Silencing Eve

by Iris Johansen

  “Final … I don’t understand.”

  “The soul goes on. Most of the time there’s a chance for redemption, a new start. But with Kevin, I sense only silence from his victims. Nothing beyond. No second chance.”

  “Those children he killed?”

  “Silence.”

  “Dear God.”

  “But if Kevin is destroyed, perhaps the silence would be lifted.” She shook her head. “I don’t know. We can only hope and pray. But we can’t let him silence anyone else. He mustn’t kill again. For him, silence is the ultimate power, far above the act of murder.”

  Millions dead in a nuclear holocaust.

  “We have to stop it.” Bonnie’s gaze was on her face, reading her thoughts. “Not only the deaths but what might come after.”

  “You worry about the afterward. Saving lives is enough for me to be concerned about at the moment.”

  Bonnie smiled. “You’ll worry about everything. Present, future, afterward. I know you, Mama.”

  “One crisis at a time. Doane is my primary crisis.” She made a face. “Or maybe it’s Kevin. I get confused when I think about them these days.”

  “It will get clearer,” Bonnie said soberly. “Because they’re getting closer to each other all the time. Can’t you feel that?”

  “Yes.”

  “Kevin hates you. He wants to silence you.”

  “Silence.” Eve had never realized how chilling that word could be. The ultimate power, Bonnie had said. “I’m sure he has a similar desire where you’re concerned.”

  “It’s different with me. He blames you. You’re standing in his way. You have to be very careful.”

  Eve suddenly chuckled. “Bonnie, I’m tied up, captive of a homicidal maniac who’s threatening to blow me up along with half of Seattle. And you’re telling me to be careful?”

  “Sorry.” Bonnie giggled. “Sometimes I forget the present when I get absorbed in what’s going to happen.” A smile was still lingering. “But I’m glad that I made you laugh. I love to hear you laugh, and you don’t do enough of it. I wish you were always smiling.”

  “I’m not the type. The people who know me would think I was having a breakdown if I went around grinning.” Eve’s smile faded. “But you make me smile. You always did. From the moment you were born, you filled every day with love and laughter. When you were gone, I couldn’t find it again. I just like you to be here near me.”

  “I’m always near you,” Bonnie said gently.

  “I know, but I want to see you, dammit.” She shook her head. “It’s okay. I swore I wouldn’t complain. You’re busy saving the afterworld.” She grimaced. “That makes you sound like a superhero. Now that is funny when I look at you in that Bugs Bunny T-shirt.”

  “You like me in this T-shirt. It makes you remember me the way I was before I left you.”

  “Yes, it does.” Bonnie had told Eve that after she had passed over that she could not remain the child she had been. The way she spoke, the wisdom, the maturity, had at first shocked Eve. No longer. Bonnie’s soul was the same, and that was all that was important to her. She asked curiously, “Could you change how you look to me?”

  “I don’t know. I think so. But it’s not important if you’re happy with me like this.” Her smile was loving. “It’s all about you, Mama.”

  “No, it’s not. You just want to keep me from joining you too soon. I’m trying, Bonnie. I know that Joe would feel as lost as I did when you were taken. I don’t want him to hurt like that.” She added wearily, “But I’m so tired of being without you, baby. Sometimes I think I’d be forgiven if I just let it happen.”

  “I know you do. That’s why Doane is so dangerous to you. You wouldn’t take your own life, you’d just not fight and let him strike you down.” She shook her head. “You can’t do that. The circle around you is widening all the time. Everyone you touch would feel the loss. All your friends, Zander…”

  “Zander.” She stiffened. “That’s the first time you mentioned him. What do you know about—” She broke off. “He’s not one of the people touched by me. Zander wouldn’t be affected one way or the other.”

  “He would feel the loss,” she said. “Doane is right about your death hurting him.” She frowned. “You don’t want me talking about him. You don’t want Zander that near me. He can’t hurt me, Mama.”

  “You’re right, I don’t want to talk about him.”

  “Then we won’t do it. There are enough people who care about you without mentioning Zander.”

