She thrust her gun in her robe pocket and threw the door open.

“Stop that banging. What are you doing here?”

“You need me,” Ben Hudson said simply. “So I came, Eve. May I come in? I’m all wet.”

“For heaven’s sake, of course you have to come in.” She took his arm and pulled him into the cottage. “Just look at you.” She grabbed a dish towel from the kitchen cabinet and handed it to him. “You look like you’ve been swimming in the lake.”

“Do I?” He smiled his warm sweet smile as he wiped his face. “I guess so. After all, it’s all just lots of water.” He dried his sandy hair until it stood up in spiky tendrils. “But kind of different.”

She shook her head as she gazed at him. Here he was on her doorstep smiling at her as if he had just dropped in to say hello. Wide-set blue eyes stared at her from beneath that ridiculously spiked hair, and he was obviously pondering the difference between lake and rainwater. He was the same calm, sweet, slow boy she had grown to know all those months ago when he had helped Joe and her find Bonnie’s body. The counselors at the charity camp where he worked had told her he was twenty years old but had the mental capacity of a child of ten. She had never been sure that was true. He was indeed special, but that uniqueness seemed far beyond the easy pigeonhole where they wanted to put him. When she had first seen him, his joyous smile had reminded her of Bonnie’s. It still did. She wanted to hold him, take care of him, shake him for wandering outside in this storm.

“Sit down. I’ll get you some hot chocolate.”

He shook his head. “No, I have to go back outside. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

She was already at the counter putting in a chocolate K-cup under the drink dispenser. “So you decided to bang down my door and make sure.”

He nodded gravely. “I thought that would be the right thing to do. I had to be sure. She said Joe wasn’t with you.”

She stiffened as her hand closed on the cup of chocolate. “She?”

“I had a dream last night. She said that I had to try to help you.”

She. He had to mean the dream had been about Bonnie. Bonnie had reached out to Ben in the past in dreams. Perhaps she recognized and bonded to his clear, simple soul, which was so like that of the child she had been when she had been alive. The fact that Bonnie had chosen to come to this boy made Ben all the more close to Eve.

She crossed the room and handed him the cup, and said very carefully, “Let’s go slowly. You had a dream about Bonnie?”

“Sort of.” He frowned. “It was more about you. She said she couldn’t get through to you. She said the darkness was holding her back.”

“Darkness?”

“Bad darkness. She said it was coming toward you, and I had to try to help.”

“Because Joe wasn’t going to be here?” She felt a sudden chill. “Were you at the vocational camp when you had this dream?”

He nodded. “She came almost as soon as I went to sleep. So I started out right away.”

“All the way from the camp in south Georgia? You don’t drive.”

“I woke up Kenny. He brought me. He’s a counselor, too, and sharing my tent right now. But he was afraid his Honda would get stuck in the mud and wouldn’t bring me past the highway and I had to walk.” He made a face. “I think he was kind of mad at me for waking him up. But it was nice of him to bring me, wasn’t it?”

“It would have been even nicer if he’d gone the extra couple miles,” she said dryly. But it didn’t surprise her that he’d been able to persuade this Kenny to drive over a hundred miles when Ben had asked him. Ben was special, and everyone he touched seemed to realize that. “You’ve got to get out of those clothes. I don’t suppose you brought anything with you?”

Ben shook his head.

“Then I’ll get something of Joe’s for you to wear.” She started to turn, then saw a spear of headlights outside the window. “That’s the patrol car. I almost forgot he was coming.” She headed for the front door. “Stay here. I’ll talk to the officer.”

But Ben was at the door before her. “No, I have to be with you.”

She looked at him in exasperation. “Ben…”

He shook his head. He wasn’t going to be persuaded.

She drew back the drape and glanced out the window and saw the uniformed officer coming up the porch stairs. She opened the door before he had a chance to knock. “I’m sorry, Officer Hughes. I didn’t have time to call you. It was a false alarm. It was only my friend at the door.”

“At this hour?” He was looking beyond her at Ben. “May I come in for a moment?”

It was clear he wanted to check Ben out and make sure she wasn’t being coerced. Why not? It would be the quickest way to reassure him. No one would believe Ben would be a threat once they’d spoken to him. She opened the door wider. “Of course.”

“Thanks. I’ll only be a minute.” He showed her his ID as he came into the house. “Detective Quinn wouldn’t like it unless I did everything by the book.” He looked at Ben. “Your name?”

“Ben. Ben Hudson.”

“And your purpose here?”

“To help Eve.” He smiled. “Like you. Right?”

“Right.” Officer Hughes smiled back at him. It was hard not to smile at Ben. “But from now on call her and tell her you’re coming. It will save all of us a lot of trouble. You don’t want to scare her.” He turned back to Eve. “I’ll be on my way. If you need me, just call. I’ll be on duty for another two hours, and I think Detective Quinn has arranged for Pete Dolanelli to take over.”

“Thank you for being so prompt.” She went with him to the door. “I hope it’s the last time I’ll have to call you.”

“So do I.” He grinned. “But it broke up the duty a bit. Monotony is always best, but it gets boring.” He started down the steps and looked back over his shoulder and lowered his voice. “No offense, ma’am, but I’d rather you rely on me or Dolanelli. Mr. Hudson seems like a nice guy, but there’s no … edge.”

“You’re absolutely right,” Eve said. “Ben has no edge at all. But he’s very loyal and has a good heart. When I need edge, I’ll definitely call you.” She went back in the house, locked the door behind her, and turned back to Ben. “You see, I have that very nice and competent policeman to protect me. I don’t need you, Ben. Go back to the camp.”

He shook his head. “I have to stay with you.”

She nodded. She hadn’t thought that she’d be able to convince him. “I’ll go and get Joe’s clothes. The bathroom is the first door on your left. Why don’t you take a hot shower?”

He shook his head. “I’ll only get cold and wet again when I go back outside.”

“Outside? Why should you go outside again? You want to protect me? Do it from the living-room couch.”

“I just wanted to make sure that the cottage is safe. That Officer Hughes is in a car. I’ll be able to see more if I move around on foot.”

“Ben, there’s no solid proof that I’m even in danger. It’s all fog and mirrors.” She met his eyes. “And dreams. And that dream of yours was very vague.”

“Because of the darkness,” he said gravely. “But it wasn’t vague that Bonnie sent me here. She wanted me to come.”

“And park yourself out in the rain?”

“Maybe the rain will stop.”

“And maybe it won’t.” She gazed at him for another moment and turned on her heel. She wasn’t making a dent in that solemn determination. “I’ll get those clothes. Do you have a cell phone?”

“Yes, but I keep doing things to it that make it go wonky.”

“Well, don’t do anything tonight, dammit. I want you to call me every hour, and I want to be able to reach you.”

He smiled. “Yes, Eve.”

“And I’m going to give you Joe’s slicker, and I want you to keep beneath the trees and out of the rain as much as possible.”

“Yes, Eve.”

“And if you see something you don’t like, then call me, and I’ll call Officer Hughes. Don’t try to deal with it yourself.”

His smile widened. “Yes, Eve.”