Shattered Mirror (Eve Duncan #23)(44)
“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.”