Bonnie (12 page)

“Yes, he did.”

She was studying his face. “But you still recognized him.”

He nodded jerkily. “He wasn’t always crippled like that, only after that last mission. All the time I was growing up my uncle was strong as a bull and could beat me in any race. When we were up in the woods, he was so quiet, so good, that he could get within a yard of any forest animal before it knew he was there. I watched him do it any number of times.” He paused. “Just as I watched him when he was coming up behind Catherine. It was as if he’d turned back the clock.”

“Or had an operation on his spine that turned it back for him. Was that on the books before you left for basic training?”

He shook his head. “He said they had to do all kinds of testing.”

“I saw him when Bonnie was six months old, and he still looked crippled. That’s a long time to wait for surgery.”

“Maybe they weren’t sure they could do it.” His lips tightened. “He had spells when he was in terrible pain.”

“You told me once he was on prescription drugs.”

“But he kicked the habit. He wouldn’t let himself fall into that hole.” He glanced at her. “You’re trying to build a case for his being a drug addict, and that would be a reason for his killing Bonnie.” He shook his head. “He hated drugs. He told me he’d rather have the pain than mess up his head like that.”

“I don’t know what I’m trying to do,” she said wearily. “Yes, drugs were a possibility. They can turn men into monsters. I thought your uncle was a gentle man, but the man who almost stabbed Catherine wasn’t gentle. He was a monster. So I’m trying to make a connection.”

“He’s
not
a monster. Killing Jacobs doesn’t make him a monster. Jacobs was a total son of a bitch. You don’t know why he did it.”

“Catherine,” she reminded him. “Why would he hurt Catherine? He could have just avoided her.”

“The truck. She was standing next to it. He needed the truck to escape.”

“You’re reaching.”

“I know,” he said jerkily. “I don’t know why he would do any of this. Uncle Ted was a good guy. Nobody better. None of this makes sense.”

He was in pain. She could see it in the tenseness of his every muscle, the set of his mouth.

Well, she couldn’t help him. Not now. She said again, “Tell me about Ted Danner. When did you get to know him? Was he your mother’s brother?”

“My father’s half brother. They were nothing alike. Ted was younger, and they grew up together in the slums. My father became an alcoholic by the time he was twenty and went straight downhill. Uncle Ted joined the service at seventeen and got out of there. They didn’t like each other, and I don’t know why Ted visited him when he came back on leave.” He shook his head. “Yes, I do know. I think it was me. He wanted to help me. He always tried to step in and keep them from hurting me. He even used to tell me what I should do to keep them from getting angry.” He grimaced. “Though that didn’t work so well after I got older. I hated them as much as they hated me, and I let them know it. I was lucky I survived.”

“Why didn’t your uncle persuade them to give you into his custody?”

“He was in the Rangers. He only had his pay. He didn’t have a home or a family. He couldn’t take on a kid. He tried to be a friend to me. I couldn’t expect anything else from him.” He added, “He came home on medical leave when I was seventeen, and we got to spend some time together. It was great, like I had real family. My parents were killed in a house fire about four months after he came home. My father fell asleep in bed smoking a cigarette. My uncle and I moved into a flat together. I was planning on going into the Army when I finished high school, but I took off with a couple buddies to see some of the country first. When I came back to Milwaukee, I found out that Uncle Ted was worse and had to go to Atlanta for treatment. I decided to go with him and get him settled before the treatments began.” He glanced at her. “You know the rest.”

Yes, she knew the rest. She had met John Gallo, and they had gotten caught up in a sexual maelstrom that had altered both their lives and produced Bonnie. “You told me that the death certificate was signed by a doctor at the VA hospital. What was the cause of death?”

“Pneumonia contracted after surgery.”

“And what was the name of the doctor who signed the certificate?”

“Lawrence Temple.” He paused. “I called the hospital, and he’s no longer at the facility. He’s now in private practice somewhere in San Antonio. I tried to check on any record of surgery being performed on a Theodore Danner, and they refused to give me any information on the phone.”

“So you want to go and question them in person?”

“No, I think we should go find Temple in San Antonio.”

She nodded slowly. “We’d do better to contact that doctor and find out why he falsified the death certificate. Catherine can dig out the information about the surgery. We can count on her.”

