Shattered Mirror (Eve Duncan #23)(45)
“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.”
“You’re wrong,” he said quietly. “I told her the truth.”
“Oh, you had something to do with it,” she said curtly. “And so did I. Cara believes you, so I have to do it, too. But that wacko who’s responsible has targeted both of us, and that means we both did something to piss him off. It’s logical that it’s tied together.”
“You and I?” he said mockingly. “What good company I’m keeping. However, since Cara will surely blame me if you get hurt or killed, it would be wise for me to remove you from the equation.”
“That’s not going to happen since my family has been threatened, and so has Cara,” she said grimly. “So we’re going to continue to keep company until we catch that son of a bitch and my family is safe.” She went on quickly before he could reply. “I’m going to play my phone call from Norwalk for you now. You listen and see if you recognize the voice or if anything he says strikes a chord.”
“As you command. I’ll record it, too, for further review.”
She started the recording and leaned back in her chair. She glanced at Joe, sitting across the room. “I know you want to jump in and talk to him yourself.”
“You bet I do.”
“Not now. I’m right, Joe. He understands targets and also that Cara will be upset if he doesn’t listen to me.”