Shattered Mirror (Eve Duncan #23)(95)

“You might have to make time,” she murmured. “We might all have to make time to deal with Jock.”

*

“Repeat that,” Jock said softly. “I don’t believe I heard you correctly, Eve.”

“You heard me,” Eve said. She had liked neither the silence when she’d told Jock nor this icy softness. It was far worse than any outburst of anger. She’d seen him like this before, and it meant he had reverted back to the Jock he had been when he’d been that beautiful boy who had been taught by Thomas Reilly to kill without remorse. “And I can’t talk to you right now, Jock. We can’t meet you at Ladeau’s. We’ve turned around and are heading back to Belle Grace to see what we can find out. We’ll finish questioning Ladeau later.”

“That’s all you know? Just that she’s gone?”

“Right now. Kaskov will know more by the time we get back there. He was very angry.”

“Was he? It’s too late for anger. It had to be an inside job. No one could get onto the grounds. I made sure that Nikolai had plugged all the holes.”

“We’ll find out when we get back. You can’t be sure of anything. Don’t make any rash decisions. You’re coming right away?”

“I’ll be there soon. There are a few things I have to do first.” He hung up.

Pure ice. If ice could burn.

Joe glanced at her. “It could have been worse.”

She shook her head. “No, it couldn’t. Cara and MacDuff have been fighting for years to keep him from spiraling back down to that violence level, and he’s—” She stopped. She’d as much as told Jock she couldn’t deal with him right now and yet she was trying to do it. “It probably couldn’t be worse. But neither could Norwalk’s having Michael and Cara.” Her voice was suddenly fierce. “So I don’t care, Joe. Let Jock do whatever he wants to do as long as I get them back.”

*

“You can’t do this,” Ladeau said defiantly as Jock came back in the room. “Untie me. I told you, my cousin knows all about the law, and he’ll find a way to lock you up for the next ten years. I didn’t do anything that was illegal. I just leased my airboat. A simple deal between two businessmen.”

“Nothing simple about it. Or you wouldn’t have run and put a bullet in me.”

“I didn’t mean to hit you,” he said quickly. “I just wanted to scare you off. Macvey warned me that I couldn’t talk about our deal. Not that it was crooked. But he’s not someone I wanted to offend.”

“So you chose to offend me.” He leaned back against the wall and gazed at him. “Not a wise choice, Ladeau.”

Cara sitting beside him at the lake playing her violin.

Cara in the summerhouse last night.

Cara staring up at him in bewilderment and wonder.

Cara gone.

Don’t think about it. Don’t think about her. Push it away. Coldness was better. Get the job done as Reilly had taught him. It was the only way he could function right now. The pain was too great.

Kill Ladeau?

Not now, later perhaps. Ladeau could be of use.

“I won’t answer any questions,” Ladeau said defiantly. “I don’t know anything.”

“I hope you do. Because it will be a very uncomfortable time for you if you don’t give me the answers I need.” He straightened away from the wall. “I found all sorts of maps and charts in those cabinets over there. I’m going to put them on that desk one by one, and you’re going to look at them and tell me where Macvey took those supplies.”

“I don’t know. He didn’t want me to know.”

“But you’re very familiar with all these swamps and bayous. It’s how you make your living. I imagine you can make a good guess.”

He shook his head. “There are so many rivers and bayous. It could take weeks to find the right area.”

“I don’t have weeks.” Jock moved toward him. “I doubt if I have twenty-four hours. So we’re going to study those maps, and you’re going to tell me where I have to go.”

“I can’t do it.” He nervously moistened his lips. “I won’t do it.”

“You will,” he said softly. “You’ll tell me everything you know.” He stopped in front of him. “Because you may be stupid, but you’re not suicidal.”

“I didn’t mean to get mixed up in this,” he said desperately. “You don’t know what kind of man Macvey is. I think he would have killed me if he hadn’t thought he might need me later.” He broke out, “And the son of a bitch said he’d cut off my dick if I said one word.”

“And you’d miss that dick with your pretty little bartender.” He looked him in the eye. “I wouldn’t do that to you. That’s such an ugly, quick solution to my problem. I was taught extended pain is always better. And I know so many ways to make certain you’re telling me the truth as we go forward step by step.”

Ladeau was staring at him in fascination. Jock could see the horror and the realization beginning to dawn in him as he realized what he was facing.

Give him a moment, Jock thought. Let him see that he meant it. Let him see the ice and the disconnect and the fact that he’d do anything … and everything.