Stalemate

11

"We can't find Jane MacGuire," Nekmon said when he came into the office. "She disappeared from her hotel in Phoenix a few nights ago."

Diaz muttered a curse. The response he'd gotten from Eve Duncan last night on the threat to her adopted daughter had been the strongest lead he'd had. Montalvo had probably known of that weakness and hurried to reinforce his position. "Find her."

"We're looking." Nekmon paused. "Sendak is here."

"He brought it?" Diaz asked.

"He says he has." Nekmon shifted uncomfortably. "I didn't verify."

Diaz smiled maliciously. "Coward."

"Shall I send him in?"

"By all means." He leaned back in his chair with a tingle of anticipation. Jane MacGuire wasn't the only arrow to his bow. Eve Duncan was sitting behind those high walls thinking she was safe. She would never be safe.

Montalvo would learn Diaz wasn't to be stopped.

The next evening Galen met Eve in the hall when she was going upstairs to shower and have dinner before she came back down to work.

"You've emerged from your cave at last," he said. "Miguel hasn't let anyone in to see you all day."

"I didn't tell him to do that. But I'm grateful that I wasn't interrupted. It's essential that I concentrate to get all the measurements exactly right."

"Have you seen Quinn today?"

"No." She looked away from him. "We agreed to disagree and I don't feel welcome to just drop in. I checked with Miguel and he said he had a good night."

Galen gave a low whistle. "I thought that Quinn had been prodded to move at top speed."

"Is he?"

"He was on his feet this morning and again this afternoon. Before dinner he sat in the chair by his window quizzing me on the details of Diaz's setup."

"And you told him?"

"He'd find out with or without me. I'd rather he have accurate information."

So would Eve, but the news that Joe was beginning to move at his customary top speed was filling her with panic. "How long do I have?"

"With any other man I'd say maybe four days. With Quinn…" He shrugged. "Like I said, he's motivated. How's the reconstruction coming?"

"Not fast enough, evidently. I'll have to put in longer hours."

"It sounds to me as if you're overdoing it now. How much sleep did you get last night?"

"I don't know. Four, maybe five hours. Enough."

"You said you had to be absolutely accurate. You have to have a clear head for-"

"I have a clear head, dammit. What do you expect me to do? Get a solid eight hours of sleep when Joe could-" She stopped and drew a deep breath. "I'll sleep when Nalia's finished." She started up the stairs. "Now let me get cleaned up and eat. I need to get back and start working."

Christ, Joe on his feet. Joe gaining more strength by the hour. Lord, it was ironic that ordinarily she would have been overjoyed at his progress. Not now. She had to worry about him pushing himself too hard and having a relapse. On the other hand she was in a panic that he'd be able to take action before she was finished with the reconstruction.

He wouldn't be able to do the latter if she kept working at lightning speed, she assured herself. She'd allow herself the minimum rest and give Montalvo his evidence before Joe got his chance at Diaz.

"I wanted to see you, Eve." Soldono rose from the bench opposite her room. "And Miguel wouldn't let me into the library."

"Miguel must have been very persuasive. Evidently there must have been a queue outside the door."

"If you can call a gun persuasive."

She stared at him in disbelief. "He pulled a gun on you?"

"No. He only glanced down at that gun he has in his holster and said he was ordered to use any means to keep you from being disturbed."

"He was bluffing."

"I've seen him in action. I wasn't going to call his bluff." He continued on, "I just wanted to tell you that I think I've found a source to get you away from the compound when you say the word." He made a face. "I just wish I'd been able to tap that source when Montalvo was holding Gonzales. It might have prevented all this mess."

"I don't deal in might-have-beens, Soldono. It didn't happen and I'm walking another path now." She opened her bedroom door. "And as long as Montalvo keeps his word about keeping my family safe, I'll finish the reconstruction and hand it to him wrapped up in pink ribbons. So far Venable seems to be doing a good job."

"Venable?"

"You didn't know Venable made a deal with Montalvo to protect Jane and my mom?"

"He's my boss and he often doesn't share every aspect of his cases with me. I'm just a peon." He shook his head admiringly. "That crafty bastard. Montalvo had every base covered, didn't he?" He turned away. "If you change your mind, let me know. Try to give me a little notice. It may take a bit of doing."

"I can't see that giving notice will be an option if I have to leave in a hurry." She shut the door behind her.

Don't think about Joe.

Don't try to second-guess the decision she'd made because Soldono had found a way out.

Just focus, move quickly, and get the reconstruction done.

Ten minutes later she was out of the shower and dressing hurriedly.

Call Jane and talk to her before she went down?

