Stalemate

6

Eve was dressed and ready when Soldono knocked on her door the next morning.

"How did you sleep?" Soldono asked when she opened the door. "You look a little tired."

"I'm fine." She joined him in the hall. "And yes, I had a lousy night. What do you expect?"

"I expected a sleepless night and a few regrets. What I didn't expect was for you to come down here and put yourself under Montalvo's thumb." He grimaced. "Though I'm grateful that you saved my bacon by getting Gonzales out of here. I was going to have to do something myself and that could have been fatal."

"Montalvo's attitude toward you didn't appear to be antagonistic."

"No, but he has rules, and Gonzales broke one of the major laws that govern his men. If I got in the way, he wouldn't think twice about killing me."

"Laws. Rules. A military compound. This man is a criminal running a criminal organization. What's happening here?"

He shrugged. "Search me. It works for him. His men are loyal and thoroughly intimidated by him." He paused. "And they admire him. That keeps them in line more than any other factor. We had a devil of a time locating one of his men who'd turned traitor to him. It took me more than eighteen months to find Gonzales and another three to persuade him."

"How did you do it?"

"Money. A great deal of money and a promise to get him away before Montalvo found out."

"Which you didn't do." Her gaze wandered around the hall they were going down. "This is a palace. I was surprised when I got here. It was weird to see a place like this in the middle of the jungle. Montalvo evidently likes his creature comforts." And he had appeared perfectly at home here last night, she remembered. Civilized, graceful, handsome. "He built a military fort and then set himself up as emperor."

"According to Gonzales, he didn't build either the fort or the palace. About ten years ago he took them from a Hector Caranda who was the local drug lord in the area."

"Took?"

"Caranda and his men aren't around any longer. I imagine if you looked hard around the jungle you might find their graves."

"Wonderful." She looked at him. "You don't appear upset."

"If criminals fight criminals, it leaves less for us to get rid of. They can all kill each other for all I care." He gestured to the curved arch just ahead. "The breakfast room. His Highness awaits."

"I'm flattered, Soldono," Montalvo said from behind them. "I was wondering if you noticed my regal air." He nodded at Eve. "He's been filling your ears with poison about me. Probably most of it is true, but it's still unpleasant." He waved her into the room. "And I don't 'await.' I've been busy working since six."

He held her chair for her at the gleaming oak table. "To keep myself calm and harness my anticipation for our meeting this morning." His gaze raked her face. "I see you've also been anticipating it. Perhaps with not so much eagerness but definitely with curiosity." He waved his hand and a white-coated servant appeared from the door across the room. "I understand you don't eat a large breakfast so I ordered eggs, bacon, and a piece of toast."

"That's too much."

He smiled. "And in case you said that, I ordered orange juice and coffee and a bagel. Sit down, Soldono. You're boringly predictable. He always has French toast and Canadian bacon, Eve. You wouldn't think he had a sweet tooth, would you?"

"I don't know him. I wouldn't speculate on what he'd like."

"What about me?" He sat down across from her. "By all means, speculate."

She met his gaze. "I think you already had your breakfast at six. Probably something light. Juice, coffee… maybe toast."

He chuckled. "Right. Except for the toast. I always have a tortilla. It brings back memories of my childhood. One of the pleasant ones. It's always best to hold on to whatever happy memories we can revisit. Don't you agree?"

She lifted her orange juice to her lips. "Why are you talking about food and childhood memories? I don't give a damn about your blasted tortilla. I'm not here to socialize or to get to know you. I came here to do a job."

"Yes, you did." He leaned back in his chair and gazed at her. "You look exceptionally good in all the light pouring into this room. Not many women can bear daylight truth but it wraps around you as if it loves you. I wondered how you'd look having breakfast here."

"Bullshit."

"But I did."

"And I didn't anticipate sitting here having breakfast with a man who goes around wearing a ridiculous pistol as if he were some Old West gunslinger. It's a little over-the-top, Montalvo."

He laughed as he glanced down at his holster. "But necessary on occasion. I've been a soldier too long. I've learned you can't count on being safe just because you're on home ground."

