“You’re looking at me as if you’re trying to take me apart.” Catherine’s look was quizzical as she handed Jane her coffee. “Is it your artist’s eye, or are you taking aim?”

“Maybe a little of both.” Jane met her gaze. “I admit the first thing I thought when I saw you was that I’d like to paint you. But you’ll definitely be on my list for extermination if you had anything to do with Joe lying in that hospital. Tell me what happened to him.” She looked away, and added, “Let me start you on the path. It was about Bonnie, wasn’t it?”

Catherine nodded. “It’s not surprising that was your first guess. I imagine you’ve lived with Eve’s obsession for finding Bonnie since you came to her.”

“Guess?” Jane took a drink of her coffee. “Finding her daughter’s murderer and her daughter’s body has guided her life. It’s guided all our lives. She’s tried for many, many years to bring her Bonnie home.” She looked out the window at the passing scene. “And Joe’s been with her, trying desperately to understand, to help, to find Bonnie, so that Eve could be at peace. I can’t tell you how many times she’s come to what she thought was that final resolution and been disappointed. But she never gives up.”

Catherine added quietly, “And Joe was getting tired, weary of worrying about her, wanting her to come to terms.”

Jane looked back at her. “Yes, how do you know? Joe wouldn’t complain.”

“Joe and I are a lot alike,” Catherine said. “And I had to examine all facets of Eve’s problem before I made a move to ask her to help me find my son, Luke. I didn’t want to make a mistake.”

“Mistake?”

“I promised her I’d pay her back for helping return my son to me,” Catherine said. “She wouldn’t accept anything, but I couldn’t let it go. I knew the only gift she would think worthwhile would be for me to find her daughter’s killer.” Her lips twisted. “So that was what I had to give her. Whether or not it might destroy the life she had with Joe.”

“You found him?” Jane’s eyes widened. “You actually found Bonnie’s killer?”

“I found two possibilities. Paul Black, who was already on Eve’s search list.”

“She told me about him.”

“But I was betting on a new stallion in the race. One that would be much more troublesome. Naturally, I had to pull him front and center.”

“Who?”

Catherine’s eyes were fixed on the towers of St. Joseph’s Hospital, which had come into view. “John Gallo. He was Bonnie’s father.”

Jane stiffened. “What? But Eve told me he was dead.”

Catherine shook her head. “A cover-up by the military. Eve will explain everything later. I’m just giving you the bare bones. But there was evidence Gallo was in Atlanta the month Bonnie was kidnapped. So I gave Eve all my information and threw in my opinion.”

“And she went after John Gallo,” Jane whispered.

“And Paul Black,” Catherine said. “But she felt terribly guilty about risking Joe again. So she tried to leave him out of it.”

“She should have known that wouldn’t work,” Jane said. She knew how guilty Eve felt about involving Joe, but she could no more stop hunting for Bonnie’s killer than Joe could abandon Eve and stop protecting her. Both were facts of life. “Gallo hurt Joe?”

Catherine shook her head. “Paul Black. And Gallo killed Black.”

“Good.”

“Not so good. Before he died, Black told Eve that Gallo had killed Bonnie.”

“And she actually believed the bastard?”

“She told me that she would swear Black was telling the truth. And Gallo took off and disappeared. Neither the police nor I have been able to find him.”

“But what would make him kill his own little girl?”

“He was suffering from bouts of schizophrenia and violent delusions caused by years of mistreatment in a prison in North Korea.”

“My God.” Jane shook her head. “That must have been a terrible nightmare for Eve. How can you imagine a man who gave you a child could kill it?”

Catherine’s lips tightened. “Well, I handed Gallo to her and made her imagine it.” She pulled into a parking spot in the lot of St. Joseph’s Hospital. “And then I helped Joe try to find him whether Eve wanted him along or not.” She turned off the ignition. “Are you still blaming Joe and not me?”

Jane gazed at her a moment. “You’re blaming yourself enough. You don’t need any help.” She got out of the car. “Where can I find her?”

“ICU. The visiting hours are very short, but Eve can watch him through the glass. If she’s not in the waiting room, she’ll probably be in the hall at ICU.”

“Are you coming with me?”

Catherine shook her head. “Eve needs family. I’ll check you in at the Hyatt and take your suitcase up to your room. Give me a call when you’re ready to leave the hospital.”

“Thanks.” Jane turned to walk away.

“How did you feel about Bonnie?” Catherine asked suddenly. “I know it’s none of my business, but I’m curious. You said that the search for her killer ruled your lives. That must have been difficult for an adopted kid to accept.”

Jane shook her head. “I knew what was important to Eve when I came to her. I wasn’t her child, I was her friend. That was enough for me. How could I ask for more?”

“Some kids would have been more demanding.”

Jane lifted her brows. “You?”

Catherine shook her head. “But then I probably wouldn’t have accepted any relationship when I was your age. I was an independent young demon. I suppose I still am.”

“Eve is always the exception,” Jane said. “You obviously have a close relationship with her now.”

Catherine smiled as she started to back out of the parking place. “You’re right. You and I are more alike than I would have believed. Eve is the sun we all revolve around.”

Jane watched her drive out of the parking lot before she started to walk across the parking lot toward the front entrance. She could feel the tension increase with every step. She was going to Joe, who might well be dying. She was going to Eve, who could lose the man who made her life worth living.

How did she feel about the search for Bonnie? Jane had said all the right things, and they had all been true. What she hadn’t told Catherine was the agony she felt when Eve and Joe were put in danger by that search. She could accept it. But she couldn’t stop wishing that the search would end.

And she couldn’t stop wishing that Eve would release Bonnie.

Or, dear God, that Bonnie would release Eve.

*   *   *

EVE WALKED SLOWLY DOWN the corridor toward the ICU.

Soon she would be able to see Joe again. He’d be pale and drawn, his features appearing as cleanly carved and beautiful as the visage on a tomb. It would scare her to death as it always did.

But it scared her more not to see him and to imagine him slipping away with her not by his side.

That was where she should always be. Next to Joe.

If God would let him stay with her. And if Joe still wanted her if he did come back. The memory of that last day at the lake house was suddenly before her. His eyes looking down at her as she sat in the swing.

“I can’t be easy. It’s not my nature. But it’s my nature to love you.”

And it was her nature to love Joe.

Please be better, Joe. Be awake. At least, have more color.

“Good afternoon, Ms. Duncan.” The ICU nurse was coming out of the unit. “May I get you anything?”

“Yes, permission to go sit with him.”

She shook her head. “Not yet.” She hesitated. “But the doctor said that maybe we should let you go to him soon.”

She stiffened, her heart leaping. “He’s better.”

The nurse shook her head. “I shouldn’t have said anything,” she said quickly. “Dr. Jarlin will talk to you.”

Fear surged through her. “You talk to me, dammit. He’s worse?”

The nurse was looking at Eve with that same sympathy and kindness that had struck terror in her heart since she’d brought Joe to the hospital. “Dr. Jarlin will talk to you. I’ll call him and tell him that you’re concerned.” She hurried back toward the nurses’ station.