Your Next Breath

by Iris Johansen

  “I’ll get it for you.” He was already at the bookshelves, checking for the atlas. “I’ll google it once I get an overall view. Are you going to drive?”

  “No, it would take too much time, and we’d be more vulnerable on the road. I’ll have Venable send a helicopter to pick us up at the airport and drop us off at the campus. We’ll take Sam along with us.”

  “To take care of me?” He frowned. “Okay. I guess you can’t go all the way. I like Sam.”

  “Don’t be swellheaded. Maybe it’s to take care of me or Kelly.” She was pulling her phone out of her pocket. “Change your clothes and meet me at the front door with that info.”

  Maybe it would be all right, she thought. Santos had reserved Luke and her for the final phase of his grand plan. He might not move on them even if the opportunity presented itself.

  But “might” was a frightening word when connected with the life of her son.

  And Kelly Winters might not be the next kill on Santos’s list. He had said three or four would be targeted and made sure that he kept Catherine guessing. They might find Kelly in the woods just struggling to fight her sorrow and demons.

  And there could be someone else on Santos’s list that he was going after while Catherine was occupied with keeping Kelly safe.

  “You’ll hear soon.”

  She couldn’t wonder and worry about something that could happen. She had to go find the person who she knew was most vulnerable and without protection.

  And pray that she had guessed right.

  * * *

  “Joe, go away, dammit.” Eve Duncan frowned at him across the room as she finished smoothing the clay on the reconstruction on the dais in front of her. “You don’t have to be right on top of me. Go on the porch and call the precinct or something. You’re practically drumming your fingers on that coffee table. I can’t concentrate.”

  “Put up with it.” He didn’t look up from his computer. “Consider it the test of being a true professional. Tell that young boy whose skull you’re working on that it will just take a little longer to get identified this time. What’s his name, by the way?”

  “Garrett.” Eve always named the skulls she was given by law enforcement to sculpt an identifiable face. She might be thought the most talented forensic sculptor in the world, but it all came down to personalities as far as she was concerned. It made her feel closer, creatively and emotionally, to bond with those poor children who had been murdered or merely thrown away like so much trash. “He was found buried by the railroad tracks outside Chicago. Nine years old.” She stepped back and wiped her hands on the towel beside the reconstruction. “And I don’t want to slow down. I want to finish Garrett today.”

  “Because you want to clear the decks to go to Catherine.” He looked up and shook his head. “It’s not what she wants, Eve.”

  “No, she wants me to sit here and be safe. She put her life on the line for me. I can’t hide away now.” She crossed the room to stand before him. “You know that, Joe.”

  “I know that I don’t want you getting anywhere near Santos.” He got to his feet. “He’s one nasty son of a bitch. But I know I can’t talk you out of it. So we’ll just work our way through it.” He nodded at the computer he’d laid on the coffee table. “I’ve been going through every record on Santos I can find. I imagine that Catherine is going to go on the offensive as soon as she thinks she’s protected all the people she believes are vulnerable. Maybe we can get a little ahead of her.”

  And Joe would take any action possible to bring down Santos, Eve knew. He was the quintessential warrior, ex-SEAL, ex-FBI, police detective. She had first met him years ago, when he’d been working the case when her daughter, Bonnie, had been taken. They’d gone through pain and tragedy and come out on the other side with their love intact. “I bet we can.” She slipped into his arms and laid her head on his shoulder. He felt so good. Strong. Gentle. Alive. Sex was always there between them, but it was wonderful that there was also comfort and love. Lord, she was lucky. “Catherine needs all the help she can get.” She made a face. “Even though she won’t admit it. At least to me. She’s so damn independent that I want to shake her.”

  “No, you don’t. You’re just like her.” He gave her a quick kiss and let her go. “You want to handle your own problems, then go out and save the world.”

  “Just my corner of it. Now, do I get rid of you while I’m finishing Garrett?”