"My job," she prompted. "The reconstruction."

He nodded and turned to Soldono. "Would you excuse us? I think you'll find the terrace very comfortable this morning. I'll have your breakfast served there."

"Eve?" Soldono asked.

"I'll see you later," she said.

Soldono shrugged, stood up, and strode out the French doors.

Montalvo nodded at a servant, who hurried after Soldono.

"Soldono will be tempted to eavesdrop but he'll get such excellent and hovering service it would prove too awkward." He lifted his coffee to his lips. "It will be frustrating for him."

"Where is the skull? Where am I to work?"

"I have a studio set up for you in the library."

"Let's go."

"Finish your breakfast. You've barely started your bagel."

"I don't want the bagel. I want to see the skull."

"The bagel is your better bet."

She stiffened. "What?"

"The skull isn't here at the compound."

"Where the hell is it?"

"It's not been unearthed yet. It's buried about ninety miles north of here in a small cemetery."

She said through her teeth, "I don't rob graves, Montalvo."

"You won't have to rob this grave. I'll do it. I just couldn't do it until you were here and ready to do the job. You'll have to work faster than you've had to at any time in your career."

"And I don't act as an accomplice to grave robbing. Go get someone else."

"I've got you."

She met his gaze. "No, you do not. You played me like a violin to get me here, but I won't be manipulated by you to do anything that's against my conscience. Violating a grave is high up on the list."

"Because you think of a proper burial as bringing someone home. That's what you've been working toward since your daughter died." His lips tightened. "I assure you that the person in that grave has not been brought there by loving, caring hands. It's not home, Eve."

"So you say."

"It's the truth. Look at me." His voice vibrated with the force of his words. "I'm telling you the truth."

She had to believe him. "Or what you believe as truth. If you were sure, you wouldn't have brought me down here to verify. And why couldn't you get someone to do DNA?"

"I have someone lined up to do DNA, but I have to have some sort of proof before he'll run the risk."

"Why?"

"Because any scientist who touched that skull would end up murdered in a most unpleasant fashion."

"By whom?"

"Ramon Diaz. You may have heard of him."

"I've seen photos in newspapers. Drugs."

"Yes. Drugs and vice and murder."

"Then you have a good deal in common."

"You may think so. I told Miguel that you'd never met Satan. If you'd ever run across Diaz, I wouldn't be able to say that. I have my moments, but Diaz is the master. He's set himself up in a castle and thinks he's a king and has a license to do anything he wants to do."

"And if a DNA expert's life would be on the line for examining the DNA, what about mine?"

He nodded. "It would be the same. Forensic sculpting isn't accepted in a court of law, but you know about the skull and that would be enough."

She stared at him incredulously. "You admit you brought me down here to risk my neck for your reconstruction?"

"Yes."

"You bastard."

"Yes, but not Satan. Remember the difference." He took another sip of coffee. "And, if I'd had time to work at it, I could have been completely honest with you and you would have still come. If the price is high enough, the risk is worth it. But I didn't have the time once I put the plan in motion. I had to strike while I had the opportunity. I took the chance that you'd cooperate once you were here."

"You're out of luck, Montalvo."

"We'll see. The only reason you came was because I offered you Bonnie. That reason still exists. You didn't know what you'd find here. Everyone was warning you what a bad man I was. Still you came."

"I won't become the criminal you are. I made something decent of my life after Bonnie was taken from me. I won't be dragged down again."

"What if I promise that you'll not be doing anything dishonorable? Your reputation and moral principles will remain pure as the driven snow." He grimaced. "The only thing that you'll be risking is your life. Sorry about that."

"Only my life? Well, then of course I'll ignore everything else and jump right on the bandwagon."

"You might if I'd caught you during those years after Bonnie's death. Not now."

She gazed at him, anger flaring through her. "You think you know me so well. You can't learn about someone from a dossier. You don't have any idea who I am."

"The dossier was only a start. I thought about you. I ran scenarios in my mind about you. Sometimes I even dreamed about you."

