Shattered Mirror

by Iris Johansen

  “Too?”

  “You’re so much in demand, Eve. World-renowned, the one forensic sculptor everyone wants to hire to take those poor, broken skulls and give them some semblance of life again.”

  This was madness. But he knew too much. And the accent was definitely Irish. She was beginning to believe him. Her hand was trembling as she pressed the record button on her phone. “That’s not what I do. I just want them identified.”

  “But what you want and what’s needed can be entirely different,” he snapped, and she could sense the barely leashed anger.

  “I’m not talking to you about how I work,” she said curtly. “Who are you?” She paused. “And why did you bring me Sylvie Jordan’s skull?”

  “I think you must know who I am.” His voice was calm again. “Between your Joe Quinn and Gavin, you’ve made great progress. But that’s fine with me. I was only waiting for you to get this far along before I indulged myself by talking to you. It’s going to be a great game, Eve. I was barely holding myself in check until I had all the pawns in place so that I could start the first move. But that’s done now. Quinn will tell you all about it. Actually, I thought I’d have a little more time, but you have such efficient people surrounding you, don’t you?”

  She braced herself to say it. “Norwalk?”

  “Oh, yes. And if you know my name, you must know a good deal more about me.”

  “I know you killed Sylvie Jordan and her mother. I know you’re a murderer and a monster.” She looked down at the reconstruction of Sylvie. “Why did you do it? What did they ever do to you?”

  “Nothing. They were merely a means to an end.”

  “Means to an end? What end?”

  “Why, to you, Eve. It all ends with you.” He chuckled. “At least, this part of it does. All that horror and disbelief in your voice at what happened to poor Sylvie. But it was really all your fault. I might have gone another way to get to Kaskov if I hadn’t been so angry with you.”

  “My fault? You’re crazy. I don’t know you. I never met Sylvie or her mother.”

  “But everyone chooses to reach out or not. You chose not to reach out to me.” His voice was suddenly harsh. “So that’s why I decided that you had to be punished. First, it was only going to be the girl, Cara. She was the only one who was important to Kaskov. But then I realized that you were sitting there on your pretty lake thinking that you were some kind of goddess. And you’d not only cheated me, you’d helped Kaskov by taking in his granddaughter and protecting her.”

  “Helped Kaskov? He’s nothing to me. Cara is the only one who’s important to me.” She drew a deep breath and tried to control herself. “Why did you call me? What are you going to get out of telling me this?”

  “Why, satisfaction. I want you to know what’s coming. My brother, Sean, never knew, and I’m grateful.” His voice was low, intense, bullet fast. “But you’re going to know, feel it, taste it, as, one by one, your family dies. Did you know I almost took your son that first night? But I had to keep to the plan. I wanted you to see it happen.”

  “Michael.” She felt a bolt of pure panic. “Don’t even speak his name. I’d kill you before I’d let you touch him.”

  “I will touch him. And you’ll see it, Eve. I’m going to hang up now, but I don’t think I’ll be able to resist phoning you again. This has been such a very satisfactory call even though I’m sure you recorded it. But that’s okay, I like to think of you playing it over and over. I was feeling very much alone. I feel that way all the time now. It’s good to know that I can reach out, and suddenly you’re right here with me.”

  “Wait.” She had to keep him talking. She had to know more. Everything was terrifying and crazy, but he was a threat who had to be stopped. “If this is all about me and Kaskov, why Sylvie? Why did you kill Sylvie?”

  He laughed. “You weren’t listening. Means to an end, Eve. Tit for tat. I needed a twin.” He cut the connection.

  She stood there for a moment, staring down at the phone. She felt frozen. She’d been bombarded by ugliness and monstrous shock … and bewilderment. Is that what Norwalk had wanted her to feel? There had been so much venom in his tone. She had no doubt he’d been telling the truth about the satisfaction he’d been feeling about exposing her to that poison. How long had he been anticipating bringing her into his cocoon of horror?

  But hadn’t he done that when he’d handed her that skull to reconstruct? And since that night, he’d gradually been increasing the terror and tension while remaining like a macabre shadow just out of sight. But now he felt confident enough to come out of the shadows. My God, he’d almost been boasting.