“Yes, Catherine won’t let anything stand in her way. She’s relentless.”

Her gaze narrowed on his face. There was something in his tone … “Do you resent that?”

“God, no. I admire it.” He grimaced. “It’s just that when her determination is turned on me, it becomes a force to be reckoned with.”

“You should be grateful that she’s on your side.”

“Do you think I’m not?”

“I don’t know what you feel about her,” she said quietly. “But she’s my friend, and for some reason, she believes in you. You’d better be damn grateful.”

“Or you’ll take me out?” His lips twisted. “You’re as fiercely protective of Catherine as she is of you.”

“Catherine doesn’t trust easily. She’s had a rough life. I won’t have her hurt.” Her gaze was searching his face. She was remembering bits and pieces, phrases, expressions that she’d ignored because of the urgency of the situation. But protecting Catherine had its own urgency. “Just what do you feel about her, John?”

He didn’t answer directly. “You don’t have to worry about her trusting me. She’s too smart for that.”

“Dammit, answer me.”

“What do you want me to say?” he asked harshly. “That I admire her, that I’m grateful to her for helping me when I didn’t deserve it. That I wouldn’t have forgiven myself if I’d let her be killed.”

“That’s quite a bit. Noble sentiments.”

“Noble? You know me better than that. There’s nothing pure or noble about me.” He met her gaze. “All that stuff pales beside the fact that I want to screw her so much that I ache with it. I haven’t wanted a woman like this since I met you all those years ago, Eve.”

She stiffened. The words were raw and his expression intense, reckless. Yet she shouldn’t have been so surprised. She had sensed … something when talking to Catherine, but neither Catherine nor Gallo would let down their guard enough to reveal an emotion this intimate.

“Are you satisfied?” Gallo asked. “No, I can see I’ve upset you. You shouldn’t have pushed if you didn’t want me to tell you the truth.”

“You did upset me.” Her gaze was searching his face. “I think you wanted to upset me, or you wouldn’t have just come out with it like that. Why, John?”

“Why? Good question.” He didn’t speak for a moment. “I think I felt guilty. Maybe I wanted absolution.”

“Absolution?” She frowned. “What on earth are you talking about? Because Catherine is my friend?”

“No, because I felt … unfaithful.”

She stared at him, stunned.

“Yeah, I know,” he said roughly. “It’s crazy. But then, everyone knows that about me.”

“Unfaithful to me? That doesn’t make sense. Good God, how many women have you had over the years?”

“That’s different. They didn’t matter. I didn’t feel … It wasn’t anything like what was between us.”

“And what you’re feeling for Catherine is like what we felt?”

“Yes. No. It’s different, but it … means something. I don’t know what.”

“That’s clear as mud. And so is your reasoning. There’s nothing between us, John. Whatever we were together vanished when you left me. Why the hell should you feel guilty?”

“I shouldn’t. You and I tried to keep what we felt from meaning anything but sex.” He added hoarsely, “You may have succeeded, but even back then I wasn’t so sure that I did. And after I was thrown into that prison, the memory of you stayed with me.” He paused. “And then there was Bonnie. I told you once that she’d bind us together forever.”

And Eve couldn’t argue with him on that score. Why else was she with him?

“You were special to me,” he said. “You’ll always be special. I know you’ve moved on. Hell, I’m beginning to think I’ve moved on, too. God knows, it took me long enough. So maybe next time I want to screw Catherine, I won’t feel as if I—” He drew a deep breath. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to let all this loose on you. Forget it.”

“I can’t forget it.” She stared at him in frustration. “And I can’t ignore it. This is nuts. You were not unfaithful to me because you want to go to bed with Catherine. We both know that.” Her lips thinned. “Absolution? John Gallo, that’s the height of absurdity.”

“Yes.” He smiled. “And I’m beginning to feel better with every word you’re hurling at me. What’s between us is so damn complicated that it’s good to get it out in the open. Now I can try to seduce Catherine and not worry about anything but having a good time.”

“I didn’t say that,” she said, exasperated. “You don’t have any responsibility to me, but you’d better act responsibly with Catherine.”

“You know I don’t have a history in that direction.” His smile faded. “But I’ll try to change my ways if it will please you, Eve. I guess I could try this pure, noble crap.”