  She was silent a moment. “Is he … your grandfather, Bonnie?”

  “Ask him. You don’t want to hear about him from me.”

  Eve didn’t know why she had asked that question. It had come tumbling out with irresistible force. “There are a number of questions I have to ask him when Doane brings us together.” She added wryly, “Providing he allows us enough time before he presses the magic button.” She held up her hand as Bonnie opened her lips to speak. “I know. I know. That sounded much too resigned. I’ll work on it. I just didn’t understand why you mentioned Zander instead of someone who does care whether I live or die.”

  “Like Jane?”

  “Yes.”

  “I didn’t mention Jane because you didn’t, Mama. You talked about Joe’s being hurt, but you didn’t say anything about Jane.”

  “Of course I meant Jane, too.”

  “But you didn’t say her name. Only Joe’s.”

  Eve stiffened. “What are you saying? I love Jane, and I know she loves me. I wasn’t trying to leave her out in any way.”

  “You do love her, but not in the same way you love me. It may even be a better way because she’s your best friend. We never got the chance to become friends. That comes later between a mother and daughter.”

  “Then what difference does it make that I—Are you saying that I made some Freudian slip?“

  “Maybe. I believe that I was always in the way of your relationship with Jane. You were searching for me, thinking about me for years and years.”

  “Jane always said that she never resented it.”

  “And that proves that she loves you. She wanted whatever would make you happy.” She paused. “Just as I do. I feel very close to Jane, Mama. But she shuts me out. I can’t … reach her. It didn’t bother me before … well, a little. I understood that she’d put up barriers to keep from being hurt. But I can’t let her be alone when she—you may have to do it for me.”

  “You’re scaring me. What are you talking about?”

  “I just want you to know that she’s willing to do anything for you. Would she miss you as Joe would?” She hesitated, then said quietly, “She’d die for you, Mama.”

  She inhaled sharply. “Bonnie.”

  “I just want you to know that it’s not only your life you’re fighting for. Fight for Jane. She’s going to need you.”

  “Don’t you dare be all mysterious and enigmatic, young lady. Explain.”

  Bonnie shook her head. “Just love her and try to take care of her.” She smiled with an obvious effort. “When you manage to get out of those ropes and start moving in the right direction. Did it occur to you that you wouldn’t be in this situation if you’d taken your chance to get away instead of saving Zander? That makes it even stranger that you still resent him.”

  “Of course it occurred to me. It also occurred to me that you’re trying to change the subject.” And, knowing Bonnie, she realized that she was not going to yield any more information no matter how frustrated it was going to make Eve. Frustrated and scared. “If you’re so worried about Jane, you take care of her. Ghosts should have some kind of special powers, shouldn’t they? Well, if you do, don’t use them for me. Use them for Jane.”

  “It doesn’t work that way, Mama.”

  “I’m tired of hearing that. If I were there with you, then maybe I’d understand about—” She stopped. “I don’t want to argue. These moments with you are too precious. I’ll do my job. I’ll help my Jane.”r />
  “I know you will,” Bonnie said. “And we aren’t arguing. I had to warn you, and I made you worry. If I could make it stop, I would. But now it’s out of the way and I can just be with you.”

  “The last time you were able to come to me was when I inhaled that gas at the cabin. You disappeared when I started to come out of it. How much time do we have?”

  “A long time,” she said gravely. “A few hours, I think.”

  “What?”

  “He gave you a very strong dose.” She looked her in the eye. “A little more, and we would have been together.”

  Together. Death. “That potent?”

  “He’s angry with you all the time now. You hurl those barbed remarks at him, and they sting. He’s beginning to get reckless.”

  Eve was feeling a little reckless herself. “At least it brought you to me.”

  “Mama…” She shook her head. “Yes, it brought me to you. Now, we’ll sit here and take what’s been given.”

  “And you’ll tell me how you erased Kevin’s reconstruction from my mind. I know he’s right in front of me. Why can’t I see him?”

