where two sheriff’s cars were already parked.

She was surprised. When she’d been there before, the sheriff had been doing twenty-four-hour searches, but she’d not expected them to set up a command center. She certainly hadn’t expected them to be there at this hour of the morning. It was nearly 3:00 A.M.

A young man in a deputy’s uniform came out of the cabin as she opened the car door. He was stocky and sandy-haired, and his boyish face was very wary. “Ma’am?”

“Catherine Ling. CIA.” She showed him her ID. “Is Sheriff Rupert here?”

“Deputy Rand Johan.” The concern in his expression vanished as he grinned. “No, ma’am. He only left a couple of us here overnight in case Gallo showed up. The sheriff will be back in the morning.”

“He thought Gallo would show up at his cabin?” She shook her head. “Not likely.”

“Well, the search is kind of winding down. Actually, Sheriff Rupert thinks maybe he’s left the area. He says we’ll continue the search for the next few days, but then we’ll gradually start pulling back.”

“I see.” Evidently the sheriff was getting frustrated and had the same thought as Eve concerning the possibilities that Gallo would try to leave the woods. Catherine had thought he’d give it more than these few days before he’d abandon the hunt.

The deputy saw her expression, and said quickly, “It’s not as if Gallo is any real threat. He’s only wanted for questioning.”

“He killed a man in these woods only a few days ago.”

“Paul Black. But we’ve got the report back on Black as well as Ms. Duncan’s statement.” His lips tightened. “A serial killer who specialized in murdering kids? Anyone deserves a medal for killing a snake like that. I’d do it myself.”

And so would Catherine, but she wouldn’t admit it to this youngster. “Black made a statement to Eve Duncan that Gallo was guilty of the same crime, the killing of her daughter, Bonnie.”

“Who’s to say the scumbag wasn’t lying? Like I said, Gallo’s wanted for questioning. Don’t get me wrong, we’re doing our job. But it’s not a case of life or death, and we’ve spent enough of the taxpayers’ money.” He smiled. “Would you like to come in and have a cup of coffee? The sheriff didn’t tell me the CIA was interested in this case. Gallo isn’t connected to terrorists or anything, is he?”

“No.”

“I didn’t think so.” He turned toward the cabin.

But Catherine had been caught by that first response. “Why didn’t you think Gallo was connected to terrorists?”

“Gallo’s not the type. He seemed to be a real nice guy.”

She stiffened. “Wait a minute. You’ve met Gallo?”

“Yeah, he invited us all up here for a barbecue when he took over the place. He said that you never could tell when you needed the law to protect you, and he wanted to make sure that we all knew each other and exactly where the place was located.”

“What?”

“It was a real nice barbecue. My wife brought the potato salad.”

“How… nice.”

“He’s a local. He was brought up in Wisconsin before he went into the service. He was an Army Ranger, you know.”

“Yes, I did know.”

“I always wanted to be a Ranger, but then I met Sarah. That put an end to that. I’ll be right back.” He ducked into the cabin.

She pursed her lips in a silent whistle. A barbecue? Just a local boy trying to protect himself by getting to know the local authorities. Clever and foresighted. Gallo was a man who was accustomed to trouble and trying to minimize the impact.

And he had done just that with the sheriff and his deputies. They would do their job, but they liked Gallo and would give him every benefit of the doubt.

And by tomorrow she would be almost alone in these woods with Gallo.

Under the circumstances, that would not be a bad thing. No one to get in her way. She’d always preferred to work alone. No one for her to worry about when she got on the hunt.

“Come on in.” Deputy Johan stood in the doorway. “Andy is putting on the coffee. He’s real eager to meet you. He said the sheriff told him about you.” He grinned. “The sheriff said you were one of those Lara Croft types. You sure look the part.”

“Thank you… I think.” She moved toward him. “I actually came to take a look around the cabin and see if I could find anything that would be helpful. I don’t really know what I’m looking for. Do you think the sheriff would object if I did that?”

“Nah, you’re one of us. Though I think you’re out of luck. Do you want us to help?”

“No, I know my way around. On the night that Gallo took it on the run, I brought a child here who Paul Black had kidnapped. I had to find a haven for her until we could get her out to safety.”

“See, Black was a real scumbag. Not worth bothering about.”

“Yes, I see your point.” She took a last look at the dark woods before she entered the house.

You’re out there. I feel it, Gallo. You felt safe here with all these good old boys looking for you, but that’s going to change. I’m going to know you so well that you’re not going to be able to breathe without me knowing how deep. Before long, we’re going to be close as lovers.

