Hughes hurriedly got to his feet. "I'm out of here. See you later, Galen."
She turned back to Galen. "Let me see your ID."
"Yes, ma'am." He handed her his driver's license.
She glanced at it and then handed it back to him. "If you're Galen, you must know my dog Toby's mother's name."
"The beautiful, bad-tempered Maggie. Satisfied?"
Jane relaxed. "No." She glanced over her shoulder. "Here comes Grandma. We have to be quick. Why are you here?"
"I'm sure that if you ask your grandmother, she'll tell you anything you should know."
"Don't give me that bull. Grandma doesn't want to worry me. If I asked her anything, she'd only lie to make me feel better. It's something to do with Eve, isn't it? Is she in trouble?"
"We're trying to keep her out of trouble."
"I could tell something was wrong when I talked to her on the phone a few nights ago. She said everything was fine with her, and that Joe was with her."
"He is."
"But you're here. Why?"
"Jane!" her grandmother called, running toward her.
Jane turned and waved before telling Galen, "Hurry."
He decided to level with her. The kid was sharp, and it wouldn't hurt to warn her. "We think there's a possibility the people who are trying to hurt Eve may attempt to get at her through you. Have you seen anyone suspicious?"
"You mean besides you? You're not very good at this, are you?"
"I can be. I didn't try to be this time. I didn't expect you to be suspicious, and the sight of me could have been a deterrent to anyone else."
"Who? The other creep?"
Galen stiffened. "Creep? You noticed somebody else watching you?"
"Two days ago. He followed me to school, and then he was here in the park. He was much better than you."
"Did you get a good look at him?"
She nodded. "I made sure I did. I'd already noticed the squad cars. I knew something was happening."
He took out the photo of Hebert. "Look anything like this?"
She glanced at it. "That's him."
"Why didn't you tell your grandmother?"
"I couldn't be sure he was a creep. He might have been one of Joe's friends, and it would just have worried her. Or he might have been just your ordinary run-of-the-mill pervert. I've seen plenty of those."
"Oh, have you?"
"I haven't seen him since. I have to go, or Grandma will call the cops on you." Her lips tightened. "I don't like not knowing what's happening. You tell Eve and Joe that."
He shook his head. "I'll tell Joe what you said, but I won't tell him about your 'creep' yet. It would be a sure way to make them drop everything and come running. They're much safer if they stay in hiding."
"Hiding? Eve never mentioned anything about that. Why are they in hiding?"
"It's complicated. Eve wanted to finish the job she started."
"Then why are you here? You go back and make sure Joe and Eve are safe," she said fiercely. "You do your job. Don't you dare let anything happen to them. I'll take care of Grandma." She whirled and ran back toward her grandmother. "It's okay," she called. "He only wanted directions, Grandma. Just another lost Yankee. They get so confused with all these Peachtree Streets."
"I told you not to talk to strangers." Her grandmother whisked her up the path. "Now you call that idiot dog and we'll go home to supper."
"Wow," Hughes said softly as he strolled back to Galen. "Correction: She's not at all like my kid. If I needed some muscle, I might decide to hire her."
"Eve told me she grew up on the streets." He watched Jane and Sandra Duncan walk down the path. "She didn't tell me she was twelve going on fifty."
"You showed her the photo?"
"She saw him. Hebert is here in Atlanta. Or at least he was two days ago." He stood up. "But where the hell is he? If he was hanging around, you should have been able to spot him."
"Maybe he was scared off."
That scenario didn't fit with the picture of Jules Hebert Galen had been building up. "Or maybe he went underground and is only waiting for his chance." The idea of Hebert stalking that bright kid, hovering over her like a dark cloud, turned his stomach. "We're not going to give it to him, Hughes."
Jules watched as the black pickup truck sank below the waters of Lake Lanier with scarcely a ripple. There was so much water here in Atlanta. He had found it very convenient.
