Dark Tribute--An Eve Duncan Novel

by Iris Johansen

  “Mistake?” she said fiercely. “I can’t find Michael, and Joe’s been shot. There are no mistakes, no right or wrong, until I can put my life back together again. Your errand boy should have kept Michael safe. You promised Cara.”

  “Yes, I did,” he said quietly. “I thought I’d done what she wanted, but somehow I failed her. Now I have to find out what went wrong. I’ve told Cheknof that he’s to make certain that nothing happens to you and to discover exactly how Michael disappeared on his watch.”

  “I don’t want to know how, I want to know who.” She saw Coach Eastman running toward her. “And if you aren’t able to tell me that, I’m going to call Joe’s captain and see if the police can find out.” The coach had reached her, and she said curtly, “I have to hang up now. I’ll call you later.” She whirled to face Eastman. “What did you find out from the office? Who checked him out of school?”

  “No one.” The coach’s expression was sympathetic. “It’s as I said, Michael never showed up for homeroom. So he was placed on the absentee list. If you don’t believe there was a mistake, the principal is willing to contact the authorities to investigate.”

  “Willing? I’m going to call them myself.”

  “I was not to blame,” Cheknof said harshly. “No one took the boy. I would have seen it. I would have known.”

  “He’s not here,” she said, through set teeth. “You didn’t know. No one saw him. He’s not Houdini. He didn’t just disappear after he walked through those—” Her phone was signaling a text.

  Michael!

  Dear God, a text from Michael.

  Just two words. THE LOCKER.

  Michael’s locker? A ransom demand or message from Svardak?

  She whirled on the coach. “I need to get into Michael’s locker right now. I don’t have the combination. Can you get it from the office?”

  “Not necessary.” Cheknof took the coach’s arm and propelled him back toward the building. “I’ll do it. Tell me the number.”

  Eastman checked his sheet. “It’s 1531. But it would only take me a minute.”

  But Eve wasn’t about to delay even another second. “Let him do it.” She was hurrying after Cheknof. She had to know what was in that locker.

  But when Cheknof swung open the metal door of the locker, it was only to reveal schoolbooks, a pair of tennis shoes … and Michael’s notebook. He might have left the other items, but he wouldn’t have left that notebook. She took out the notebook and flipped through the pages.

  Dad …

  Notes. Maps. Descriptions of areas …

  And on the last page an envelope.

  Her hands were shaking as she opened it.

  A note in Michael’s familiar scrawl.

  I’m sorry, Mom. Dad told me to watch out for you, but I think we have to watch out for him now. Last night after I went to bed, I could feel something bad coming toward him. I knew you wouldn’t let me go with you, so I decided to go on ahead. I’ll call you when I reach the mountains and meet you there. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine, and we’ll find him together. That’s how it should be.

  Love,

  Michael

  “Shit,” she whispered. Her hand clenched on the paper. This was almost more terrifying than what she had feared before. Michael alone, trying to make his way hundreds of miles into the mountains in search of Joe. It was crazy and she was getting panicky at the thought.

  “Bad news?” Coach Eastman asked. “Anything I can do? Will we need the authorities?”

  “Yes.” She slammed the locker shut. “But I’ll contact them. It isn’t what I thought. Thank you, Coach.” Her head was whirling. She had to get back to her car, where she could sit and think and try to make a decision what was best to do. She walked quickly down the hall and out into the parking lot. She wasn’t aware that Cheknof was trailing behind her until she’d almost reached her car. “You don’t have to come with me. I won’t need you.”

  He shook his head. “Kaskov says nothing must happen to you.”

  She gazed at him incredulously. Joe might be on the verge of death, she’d lost Michael, but nothing must happen to her? It wasn’t worth arguing about. She got into the Toyota and slammed the door.

  Her hands clenched on the steering wheel as she gazed blindly out the windshield. I don’t know what to do, Joe. Michael’s really done it this time. But how can I blame him? He loves you, and he’s fighting the same fight I am. I won’t let you die, and I have to keep him safe. Help me, love.