She felt a ripple of shock. "You're psychotic."

He shook his head. "When I first started to look for someone like you, I was very coolly analytical. Then when I stumbled over you and started probing, all that vanished. I knew you were meant to come here and do this reconstruction."

"Why?"

"Because I looked at you and saw myself." He pushed back his chair and stood up. "You've had enough to digest at one time. And I don't mean your breakfast. We'll talk later."

"You haven't told me anything that would make me want to continue this discussion."

"I had to break the ice. It's not the time for details."

"I want you to drive me back to that landing strip. I'll have Soldono arrange a flight out."

He headed for the door. "I believe you'll change your mind."

"You'll be wrong."

"You know, I never thought you'd take money for the reconstruction." He stopped at the door. "It was just an opening play. I knew from the beginning what would make you work with me. That gave me time to try to find something that would make you want to stay after you got down here. I had Miguel put a report on the desk in your bedroom. You might look at it before you make a decision."

"Report?"

But he'd already left the room.

She stared after him, filled with frustration and bewilderment. Jesus, what kind of man was he? Deadly, threatening, and yet the threats had been so matter-of-fact that she had not felt fear. There had been a sort of bizarre companionableness, an intimacy, about the way he had talked to her.

I looked at you and saw myself.

"Chat finished?" Soldono was standing in the doorway. "You don't look too pleased."

"I'm not. He doesn't even have the skull I'm supposed to reconstruct. He has to rob a grave to get it."

"And what did you tell him?"

"That I was going to ask you to arrange a flight out for me." She stood up. "Will you do it?"

"I'll do my best." He added, "But if he doesn't want to let you go, it may be useless. It would take an army to get you out of here unless he gives the word."

"Just make the arrangements. I'll deal with Montalvo."

Soldono nodded, frowning thoughtfully. "What grave is he going to rob?"

"He didn't tell me. What does it matter?"

"Everything about Montalvo's movements matters. They have repercussions all down the line. You might consider doing the job for him. It would make your exit easier."

She stared at him in disbelief. "And your job easier too, I suppose."

"Infinitely easier." He looked her in the eye. "I don't care about disturbing the dead if it keeps you alive and on your way back home."

Her anger ebbed away. "I don't have any right to judge you. This is my responsibility. I knew when I came down here that I was stepping into a spider's web and I might have a hell of a time breaking out of it."

"A hell of a time," he echoed. "So do whatever you have to do to get all of us away from here with our skins intact."

"I'll think about it." She headed for the door. "But don't hold your breath."

Do whatever you have to do.

Soldono's words repeated in her mind as she climbed the steps to her room. Those words were easy to say, but she couldn't go along with that philosophy. Not when it came to her work. Soldono and the CIA made deals all the time and a good many of them were with criminals like Montalvo.

Even though she'd made a deal with Montalvo, she wasn't sure that she could countenance his deception, much less-

Miguel put a report on the desk in your bedroom.

Her steps instinctively quickened as she reached the top of the staircase.

A blue binder was lying on the desk.

She moved slowly toward it.

I knew from the beginning what would make you work with me.

She flipped open the cover of the binder.

Bonnie Duncan.

A picture of Bonnie taken the year before she disappeared.

A sheaf of papers over half an inch thick.

Oh, my God.

She sank down in the desk chair and started to go through the pages.

"They'll know we're coming." Galen looked down at the jungle below. "We can't get anywhere near that compound without Montalvo knowing that he has visitors."

"All we have to do is get somewhere near Montalvo's place, and be dropped off. Then we disappear into the jungle."

"Oh, is that all?" Galen asked. "My, my, and I thought you had something complicated in mind. Venable said that jungle is very well-patrolled and we might have to dispose of a few sentries."

"You don't have to go with me."

"Yes, I do. This has nothing to do with you. I have a job to do. I was hired to find out about Montalvo. This is as good a way as any. And besides, I happen to have a fondness for Eve. I just thought I'd bring up the difficulties because I have no intention of wasting my efforts without a plan of action. Are we to storm the Bastille? Or perhaps try guerilla warfare? We brought enough firepower for a minor war but it would be a little absurd since there are only two of us."