No, she'd called Jane and her mother this morning before she'd started work. Everything was fine and they'd only worry if she acted too anxious. She'd eat something and then get back to work.

Miguel was on guard in front of the library when she reached it. "Good evening." His smile was sunny. "I have a steak waiting to go under the broiler. How do you like it?"

"Medium well-done." She opened the door. "And you seem to have done a little roasting of my friends today as well."

"No threats. Just implications. I didn't have to do that with Galen. He understood."

"I'm sure he did."

"And I let them talk to you after you came out of the library." He turned away. "Please don't get too involved with your work before I have a chance to bring you your steak."

She smiled faintly as she watched him hurry away. Miguel was a strange and fascinating individual and she was growing to like him more every day. She closed the door and turned on the lamp. Darkness had fallen since she'd left the room a short time ago. She moved over to stand before the dais. She'd draped the reconstruction with the black drop cloth as she always did when she left the library. She reached up to take it off the skull. Montalvo had not mentioned the practice after that first time but it only took her a second and if it held his pain at bay then it was worth-

Teeth sinking into the cloth.

Brown triangular head lunging at her.

She jumped back and dropped the cloth.

The snake turned and launched itself at her.

It missed her by an inch.

The snake launched again.

Kill it. Kill it. Kill it.

She ran across the room, grabbed the brass lamp, and hurled it at the snake.

The shade hit the snake but it kept gliding toward her.

She darted toward the door.

It was thrown open before she reached it.

Montalvo took one quick look at the serpent and shoved her aside. "Jesus."

The snake sprang toward Montalvo.

He shot it in the head.

"My God." He was breathing hard as he stared down at the snake. "Damn close."

"He kept coming. He just kept coming." She was shaking uncontrollably. "He was under the drop cloth with the reconstruction. He sprang at-"

"Did he bite you?"

"I don't think so. I didn't feel-"

"Don't think. Tell me." He grabbed her arms and looked closely at each of them. "I don't see any marks."

"He bit into the cloth. I… dropped it." She shook her head dazedly. "But he didn't stop. I've never… He kept coming at me."

"They can be very aggressive."

"Ugly. I… don't like snakes."

"It's over. Stop shaking."

"Soon. I can't seem to-"

"God." He pulled her into his arms and held her. "It's okay. Don't fight me. I didn't want to do this. It could interfere." He rocked her back and forth. "But I can't stand you-"

His body was warm and strong and she clung instinctively to that strength. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I wasn't expecting that to-it frightened me."

"It should have frightened you." He stroked her hair with rough gentleness. "Shh, it's going to be fine. Nothing's going to hurt you. I won't let it."

She didn't move for a few moments. It was good to stay here and share his strength. She'd move soon. She'd just give herself a short time to get over the shock of those dark frantic minutes.

"What happened here?" Miguel was standing in the doorway and staring at the remains of the snake on the floor. "Another emergency? I'm beginning to think you'll do anything to avoid eating one of my meals."

She stepped back out of Montalvo's arms. "I guarantee I wouldn't go to these lengths." She tried to steady her voice. "Would you please… get rid of it? I don't believe I can concentrate with that… thing lying there."

"Of course." Miguel was studying the snake. "What is it, Colonel? I don't recognize it. You could have left the head so that I-"

"No, I couldn't. It was a black mamba."

Miguel shook his head. "I don't think so. They're not common to this area."

"Exactly."

"Mamba," Eve repeated. She knew she had read about them somewhere but she couldn't remember any details. "Poisonous."

"Extremely." Montalvo said to Miguel, "Search the room and make sure it didn't bring a friend. Be careful."

"Don't worry I want to live to a ripe old age." He smiled slyly. "Like you, Colonel."

"You won't live another year if you keep jabbing at me." He pulled Eve out into the hall. "Stay here until he's finished. I don't believe there's another one but it doesn't hurt to check."

"I'm not arguing. 1 can wait." She tried to stop shivering. "I wouldn't want to run into another snake like that again anytime soon."

"I'll see that you don't. After Miguel finishes the library, I'll send him up to your bedroom."

She moistened her lips. "I take it you don't think this was a stray serpent that wandered in from the jungle."

"The odds are astronomical against it. Mambas are found almost exclusively in Africa. We have poisonous snakes here, but not anything as deadly as the black mamba."

"It's not black, it was sort of brown-gray."

"The inside of its mouth is black. I'm surprised you didn't notice."

"I wasn't color-oriented at that moment. Just how deadly is it?"

"It's the most dangerous snake in the world. If given a chance, it will slither away, but if it feels it's cornered, it will strike over and over. When you pulled off the cloth, it felt under attack. You were almost face-to-face with him. Its venom attacks the respiratory system and is almost a hundred percent fatal unless you can quickly get to a hospital that has the antivenin."

