Shattered Mirror (Eve Duncan #23)(33)

“That took longer. It has stringent privacy rules. That’s one of the prime attractions to the wealthy parents who put their children in the place. Eventually, I was able to bypass the clerks and get through to someone in authority. I found out that Sylvie Jordan had been removed from the sanitarium by her mother and stepfather almost two months ago.”

“So Felicity was lying to Darcy,” Jock said grimly.

“It would appear so. And probably backed up by a fat bribe to the desk receptionist at the sanitarium who answers their phones. You’ll have to determine that for yourself. If you can find Raoul Napier and his wife, Felicity.”

“Oh, I’ll find them,” Jock said. “I have contacts I can tap for information in most places in the world. It’s what I was trained to do. Find and eliminate. I’ve already called Charles Benoit, who is very, very good at digging and providing that information. He’ll be meeting me at the airport in Nice.”

Joe was silent. “I hope the eliminating won’t be necessary in this case.”

Jock was surprised at that far-from-subtle warning. Joe Quinn was an ex-SEAL, and his instincts were often as violent and lethally efficient as Jock’s. “I’ll have to see, won’t I? Do you think you could stop me?”

“I’d try like hell if you went off the track. Cara wouldn’t let me do anything else. Which would put me up against you, and that would be the last thing you’d want to happen. Either way, you’d lose. So be damn sure, Jock.”

He was right, there was no way he could ever challenge anyone Cara loved as she did Joe Quinn. “I’ll be sure. Just take care of her. I’ll get back to you.” He cut the connection.





CHAPTER

6



“I love this place,” Darcy said as she looked down from the porch at the barbecue area directly below them where Eve, Joe, and Michael were gathered together in front of the grill. The laser lights were lit on the trees surrounding the entire area, and it appeared as if thousands of emerald fireflies were glittering off and on every branch. “And those lights are amazing. Not what I’d expect from such a bucolic setting.”

“Eve’s adopted daughter, Jane MacGuire, sent them to Michael last year,” Cara said. “She’s an artist, and she has a wonderful eye. She did that painting of Eve on the wall in the living room. She knew Michael would love those lights. She came and installed them herself to get just the right effect.” She handed Darcy a glass of lemonade. “And I think Michael was happier to have her here to do it than to have the lights themselves.”

“I can see that,” Darcy said. “He’s incredibly affectionate, isn’t he?”

“He’s incredible in all kinds of ways.” She sipped her lemonade. “But the affection isn’t that unusual when he has parents like Eve and Joe. It’s all love and family here. Anything else would be truly incredible.”

“I guess you’re right.” She looked down at Michael, standing next to Eve. “It just seems unusual to me. It’s like the last scene on a family sitcom when they’re wrapping up everything all touchy-feely so they’ll get renewed for the next season.”

Cara gazed at her openmouthed. Then she started to laugh. “Only you would make that comparison. Yes, I definitely think Eve and family will get renewed for next season.”

“So do I,” Darcy said. “They’re wonderful. Do you know how lucky you are they took you in?”

“No question.” She glanced sideways at Darcy before she asked. “You’ve been very quiet since we got home from Michael’s karate lesson. How did it go with you and Eve?”

“How do you think it went? Eve told me I’d have to brace myself, and she was right. She didn’t want to show me the photos of that skull before she started work on it, but I made her do it. I had to know everything I could about what happened to Sylvie.” She shivered as she looked away from Cara. “I nearly threw up again. I’m not what you could ever call tough. The only thing that saved me was that I got so angry that it seemed to burn everything away, but what I wanted to do to the person who had done that to her.”

“Eve said that the cremation had been done after Sylvie was shot,” Cara said gently. “And the bullet killed her instantly.”

“I know,” she said jerkily. “She told me all that. But at that point it didn’t help. I couldn’t understand how anyone could—” She drew a deep breath. “She said she thought it was done to either make it difficult for her to reconstruct, or to inject an element of horror and shock to that skull.” She moistened her lips. “I felt that horror and shock. Anyone who had known Sylvie would have. She was so gentle, like a leaf drifting among us, and he tried to make her into a monster.”

“But Eve didn’t let him,” Cara said. “She brought her back. She brought her home to you.”

“And I’ll always be grateful to her.” She looked down at Eve. “She’s just as wonderful as you always told me. She was supposed to turn Sylvie back over to Forensics today, but I asked her if we could keep her here for a couple more days. She got Joe to pull strings.”

“It was important to you?”

“It seemed that way. I just wanted to be able to look at Sylvie every now and then and try to understand and get my head together. I’m so filled with anger and sadness, and yet I look at that reconstruction that Eve did of Sylvie, and I think I see something I’ve never seen before.” She shook her head. “Or maybe I saw it, and I didn’t notice. Eve made her look stronger, brimming, shining, with life.”