  Help her? Joe was the one who needed help, and she was whining and trying to lean on him. Think. She had to work it out for herself. Smother the panic and handle one thing at a time. Michael was exceptionally clever, and they had taught him to protect himself from any ordinary threat. That should bring her some small measure of relief. Very small. But if any child could develop a coherent plan to get himself safely out of the city to those mountains, it would be Michael. She would try to think how to follow his steps until she found him.

  First, see if Michael had even been able to accomplish what he’d set out to do. He’d been gone for most of the day, so time was on his side. But it wasn’t easy for a young boy to travel unaccompanied without running a gauntlet of questions. She needed help in tracking him down, and it had to be fast. She reached for her phone and started to dial the number for Joe’s captain, Ezra Campbell, at the precinct.

  TENNESSEE-KENTUCKY BORDER FOUR HOURS LATER

  Eve’s cell phone was ringing.

  She glanced down at the ID on her phone. Cara. She braced herself. She hadn’t answered it when Cara had called before because she had been caught up in tracking Michael. But she knew she had to answer now. It wasn’t fair not to involve Cara even if Eve’s first instinct was to protect her from worrying about Michael. Cara loved him, and she was family. Eve pressed the access. “Hello, Cara. I meant to call you back, but there were … complications.”

  “I thought there might be,” Cara said gently. “I wanted to give you a little time to recover, but I was worried about you. I did receive the text you sent a few hours ago listing the other towns from Michael’s notebook.” Cara hesitated. “It took you a little longer than you thought it would to get back to me. How badly did Michael take the news about Joe?”

  “I didn’t get a chance to tell him,” Eve said bluntly. “Though it wouldn’t surprise me if he already knew. Something spooked him. He seemed to know something bad was going to happen to Joe and took off to the rescue.”

  “Took off? How could he do that? What do you mean?”

  “Exactly what it sound its like. When I got to Michael’s school, I found he’d flown the coop and left me a note.”

  “What? Eve, what did you do?”

  “You mean besides have a nervous breakdown? I called Joe’s captain and set him to trying to find Michael. Thank heavens he and Joe have known each other for years, and he hopped right on it. He’s smart, and runaways aren’t that rare to the police. The first thing he asked me was if Michael had money. The second was if his school was anywhere near a train or bus station. Michael did have the allowance he earned for chores. The second answer was that there was a Greyhound bus station several blocks from the school.”

  “And you found him?”

  “I didn’t get that lucky. But I do know that he’s not being held by some pervert and that Svardak doesn’t have him. Michael slipped out of school and hiked to the Greyhound station. At 10:40, he was on a bus for Wheeling, West Virginia. Which coincidentally stops in Coal Town on the way.”

  “Oh, my God.” Cara voice was hoarse. “They let him on the bus by himself? He’s only ten years old.”

  “And he wanted on that bus,” Eve said grimly. “He had no problem at all. You know he can charm the birds from the trees. The police tapped the video-surveillance tapes, and it showed Michael at his best. The captain showed me the videos. Michael had his savings so he had the cash for his ticket. He made friends with a family in the waiting room who had three children, and he just
let them sweep him on the bus with them. If he’d had more time to do his magic, they probably would have wanted to adopt him.”

  “It was definitely Michael?”

  “Cara.” But she knew why Cara was questioning it. The idea was bizarre that Michael would be hopping on any bus. He should be at home and safe. “It was Michael. He knew the video cameras were there, and he looked up and smiled at me.” And she had known that smile was for her. It had been filled with love and understanding and glowing comfort. It had nearly torn her apart when she’d seen that smile. “No doubt. The minute I saw it, I knew that Michael was on his way to West Virginia. I jumped in my car and headed out after him.”

  “Of course you did. But just the thought scares me,” Cara said. “It seems as if Michael is heading straight toward Svardak, and there’s nothing we can do about it. When is the bus supposed to get to Coal Town? Can’t they have the police meet it?”