"Jesus," she whispered. "How does anyone survive a bite from one of them?"

"Most people don't. Particularly if they're bitten on the throat or anywhere on the upper body. The poison is closer to the vital organs and travels fast. Too fast to get to medical help that might save them." His eyes were narrowed on her face. "You're still pale. Sit down." He pushed her into a chair by the door. "I'll get you a drink."

"Coffee. Just coffee." She leaned back in the chair. "That snake should have struck my upper body. He was almost on a level with me. He must have been curled beneath the reconstruction." She shuddered as she remembered that triangular head darting toward her. "I didn't know I put my arm up to protect myself but that might have saved me. I had the drop cloth in my hand…"

"And the mamba bit into the cloth instead of you." He handed her the coffee. "Thank God."

She felt like echoing that sentiment. "How did it get there? The French doors?"

"Probably. But not under its own steam. Someone carried it into the library and placed it under the drop cloth."

"One of Diaz's men?"

He shook his head. "My security is too tight to permit one of his men to wander in out of the jungle and drop off a package like that."

"It happened."

"Not that simply. It stinks of a payoff."

"He bribed one of your men?"

"I hope I'm wrong." His expression was grim. "I don't believe I am. I can't see any other explanation."

"No other snakes." Miguel came out of the library. "The mamba was very large, over fourteen feet and probably carrying a big load of venom. Sendak?"

"I'd bet on it. He delivered the snake to Diaz's mole inside the compound to be tucked under the drop cloth."

"Who's Sendak?" Eve asked.

"An Ethiopian who sells his serpents for very high sums. I've run into him a few times over the years. One of his little friends killed a customer who was proving difficult for a rival of Diaz's. I'm sure Diaz was intrigued by the possibilities."

"I'll go up and check her bedroom," Miguel said as he started for the stairs. "We wouldn't want her to have a strange, exotic bedmate."

"No, we wouldn't want that." Montalvo's intent gaze was on her face. "You're frightened. That's what he wanted. He meant you to feel unsure of my ability to protect you."

"A mamba hurling itself at my throat would have a tendency to do that," she said dryly.

"How badly are you frightened? What's my damage-control ratio going to have to be?"

"You're impossible." She got to her feet. "Screw your damage control. I don't like snakes attacking me but I'm not going to be scared off by Diaz. You take care of my family and you find the snake charmer who put that mamba under that cloth with Nalia. I'll handle my part."

"I'm sure you will." A faint smile indented his lips. "And you can be sure that I'll know who the Judas is in my camp in short order. He won't bother you again."

That last sentence had an ominous ring. "I didn't tell you to kill him. I just want to be able to keep on working with no threat hovering over me."

"I can't promise you that will happen anytime soon. There will be a threat until Diaz is gone."

"Montalvo."

"Yes."

"You know what I said about how ridiculous you were to wear a gun in the house?"

He nodded.

"Erase it from your memory. I was damn glad you were wearing it tonight."

"So was I." He turned and walked away from her.

She drew a deep breath, braced herself, and went back into the library.

Everything in the room was as neat and orderly as if the incident had never happened, she noticed. Miguel had been busy. The remains of the snake had vanished. The lamp she had thrown at the serpent was back on the desk. Even the drop cloth had been whisked away.

She went over to the dais and gazed at Nalia.

Coffin-shaped, triangular head lunging toward her.

She tensed and instinctively took a step back. Christ, she couldn't work with that memory hanging over her.

All right, play it over so that it couldn't sneak up on her. She closed her eyes. Black mamba striking at her. The drop cloth falling from her hand. The lamp hurling through the air. The snake coming. Coming. Coming. Montalvo shooting the snake. The snake was dead. Nothing to fear. Nothing to fear.

Gradually the panic faded away and she opened her eyes. It might return but not with the same force. "It's gone, Nalia. We worked our way through it. But you'll have to help me keep it from coming back."

Get to work. Do your job. She examined the work she'd done that day. She couldn't see that any of the depth markers had been disturbed by the snake but she'd have to recheck them to make sure they were still accurate.

"Okay, here we go again," she murmured. "It was ugly using you that way. You had enough ugly things happen to you. You didn't need this."

She carefully began to measure.

"I hear you had a nocturnal visitor," Galen said when she came down the stairs the next morning. His expression was sober. "You were lucky. I ran into one of those snakes in Africa while I was on a job once. Nasty."

"I hope you don't mean that literally. If you did, Montalvo was lying about how deadly they are."