He had chosen a deep part of the lake so the man would not be found too quickly. There should be no outcry for at least three days. Leonard Smythe was divorced and lived alone in his mobile home, and from Jules's brief surveillance he appeared a solitary man.
Jules glanced down at the treasure for which Smythe had died. If he'd been given a choice, Smythe would have given it up in a heartbeat, but Jules couldn't risk giving him that option.
It was sad when a man had to die for a clipboard and a few scraps of paper.
-------------------
New Orleans
Victor's skull was dimly lit by the moonlight streaming through the window.
Nathan didn't flip the switch that would have lit the steps to the scullery. He knew Joe Quinn made several trips around the grounds at night, but he had no idea what time.
He moved carefully, quietly down the steps. It should be safe. He had checked on Eve and she was sound asleep. But both Eve and Joe Quinn were still unknown quantities to him, and the unknown was always dangerous.
He reached the bottom of the stairs and glided silently across the scullery toward Victor's pedestal.
He knew the back of that skull so well, and nothing about his features. He had only been able to watch Eve's intent expression as she worked.
He took out the flashlight he had found in the kitchen cabinet and moved closer to the pedestal. He took a deep breath, his thumb pressing on the flashlight switch.
The scullery was suddenly flooded with light.
"Would you like to tell me what you're doing?" Joe Quinn said from the top of the stairs.
Dammit.
He stiffened defensively. "I wasn't going to hurt it."
"You didn't answer me." Joe came down the stairs. "What are you doing creeping down the stairs in the middle of the night?"
"I just wanted to see it."
"But Eve didn't want you to see it until she finished. Is she done?"
Nathan shook his head. "Not until tomorrow. She said I wouldn't be able to tell anything until then. But I thought maybe I could tell where it was going." He scowled. "I'm going to look."
"Go ahead. I'm not going to stop you."
Nathan moved around the pedestal to stand before Victor. Disappointment surged through him. The visage had form, but no definition. No one could recognize the features at this point.
"You should have believed her," Joe said. "Eve doesn't lie."
"I didn't think she'd lied. I just thought I might be able—" His hands clenched at his sides. "Dammit, it's hard to wait. I want to know."
"And you didn't trust her."
"In my business you learn not to trust many people." Nathan started toward the stairs, and then stopped to stare at Joe. "Are you going to tell her I was here?"
"I should. Eve likes you, and she has a habit of trusting people she likes. She doesn't appreciate people sneaking around behind her back."
"I didn't do anything to hurt her. If I'm guilty of anything, it's of caring too much." Nathan's gaze went back to Victor. "It's important to me to know who he is. God, I hope it's not Bently. I hope he's still around, maybe gone underground and ready to come out swinging against those bastards."
Joe studied him. "I believe you." He shrugged. "I'll hold my peace for now. There was no harm done. But you made a mistake."
"Everyone makes mistakes. You must have made a big one, or Eve wouldn't be angry with you." Nathan moved quickly up the stairs, and then stopped and glanced over his shoulder at Joe. "I must have made another mistake. How did you know I was down here?"
&
nbsp; "I was outside patrolling, and I saw movement in the kitchen through that bank of windows. It aroused my curiosity when I saw it was you rifling through the cabinets. Particularly when you only took that flashlight."
"I checked outside the kitchen, but I should have been more careful."
"Like you said, we all make mistakes."
And Quinn wasn't making him pay for this one.
"Thanks. I owe you." Nathan hurried up the rest of the stairs. It could have been much worse. He had done what he felt he had to, and no real harm had been done. He had hoped to get a jump on the situation, but he would just have to wait. Damn, it was hard to be patient.
-------------------
The basement was well lit, the heating and air-conditioning mechanisms gleaming and powerful. The best of American technology, Jules thought, as he moved down the aisle.
"Hey, what are you doing down here?"
He glanced over his shoulder. A uniformed security guard was coming out of the elevator.