  All pawns in place.

  She gazed down at Sylvie’s beautiful face and those parted lips that made her look so eager and alive.

  Means to an end. Only a means to an end.

  She felt sick.

  But that would mean weakness, and she wouldn’t let herself be weak because of anything that bastard had said. She drew a deep breath and turned away from Sylvie and moved across the room. Her hand was shaking a little as she dialed Joe.

  He answered after the first ring. “I was just going to call you.”

  “Come home, Joe,” she said unevenly. “I need you home. Now.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  She’d scared him. “Everyone’s safe. But we have to talk. We have to figure this out. Everything has changed. Come right away. Okay?”

  “I’m on my way. I was heading back anyway. I’m calling the precinct after I hang up from you.” He added grimly, “You’re right, everything’s changed.”

  “The precinct?”

  “I just found Kaskov’s man, Sakov, at the far end of the lake. His throat has been cut.”

  * * *

  “Are you going to tell us what’s happening?” Cara asked Eve in a low voice as they watched the officers, techs, and plainclothesmen streaming over the far bank. “Other than the obvious. But since you’ve never even had anything to do with Kaskov’s man, Sakov, I didn’t think you’d look this shaken. You’re white as a sheet, Eve.”

  Eve nodded tensely. “I’m fine. I’ll tell you more when I figure it out myself. I have to talk to Joe first.” She grimaced. “I didn’t get a chance to do that before this place was overrun by all his police buddies.” She glanced back at Darcy and Michael sitting on the couch watching a DVD of Darcy’s Golden Days. “I’m just grateful that you and Darcy are distracting Michael while all this is going on.”

  “I had to tell him what was going on out there. There was no hiding it,” Cara said. “He took it well. Like you, he’d never met him, so I think it was no shock.” Her brow wrinkled. “Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Michael shocked. Is that a good thing?” She shrugged. “Anyway, I’ll take it that way. Look, do you want Darcy and me to take Michael to Baskin Robbins to get some ice cream after he and Darcy stop making fun of her sitcom? It would get him away from—”

  “No!” Eve said sharply. “He stays on the property. All of you stay close to the house. No one takes Michael away from here.”

  I will touch him.

  “Okay,” Cara said soothingly. “Just a thought. Hey, we’ve got that ice-cream maker Joe used last Fourth of July. We’ll take it down to the barbecue area and make our own. That’s only a few feet away from the porch. Is that all right?”

  Eve nodded. “That’s fine. Sorry.”

  “No problem. To hell with Baskin Robbins.” She gave Eve a hug and turned and headed toward the couch. “Don’t worry, we’ve got this under control.” She looked over her shoulder. “But let us know what’s happening as soon as you can,” she said quietly. “You saw how Darcy was earlier today. I think it’s going to be pretty hard for her to keep herself together with bodies dropping all around us.”

  Eve nodded. “No secrets. We just have to figure out what’s happening and what to do.”

  “But you said Jock was coming back.”

  Eve smiled ruefully. “And that makes ev
erything all right? Sometimes it makes things more difficult, and you know it.”

  “But it makes me feel better,” Cara said. “He just walks in a room, and everything seems brighter.”

  “Does it?” Eve asked gently. “Then you’re very lucky to have him for a friend, aren’t you?”

  “Yes.” Cara turned away abruptly. “I’ll go in and tell Michael we’re going to make ice cream.”

  She was gone.

  Eve stared after her for a moment and shook her head. Maybe she was wrong. Not now. That was the last thing Cara needed to deal with. Block it out. Think about it later. There were too many shadows hovering over them now.

  Like that Russian, Oleg Sakov, who had given his life today. He might have been a criminal, but he’d been trying to protect Cara when he’d been killed. And surely that was a bright light in a dark life.

  She watched as they carefully slid Sakov into the medical examiner’s van and slammed the doors.

  * * *

  “Is that all, Eve?” Joe asked as he gazed out the window at Cara, Darcy, and Michael in the barbecue area right below them. “You haven’t forgotten anything from the beginning of the conversation before you started recording?”