  “Only as far as the front porch.” He headed for the front door. “I want to take a look around near the lake road anyway. I’ll be within calling distance.”

  “What a surprise.” She grinned as she turned to go back to her reconstruction. “I guess I can take that.”

  “Sure you can. When there’s a bad storm brewing, everyone rallies around to batten down the hatches. You know I’m an expert at rallying.”

  “But are you rallying around Catherine or me?”

  “Both. I’m excellent at multitasking.” He opened the front door. “Lock the door behind me. I’ll be watching, but you can’t be too—” He broke off as Eve’s cell phone rang.

  She glanced at the caller ID. “Jane?” Jane was at her apartment in London, and Eve hadn’t heard from her adopted daughter in over a week. This was a little too coincidental. She looked at Joe.

  He nodded. “I called her yesterday. I was checking out the possibility of your going to stay with her until this mess was over.”

  “And have her rally around me, too?” Eve asked dryly.

  “Why not? She’s family. She wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  “I would. Jane’s only beginning to heal herself.” Jane had only recently lost Trevor, the man she loved, who had been killed while trying to save Eve. He had been the love of her life from the time she was seventeen to the up-and-down passions of her young adulthood. Then, when she had totally committed herself to him, he had died to save her life. She had been totally devastated.

  Eve punched the access. “Hi, Jane. No, I’m not coming to London. Joe was trying to make a preemptive strike.”

  “Good,” Jane said. “I’m glad you’re not going to London because it would be to an empty apartment. I’m calling from Hartsfield-Jackson. I should be at the cottage in about an hour.”

  “What?” She looked at Joe. “The airport. We were just discussing rallying around and battening down hatches, but I don’t believe Joe meant for you to fly here to batten down these particular hatches.”

  “Then he shouldn’t have told me about that slimeball who’s causing Catherine and you so much trouble. You all appear to have need of a little battening.” She paused before she said unevenly, “And I need to be with you, Eve. There’s been too much death in my life lately. You tried to help me before, but I couldn’t really accept it. But now I’m having trouble coping. I’m scared it’s going to happen again. Let me come and try to put a stop to it before it begins.”

  “Jane.”

  “Okay, then let me help Catherine. I didn’t really get to know her until we all teamed up to find you after you were kidnapped by that psycho. But she worked her ass off to get you back, and I loved her for it.”

  “So did I.”

  “But there was another reason I got to love her.” Jane paused. “I never told you about the e-mails she sent me after Trevor was killed.”

  “E-mails?”

  “I know, Catherine is tough and keeps most emotions buried deep. You’d expect her to let everyone else take their knocks and ride with the pain.”

  “Perhaps. Not necessarily.”

  “Well, I didn’t know her that well. It’s what I would have expected of her. But she knew how much I was hurting, and a few days after I’d gone back to London, I got the first e-mail. It was just a simple expression of sympathy for my loss. I thought that would be the end of it.”

  “It wasn’t?”

  “No, every day I’d get a few lines from her. Never demanding a comment or answer. Sometimes it was just to tell me what Luke was do
ing. Or that she’d heard from Hu Chang and Erin from that village in Tibet and what they were doing to help the villagers. A few times she shared a few memories of how she’d grown up in Hong Kong. Once she told me about a temple where she’d spent time with Hu Chang after she’d first met him and prayed for the soul of a young prostitute. She said that the priests believed the soul lived on, and she’d lit a candle to light the way. She said at the time she’d thought it couldn’t hurt. No preaching. Just touching base every day to remind me that she was there, and so was the rest of the world. It made me feel … warm.”

  “Me, too.” Eve swallowed. “I had no idea.”

  “No surprise. I’m sure she wouldn’t want you to know she’d reached out to me in such a personal way.”

  “You wouldn’t think e-mails could be that personal.” Eve smiled faintly. “But I can see that it would be a medium in which Catherine would feel comfortable. She could touch without revealing her own vulnerability.”