  “They could if he was on it.” She added shortly, “He wasn’t. It arrived over an hour ago and no Michael. He must have slipped off the bus at the stop before Coal Town. It’s a little town called Clearwater Creek. I’m about three hours from there. I’ll stop and start asking questions soon.”

  “Do you want us to drive back and meet you? You shouldn’t have to go through this alone.”

  “Don’t you dare.” She had known that would be Cara’s first instinct. “Every minute is precious right now. There’s no telling what Svardak is putting Joe through. I’ll handle Michael.” She added wearily, “He doesn’t really want to run away from me, Cara. He just didn’t want to be left behind when I went to help Joe and took matters into his own hands. He said that he’d call me once he reached the mountains. I believe he’ll do it. Or answer my calls. He says it’s important we find Joe together.”

  “I don’t want you to be alone.”

  “Joe’s alone. He’s the only one we should be thinking about now. I’ll head up to join you as soon as I pick up Michael. Where are you now?”

  “Saltor. But we’re heading toward Ruell Falls.”

  “Right. I’ll call you when I’m on my way … with Michael. Be safe, Cara.” She cut the connection.

  It had been difficult to be positive when she was this tired and still worried sick about Michael. But she couldn’t afford to be anything else right now. Think positive, say a prayer, and maybe everything would go their way.

  Maybe …

  No, not maybe. Do you hear me, Michael? You’re going to be safe, your father is going to be safe. Count on it. Now call me, and we’ll start making it happen.

  * * *

  “It’s crazy, Cara.” Jock’s lips tightened. “There’s no way that Eve should be anywhere near Svardak. If she’s caught, it will just give that bastard more leverage against you. She should find Michael and go home.”

  “Which she won’t do,” Cara said flatly. “I can see her putting Michael into police custody to protect him, but now that she’s here in the mountains, Eve won’t leave without Joe. So don’t even suggest it to her. Just find a way to use her and keep her safe.” She glanced soberly at him. “Like you have to do for me.”

  “I know what you have in mind for yourself,” he said grimly. “And I don’t believe you’d want me to use her as bait when we find where Svardak is keeping Joe.”

  “I hope that we don’t have to think on those terms for me either. It all depends on our finding Joe.” She gazed out at the rocky, steep twists and turns ahead of them. “And I wish we had daylight so that we could see where we’re going.”

  “I don’t. That would cut down the time we have before we have to deal with Svardak. We might need that time.” He suddenly pulled over to the side of the road. “Let’s see if we can move a little faster.” He took out his phone and punched in Kaskov’s number. “We’ll make Kaskov do some of the heavy lifting.”

  “Make?” Cara murmured.

  “You object?”

  She shook her head. “Only if you aren’t careful the way you do it. He’s unpredictable. I can’t have him hurting you.”

  His brows rose. “I’ll try to remember that restriction. Sometimes it’s difficult with Kaskov.” Then he was speaking into the phone as the call was answered. “I need you to do something, Kaskov,” he said mockingly. “And Cara says that she wants me to be polite. I thought I’d warn you to keep you from going into shock.”

  “How refreshing.” Kaskov’s tone was dry. “On both counts. If it has anything to do with Eve and the child, I already have men tailing her. As soon as she makes contact with Michael, they’ll both be safe.”

  “It’s not about Eve. Nikolai said you had two prisoners from Lost Canyon. One of them was Edding.”

  “Whom you left tied up as a welcome present for us. How kind. But he doesn’t appear to know anything of use about Svardak. We started preliminary questioning, and he squealed but didn’t talk. He said that he was new to Svardak’s team and wouldn’t know how to contact him. We’ll continue of course.”

  “All he has to know is Abrams’s or Lacher’s phone number. Svardak is obviously gathering what’s left of his crew together. Edding can try to find out where.”

  “If he’s new, they might not want to risk trusting him.”

  “Persuade him to be very convincing. Or send him to me, and I’ll do it. You might say Edding and I formed a rock-solid understanding in our short acquaintance.”

  “I can imagine. I believe that I’ll be able to take care of getting what you need.” He paused. “How is Cara?”

  “Stubborn.”

