“What if I won’t do it? You say you don’t want me hurt. You’d hurt me terribly if anything happened to Jane. You’re holding that out as a threat, which makes you a liar.”

He flinched. “I try not to lie. But I want this for Kevin so badly that I might bend the truth. You have to do this, Eve.”

She stared at him in anger and frustration. That face was so kind and troubled that it was difficult not to believe him. One moment, she thought his kindness and concern were actually genuine, and the next she was sure it had to be a sort of bizarre masquerade.

“Just do it,” he said softly. “We both know that you won’t take a chance that Jane might pay for your stubbornness.”

He might seem rough and simple, but he read her very well. Why not, she thought bitterly. He had been studying her for a long time.

“Bastard.” She turned on her heel and strode toward the worktable in the corner. “Bring me the skull and set him up on the dais.”

“This isn’t a defeat.” He went toward the chair where the skull rested. “You’re just being sensible, Eve.”

“Am I?” She was trying to be sensible, if not in the way he meant. If she was going to do this reconstruction, she had to use it as a barrier behind which she could explore everything about Doane and this place. He was very big on finding out all about his targets so that his damned plans would work. Since she had no weapons, it might be possible to turn those methods against him. At any rate, she seemed to have no other option. She glanced at the window by the worktable. She could see the mountains in the distance and pine trees.

And above the window sash one of those empty sockets that were also in the ceiling.

Of course, in case she tried to open that window.

Doane was standing beside her, his gaze following Eve’s. “Enough light?”

“Plenty,” she said curtly. “Set him on the dais.”

She watched him carefully set the skull with loving hands.

Love. She couldn’t deny the affection she could see in Doane’s expression, in his touch. She was unable to determine if anything else about him was genuine, but he had truly loved this son who was staring back at them like a blackened, ugly skull from a horror movie.

She felt a ripple of shock at the thought. There it was again. Why couldn’t she feel the usual empathy with this lost one? The threat to Jane? The terrible lengths to which Doane had gone in order to force her to do this reconstruction?

“You’re looking at him with revulsion.” Doane frowned. “Don’t take it out on him. You have to give him a chance. Once you start work, it will be like all the others.”

And it wasn’t wise to antagonize Doane by revealing that revulsion. Kevin was the center of Doane’s life. Eve would have to circle and avoid any direct confrontation. “Perhaps you’re right.” She hoped she was telling the truth. She didn’t want to think she was shallow enough to blame a son for the sins of the father. “Go away. I want to get to work. The sooner I’m done, the sooner this is over. Isn’t that what you said?”

“That’s what I said.” His frown had deepened. “I don’t want to go away. I want to watch you.”

“No.” She began to go through the measuring tools. “You’ll bother me. You want a good job, don’t you?”

“You’re a professional. You’ll give me a good job regardless if I distract you or not.”

“But you’re not sure if your presence will bother me. Why do you want to be here?”

“I’ve always been with him during the important events in his life. You’re bringing him back to me. That’s very important.”

She turned away from the skull to look at Doane. “Then it’s important that I not be distracted. Suppose we make a deal.”

“Deal?” he repeated warily.

“What do you know about forensic sculpting?”

“What I’ve read in those articles.”

“But that’s not always how I work. First, I take precise measurements, then I set depth markers, then I begin the actual sculpting. The measuring would be very boring for you. It’s essential to the process, but it might even be painful for you. There’s one point when Kevin would look like a voodoo doll stuck with pins. Not pretty. Let me do that by myself. Then when the actual sculpting begins, you can watch, and I won’t argue.”

“That won’t bother you?”

“Not in the first stages.” She paused. “And not if you furnish me with a little distraction, too.”

“And that’s your deal? What distraction?”

Her gaze swung back to the skull. “I want you to tell me how he got this way. You know, don’t you?”

“Yes.” He paused. “But why do you want to know? Curiosity?”

“Curiosity?” She looked at him in astonishment. “He’s the reason why all this is happening. I want to know why I’m being forced to do this reconstruction. Who knows? It might even make the sculpting go smoother and faster.”

He didn’t speak for a long moment. “I’m not going to promise to tell you everything.”

“That doesn’t surprise me, and it may be more than you think.” Her gaze narrowed on his face. “And I believe you’ll tell me what you feel is safe. You want to tell someone about Kevin.”

“How smart you are, Eve.” He paused again. “I don’t want to tell just anyone, Eve. I want to tell you. We share so many things that no one else could dream.”

“Then tell me now.”

He smiled. “No, you have to earn it.” He moved back from the dais. “You start your work, and I’ll start mine. I’ll go outside and sit in the truck with my computer. I have a few more plans to put in place. Though I really would prefer to sit in that chair over there and watch you.”

She watched him unlock a file cabinet next to the desk and take out his Dell computer. Then he locked it back up again and nodded at the empty ceiling socket. “As I said, don’t waste time,” he said gently. “Start to work, Eve.”

She didn’t move for a moment after the door shut behind him.

Okay, that file cabinet might have information. Or perhaps the desk next to it. She probably wouldn’t be able to get her hands on that computer, but she’d try.

The truck had been where he kept that phone he’d rigged to avoid tracing, he might have other electronic gadgets.

He had mentioned his fondness for albums. Who knew what else he might have collected to “warm the heart.”

But the main project would have to be a way to disable those gas sockets. They were his principal weapon against her.

How was she going to do that? It would take time and opportunity that she’d have to squeeze from the reconstruction and—

Mull it over. Don’t be negative. There had to be a way.

Work it out.

She turned back to the skull. “I don’t have to name you, do I?” she whispered. “You have a name and a history and a father who loves you. How are we going to get along, Kevin?”

No answer, of course.

The skull stared back at her with gaping eyes and bared teeth in its black visage.

He looked fierce, savage, as if he were about to attack her.

She instinctively stiffened.

Ignore it. It was only imagination. Kevin was a man, when she was accustomed to sculpting children. There were so many lost children, and she had a passion for trying to bring them home to give solace to their parents.

But she had done reconstructions of adults before without a reaction like this.

Not when she had been kidnapped and Jane shot to bring her to this point, this work.

Go to work, get it done.

She started to measure the midtherum area beneath the nasal cavity.

*   *   *

“THERE’S A GOOD CHANCE I’m going to break my word,” Venable told Zander bluntly. “Everything’s gone to hell. My agent, Tad Dukes, can’t be found on the property. The description Ben Hudson gave us matches Doane, and Blick was almost certainly Jane’s shooter. Eve called Joe Quinn, and Doane wants her to do a reconstruction. Unless my team can pull in Doane within the next few hours, I’m going to tell Quinn what he has to contend with.”