"Bull."

"I killed her ten years ago, didn't I? That means we're looking for a ten-year-old child. Either a boy or a girl." He chuckled. "Since we've ruled out cockroaches. Are you at the front door yet?"

"Yes."

"Check the window and you'll probably see your stalwart guard sitting in his car by the lake. That's where he was when I left your package a few hours ago."

She glanced out the window. Charlie wasn't in the car, he was standing by the front fender, talking to Joe.

"Are you on the porch yet?"

"No."

"Are you afraid of me, Eve? Don't you want to know what's in the package?"

"I'm not afraid of you." She opened the door. She was wearing only an old T-shirt, and the cold wind struck her bare legs. "I'm on the porch. Where's the damn package?"

"You'll see it."

She did see it, a small brown cardboard box on the very left edge of the porch.

"Quinn would say you're foolish to go near it. It might be a bomb or maybe I put some kind of gas or poison in the box. But you know I don't want you injured or dead."

She did know it. She moved toward the box.

"Or maybe I do. I could be waiting in the shadow of the porch right now. Do you see any suspicious shadows, Eve?"

"No, where are you?"

"But it's so dark on the porch you can't see shadows, can you?"

She stopped in front of the box.

"Eve?" Joe had turned away from Charlie and had seen her.

"Or I might be in my car, miles away. Which do you think is true?"

She knelt beside the box.

"Eve!"

She opened the box.

Something hard and white gleamed inside.

Dom's voice was soft in her ear. "'And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from the man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.' Genesis 2:22."

"What the hell are you doing?" Joe was beside her, trying to draw her away from the box.

She shoved him. "Leave me alone."

"God and I have a lot in common. If you believe in reincarnation, then by killing your Bonnie I, like God, created a brand-new human being. Though I didn't actually create her from Bonnie's rib, I thought you'd appreciate the symbolism." He paused. "By the way, her name is Jane." He hung up.

The phone dropped from her hand. She stared down into the box.

"Don't touch it," Joe said.

"I'll call Spiro and get a team down here to check it out." Charlie ran down the steps toward his car.

"Dom?" Joe asked.

She nodded.

"Did he tell you what this is?"

She nodded again.

So small . . .

She reached down and touched it with one finger. Smooth . . .

Tears began to run down her cheeks.

"Eve."

"It's Bonnie. It's Bonnie's rib."

"Shit." Joe picked her up and carried her inside. "Son of a bitch. Bastard."

"Bonnie."

"Shh." He sat down on the couch and rocked her. "Dammit, why didn't you call me?"

"Bonnie's rib."

"It could be an animal bone. He could have lied to you."

She shook her head. "Bonnie."

"Listen to me. He wanted to hurt you."

And he had succeeded. God, how he had succeeded. Pain was searing through her. She had told herself only last night that he had no real weapon against her, that she could control--Dammit, she couldn't stop crying.

And she couldn't stop thinking of that little fragment of Bonnie in that box.

"Go bring it in."

"What?"

"It's . . . cold out there."

"Eve," Joe said gently. "It's evidence. We can't move--"

"Do you think he'd leave any evidence? Go get it."

"Even if it's Bonnie, she can't feel--"

"I know I'm not being reasonable. I just don't want her out in the cold if I can help it. It . . . hurts me. Bring her in."

Joe muttered a curse and got to his feet. A moment later he came back with the box. "You're not looking at it again." He crossed the room and slid the box into a drawer of her worktable. "And it's going to the lab for analysis."

"Okay."

"And stop crying, dammit."

She nodded.

"Oh, shit." He dropped down beside her and gathered her in his arms. "You're killing me. Please. Stop crying."

"I'm sorry. I'm trying. It was the shock. I didn't expect--" She swallowed. "He got the response he wanted from me, didn't he?"