"We get close. We look for a weakness." Joe smiled grimly. "And I call Eve on my cell phone and get her to come out and play our game instead of his."

"Now that makes much more sense than storming the Bastille." Galen sighed. "If a good deal less interesting."

"We may have to go back to one of your scenarios if Eve doesn't answer my call. She warned me that she might not."

"I think she will. Eve is a worrier. She'll be concerned that you're in dire straits and need her help."

"I am in dire straits." And Joe needed to know if she was well and not over her head in trouble. He'd been scared shitless since he'd left Atlanta after Galen had told him about Montalvo's connection with Diaz. It wasn't enough that Eve was dealing with one scumbag. An even greater one was hovering on the horizon. "And I'm not sure you're right. She keeps her word and she said that she wouldn't answer the initial call."

"I'm right. I may not know her as well as you do but I can stand back and observe with a more impersonal eye. You're not thinking as clearly as you might at the moment."

"Tell me about it," he said sarcastically. "Of course, you'd be perfectly calm and rational if the same thing were happening in your personal life."

"No. I'd be as scared as you are. But it's not Elena and Elspeth so I can preach to you. And be here to strike a note of reason when you go off course. Providing you listen to me."

Joe was silent a moment. "I'll listen to you. I don't promise I'll pay any attention, but I'll listen." He looked down at the vast stretch of jungle below him. Venable had warned him that Montalvo's men knew that territory like the backs of their hands, but that didn't worry him. When he was a SEAL, he'd lived in jungles for months and played hit-and-run and still managed to survive. That was years ago, but it would come back to him. Getting Eve out was going to be the hard part. She was strong, and her determination and endurance could be incredible, but she had no training. Galen had been a mercenary at one time and would be able to help. "Thank you," he said haltingly. "I know I've been on edge with you, but you're being a good friend to Eve. I appreciate it."

"On edge? I hardly noticed. Of course, I've been bleeding from a hundred little cuts and I might be too faint to feel them anymore." He smiled slightly. "And I don't expect it to stop. You're hurting and you're a man who instinctively hits out when hurt. I happen to be the closest target. I'll magnanimously forgive you in the name of Eve."

"I don't believe 'magnanimous' is the word I'd use about your acceptance of my apology," Joe said dryly. "But I'll try not to use you as a punching bag."

"In the name of Eve?"

He looked back down at the jungle below. "In the name of Eve."

It was midafternoon when Eve finished the report and sat back in her chair. Stop crying. Stop shaking. You have to go down to see Montalvo and you can't let him see this weakness.

Screw it. Give herself a little time. Accept the pain now while she was alone. Let the tears come. She closed her eyes and the tears flowed down her cheeks.

Bonnie.

Fifteen minutes later she got up, went into the bathroom, and washed her face with cold water. Her eyes were still a little puffy but she couldn't help that. She patted her face dry, grabbed the report, and strode out of the bedroom.

She almost ran into Miguel, who was leaning against the wall across the hall.

He straightened quickly. "You're ready to see him?"

"What were you doing camped on my doorstep?"

"He told me to stay here and bring you to him. He didn't want you to have to search for him. Are you ready?"

"Oh, yes." She went past him toward the stairs. "Where is he?"

"The library." Miguel caught up with her. "I'll show you. It's in the south wing downstairs." He went ahead of her down the staircase. "It upset you. I'm sorry. I asked him if it was necessary."

"You know what was in the report?"

"Yes, he talks to me sometimes. Not often. Not about things that are close to him. But he needed to talk to someone this time." He turned right at the bottom of the staircase. "It was my privilege."

"If you can call it that."

"I can." He opened a door on the left and smiled gently. "To share anything with the Colonel is a privilege." He stepped aside. "If I can help you, call me. That would also be a privilege."

"Come in, Eve," Montalvo called from across the library. "Miguel, see that we aren't disturbed."