Lovers. Where had that come from? Probably because Gallo had been Eve’s lover all those years ago when she was only a sixteen-year-old kid.

“Agent Ling?”

Her smile was dazzling. “Coming. I need that coffee. Then you and Andy can tell me all about the barbecue and everything that you learned about Gallo. Probably a lot of details sank into your mind though you didn’t realize it. It’s automatic with a good law officer like you…”

CATHERINE WATCHED THE TAILLIGHTS of the three sheriff’s cars fade in the distance before she turned and went back into the cabin. Sheriff Rupert had been pleasant and firm and as much as told her she was wasting her time, continuing to search for Gallo.

And she had been pleasant and firm and resisted telling him to go to hell. It had been a very satisfactory interchange because she was now rid of them and could run her own show.

Should she get some sleep before she took off into the woods?

Probably. She wouldn’t get much rest once she was on the hunt. She’d had breakfast cooked by the accommodating deputies, so that she could dispense with food for a while. She’d have the field rations in her backpack when she needed them. She’d be living with that backpack for the next days or weeks. She’d leave her suitcase in the trunk of her car and take only the necessities of the hunt.

But first she’d go over the Gallo information as she’d meant to do when she’d first driven up to the cabin. She sat down at the kitchen table and opened the folder she’d taken from her knapsack.

She knew most of it by heart, but there might be something she’d missed. Some of the information she’d gathered from various intelligence agencies. Some were notes about details Eve had told her about Gallo during the period she’d known him as a young girl.

Those Eve notes were very short and to the point. She’d lived in a housing project in Atlanta. At sixteen, she’d met John Gallo, who had recently moved down to the neighborhood from Milwaukee so that his uncle could get medical treatment from the local veterans’ hospital. She’d become impregnated during the four weeks they were together before he’d left to join the Army. After that time, she had not seen him again and had been told by his uncle, Ted Danner, that he’d been killed on a mission to North Korea. She’d given birth to her daughter, Bonnie, and her life had gone on without John Gallo or contact with his uncle.

All brief, cool, and cut-and-dried. Yet Catherine was sure that there was nothing cool or unemotional about that period between Gallo and Eve. Even as a sixteen-year-old, Eve would have been strong and in control, and for her to be careless and become pregnant would be unlikely. Eve had told her there had been no emotional bond between her and Gallo, and that it had been a purely sexual relationship. But that sexual affair had been enough for Eve to take a chance that would change her life forever.

And Gallo had been the catalyst.

She took out the picture of Gallo taken when he had gone into the Army.

Olive skin, dark eyes, a full sensual mouth, a faint indentation in his chin. Yes, stunning good looks. Mature for his nineteen years. Anyone could see why a woman would be drawn to him.

And the brief glimpse she’d had of the older John Gallo had been even more impressive. A streak of silver in that dark hair, wariness, confidence born of experience… and yet still that hint of recklessness. And a personality so strong that he had managed to persuade Eve that he was innocent when she’d found out he was still alive and a suspect in her daughter’s murder.

Innocent and able to point the way to a suitable substitute, Paul Black.

“You’re quite a spellbinder, John Gallo,” she murmured. “Now what can I do to break that spell and bring you down?”

She switched to the intelligence reports on Gallo. He had been a Ranger who had been sent with two other soldiers into North Korea by Army Intelligence officers Nate Queen and Thomas Jacobs on a supposed mission to retrieve a ledger with information regarding North Korea’s attempts to acquire nuclear materials. The mission had gone south and he had hidden the ledger before he was captured. He had been thrown into a prison and undergone deprivation and torture for seven years before he escaped. In the hospital in Tokyo he had been diagnosed as mentally unstable, a schizophrenic with frequent blackouts. Yet Queen and Jacobs had taken him out of the hospital and continued to use him in their intelligence missions abroad. Catherine had thought it bizarre the first time she’d learned about it. The action stank of a suicide mission. But Gallo had survived and learned that Queen was dirty, involved in drugs and smuggling. He had retrieved the ledger from Korea.

The ledger.

Catherine flipped back to the statement Eve had given her about the story Gallo had told her about the ledger. It had proved to be evidence of Queen’s and Jacobs’s involvement in the drug trade and had been held by a North Korean officer who had been their partner. Gallo had used it to blackmail Queen to make them release him from those missions that were becoming increasingly deadly in nature. He had demanded money for his years of incarceration as a prisoner of war and built the fund into a fortune by his ability at card counting, a skill he had taught himself in prison.