"Don't you guys ever talk to each other?" Jules waved his clipboard. "I just went through this with the guard at the front door." He glanced at the man's badge. "Phillips. I'm from the supe's office. I'm sup-posed to do the yearly service check."
"I've been out on a coffee break," the guard said defensively.
Jules knew that. He hadn't expected Phillips to be back this soon, but you always had to be ready to make adjustments. "I'm almost through here. Have you noticed any problems on your rounds? Puddles beside the air conditioners? Excess steam?"
Phillips shook his head.
"Since you're here, would you mind coming with me to that furnace room and holding my flashlight? I have to crawl in back of the units and it's damn hard to see."
Phillips frowned. "If it doesn't take too long. I have to get back to the front door and relieve Charley."
"Like I said, I'm almost done." Jules picked up. his toolbox and started down the aisle. "It won't take a minute."
Phillips followed him. "If you're sure."
"Oh, I'm sure." Jules smiled at him over his shoulder. "I know my job."
-------------------
"Ready, Victor?" Eve murmured. "It's almost time."
"Did you say something, Eve?" Nathan asked from across the room.
"Hush. I don't want to hear a word from you until I'm done."
The clay was soft, cool beneath her fingers. She touched it delicately, tentatively.
Smooth.
Don't think.
Instinct.
She was moving quickly; her fingers were tingling.
Who are you, Victor? Tell me, help me.
Smooth. Mold. Fill in.
She had no idea how to shape the ears. Make them generic.
The mouth. God, the mouth was hard. She only knew the width....
Instinct. Close out what she didn't know, and let her hands flow.
Smooth. Mold. Fill in.
She was going too fast.
Stop for a minute and study the eyes, the angle of the orbits, the bony ridge above...
Okay, go for it.
Smooth. Mold. Fill in.
Check that lip height... 12mm. That was right. Nose projection 18mm. It should be 19. Change it.
Smooth. Mold. Fill in.
Be aware of the measurements, but let instinct dominate now.
Tell me, Victor. Let me bring you home.
Her hands flew over the visage. Her fingertips seemed to have a life, a mind of their own.
Smooth.
Mold.
Fill in.
-------------------
Galen stepped out of his car and strode over to Hughes, who was standing under a streetlight. "Anything?"
Hughes shook his head. "Everything's quiet. The kid went into the condo with her grandmother at the usual time. A squad car cruised by five minutes ago. They must have put more plainclothesmen on the job. I saw one guy I didn't recognize talking to the frontdoor guard." He held up his hand as Galen opened his lips. "It's okay, I watched him and he got into the squad car twenty minutes later. The cops knew him."
"Inside?"
"I have a guy on the same floor as the kid, and he reports no activity. What have you been doing?"
"Scouting. There's a telephone truck five blocks from here. What's it doing here at this time of night? Have you checked it out?"
Hughes shook his head.
"Why not?"
"It wasn't there today. I'll get on it."
"Now."
"Why are you so edgy? It's five blocks away."
"It could be a surveillance van. Eve calls Jane regularly."
"I told you we'd checked out the high-rise. The condo's too high and there's too much interference for the phones to be bugged."
"Just check the truck, okay?"
"Whatever you say." Hughes reached for his phone.
Galen stared up at the condo while Hughes was telling one of his men to check out the vehicle. Damn, he felt uneasy.
Hughes hung up. "He's trying to get through to the telephone company. Satisfied?"
"No. Something's happening. He's got to be around here. He knows he doesn't have much time."
"What do you mean?"
"Never mind." He glanced at the cars parked along the street. There were no new vehicles, and all of these had already been checked out. "It just feels wrong."
"If Hebert's gone underground, he's buried himself pretty deep," Hughes said.
Galen stiffened. "What?"
"You said that Hebert must have gone underground, or we would have been able to—"
Underground.
"Shit!" Galen moved toward the canopied entrance of the condo. "Come on."
Hughes got out of the car and hurried after him. "Where are we going?"
