He nodded. “No problem.” He started down the steps. “And I’ll take another look around the cottage grounds just to make sure that he didn’t leave any evidence. Stay here where I can see you.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” She pulled out her phone. “But I have to call Nalchek to tell him he won’t be getting that reconstruction … and why.”

He nodded and disappeared around the side of the cottage.

She could hear him moving through the brush, and she knew that he was doing that so that she’d feel safer. Joe was usually panther-silent courtesy of his SEAL training. He needn’t have bothered. She wasn’t frightened, she was only angry.

She punched in Nalchek’s number. “You won’t be getting the reconstruction,” she said jerkily when he picked up. “You can’t be sorrier than I am.” She briefly went over the events of the afternoon. “You were right, the killer came looking for that skull.”

“Are you all right? You’re not hurt?”

“I’m not hurt. But as I told you, that FedEx driver is dead.” She was looking out at the lake. “And I have no idea where that computer and reconstruction are going to end up. They may be at the bottom of the lake right now.”

Nalchek was cursing beneath his breath. “There’s nothing that you can do?”

“Not unless you can find that skull. I can go back and re-create the reconstruction, but I can’t do it out of air. No one in the media will touch it without proof that I used that skull to do it. And what are the chances of that killer’s not destroying it now that he has it?”

“Zero. Unless he’s a trophy collector.”

“Then he wouldn’t have buried the skull in the beginning. No, he wanted her lost forever.” Another wave of anger poured through her. “And I won’t let it happen. He’s not going to win, Nalchek.”

“You just told me you couldn’t do anything.”

“I told you I couldn’t do the reconstruction again. But I’m not going to let him get away with this. I’ll make sure he won’t stay free and gloating over killing that little girl.” Her voice was shaking. “There has to be a way, but I’m not thinking straight right now. I’ll call you after I go over everything and see what my options are.”

“Very sparse, I’d say.” He paused, then said harshly, “I can’t deny I’m disappointed as hell. But whether you can do anything more or not, thank you for what you’ve already done. You’ve been the only one in my corner since the night I found Jenny. Maybe they’ll believe me and move on this after that driver was killed.”

“Maybe. Good-bye, Nalchek. I’ll get back to you.” She hung up.

She doubted if Nalchek would get anyone to push forward on a cold case when they didn’t have proof of identity. It had been her experience that any excuse was good enough for manpower-strapped law-enforcement departments to file away the records in a bottom drawer and look the other way. But they’d had a chance with that reconstruction, dammit. She defied anyone to look at that face and turn away.

I won’t let it matter, Jenny. I won’t let what he did make a difference.

Somehow, I’ll make it work.

*   *   *

“You’re very quiet,” Joe said as he pulled her closer in bed that night. “Depressed?”

“Yes.” She stared into the darkness. “And angry. I can’t let him get away with it, Joe.”

“I knew that was coming.” He paused. “We have a chance. I found tracks of a vehicle near the road and sent the imprints to the lab. That may help, but what else are we going to do about it?”

“We? It’s my job.”

“Not with a killer out there.”

She would feel the same way about him. “And I don’t know what I’m going to do yet. I’m trying to put something together. I feel as if the rug’s been jerked from beneath me.” She was silent. “I was so sure that I was doing the right thing sending the reconstruction back to Nalchek. I wanted desperately for Jenny to find her family. She seemed so … lost.”

“Lost?”

“When Bonnie first came back to me, she wasn’t like Jenny. She was just the way she was when she was alive. Oh, she had things she didn’t know, like about where she was, and a few lapses of memory about how she died. But she knew me, she knew what we were together.”

“And Jenny isn’t like that?”

She shook her head. “She doesn’t remember her parents. She doesn’t remember anything about who killed her. She has only fleeting memories about anything connected to her life. As for her afterlife, that’s terribly vague. She only knows she’s been waiting.”

“Waiting to know who killed her?”

“I don’t know, Joe. Maybe waiting for her parents to bring her home? Though I think that things were starting to come back to her.” She paused. “That last day I actually saw her.”

“What?”

“I saw her. I’d said something about how happy I was that I knew what she looked like after I finished the reconstruction. And later I saw Jenny in her white dress and black, patent-leather shoes. She wanted to please me. She was so sad when I told her I was sending her away.”

“You actually saw her? The way you see Bonnie?”

She nodded. “I was surprised, too. She said that she’d thought she might be able to do it, so she tried. I think that she was exploring, stretching…”

“Since she was no longer lying in that grave, waiting,” he said bitterly.

“I don’t believe that’s what she meant.”

“You’ll have to forgive me. Your Jenny is a little out of my experience.”

“And mine.” She closed her eyes. “Hold me tighter, Joe.”

His arms closed around her. “There has to be some kind of cosmic justice for kids like Jenny. I don’t believe God would saddle you with that responsibility. She’s kind of out of our jurisdiction.”

“How do you know? Jenny was sent to me. Maybe that’s a sign that I’m the one who should help her. Oh, I know I did my best with that reconstruction. But it wasn’t enough, was it? She’s back with that monster who killed her.” She shuddered at the thought. “And that’s not justice, cosmic or otherwise. That’s a horror story.” She opened her eyes as a thought occurred to her. “Or maybe it’s payback time. I had a miracle come into my life, and her name was Bonnie. Even when she was taken from me in the cruelest way possible, she was allowed to come back and visit me. That was a miracle, too. Perhaps I’m being tapped to return the favor.”

“Perhaps you are.” His lips brushed her temple. “In any case, you’ve convinced yourself that it’s possible. Now go to sleep, and we’ll start planning what to do in the morning.”

“Okay.” She nestled closer. She doubted if she could sleep, but she mustn’t keep Joe awake. She’d try to persuade him to go to work in the morning. It was foolish to expect him to hold her hand while she was trying to think of a way to trap that bastard. “When is the report on those tires supposed to come in?”

“Tomorrow sometime. As soon as I get it, I’ll try to match it to a vehicle, then visit the properties on our road and the farms to the north and start questioning. He was operating in broad daylight today. Someone must have seen him.”

She could only hope. The lead was flimsy at best.

But at least it was a lead. Not someone creeping up in the dark woods to kill, then vanishing as it had happened in California.

And she’d take whatever she was given.

Because it just might take her to Jenny.

*   *   *

It was chilly sitting here on the porch swing. Eve tightened the belt of her robe and stared out into the darkness. It was a little after four in the morning, but there was no light on the horizon.

No light on the horizon. It seemed a fitting phrase at this particular moment.

No, dammit. She wouldn’t accept that defeatist attitude.

If she couldn’t see a break in the darkness, she’d blast one through herself.

How?

Joe was relying on tried-and-true police work, and that was sensible and logical.

But she wasn’t Joe, and she had only one asset that Joe didn’t possess.