"He's not lying. The mamba slid into one of my men's bedroll. It bit him in the throat. He didn't have a chance."

"It didn't happen to me. I don't want to think about it any more." A sudden thought occurred to her. "How did you find out?"

"Miguel. He told Soldono and me last night after he searched your room. He thought we should check out our own rooms in case you weren't the only target."

"Does Joe know?"

He shook his head. "I didn't want to drive him nuts. I searched his room myself after he went to sleep. He's having enough problems getting himself in shape without having that to goad him on."

"How is he?"

"Why don't you go and see for yourself?"

"So that we could argue? No thanks. I'm having enough trouble concentrating."

"I wonder why. I don't imagine it's every day you have a black mamba popping out of one of your reconstructions."

And he didn't even know about Diaz's threat to Jane, she remembered. "No, it's not a common occurrence."

"Have you had breakfast? I thought I'd grab a bite before I took a tray up to Quinn."

"Miguel brought a tray to my room." She smiled faintly. "He said that it seemed the only way he was sure I'd eat something."

Galen gazed at her appraisingly. "You do look a little finedrawn. Are you sleeping enough?"

She'd gotten three hours last night. She'd been on edge and excited and her mind wouldn't stop functioning. "Enough. I can sleep later." She started down the hall toward the library. "She won't let me sleep right now. I'm getting too close."

"'She'?"

"The work. The reconstruction."

"It sounded much more intimate."

"I feel intimate when I'm working on a skull. It's a human being, for God's sake."

"How close are you?"

"I should start the finish work either tonight or tomorrow." She stopped at the door of the library. "Can you keep Joe from making a move until then?"

"I'll try. No promises."

"It's only one more day."

"But you never can tell when you're going to run into another pesky reptile. That could cause a delay."

"Montalvo says that there won't be any more problems. He promised that he'd find out which one of his men took a bribe to bring the snake to the library."

"I'm sure he's doing everything he can. Miguel said Montalvo was going to work all night going over the personnel records and trying to discern the weak links. Everything will be fine if he can isolate the snake he took to his bosom." He smiled. "Did you ever realize how many phrases there are that pertain to snakes? Our culture seems to be obsessed with them."

And she wasn't sure she'd ever hear one of those phrases without remembering that moment when the mamba had lunged toward her. "I'd just as soon ignore them from now on."

"I can understand that." Galen turned and headed for the breakfast room. "But Montalvo won't be ignoring what happened and neither will Quinn if he finds out."

She didn't want Montalvo to ignore the incident, she thought as she opened the door. She wanted protection from interruption during this critical stage in the reconstruction and it was his job to give it to her. But she hoped to God that Joe wasn't told about what had happened. Joe was the-

She stopped.

Montalvo was sitting in the desk chair, staring at the reconstruction. "Good morning, Eve." He didn't take his gaze from the skull. "It's exceptionally gruesome, isn't it?"

"Not really. But I suppose it appears that way to most people."

His lips twisted. "But I'm not most people, am I? I loved her. I've spent years trying to avenge her. Yet I look at… this and I can't muster any tenderness. It looks like the cover of a horror DVD."

"If she were alive and horribly scarred, would you feel like that?"

"No."

"It's the same. She's not with us any longer but your memory of her is here. A reconstruction isn't pretty during the initial stages. That's why I didn't want you to see it until the end. I didn't have a drop cloth or I would have covered it last night."

"I told Miguel not to give you another one."

"Why would you-" Then she understood. "The snake. You thought that every time I took it off her that I'd remember the snake."

"A natural reaction. You didn't need the drop cloth. I did. So I thought I'd come in and meet her face-to-face again."

"You're not meeting her. You don't understand her. This isn't who she is." She sat down on the edge of the desk and stared at Nalia. "Let me explain her to you. Those little sticks that make her look like a voodoo doll are tissue-depth markers. There are more than twenty points on the skull for which there are known tissue depths. There are anthropological charts that give a specific measurement for each point of a Caucasian woman of average weight. After I have the tissue depths right, I take strips of plasticine and apply them between the markers, then build up to all the tissue-depth points." She delicately touched the nasal cavity. "The nose is always very difficult. I have to make sure the measurements are precise on the nasal spine and the opening. They dictate everything, the length, the angle of the nose. But it's all there if you work hard enough. The bones tell us what we need to know if we listen. She's telling us, Montalvo. There's nothing horrible about her. She's the woman you loved. We just have to strip away the veil."

"And then what happens after you finish measuring?"

Her gaze shifted to see that his intent stare was no longer on the skull but on her own face.

"Then I start the final phase, the actual sculpting. That's when instinct takes over from intellect."