Her telephone rang.

Eve.

“How is he?” Catherine asked when she picked up the phone.

“Better. I wanted to let you know Joe asked for you. He wants to see you.”

“Did he tell you why?”

“Yes, he said to wait for him.”

Catherine chuckled. “Tell him to tend to his job of getting well, and I’ll tend to mine. He’s afraid he’s going to be left out of the action.”

“Is he? What are you doing?”

“Not much. I’m at Gallo’s cabin.” She glanced around the living room and kitchen. “It’s nice. Rough, but all the basic comforts. I like it much better than those A-frame luxury cabins I’ve seen. That’s not even like being in the woods. You were here when you were setting a trap for Black, weren’t you?”

“Yes.” Eve paused. “I can’t imagine you lolling around doing nothing.”

“I didn’t say I’m doing nothing. I’m thinking and trying to get a mental fix on Gallo,” she said. “But it’s hard without having the most important piece to the puzzle.” She paused. “I know that for years Queen had Black in his employ as an assassin who removed everyone who got in Queen’s way. I know that Gallo supposedly thought that Paul Black had killed Bonnie as revenge against him and went after him. He searched for him for years.”

“So what’s the missing piece?”

“Bonnie. John Gallo never had any contact with Bonnie. He couldn’t have even known about her until after he got out of that prison. Why did he care enough about her death that he would devote all that time to finding her murderer?”

Eve was silent.

She obviously didn’t want to answer, but Catherine couldn’t drop it. She had to know. “You told me once that he’d told you that he loved Bonnie, and I said that he couldn’t. He never knew her. But he had to have told you something that convinced you. What was it?”

“What difference does it make? I was gullible. He spun me a tale, and I wanted to believe him.”

“What tale?”

“It doesn’t matter. You don’t have to know that to be able to find him.”

“You’re wrong. I have to know him. ”

“Then heaven help you. He’ll probably dazzle you as he did me.”

Dazzle. Yes, it was a good word for the way Gallo was manipulating everyone around him. “You’re not going to tell me.”

Eve was silent again. “You wouldn’t believe me.”

“We’re friends. I know you.”

“You wouldn’t believe me. If you catch up with John Gallo, ask him.”

“I will. But by that time, the question may be moot.”

“I’m going to hang up now and go back to Joe. I’ll keep you informed of his progress. He’s already making great strides.”

“Then I’d better stop thinking and start moving.” She chuckled. “I don’t want you to have to keep that promise to tie Joe to the bed. How is Jane?”

“Protective, loving. She’s with Joe now. Good-bye, Catherine. Take care.” She hung up.

Catherine slowly put the phone back in her jacket. Eve had been of little help. Catherine wouldn’t believe Eve? They were close friends. Eve should know that she’d trust anything she told her.

But the bond that was between Eve and Gallo was complicated, and Catherine had been aware of the emotion that still lay between them. No longer sex. Not love. Eve loved Joe with her entire being. But that clearly didn’t stop her from feeling something for Gallo.

What? If Catherine was forced to kill him, would Eve feel a hidden sense of resentment? She said she’d kill him herself because of Bonnie’s murder, and Catherine had believed her.

Eve was not going to talk to her about it, so she might just as well block it out and work it through on her own. That was her usual procedure anyway. Why was this any different?

Because Eve was her friend, and that was a treasure beyond price, and Catherine was trying to bend over backward to keep from hurting her.

Stop fretting about it. She got up from the table and went to the tiny bedroom and lay down. Four hours’ sleep. Then she’d be up and leave the cabin.

She pulled up the coverlet and closed her eyes. She was lying in Gallo’s bed. It felt… strange to have this strong sense of awareness of him. If anything, she should be aware of those deputies who had recently used this bed. Before they left, they had changed the linens and made up the bed in case she wanted to use it, but it wasn’t of them that she was thinking.

Gallo.

He was dominating her thoughts, and it was natural she would imagine him lying in this bed in the cabin that belonged to him.

But it was closer to feeling. She could almost smell the scent of him. The mattress was hard against her body, and she wondered if that was the way he liked it.

She had promised herself that she was going to be as close to Gallo as a lover.

Was this the way it started…?

St. Joseph’s Hospital

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

“I JUST SPOKE TO CATHERINE,” Eve said as she sat down beside Joe’s bed in ICU. “She said to tend to your business of getting out of this hospital and not to nag her. Or words to that effect.”

“She’s on Gallo’s property?”