"You're going to distract the security guard and find out from him if anything unusual has happened today." He opened the glass door. "And I'm going to see how far Hebert is willing to go to get that kid."
-------------------
Galen found a uniformed guard in the furnace room behind the massive units that heated the high-rise. His throat had been cut.
He found the plastic explosive and the timer that controlled it behind the furnace unit beside the dead man.
Twenty-two minutes.
Shit.
It wasn't a simple timer, and was probably booby-trapped. No time to disarm it.
He turned off his telephone as he ran toward the elevator. A ringing phone could set off a bomb. He turned the phone back on as he reached the street.
It rang at once.
"Nothing much unusual," Hughes said. "A building inspection. One of the guards got sick and had to go home. Want me to—"
"Forget it." It would take more time for him to go get Jane himself than to delegate. "Get out of the building. Call your man on the twelfth floor to get Jane MacGuire and her grandmother out of there. Now. He has about twenty minutes. Then call the bomb squad and get them here. I think it will be too late, but I could be wrong."
"Right." Hughes rang off.
Galen checked his watch.
Nineteen minutes.
Jane MacGuire was on the twelfth floor. Not much time.
And no time at all for the rest of the people who lived in the building. Galen wouldn't get past the first few condos before the bomb went off.
Christ, what the hell could he do?
-------------------
"It's done." Eve leaned back against the worktable and wiped her face. God, she was exhausted. The adrenaline was draining out of her, and she felt limp as a dishrag. "It's the best I can do."
"I thought you'd never get done. It's almost three in the morning." Nathan leaned forward, his body tense with eagerness. "May I look at it now?"
"Not yet. I have to put the glass eyes in the sockets." She smiled faintly as she turned to the eye case on the worktable. "Galen would be glad of that. He has a thing about empty eye sockets."
"Hurry!" Nathan moistened his lips. "I'm sorry
. I didn't mean to—I'm just... anxious."
"I know." Eve opened the case and took out a pair of brown eyes and turned back to Victor. Only it might not be Victor now. He might soon have a real name. "It will only take a few minutes."
It took less than that before she stepped back and turned to Nathan. "You can look now."
Nathan jumped up from the chair and moved quickly across the room. He stopped, took a deep breath, and then moved around to stand beside Eve.
He stared at the features of the reconstruction.
Eve's gaze searched his face. "Well, say something. Is it Bently?"
"It's him." Nathan's lips thinned. "It's Harold Bently."
"You're sure?"
"I'm sure." His voice was uneven. "You did a good job. That's him." He turned away and moved quickly toward the staircase. "Excuse me. I'm so mad I want to choke someone. I can't look at him. I was hoping—"
Nathan flew up the stairs and almost ran into Joe coming down. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean—" He brushed past him and was out the door.
"What's wrong with him?" Joe asked as he came the rest of the way down the stairs. Then he saw Eve's face and said, "Oh, the moment of truth?"
"It's Bently." Eve rubbed the back of her aching neck. "You always have hope until you actually see the proof."
Joe came to stand beside her, and looked at the face. "You evidently did a good job if he's so certain."
"I was hoping as much as he was that it wouldn't be Bently," Eve said. "From what I've heard of him, he was a very good man. I didn't want him to have died like this." Her eyes were filling with tears, too. She blinked them back. "But it never does any good. So many more of the good die than the bad. They trust. They have no defenses. Like Bonnie..."
"Shh." He pulled her into his arms. "Jesus, you're so tired you can hardly stand up. Listen to me, you did a good job. You brought this poor guy home. Isn't that what's important?"
"Yes." Comfort surrounded her, keeping out the cold and the loneliness as it always did when she was close to Joe. "That's important. But not right now."
"It will come." He rubbed the exact spot between her shoulders that always bothered her. Her knees went weak with relief. "Your muscles are all knotted. Go on to bed and try to sleep. I don't guess you'd let me give you a massage?"
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