“She was quite adamant.”

“Try her.”

“Whatever you say. It’s good that things are proceeding so well.” Melton hung up.

There was nothing good about this but the end result, Jules thought. It had been a hideous night. The man had been harder to break than he had thought, and torture was always worse than a clean kill. As he punched the end button, he noticed there was blood on the phone. He looked down at his hands. Blood on them, too.

He wiped his hands with a tissue, and then the phone. He glanced at the sheet of paper on the seat beside him. Good. No blood on the paper. He didn’t want to leave any traces.

He looked out the window at the drainage ditch several yards away from the road. The water should wash away any evidence he had left behind.

He wished he could cleanse his mind and soul as easily.

“I ran into the FedEx man outside.” Jane dropped her schoolbooks on the coffee table and tossed the FedEx letter on Eve’s desk.

“Who’s it from?”

“Search me. No return address. Where’s Toby?”

“Outside by the lake. He chased some ducks this morning.”

“Well, he has retriever blood.”

“And he turned tail when one got mad and bit his nose.” Eve grinned. “Some retriever.”

“Poor Toby.” Jane started for the door. “That must have hurt his pride. I’ll have to go soothe his feelings.”

“He’s forgotten already. I saw him chasing a butterfly an hour later. Maybe he thought that wouldn’t be quite so dangerous.”

Jane giggled. “A little more respect, please.” She ran out the door and down the steps. “Toby!”

Eve was still smiling when she picked up the FedEx letter and tore it open. Thank heaven for Toby. He had completely taken Jane’s mind off that horror of two days ago. She only wished Joe would be similarly distracted by—

My God.

“Come home, Joe,” Jane said as soon as Joe picked up the phone. “Right away.

You’ve got to come now.”

“Easy. What’s wrong?”

“Eve. She’s just sitting there. She told me nothing was wrong, but she’s just sitting there.”

“Maybe nothing is wrong.”

“Don’t you tell me that.” Her voice was shaking. “You come home, Joe.”

“I’m on my way.”

“Eve?”

It was Joe. She curled up tighter at the end of the couch. Go away. Go away.

“What the hell’s wrong?”

She put it into words. “Go away.”

He sat down beside her. “Stop closing me out. I’m not going anywhere. Now what’s wrong?”

“I don’t want… to talk about it right now.”

“Well, I do. That’s what a relationship is about. Sharing.”

“Sharing what? Sharing lies?”

He went still. “What are you talking about?”

“I told you, I don’t want to talk at all.” She just wanted to close herself away and try to heal the raw wound. “Go and see about Jane. I think I scared her.”

“You’re scaring me. Did something happen to Bonnie’s grave again?”

“I don’t know,” she said dully. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Jane said you got a FedEx. May I see it?”

She got to her feet. “Not now.”

He was silent a moment. “Let me help you. You’re not being fair to me, Eve.” She whirled on him, her eyes blazing. “I’m not being fair? My God, how do you have the nerve to say that after what you’ve done to me?” He went still. “And what have I done to you?”

“Lies. You lied to me, Joe. The crudest lie, the cruellest thing you could have done to me.” She drew a deep breath, her gaze fixed desperately on his face. “You’re not asking what that was. Because you know, don’t you, Joe? I wasn’t really sure until I saw your face. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe you’d do this to me.” He glanced around the room. “Is that the FedEx?” He crossed to the desk and picked up the single sheet of paper and scanned it. She could see the line of his spine stiffen as if he was bracing himself before he turned to face her. “Was there a return address?”

She stared at him, stunned. “Christ, is that all you have to say?”

“No, but I have to know who wanted to hurt you this much.” He grimaced. “And who wanted to hurt me.”

“I don’t care who it was. All I care about is that you lied to me.” She closed her eyes as waves of fresh pain broke over her. “And that the little girl I buried on that hill is not my Bonnie. Jesus, I can’t believe it.”

“But you clearly do believe it. And I’m sure you verified this particular scrap of poison.”

“It’s not a scrap.” She opened eyes glittering with tears. “It’s the official report from the Georgia forensic lab stating that the DNA of the little girl found in Chattahoochee National Park did not match Bonnie Duncan’s. It was signed by Dr.

George Capel.”

“And you called George Capel?”

“I tried, but he was out of the office. So I talked to the head of the department. He couldn’t find the official paperwork on the results, but he finally tracked down some of the transcripts from the work in progress. Shall I tell you what they were?”

“Don’t bother.”

“I was in Atlanta and you took the call that day. When I came home, you told me that Bonnie had been found.”

“Yes, I did.”

“You deliberately lied to me.”

“Yes.”

The agony was exploding inside her. “How could you do that?” she whispered.

“How could I not do it?” Joe’s voice was harsh with pain. “I’d watched you suffer for twelve years. I’d seen you search for Bonnie in every one of those faces you recreated. It was a wound that never healed, that would never heal until you found Bonnie. Sarah Patrick searched all through that National Forest, and we’d almost given up hope when they found the skeleton. The chances of another skeleton being found there were practically nil at that point. So I prayed every night that skeleton would be Bonnie’s.” He threw the report on the desk with barely controlled violence.

“And then it didn’t happen, goddammit. It was going to go on and on. But it didn’t have to. All I had to do was tell one lie, and you’d be at peace.”

“A terrible lie. You… cheated me.”

“You want me to say I’m sorry? I’m not sorry. Yes, I am. I’m sorry you found out and it’s hurting you. But I’d do it again if I thought I had a chance of keeping it from you.” His words came fast, hard, and full of passion. “I love you. You’ve been the center of my life for over twelve years. I’d do anything to take you away from the hell you’ve been going through all that time. I’d lie. I’d kill. Anything to keep the pain away.”

“Well, you didn’t do it.”

“No, I didn’t do it.”

Eve raised a shaking hand to her lips as she thought of something else. “Jesus, I received an official notification two weeks later, verifying the telephone call. You did that, too?”

“I bribed someone in the lab to do it for me. I knew you’d expect it.”

“You were very… thorough.”

“It was important to me. Maybe the most important action I’d taken in my life.” Joe was silent a moment, his face pale, strained. “So now what?”

“I don’t know. I trusted you, and you betrayed me in the most terrible way possible. I can’t even think.” Eve moved heavily toward the bedroom. “I’m going to bed. All I want to do is sleep.”

“You won’t sleep. You just want to get away from me.”

“I can’t look at you right now.”

“You love me, Eve.”

She did love him. She doubted if that could ever go away, and that was part of the pain she was feeling. “But could I ever trust you again? You don’t lie to people you love.”

“The hell you don’t.”

She shook her head and closed the bedroom door. She leaned back against it.

Jesus, she felt empty. It was as if everything had been drained out of her, leaving nothing but an aching hole. Was Joe feeling this emptiness? No, he’d be full of sorrow for her, and anger and desperation at the situation. She knew him so well, his mind, his character, his body…

But not well enough. She’d never have guessed he’d do this.

She moved over to the bed and lay down, staring into the darkness.