Eve nodded. “She’s at the cabin.” She added quietly, “She’ll find him, Joe. I know how you’re feeling. I want to be out there hunting Gallo, too. It’s my job, not Catherine’s. But we have to wait until you’re better.”

“I am better. They’re moving me out of ICU in a few hours,” he said impatiently. “What would it hurt to give me a little more time?”

“It would be more than a little. You almost died, Joe.”

“Yeah, I know.” He was silent. “But I’m going to heal fast. She won’t have to wait long.”

“Tell that to the doctors. Their most optimistic prediction is four weeks.”

“Then they’d better go back to the drawing board. I’m not going to be here that long.”

“Joe…” Her lips tightened. “Dammit, stop this. Do you want to scare me? You can’t jump out of bed just because you want to do it. Let yourself heal.”

“You think I’m just being bullheaded.” He didn’t speak for a moment, looking down at their clasped hands. “And considering the fact that I’m usually the most stubborn ass on the planet, you have a right. But I’m not about to get out of this bed until I’m strong enough to function. I’m just telling you that time is coming very soon.”

“That’s not what-” There was something in his expression that caused her to stop the protest she was about to make. Her gaze searched his face. “How can you know that?”

“We’re coming to the end,” Joe said simply. “She says I have to be there for it.”

She stiffened. “Catherine?”

He shook his head.

She whispered, “Bonnie?”

“She brought me back. She took my hand and told me it wasn’t time for me to go.” He looked up and met her gaze. “She said you were going to need me.”

“I always need you.”

“No, this is different.” He paused. “We’re coming to the end, Eve.”

She laughed shakily. “Does that mean we’re going to be called to the great beyond?”

“Maybe. I don’t think so.” His hand tightened. “But if it did, I wouldn’t mind if you were there with me. That was my only regret when I was in that darkness. I didn’t want to leave you. I wanted you to live, but I wanted to be there to make sure you were happy.”

“Joe, you’ve spent most of our years together trying to make me happy.”

“And that was my privilege.” He lifted her hand to his lips. “I don’t think that a love like this happens every day. I couldn’t believe that it happened to me. And then I realized there had to be a reason that I had to nurture that love and the gifts it was bringing me.”

“Yeah, some gifts.” She stroked his cheek. “Dealing with my obsession for finding Bonnie, being put on the back burner whenever I was doing a reconstruction.”

“And the gift of your honesty… and your love.”

“Oh, I do love you, Joe,” she said softly. “It’s a wonder you were patient enough to put up with me until I saw it. Talk about gifts.” She could feel the tears welling, but she had to get the words out. “When Bonnie was taken from me, I couldn’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. Everything was dark. But then you were there, and I knew something was… different. I didn’t know what it was, but I felt as if I might be able to make it through.” She drew a deep shaky breath. “And then later, when I knew how much I loved you, I’m not even sure that you knew it, too. I said the words, I tried to show you, but my love for Bonnie was always there between us.”

“I knew it.” He smiled. “And how could I blame Bonnie? I wouldn’t have known you if it hadn’t been for her. As I’ve been lying here all these hours since I came around, I’ve been wondering if maybe it was Bonnie who purposely brought us together. You were alone. Did she know you needed someone to love you as much as I do?” He made a face. “Though I’m glad that she didn’t make a ghostly appearance on that first day I met you. I was having enough trouble coping with the way I was feeling.”

And Joe had begun seeing Bonnie only recently, and it had still shaken him, Eve thought. He had been on edge and uncertain and questioning his own sanity. It had taken him a long time to accept that the spirit Bonnie was no hallucination, and he had never been comfortable with the idea.

But there had been no hint of disturbance in his demeanor now when he was talking about Bonnie bringing him back to Eve. His expression was calm, thoughtful, and yet there was determination and strength in the set of his mouth and chin.

“It’s possible, I suppose,” she said. “I believe in the power of love, and Bonnie loved me. And she loves you, too, Joe.”

He nodded. “I know she does. She told me.” He was silent again, thinking. “I got to know her very well while we were traveling in that darkness. All through our years together, Eve, I could never love her because I never knew her. She was gone before I came to you. But I know her now. She touched me. She took my hand, and I experienced everything about her. She’s… beautiful.”

“Yes, she is.” The tears were falling now. “Like you, Joe.”

“Don’t say that too loud. It will destroy my macho image,” he said. “But I can love her now. It’s so easy…”

It had been a long time coming, but the joy Eve knew at those words would have been worth a much longer wait. It formed a bridge that spanned the emotional abyss that had been the only rift between them. “I’m glad that you got to know her,” she said unsteadily. “I tried to tell you, but there weren’t any words.”