He was silent a moment. "I'd like to be here when you reach that point. If you don't mind."

"I don't mind. I probably wouldn't know if you were in the room. But don't expect me to let you know. Sometimes it doesn't work that way."

"You just go with the flow?"

"That sounds very pleasant and lazy. This particular flow is more like a lava flow after a volcano eruption."

He stood up. "I'll let you get to work." He smiled. "I'll check in on you periodically and gauge your lava output." He headed for the door. "Thank you, Eve."

"For a lecture on forensic sculpting?"

"No, for trying to make what she's become easier for me."

"And did I do it?"

"Yes. I'm not big on spirituality. I've always lived in the physical world and I had to come to terms with this." He said quietly, "You're a very special woman, Eve."

"Damn right." She got up to stand before the reconstruction and checked the mid-therum marker. "But you're better at snake demolition."

"It's amazing she's able to continue working," Miguel said as he met Montalvo in the hall. "Nerves of steel."

"No. She's frightened but she has a purpose," Montalvo said. "And that will keep her going no matter what happens." He strode down the hall. "But I'm not going to have her contend with anything more than finishing that reconstruction. That snake incident shouldn't have happened."

"I'm sorry. I'll make no excuses."

"For God's sake, I'm not blaming you. You're not responsible for everything that goes wrong in the compound."

"What a relief. Not even the stopped-up toilet in the armory?"

"Miguel."

He smiled. "A little humor."

"Very little. Have you gathered the names of any of the possibles who might have been bought by Diaz?"

"Fascquelo, Ramierez, Gomez, and Destando. All of them are comparatively new men with you. They seemed all right when we took them on and I've no proof they're not." He paused. "I'm leaning toward Destando. He plays a lot of poker in the barracks and he owes money. He's never talked against you but he's surly."

"I can't shoot him for that. Find me proof."

"I'll work very hard on doing that." He looked back at the closed door of the library. "I, too, believe in the power of purpose, Colonel."

"Sendak's mamba didn't kill her," Nekmon said. "She still managed to work last night. Our man in his camp says she may be getting close."

"If he managed to get close enough to plant the serpent, then he should be close enough to kill the bitch. I paid him enough."

"You didn't pay him enough to stop him from being frightened."

"He wasn't too frightened to slip the snake into the library." Diaz added sarcastically, "You wouldn't even look in the cage when Sendak had it here."

"I don't like snakes," Nekmon said. "And taking overt action is different. Montalvo has her guarded every moment of the day. No one is going to be able to walk up and shoot her."

"Poison?"

"Miguel Vicente prepares her meals."

Diaz muttered a curse. "If Duarte hadn't blundered, she would have been dead and we wouldn't be having this problem. Luck has been on Montalvo's side since this began."

"Luck can change. All we need is an opening," Nekmon said. "I've called Phoenix and they say that they're questioning the local hotel people. Jane MacGuire can't have just disappeared into the sunset. Someone must have seen the car. Perhaps gotten a license number. All I need is a number and we can call that senator you have in your pocket and ask him to send a tracer through the highway patrol and try to locate the car."

"In the meantime Eve Duncan finishes the reconstruction."

"Not necessarily. The parking garage has video cameras. If they used the garage, we may have her. I have someone working on that angle right now." His lips tightened. "It's much cleaner and more efficient than using that African snake shaman. I knew it wouldn't work."

"It could have worked." Diaz scowled. "And I dislike people who tell me 'I told you so.' You might remember that, Nekmon."

"No offense. Shall I continue hunting for Jane MacGuire?"

"Of course. Do everything you can," Diaz said. "I'm getting very tired of being bested by that son of a bitch. I think I'll have to make an example of Jane MacGuire to show the Duncan woman who has the power here."

"An excellent idea. As you wish."

"You're damned right. Everything is as I wish. That's as it should be." He went to the window and gazed down at the cemetery in the village. The moonlight was glimmering on the tomb where his mother was buried. What a fool she had been. She had never understood how special he was. From the time he was a small child she had told him to listen to the priests, to be humble and he would grow in stature and glory. She didn't understand a man had to grab both for himself. He would have made a queen of her if she'd realized that his destiny was not to be trifled with. Instead, she had betrayed and tried to destroy him.

And he'd had to destroy her.

You see, Mother? I'm a king now and I take whatever I wish. I kill who I wish. I'm above the priests, above your God.

And I'm alive and you're dead and moldering in the earth.

"You're smiling," Nekmon said. "Did I miss something?"

"I was just wondering when I get my hands on Eve Duncan if I should make her do a reconstruction of my dear mother. Do you think my sweet madre's skull would be a nice decoration for my desk?"