"By all means," Eve said as she went into the room and strode toward the desk. She slammed the binder down on the desk in front of Montalvo and dropped into the visitor's chair. "We definitely have a few things to discuss."

"Coffee?" He poured steaming black liquid into a cup from a carafe on the desk. "You look as if you can use it."

"Not now."

He set the cup of coffee in front of her. "Because your hand would shake if you took the cup? I wouldn't regard that as a sign of weakness. Not in you."

"Not now," she repeated. She moistened her lips. "That was quite a report. Did it need to be that thorough? It started from the time Bonnie disappeared in that park and went into detail about every aspect of the investigation. Every sexual offender, every child molester the police interviewed, every word taken or written about the investigation. Every graphic description of the other little girls' bodies they found that they thought might be Bonnie. You did a complete background on Ralph Andrew Fraser, the man who was executed for the murders of those other children and assumed to have killed Bonnie."

"He didn't kill her," Montalvo said. "I think you thought that all along. That's why when another suspect appeared some years later, you were ready to believe he did it. Only her body wasn't where he told you it was going to be. That must have been a heartbreaker for you."

"Yes." She blinked back the tears. "A heartbreaker."

"But it didn't stop you. You never gave up hope."

"You talk as if it were some kind of virtue. Hope never gave me up. I couldn't do anything about it. Why did you go into such detail? It wasn't necessary."

"And it brought everything back and hurt you. I considered editing the report before I gave it to you but I couldn't do it. You had to know what I'd found out about the case. How deeply I'd probed to get answers."

"I'd have been satisfied with Section Three." She flipped open the report to the place she'd tabbed. "Where your investigators started to try to find Bonnie's murderer."

"They were amazing, weren't they? They were highly motivated. I offered them the million dollars you refused to dig deep and fast. They didn't manage to isolate a single suspect, but they narrowed it down to three."

She glanced at the three names on the list. "How? You said something about leaks from prison inmates?"

"They interviewed prisoners who were in jail at the same time and facility as Fraser. No one knows what's going on in the underbelly like prisoners do. They talk a lot and most of them have no use for child molesters. There was a lot of talk on the prison grapevine about Bonnie's case. More speculation. Some actually claimed to have known the killer well enough for him to brag about it to them."

"Why didn't they come forward if they knew something? They could have cut a deal."

"Not without evidence. The state was very happy with the man they had on death row. The public had been clamoring for an arrest. They would have ignored the possibility of it being anyone else."

"My God." It was a moment before she got a grip on her emotions. "Paul Black, Thomas Kistle, Kevin Jelak. Are they still alive?"

"Yes. We've located Kistle. The others have disappeared from the radar, but we'll find them. I promised I'd do that for you, Eve."

"You could be lying about all this."

"I could. I'm not."

"Why did you give this report to me after I told you that I wasn't going to go through with the deal?"

"Hope."

She leaned back in her chair and rubbed her temple. "You're manipulating me."

"If you let me. It's all up to you. I'm at your mercy."

She snorted. "Not likely."

He smiled. "Or I thought I'd try a diversion to take your mind off my little deception."

"Little?"

"Not so little deception," he corrected. "And I thought you might believe what I told you and be willing to reconsider your decision."

She stared at him. He was smooth. He was complicated. He was silver-tongued. He was no doubt a very dangerous man. Yet she sensed in him a driving force she had seldom seen before.

I looked at you and saw myself.

And looking at him she could see qualities she knew she possessed. The same drive, the same energy, the same passion.

But passion for what?

"You said that I wouldn't be violating my principles if I did this job for you. Why not? I don't rob graves."

He relaxed with a sigh. "You're thinking about it."

"Why not?" she repeated.

"You wouldn't rob graves in the usual course of things. But what if your Bonnie were in that grave? Wouldn't you go after her?"

"I'd get a writ and have her exhumed. I wouldn't go slinking around in the dark."

"What if you couldn't get the writ? What if you knew she was there, but there was no other way?"

She didn't speak for a moment. "I'd go after her if I had to go to hell itself."