  “No, every word is engraved on my mind. Isn’t that enough?” Eve said as she handed him his coffee. “It was enough for me, Joe. It scared me to death.” She had to concentrate on keeping her hands from shaking as she raised her own cup to her lips. “Michael. He threatened Michael. He said he almost killed him that first night.”

  “But he didn’t, and even if he’d tried, that doesn’t mean he would have succeeded. Michael was within yards of us that night, and he’s smart. We would have heard something if Norwalk had tried—”

  “Stop being reasonable. I don’t feel like being reasonable. I don’t want to have cause to be reasonable. I want Michael safe.”

  “He will be safe. He is safe. I won’t let anything happen to him.” His gaze was on Michael, laughing as he churned the ice cream in the red-and-blue container. “No way. Because I’m going to gut the bastard before he lays a finger on him.” He turned back to her. “But it would help if we could figure out what the son of a bitch’s game plan is, so I can take him down.”

  Eve nodded jerkily. “I know. I’ve been trying to make sense of what he said for the past few hours. But every time I’d remember what he said about Michael, it would stop me cold. Which was probably exactly what he wanted. Besides, a lot of it was disjointed and obviously aimed at bringing me the most pain in the briefest time.”

  “Another excuse to slice him to ribbons,” Joe said grimly. “That’s why I’m questioning you. I know that he blew your mind.”

  “No, he didn’t. I couldn’t let him. He was enjoying it too much. But he might think he did. That would be good because it will encourage him to call again.” She took a sip of her hot coffee, but it didn’t make her feel less chilled. “And I needed to talk to you to get it all clear in my head. Norwalk wasn’t hesitant about talking, but it’s not as if he was drawing us a picture. I think he wanted to dangle some of the loose ends over my head to torment me.” She moistened her lips. “Because I believe he truly hates me, Joe. I don’t know why, but he kept saying things about my choices and cheating him. He threw in our taking care of Cara and helping Kaskov, but I think it was more that he had this conviction I’d cheated him.”

  “How?”

  She shrugged. “I have no idea. But I’d better find out.” She frowned. “And you can forget all that fine logic that I was spouting about Darcy Nichols being the target. From what Norwalk was saying, the main targets are me, Kaskov, and maybe Cara. Sylvie and her mother were just collateral damage, and Darcy is lost in the mix. I think that somewhere in the depths of Norwalk’s particular lunacy, he has this grand plan going. He kept talking about pawns and games.” She held up two fingers. “He hates me, he hates Kaskov. And just killing either of us isn’t going to be good enough for him. He wants to hurt. He talked about my family. He talked about Cara because he thought killing her might hurt Kaskov.”

  “And he wanted you to know you were a target.”

  “It was important to him. He said he wanted me to see it coming.” She remembered something else. “Because his brother, Sean, hadn’t seen it coming. Do we know anything about this Sean?”

  “No. Norwalk’s personal history was sketchy. Interpol’s records were principally concerned with his IRA and drug activities. I’ll dig deeper.” He frowned. “But why kill Sylvie Jordan?”

  “That’s what I asked him, remember? He said he needed a twin.”

  “It doesn’t make sense.”

  She made an impatient gesture. “I don’t know what that means, either. Maybe it made some kind of sense in that twisted brain of his. What we do know is that he killed Sylvie with no more conscience than if he’d swatted a fly. She was nothing to him. A means to an end.” Her lips tightened. “How am I going to go tell Darcy that?”

  “With difficulty and sadness,” he said quietly. “And assurances that he’ll pay for it.”

  “That’s not good enough.” She looked down at the sculpture. Beautiful, gentle Sylvie, who had loved life and found joy in every moment of it. “I want to tell her how and when.”

  “We’ve just started, Eve. We’ll get there.”