  “I was feeling pretty damn vulnerable myself, and I wasn’t analyzing Catherine’s motives. I was just grateful. I’m still grateful, and I’m not going to let anyone hurt her or you. I’m hopping into a rental car and I’m on my way. Okay?”

  “It appears it’s going to have to be. Maybe Joe should come and—”

  “Love you. Bye.” Jane broke the connection.

  Eve turned to Joe. “You shouldn’t have contacted her. She has her own battles to fight. It’s pretty clear she’s still going through hell.”

  “I thought a limited involvement could be good for her. It might take her mind off Trevor’s killing.” He grimaced. “But I meant for us to go to her, and then I’d make a call to Scotland Yard and get protection for—”

  “Since when did Jane ever know the meaning of limited?” Her gaze went to the portrait of herself that Jane had painted last year and Joe had insisted on hanging on the wall. She had sketched Eve in her blue chambray work shirt with the sleeves rolled up, her head thrown back laughing. It was a wonderful example of Jane’s brilliant talent, and her agent had wanted her to show it. She’d been insistent because Jane was still a struggling artist, and she’d told her this could be a breakthrough. In spite of Eve’s arguments, Jane had turned her agent down flat. Joe loved that picture. And Eve loved it, too, because Jane had caught all the joy that she brought into Eve’s life. Jane had always been wary and afraid to trust because she’d bounced from foster home to foster home throughout her childhood. But when they’d come together, magic had happened.

  No, love had happened.

  And she thanked God she’d found Jane on the streets that day.

  “You’re right, I suppose,” Joe said. “I should have known Jane would come running. I guess I was only thinking about you.”

  She felt a melting deep within her as she looked at him. She was always first with him and had been all these years. “Not only,” she said softly. “As usual, you were trying to make everyone safe, everyone happy. Sometimes, we just don’t cooperate with you and go our own way. It doesn’t make what you do any less important … or less loving.” She moved across the room and into his arms. “And Jane knows that you’re doing what you think is right. She just has a few ideas herself on that score. We’ll have to work together to blend those solutions together.” She gave him a quick kiss. “She’s renting a car. Could you maybe call airport security and have someone follow her here?”

  “Sure.” He reached for his phone. “But she should be safe. She doesn’t even know Catherine that well.”

  “Better than we thought.” She frowned. “It makes me uneasy. Who knew that Jane would develop such an intimate long-distance connection with Catherine?”

  “And did she?”

  She nodded. “And all through the glories of e-mail…”

  * * *

  “E-mail?” Hu Chang repeated Catherine’s word with distaste. She had called him after they’d boarded the helicopter at the airport and gone over both Santos’s call and the possible ramifications on Kelly Winters. “I have no liking for such technology. We’ve always disagreed on this. It has a tendency to cause too many problems.”

  “And it can be both wonderful and informative. Providing you don’t have a vicious killer trying to break into your Internet mail.”

  “Which you do.”

  She tried to hold on to her patience. “I don’t divulge FBI business. I don’t say anything personal that I would be uneasy about revealing. How was I to know that Santos would be monitoring—” She broke off. “But I suppose that clinches your argument. I didn’t know. I left myself exposed. I should cut off the e-mails.”

  “No, I said we disagreed. I didn’t say that you should stop. Sometime, things that aren’t wise can be necessary for the soul. You have trouble reaching out, and this can be a healthy outlet for you. The chances of this happening again after we dispose of Santos is minimal.”

  “Then I have your permission to continue?” she asked sarcastically. “How kind.” Then she added wearily, “But I believe I’d be afraid of reaching out again. I’ll have to think about it.” She changed the subject. “Is Erin there with you yet?”

  “No, she’ll be arriving in about an hour.” He paused. “If the arrival was not so imminent, I would be tempted to come and join you in Virginia. I do not like the idea of the way matters are sorting themselves out. I thought you’d still be at your house in Louisville when I was finished here. You may need my brilliant and invaluable assistance.”