"And so would I," he said simply. "And that's what I'm doing. Going to hell itself."

"Stop being obscure. Spell it out for me."

"The cemetery is in the farm country controlled by Diaz. He's been searching for this grave for the last five years. And watching me to make sure I don't find it first. That's why Aquila showed up here. He was trying to bribe my men for any information he could get."

"So you killed him."

"Yes, I didn't know how much information he might have gathered. I was getting close to bringing you here. I only hope that he didn't get word back to Diaz before I took him out."

"You're saying you did it because of me? I didn't even know I was coming until the last minute."

"And I kept our negotiations extremely confidential. That doesn't mean he might not have picked up a kernel of information. Miguel found bugging and surveillance equipment in Aquila's camp in the jungle outside the compound."

"And what would Diaz have done if he did know I was coming?"

"He would have sent a man to Atlanta to kill you. Or he might have ambushed us on the way to the compound. Since neither event occurred, he may not know who I was bringing here or that you were definitely coming. But he might guess that I think I've found the grave."

"And who's in that grave?"

He was silent a moment. "My wife."

She stiffened in shock. "What?"

"Nalia Armandariz. She was the daughter of Antonio Armandariz, the rebel leader. I was fighting with the rebels when we met." He smiled. "What a tiger she was. Yet full of courage and ideals and a zest for life like I've never seen before."

"You loved her."

"Oh, yes," he said softly. "I was sick with bitterness and anger when I met her. She healed me. It was all joy with her. It sounds weird to say that, when she was a soldier like me. A fine soldier and her father's right hand."

"How did she die?"

"Diaz. She was probing too closely into his business. Her father was dealing with Diaz, who was very outspoken in his support for the rebel effort. He protected Diaz's coca growers from rival drug dealers and did a few other raids for him. When the military was becoming troublesome Diaz set the rebels to attack. He had Armandariz convinced that he was devoted to the rebel cause and tossed him an occasional bone of cash and weapons to prove it. But Nalia found out that he was double-dealing. He was paying off the government and funneling cash into their coffers as well to look the other way when he was exporting his drugs."

"She found proof?"

"She was looking for it when she disappeared."

"Disappeared? I thought he killed her."

"Your Bonnie disappeared. Do you have any doubt that she's dead?"

She slowly shook her head. "I wish I did."

"So do I. Diaz was very clever. He buried the evidence of his double-dealing and convinced her father that Nalia had stolen the latest payment Diaz had sent him and gotten on a plane for Australia."

She shook her head. "He couldn't have believed that of her. She was his daughter."

"He wanted to believe it. He was a fanatic and Diaz was helping his cause. Turning a blind eye to a little double-dealing was a cheap price to pay."

"Not so cheap. He lost a daughter."

"In his eyes he didn't lose her, she deserted the cause. She wasn't his daughter any longer."

"What did you do?"

"What do you think? I went after Diaz. I ended up getting away from his men barely alive and dragging myself to a friend's house to recuperate. It took almost a year to get well. By that time things had changed. Nalia's father wanted to have nothing to do with me. I'd attacked his benefactor and he couldn't accept that if he was going to continue with his self-delusion."

"Did you go after Diaz again?"

"No, I'd had time to simmer down and think. I didn't want to just kill Diaz. I wanted to bring him down. I wanted to destroy everything he'd built, everything he'd created in his little empire. But I couldn't do that without gathering together almost as much money as Diaz possessed. I needed money for bribes, to hire the kind of manpower Diaz had at his command. I was a soldier with only the clothes on my back and my rifle. So I set out to get that cash."

"By becoming a criminal yourself?"

He shrugged. "Weapons were the only thing I knew about."

"Are you making excuses?"

"No, I wouldn't make excuses to you any more than I'd make them to myself. I'm sure Soldono will be willing to tell you what a very bad boy I am. I'm only explaining what happened. I had to bring Diaz down. I didn't care how I made the money as long as it was there for me to tap. I did what I set out to do. I had cash to set up the compound so that Diaz couldn't touch me." He paused. "And the kind of big money that permitted me to hire investigators to find out where your Bonnie's killer might be found. I think perhaps you'll believe that expenditure to be worthwhile."