“There still aren’t.” He reached out and touched the tears on her cheeks. “Don’t do this. It hurts me.”

“It shouldn’t. I’m happy.” She wiped her eyes. “But next time you talk with Bonnie, tell her that she should bring me into the conversation. I can never count on when she’s going to show up, and it’s disconcerting when she tells you to disobey doctor’s orders.”

“She didn’t exactly tell me that. I just knew.”

“Knew what? That she wanted you to bail out of this hospital?”

“No, that she was going to help me to heal. It should be a cinch for her to offer a little mojo in that direction. After all, she managed to pull me back from the pearly gates.” He chuckled. “If that was where I was heading. It felt pretty good, so maybe I might have gotten lucky.”

“No, I was the one who got lucky.”

“Keep thinking that way.” His gaze went to the door, where a nurse and two orderlies were coming into the ICU. “And here’s my escort to my new room. It’s the first step, Eve. Tell Catherine I’m on my way.”

One Week Later

SHE HAD found him!

Catherine wriggled snakelike down the incline that led to the cliff that fell off steeply to the lake below.

She had caught a glimpse of Gallo as he moved through the forest a half mile back. At first she hadn’t been certain it was Gallo, but then he had come out of the shadows of the trees, and she had caught a glimpse of his face. Slight indentation at the chin, dark hair…

Yes.

She had been concentrating on this area of the property for the last three days, and she’d had a hunch she was getting near.

She propped herself against a boulder, and her gaze narrowed on the thicket of trees on the slope. He should be coming out of those trees any minute, and she’d have him.

Eve wanted him alive. Catherine silently took her dart gun from her backpack and inserted one of Hu Chang’s special darts. Not as special as some others her old teacher had made for her. But the mamba venom and a few other lethal poisons weren’t applicable in this case. This sedative would put Gallo out for a solid five minutes and give him another fifteen of lethargy.

“Come on, Gallo,” she whispered. “Let me give you a little nap.”

One minute.

Two.

He didn’t come out of the trees.

Five minutes.

Dammit, where was he?

And then she felt the hair rise on the back of her neck in the most primitive of signals.

Someone was watching her.

He was watching her.

She instinctively dove behind the boulder and waited.

Where are you, Gallo?

Her heart was pounding.

She could feel him out there in the darkness.

Or was he behind her?

She wasn’t sure. She listened.

She couldn’t hear him. God, he was good.

But she couldn’t stay there when he knew her location, and she didn’t know his. Since she was trying to get him without a lethal commitment, she was at a disadvantage.

Fade away. Disappear. If she caught a glimpse of him, then try to line up the shot.

If not, give up the opportunity and come back another time.

She dove into the bushes that bordered the scraggly line of pines beside the boulders.

No sound.

Move swiftly.

She no longer felt his eyes on her.

But that might only mean he was close but could not see her.

And she couldn’t see him, dammit.

Put distance between them.

Damn, she hated to run from Gallo.

She’d almost had the bastard.

She would have him.

Only an opening foray, Gallo.

The battle is yet to come…

Two Days Later

SHE WAS GETTING CLOSE again, Gallo realized.

He felt a rush of excitement as he caught a fleeting glimpse of Catherine before she disappeared into the pines.

She was probably going to circle and come at him from behind. He was still, listening for a sound.

There was no sound. But he’d bet that she was in motion.

Stay and confront her? Risky. She had almost gotten close enough to take him out twice in the last few days.

Why not stay? What did he care?

But he did care, or he would have plunged off the cliff into the lake in those first hours after he’d gone on the run.

Bonnie had made him care.

And he cared because Catherine Ling’s pursuit had pierced the wall of despair and desperation that surrounded him and injected him with a shot of pure adrenaline. The hunt brought back memories of the missions that had been his life for so many years. Memories that enabled him to block out the more recent painful recollections.

The missions had been brutal, fast, deadly. Hunt, find, kill.

But Catherine Ling’s pursuit had not been brutal. In the few glimpses he had caught of her, he had thought she was like a black panther, stalking, graceful, beautiful.

But, yes, definitely fast and deadly.

So did he run again?

He started moving. As silent as Catherine. As fast as Catherine. He could feel his heart start to pound, the excitement electrifying every muscle.

Follow me.

Let’s play the game a little longer.

Who knows? I may let you win it.