Shattered Mirror (Eve Duncan #23)(43)

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 everything 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?”