  “He doesn’t exist right now. I can hold him at bay as long as we’re joined together. I can feel his anger, but he can’t do anything.”

  “You said you were getting stronger fighting him.”

  “I am. Because of you,” she said. “And these hours with you are going to make me even stronger. As I said, Doane may have done us a favor.”

  “And Kevin will be angry with him. What a pity.”

  Bonnie threw back her head and laughed. Her red curls were gleaming, and her face glowed with vitality that seemed to light up the room.

  Eve gazed at her and felt a surge of pure love. Spirit or not, this was her little girl, who had been born with a very special soul. She had been able to reach out and touch, gather, and inspire love in everyone who met her. Eve had been lucky to have been able to keep her for those seven years, and she had given up bitterness long ago.

  “I love you, Bonnie.” She was suddenly afraid. “And don’t let that bastard get too close to you. I like you just fine unsilenced.”

  “Is that a correct word? You always used to correct me if I didn’t use correct English.”

  “That was then, this is now. I don’t care. You know what I mean.”

  “I’ll keep Kevin away. You go after Doane.” She smiled. “Don’t be afraid, can’t you feel the strength flowing between us? It will get stronger and stronger all the time we’re together. It’s like a deep river, and it will keep everything afloat. Can’t you feel it?”

  “No.” Was love strength? If it was, then she knew the river Bonnie was talking about. “It doesn’t matter. We’ll get through it.” She gazed at Bonnie, and the warmth filled the world. “And I’m not afraid any longer.”

  CHAPTER

  10

  Stanley, Illinois

  “SHE’S HEADING FOR CHICAGO,” Trevor said as he glanced at the GPS. They picked up Harriet’s signal almost immediately after they had gotten on the road, and had been traveling at a safe distance behind her for the past hours. “Now why would she be heading for the big city…?”

  “A good place to get lost…” Jane said as she accessed the dossier that Catherine Ling had e-mailed to her. “But there’s no indication that she has friends or a connection here. I’m going to check with Catherine and see if there’s something I’m missing.”

  “Good idea,” Caleb said. “Of course, she could be going to the airport. Chicago has connections to everywhere in the world. It would be logical for her to leave Muncie and go to an airline hub. We should have gone back to Muncie Airport and picked up my plane.”

  “But we don’t know that she wants to leave Chicago,” Trevor said. “Maybe there’s something she wants to do there.”

  “The nuke,” Jane said. “You believe she knows where it is?”

  “I don’t believe anything,” Trevor said. “Except that Harriet Weber has displayed a discipline and strength in these last years that makes Doane’s appear weak in comparison. Yet there is a similarity if you look for it. Doane pretended to be a heartbroken but innocent father for the last five years. She was evidently in masquerade mode for far longer and was so good that Venable didn’t even bother to have her watched. But both were controlled by their son, Kevin.”

  “The question is whether Harriet was so influenced by Kevin that she became involved in the hiding of the nuclear devices,” Jane said. “Muncie is fairly close to Chicago, and it would have been convenient for Kevin to have brought his mother into his scheme to destroy that city.”

  “Now that’s true corruption,” Caleb said. “She’d have to know how dangerous mass murder would be for him. Perhaps she tried to talk him out of doing it as she did the child killings.”

  “Or tried to make it safer for him by making sure he wouldn’t be caught,” Jane said grimly.

  Trevor’s brows rose. “You’re leaning toward thinking that she would go that far?”

  “You should have seen her face. She was proud that he’d taught her to defend herself. She liked the idea that the two of them were banded together against the world. I think she would have done anything for him.” She frowned. “But I’ll still check with Catherine to see if there’s any other reason for her going to Chicago.” She was dialing her phone. “Caleb, I want you to send those copies of Kevin’s letters to my cell. Did Margaret have you send them to Kendra?”

  “That’s goes without saying. She wanted Kendra to have material with which to work.” He paused. “The turnoff for O’Hare Airport is five miles ahead. We should have an idea which way Harriet is going to jump soon.”