  “Don’t let her do anything foolish. She’s on the edge. Consider it extremely self-destructive on your part to let her fall. I would be very unhappy if anything of that nature happens.”

  “And your happiness is always my prime concern.” Jock’s sarcasm was biting. He added roughly, “Just do what I need you to do, and maybe we’ll get through this with the least amount of damage. Call me back.” He pressed the disconnect.

  “You weren’t polite,” Cara said quietly.

  “But we both survived it. That’s a victory in itself. He caught me off guard. I didn’t realize he could read you that well.” He glanced at her. “Did you?”

  “Yes.” She smiled faintly. “But he’s brilliant, and I’m pretty easy to read. I don’t try to hide anything. I was just surprised he went to the trouble. But, of course, there’s the music. That has to be it.”

  “Does it?” He was frowning, his gaze on her face. “Maybe…” Then he turned on the car and pulled back out on the road. “But at least we agree on the concept of no falling on swords for you. Now, if he does what he’s supposed to do, we might be able to work toward a more productive ending to this hellish mess.”

  “So now we have to wait for Eve and Kaskov,” Cara said. “What do we do in the meantime?”

  “We follow this road until we get to the next town and try to find any bars or convenience stores or diners with anyone able to answer questions about seeing Joe or Abrams or Lacher or that farmer’s truck. Then we go to the next town…”

  CHAPTER

  13

  CLEARWATER CREEK, WEST VIRGINIA MAMA JEAN’S RESTAURANT

  “You haven’t seen him?” Eve thrust the photo of Michael closer to the waitress. “Are you sure? Take another look. He’s hard to forget.”

  “Yeah, I can see he would be.” The waitress regretfully shook her head. “But he never came in here with the rest of those passengers from the bus. There was one woman and her little girl and a man of about sixty. I remember all three of them, and there was no boy.” Her gaze was sympathetic. “Maybe he just used the bathroom at the gas station and got back on the bus?”

  She was trying to be helpful, but Eve was getting frustrated. “No, that didn’t happen. Thanks.” She turned and walked out of the restaurant. But what did happen? She took a deep breath, her gaze searching the street that only offered a tavern and a Kroger grocery store a block away. Try the grocery store?

  What if he hadn’t got
ten off the bus at this stop? She didn’t believe he would have exited the bus at the stop that was over fifty miles before this one. She was beginning to get panicky again, and she tried to subdue it.

  Where the devil are you, Michael?

  She started walking toward the grocery store.

  She’d only walked half a block before she got the call.

  She snatched out her phone.

  Relief tore through her.

  Michael!

  She punched the access. “I just might strangle you, Michael.”

  “Hi, Mom. Sorry.”

  “Sorry?” She drew a deep breath. “Lame. Very lame. Where are you?”

  “I’m at the church on the street across from the grocery store. I was going to come to you after you left the restaurant, but then I saw you start down this way. Do you want me to wait for you?”

  “Don’t move a muscle. You might disappear again. I’ll be right there.” She could see the Methodist church now. It was a small, vine-covered, brick structure set back from the street, with a white neon cross glowing over the arched doors. It appeared to be totally dark and deserted except for that sign. How had Michael even managed to get inside? What did it matter? He was here. Her pace increased as she got nearer to it; and then she was running up the steps.

  The door swung open as she reached the top. “Hi, Mom.” Michael smiled at her. “Come in and sit down. You look tired. Those pews aren’t very comfortable, but it’s nice and quiet in here.”

  Michael! She stood there, her gaze going over him frantically. He appeared completely all right, but a trace of that panic she had felt when she’d found he was missing was still with her. She hadn’t been able to be absolutely sure she’d get him back until this moment.

  Michael’s smile faded, and he launched himself at her, his arms encircling her waist. “It’s okay, Mom,” he whispered soothingly. “Everything’s going to be okay. We’ll just have to make it that way.”

  Her arms tightened around him as she fought for control. After a moment, she was able to push him away and look down at him. “This is not okay,” she said shakily. “This is all wrong, Michael. Do you know how worried I’ve been?”