Damn him, he might not be making excuses but he'd man-aged to strike the one note that resounded in the depths of her being. "Go on."

"But I needed to do more than become some kind of Midas. I needed to find Nalia. I had to make her father admit she was dead and that Diaz had killed her. I started searching. It took me two years before I found out what he'd done with her body."

"The cemetery?"

"Christ, no. He threw her into a swamp to rot. I bribed one of his men who did it to go get her. But he double-crossed me and didn't bring the body directly to me. He buried her in an unmarked grave in the cemetery. He said he couldn't run the risk of Diaz knowing what he'd done. The damn cemetery is practically on top of Diaz's villa. Then Diaz found out that his man had been dealing with me and went after him." His lips tightened. "I got to him first. I couldn't have him telling Diaz where he'd disposed of the remains."

"You killed him?"

"Of course. Don't feel sorry for him. At least, I was quick. I guarantee that Diaz would not have been. Anyway, I was stuck with waiting until I could structure a way to get in and out of that cemetery with Nalia's body without getting my men killed."

"And getting someone to do the reconstruction."

He nodded. "Before Diaz finds out exactly what we're doing and sends out his full force."

"And then you want to show the reconstruction to Nalia's father? What good would that do now?"

"Do you remember how shocked you were when you opened the box I sent you? Imagine how a father would react, how Nalia's friends she'd grown up with would react. The rebels still have considerable firepower in these parts. If they turned that firepower against a single target, it could be devastating."

"You want to turn them against Diaz."

"I intend to turn them against Diaz." He held her gaze. "As soon as you give me my wife back."

After a moment she tore her eyes away from his. "She might not be in that grave. You could have been double-crossed in more ways than one."

"I realize that. I have to take the chance."

"And you want me to take a chance too. You've put me on the spot with Diaz. And you could be killed going after that skull."

"I've told Miguel to get you out of here if that happens. And I'll set up the mechanism to keep searching for Bonnie's killer even if I die. All you have to do is agree."

"Why should I believe you? You could be making up a fairy story."

"You do believe me."

She didn't want to believe him. She didn't want to feel sympathy or empathy for him. "Or you could be telling me part of the truth and twisting it to suit yourself. You're a criminal yourself. Why should I believe you want to destroy Diaz's operation? You could be throwing in that part of the story to convince me that what I'm doing is basically ethical."

"It's the truth." His voice vibrated with force, his gaze held her own. "Every word I've spoken. Yes, I've tried to manipulate you but only to get you here. I knew I'd have to lay the cards on the table."

"Why?"

"Because I couldn't cheat you. I felt your pain." He added quietly, "Because it was the same as mine. I loved my wife, Eve. Diaz killed her and then tossed her away like a piece of garbage. During those years when she was lost, I'd wake up from nightmares about trying to find her and never being able to do it."

Christ, she could feel tears sting her eyes. She had known that agony. It never went away no matter how much time passed. She stood up. "I have to think about this. I can't tell you-I have to think about it."

"Just do the reconstruction. I'll have you on your way back home a few hours later. You'll be out of it."

"I have to think about it," she repeated as she moved toward the door. "Dammit, you're asking me to trust you and I'd be a fool to do it."

"You might be a fool to risk doing the job but not to trust me."

She glanced back at him and for the first time she thought she glimpsed the emotions beneath that smooth facade. The haunted pain and hollow loneliness…

I looked at you and saw myself.

She tore her eyes away and almost ran out of the room.

He must be a magician to be able to play on her emotions like this. Maybe his wife was one of the lost ones but she mustn't identify her with Bonnie. She might not even be in that grave. It might be a false lead.

And how many false paths had she gone down in hopes of finding her daughter? How many hopes had been crushed?

She was identifying again. Block it out. Think calmly and logically. She shouldn't let emotion influence her decision.

But, dear God, she was very much afraid she was going to do it.