  “I don’t want to just plug along. I won’t do it.” She could feel the sudden anger searing through her. “I want giant steps, Joe. He threatened Michael. He threatened you and Cara. He’s feeling so confident and cocky because he was able to kill that poor woman who never hurt anyone. He killed Kaskov’s man today just to show us he could do it. He probably could have killed Cara when he attacked her, but he preferred to make it a taunt and a warning.” Her voice was shaking with rage as she thought about what Cara had gone through that night. “Norwalk has been sliding around in the slime like the viper he is, and now he’s ready to come out? Good. I’ll cut his damn head off.”

  “Laudable ambition,” Joe said grimly. “I applaud it. Shouldn’t we discuss it? How are we going to go about it?”

  “By not letting him keep control of his damn game. And we can’t do that until we know where he’s heading and why. So that we can be there waiting for him.” Her hand was no longer shaking as she set her coffee cup firmly down on the counter. “I want to know everything about him. Not just what he wants us to know. And I want to fill in all those blanks superfast.”

  “I told you I’d call Interpol right away and also get Jock on it as soon as—”

  “Not fast enough.” Joe was being logical and smart, but she couldn’t forget Norwalk spitting out all that ugliness that had struck her to the heart. She cast a last glance down at Michael in the barbecue area. Radiant and sweet and wonderful. How dare that son of a bitch threaten her son? Did he expect her to cower in terror and fall apart because he’d told her that she couldn’t stop him? Did he think she wouldn’t do anything she had to do to protect him? “I know a better way.” She took her phone out of her pocket. It might or might not be a better way. It had risks. She would have to maintain a constant wariness and control to survive the fallout.

  Joe would not like it. Jock would hate it.

  Too bad.

  It would be faster and more in depth than any other way to dig out Norwalk before he found and struck down anyone else she loved.

  “Eve.” Joe’s gaze was narrowed on her face. “Who the hell are you calling?”

  “Haven’t you guessed?” Her eyes were blazing with anger and recklessness as she finished punching in the number. “He wants to help her? I’m going to let him do it and help us at the same time. And if he doesn’t want to do it my way, I’m going to see that he does it anyway. He’s going to fill in all the blanks and give us our chance at Norwalk.”

  “Oh, shit,” Joe murmured. “Kaskov?”

  She nodded. “Kaskov.”

  * * *

  It took Eve fifteen minutes to break through the circle of three “assistants” to get through
to Kaskov, and by that time she was more on edge than ever. But after expressing her displeasure to someone called Nikolai, Kaskov came on the line.

  “What a surprise, Eve,” he said. “How long has it been? Sorry to keep you waiting, but you caught me at a bad time.”

  “I’m sure you know exactly how long it’s been,” she said. “Because that’s how long you’ve been using the fact that you helped to save my life and that of my son to pressure Cara into those visits with you.”

  “Pressure? Cara will tell you I exerted no pressure. It’s just that she understands that debts must be paid, and she possesses that rare quality known as honor. I have no idea where she acquired it.” He added mockingly, “Certainly not from me.”

  “But you’ve taken advantage of it.”

  “I believe you realize that I will always seize the advantage to get my way. I have a certain reputation to uphold. Cara understood that from the night she asked me to help you.” He paused. “But I don’t believe that you called me to discuss either my practices or morals, did you?”

  “No, but I think my call caught you off guard, and you were scrambling to find out any information you could to maintain the upper hand. That’s why you kept me waiting.”

  “Quite right.” He sounded amused. “You’re very important in Cara’s life, and I wanted to be prepared. You’ve kept yourself very distant from my arrangement with Cara.”

  “No, I didn’t,” she said bluntly. “I tried to talk her out of it.”

  “She never told me that. But then she’s very protective of you, and she doesn’t really trust me.”

  “Imagine that,” she said dryly. “So what did you find out while you were keeping me waiting?”

  “Not enough. Oleg Sakov hasn’t reported in to Nikolai since early this morning. All was well at that time. It made me a bit uneasy. But Joe Quinn is far more competent than Sakov, and I’m not really concerned about Cara.” He paused. “But this call indicates something disturbing that I should probably address.”

  “You’re damn right,” she said. “We found Sakov with his throat cut earlier today. I received a call from the man who did it and attacked Cara. You told Cara you had nothing to do with that attack, but you did.”