“Bullshit,” she said bluntly. “You like your way too much, and I never remember you not trying to take it.”

“Not if you said no.”

But she had never said no to him. She had been too dizzy and hot and completely involved with her first sexual experience. And she doubted if Catherine would say no to him either. Not for long. He still possessed the sensual magnetism that had drawn Eve to him, but now it had matured and become even more potent. Eve could see it, feel it, but it didn’t touch her. As he’d said, she had moved on.

But to Catherine, Gallo’s charisma would be fresh and stormy and strike sparks.

“Don’t hurt her, John.”

“You flatter me.” He moved into the lane that led to the Mobile airport. “Catherine is probably tougher than either one of us. She wouldn’t let me hurt her.”

Eve hoped that was true. It was true that there was no one more wary than Catherine. But her friend had never met a man like John Gallo.

He glanced at her when she didn’t speak. “I’m trying to be good, Eve,” he said quietly. “I know I’d be rotten for her. That’s one of the reasons that I took off and put some distance between us. Catherine has the misfortune to believe in me.” His lips twisted. “Even after I came within a heartbeat of letting her be killed.” He shrugged. “So instead, I let you come along for the ride. Here we are together again, Eve.”

“Only until we find Ted Danner. It’s all about—” Her phone rang, and she glanced at the ID. “It’s Catherine.” She pressed the button and turned up the volume. “What’s happening?”

“I could ask the same of you,” Catherine said. “I didn’t like the way you left me, Eve. It wasn’t fair.”

“I know. I didn’t want an argument, and you would have given me one.”

“You’re damn right I would have.” She paused. “Is Gallo listening?”

“Yes.”

“You take care of her, Gallo. If you don’t, I’ll cut your heart out.”

“Always to the point,” Gallo said. “I have no intention of letting anything happen to Eve.”

“Intentions don’t always translate to the final product. Joe wants to talk to you, Eve. But I wanted to make sure you heard about the fingerprint tests that Joe had New Orleans PD run on the prints found in the gift shop at the alligator farm. The results just came in.”

“Danner?”

“Absolutely positive.”

Gallo muttered a curse as his grip tightened on the steering wheel.

“I heard that,” Catherine said. “It’s too bad you don’t like it, Gallo. Face it. He’s a murderer.”

“There could have been reasons.”

“And what reason did he have for tossing that night security guard to the alligators?”

“Self-defense. Quinn said there were signs of a struggle. He could have been surprised and acted instinctively.”

“Maybe. I’m not counting on it. I’m handing the phone to Joe, Eve.”

“Right.” She braced herself. “Where are you, Joe?”

“At the gate in New Orleans waiting for a flight to Atlanta. We’re going to go check out Danner’s records at the Atlanta VA Medical Center.”

“Gallo tried to do that. The administrative office wouldn’t give him any info. I knew you and Catherine would be able to find out about him.” She paused. “Gallo and I are going to San Antonio to check out the doctor who signed the death certificate for Ted Danner. I’ll let you know what we find out.”

There was a silence. “You will?”

“Joe, for Pete’s sake, I told you I wasn’t trying to close you out. It’s just not possible for me to work with you right now.”

“Because of Gallo,” Joe said harshly.

“No, because of Bonnie.” She added quickly, “I’ve got to go, Joe. I’ll call you when I have an update.” She hung up and turned to Gallo. “You heard it. There’s no doubt any longer. It’s Danner.”

“But how?” he asked through set teeth. “Why?”

“That’s what we have to find out.”

“You told Joe we were going to San Antonio,” Gallo said. “How do you know that they won’t be there before us?”

“I don’t. But it wouldn’t be smart of them now that I’ve explained my position. And Joe and Catherine are both very smart. They don’t like it, but they trust me.” She added quietly, “And I won’t violate that trust, John. They’ve gone through hell, and they deserve to see the end of this. You set the rules, and I had to go by them.” She shook her head. “No, I wanted to go by them. You scared me. I know how you feel about your uncle. I’m not sure how you’d respond if it came to a choice.”

“I didn’t let him hurt Catherine.”

“But Joe said you took a chance on a risky throw. Why?”

“I wasn’t thinking, dammit. I couldn’t believe it was happening. I meant to aim for his back.”