Bonnie

by Iris Johansen

  “When you let Father Barnabas leave.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  “The little girl.”

  Eve’s breath left her body.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  But Father Barnabas’s muscles were bunching, tensing.

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

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

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

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

  The priest staggered and fell against the desk.

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

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

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

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

  She hesitated. It was her only weapon.

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

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

  She didn’t move. “She?”

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

  She inhaled sharply. “What do you—”

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

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

  Because she wants you to go.

  The words of a madman?

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

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

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

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

  She moved toward him. “I’m coming.”

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

  * * *

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

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

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

  Not good.

  No Eve.

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

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

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

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

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

  “He didn’t say anything?”

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

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

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

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

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

  The little girl.

  Shit. The chill he was feeling became pure ice.

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

  “Yes.”

  “And that would mean he’s going to—”

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

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

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

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

  “Did you tell the police who I was?”

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

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

  “I have to get out of here.”

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

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

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

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

  Think.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  “You’re sure she’s still alive?”

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

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

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

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

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

  “It’s Eve, dammit.”

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

  “That goes without saying,” Quinn said curtly.

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

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

  “What about her phone?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  Gallo pressed the disconnect.

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

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

  He needed C
atherine Ling.

  CHAPTER

  11

  “ARE YOU OKAY, JOE?” CATHERINE shot a glance at Joe’s face after she hung up the phone. His expression was grimmer than she’d ever seen it. Who could blame him? She was feeling pretty damn grim herself. “We’ve got a start. The priest may remember something.”

  “And he may not. If he does, he’s going to tell me. No, I’m not okay. I want to kill Gallo.”

  “Yet either one of us might have done the same thing. There didn’t seem a very big risk.”

  “That doesn’t help.”

  “Because you’re feeling and not thinking. Like Gallo.”

  “And you’re defending him.”

  “It was clear he didn’t want anyone to defend him. He’s piling enough guilt on himself to sink the Titanic.” She looked out the window. “Yes, I’m defending him. Someone has to do it. This isn’t the time to fight among ourselves.”

  “I know that.” His grip tightened on the steering wheel. “But it’s easier to imagine taking Gallo apart limb by limb than it is to imagine what could be happening to Eve.”

  Catherine knew what he meant. She was blocking out all thought of the threat aimed at Eve. “As I said, we have the priest. And if Gallo can contact Danner, we have a chance he’ll have enough influence to shift the scales. Father Barnabas said Danner loves Gallo.”

  “If we can contact the bastard.” His lips tightened. “And if Gallo can stop worrying about him instead of Eve.”

  “Gallo will do everything he can to find Eve.”

  “So you’re going to join him and shepherd him in the right direction?”

  She shook her head. “There’s no shepherding Gallo. I’m going to join him for two reasons. There’s no use both of us hovering over Father Barnabas and trying to prod him. I’d just be spinning my wheels. Gallo and I are both trained hunters. I’m CIA, and he was a Ranger. If Venable or you can give us a lead, then we can get on the trail.”