  “Then while I’m talking to Catherine, call Margaret and tell her where we are.” Jane smiled slyly. “I’m sure she’ll be glad to hear from you.”

  “I think Trevor should call her. He’s much more diplomatic.”

  “I’m driving,” Trevor said. “It wouldn’t be safe.”

  Caleb grimaced. “Okay. I’m stuck with it.” He took out his phone. “How bad can it get?”

  “You must tell us when you finish the call,” Jane murmured. “Personally, I’d hesitate to—” She broke off as Catherine answered the phone. “Catherine, we’re heading for Chicago. We’re following Harriet Weber, and she proved to be a hell of a lot more dangerous than Venable thought her to be. I need to know more about her.”

  “I told you everything that was on the Venable file,” Catherine said. “What do you mean ‘dangerous’?”

  Jane filled her in on her meeting with Harriet and the discovery of Kevin’s letters. She ended with, “Why should she be going to Chicago?”

  “The nuke,” Catherine said bluntly. “I’d guess she was knee deep in Kevin’s plot from what you’ve told me.”

  “That was my first thought,” Jane said. “Either she was a member of the sleeper cell, or she worked alone with him. She seemed very independent, very smart, and aggressive. Even though she seems to have been firmly controlled emotionally by him, she’d need to be an active part of whatever she chose to do. She wouldn’t trust even Kevin’s judgment over her own. She was his mother, and mother knows best. Even in their correspondence, she was evidently telling him gently what to do about his damn murders.”

  Catherine was silent. “You seem to have a handle on her.”

  “I learned by a huge mistake, but I think I know her now.” She hadn’t realized until actually voicing that knowledge how clearly she was seeing Harriet Weber’s character. As they had been driving, she had been mentally going over what she had been told about Harriet’s background in Muncie, then the actual contact. “First, you have to realize that she has an ego to match Kevin’s and that she also lacks any hint of conscience.”

  “A sociopath?”

  “Perhaps. I don’t know. Maybe. But she did love Kevin.”

  “And you’re excited.”

  “Yes, because I believe there may be a way to reach Doane through Harriet. I’ve
got to try. You’re in Seattle?”

  “Yes, we just arrived. Stang picked us up, and we’re heading toward downtown. Zander’s not wasting any time. He has a rather unsavory contact named Slater who has his ear to the ground and may be able to help. I’ll call Langley and see if they have any other info on Harriet Weber and let you know.”

  “Thanks. I’ll be out there as soon as I can. I just have to check out Harriet’s connection in—”

  “Stop sounding so agonized. You can’t be everywhere. You said yourself that Doane’s ex-wife may be a strong lead. That’s more than I have right now. We have a target city and a hope that we interpreted Eve’s message correctly.” She paused. “Seattle. Chicago. Both target cities. We’re in Seattle, and I expect Joe and Gallo will show up soon. You’re in Chicago. We should be able to control the situation if we—” She chuckled. “Zander is frowning at me. He doesn’t appreciate my trying to run the show. I’ll talk to you later.” She hung up.

  “Not very helpful.” Jane pressed the disconnect.

  “I disagree,” Caleb said. “I think talking it out with Catherine was exceptionally helpful to you. You’re seeing everything with crystal clarity now. You were a little confused after your brawl with Harriet. Every instinct was screaming, but you had to put it together.” He smiled faintly. “You’re not like me, who is content to let instinct rule and to hell with everything else. That’s the difference between the primitive and the civilized.” He glanced at Trevor. “Where are you on the scale?”

  “I have my moments on both levels.”

  Caleb shook his head. “Never on mine, Trevor. We’ve managed to work together, but we’re not on the same wavelength.”

  “You never know.” He looked at Jane. “But one thing was decided while you were on the phone.” He nodded out the windshield. “Harriet passed the turnoff for the airport five minutes ago. She’s not trying to fly out of town.” He glanced down at the GPS. “And she’s exiting at one of the lakefront exits.”

  Jane tensed. “Don’t lose her.”

  “I won’t.” Trevor shifted lanes. “You trusted me to be your driver. I wouldn’t fail you.”