  “We’ll struggle along.” She glanced at Sam and Luke in the rear seat. “I told you Sam is here, and so is Luke.” She added dryly, “And I’m sure Luke believes he can easily replace you. He informed me that you’d have no problem letting him go find Kelly.”

  “Wise boy. You might have had a slight chance of getting him to not go with you if his friend had not been involved. But it was very slight. Do you have any idea where in the woods Kelly is hiking?”

  “There’s a trail that goes by Jefferson Dam in the woods north of the school. Luke said she mentioned a dam that she passed on her hikes, and that one is a logical distance. Six miles. There’s another one to the south, but that’s over twenty miles from the campus. I called the special agent at the university who is searching for Kelly and told him to grab a couple more agents and get on the trail.” She paused. “But he talked to the girlfriend she spent the night with again, and she said that Kelly had left her camping gear in the garage and it was gone this morning. So she may be planning to camp out.”

  “If she stops for the night, you might be able to find her more easily.”

  “So will anyone else following her.”

  “True.” He paused. “You’re truly concerned that she might be the next target?”

  “I don’t know. Santos is clever, and he might have mentioned those e-mails to throw me off base or to torment me. It could be either one. And it certainly made me second-guess my list of possible targets. It could be anyone.”

  “And therefore increase the torment. Still, I do not like your situation. Santos is feeling angry, and his nose is out of joint by the destruction of his helicopter and the removal of Nagoles. That could mean that he feels the need to outdo his former actions to regain self-respect. I may have to make adjustments to ensure that your safety is—”

  “Do not come here,” she said flatly. “Take care of Erin.”

  “You’ve not had any recent word from Cameron? He might be willing to take over for me here. After all, he considers Erin his responsibility.”

  “I told you about my last contact with him. I wouldn’t have even known that he was alive and had taken down Nagoles if I hadn’t gotten that call from Santos.”

  “You’re annoyed with Cameron.”

  “Yes, he’s so used to working alone that he thinks it’s perfectly okay to leave me in the dark.”

  “And the displeasure is mutual from what I gathered when he contacted me to find out what was happening with Erin and you. He also felt in the dark, and it did no
t go down well.”

  “Too bad. I didn’t even know Erin was definitely in danger, and I had to move fast.”

  “And he did not consider that an acceptable excuse?”

  “Excuse? I don’t make excuses to Cameron.”

  “I believe it’s time for me to close this conversation. If Cameron’s help with Erin is not a possibility, I will explore other avenues. Your safety and that of Luke are my primary concerns. I will consider my options and get back to you.” He hung up.

  And Hu Chang would probably ignore her wishes and be on his way here within a few hours, she thought resignedly.

  “We’ll be landing in twenty minutes,” Ernie Walker, their pilot, told Catherine. “I think there’s a heliport for the university north of the parking garage. It shouldn’t take you long to reach the woods from there. Unless you want me to circle the woods and try to—”

  “The heliport will be fine. The other option could be a waste of time. I don’t have any idea if there’s anyplace else for you to set down.”

  “Whatever.” He turned back to his instruments. “Venable said that I was to do anything you wanted me to do. You’re looking for a young girl? Student?”

  “Yes, sixteen years old.”

  “She must be smart to be in college.”

  “Yes.” Smart and intuitive and pretty, everything you’d want in a friend or child. Yet she had lost her father to a murderer, and she’d never been what her mother had wanted in a daughter. In her short life, Kelly had never had the life that she deserved. But she’d made the best of it and tried to handle the fallout from the hand life had dealt her. Like this trip into the woods to distract herself. Keep busy, she would have thought. Keep the pain at bay. Don’t remember the night she had watched her father die.

  Catherine felt a hand grip her shoulder.

  Luke’s hand.

  She glanced back at him. He was leaning forward and his expression … intent, thoughtful, gentle.