Read Online Silencing Eve by Iris Johansen - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Iris Johansen
Ads: Link
get Eve away from Doane.”
“You’re not listening.”
“I’m listening very carefully. So carefully I’m hearing all the undertones and nuances.” He pulled out his phone. “Should I call Weiner and tell him to speed up trying to find that Toyota? We need to locate Doane very quickly if you think he may be on the move after the memorial service.”
Zander gazed at him for a moment. “No, I’ll do it.” He started to dial his phone. “You may have become bold as brass lately, but you lack a certain ability to inspire fear. Fear is our friend at the moment.” As he waited for the phone to ring, he looked up at Stang. “And if you try to pressure me again, I’ll broadcast to the four corners of the earth how much I value you. How I’d have a horrible time replacing you. I might even say I consider you as close as a brother.” He smiled gently. “You’d be dead within two days.
“Weiner.” He was speaking into the phone. “Zander. I hear you got my message, and you’ve started tracking. A Toyota 4-Runner? Where else was it seen? I need the results right away. I’ll feed you as much additional information as I can, but pull every string on the Internet and that network that you’ve set up. Now give me every location that you have on hand…”
CHAPTER
4
Lake Cottage
Atlanta, Georgia
SHE SHOULD BE ABLE TO TALK to Joe soon, Catherine thought.
It was getting dark, and the guests were gradually saying their good-byes to Joe and drifting away. The last photographer had snapped a few mood shots of the darkening lake and taken off.
However, Venable was still here and socializing with various guests, which was completely out of character for him. If she didn’t know him better, she’d think he was avoiding her. But Venable was never averse to facing anyone. He was probably just marshaling his thoughts and his arguments and would—
Her cell phone rang, and she glanced at the ID.
John Gallo.
Oh, shit.
She started talking as soon as she accessed. “I didn’t know, Gallo. I would have told you about Eve, but I only found out this morning, when I got to Miami. I did call, but I got your voice mail. It’s not my fault if you don’t answer your phone. It seemed all I was getting was people who didn’t want to talk to me. It was driving me—”
“Calm down,” Gallo said curtly. “I didn’t need you to tell me about Eve. I saw the story online three days ago. I was trying to get hold of you, but Venable blocked me at every turn.”
“I know.” She paused. “I thought you’d want to be here. If you knew three days ago, why didn’t you come to the service?”
“At first, I was trying to be diplomatic and kind to Quinn and Jane MacGuire. I was Eve’s past, and she had my child, Bonnie, when she was only a teenager. But Quinn was her present and future. I had no part in building that life, and I had no right to intrude.”
“At first? What followed?”
“I talked to Joe Quinn. We had an interesting discussion.”
“He told you.”
“He thought I was qualified to be helpful, and he didn’t mind using me or anyone else if it meant saving Eve. He’s desperate.”
Qualified? Yes, John Gallo was qualified in any enterprise that had to do with violence and mayhem. He had been a prisoner of war in a North Korean concentration camp, then had become an Army Special Forces agent whose specialty was infiltration and assassination. He was smart, experienced, and completely lethal. He had also had a few mental problems, fits of rage, due to torture while he was incarcerated in that hellhole of a prison. Catherine had met him when she had suspected he might have killed Eve’s daughter, Bonnie, during one of those fits of rage. Their relationship from that moment had been as turbulent and volatile as a perfect storm that neither of them could fight.
No, that wasn’t true. She was drawn sexually to Gallo, but there had definitely been a struggle to resist that magnetism. She had made her
“You’re not listening.”
“I’m listening very carefully. So carefully I’m hearing all the undertones and nuances.” He pulled out his phone. “Should I call Weiner and tell him to speed up trying to find that Toyota? We need to locate Doane very quickly if you think he may be on the move after the memorial service.”
Zander gazed at him for a moment. “No, I’ll do it.” He started to dial his phone. “You may have become bold as brass lately, but you lack a certain ability to inspire fear. Fear is our friend at the moment.” As he waited for the phone to ring, he looked up at Stang. “And if you try to pressure me again, I’ll broadcast to the four corners of the earth how much I value you. How I’d have a horrible time replacing you. I might even say I consider you as close as a brother.” He smiled gently. “You’d be dead within two days.
“Weiner.” He was speaking into the phone. “Zander. I hear you got my message, and you’ve started tracking. A Toyota 4-Runner? Where else was it seen? I need the results right away. I’ll feed you as much additional information as I can, but pull every string on the Internet and that network that you’ve set up. Now give me every location that you have on hand…”
CHAPTER
4
Lake Cottage
Atlanta, Georgia
SHE SHOULD BE ABLE TO TALK to Joe soon, Catherine thought.
It was getting dark, and the guests were gradually saying their good-byes to Joe and drifting away. The last photographer had snapped a few mood shots of the darkening lake and taken off.
However, Venable was still here and socializing with various guests, which was completely out of character for him. If she didn’t know him better, she’d think he was avoiding her. But Venable was never averse to facing anyone. He was probably just marshaling his thoughts and his arguments and would—
Her cell phone rang, and she glanced at the ID.
John Gallo.
Oh, shit.
She started talking as soon as she accessed. “I didn’t know, Gallo. I would have told you about Eve, but I only found out this morning, when I got to Miami. I did call, but I got your voice mail. It’s not my fault if you don’t answer your phone. It seemed all I was getting was people who didn’t want to talk to me. It was driving me—”
“Calm down,” Gallo said curtly. “I didn’t need you to tell me about Eve. I saw the story online three days ago. I was trying to get hold of you, but Venable blocked me at every turn.”
“I know.” She paused. “I thought you’d want to be here. If you knew three days ago, why didn’t you come to the service?”
“At first, I was trying to be diplomatic and kind to Quinn and Jane MacGuire. I was Eve’s past, and she had my child, Bonnie, when she was only a teenager. But Quinn was her present and future. I had no part in building that life, and I had no right to intrude.”
“At first? What followed?”
“I talked to Joe Quinn. We had an interesting discussion.”
“He told you.”
“He thought I was qualified to be helpful, and he didn’t mind using me or anyone else if it meant saving Eve. He’s desperate.”
Qualified? Yes, John Gallo was qualified in any enterprise that had to do with violence and mayhem. He had been a prisoner of war in a North Korean concentration camp, then had become an Army Special Forces agent whose specialty was infiltration and assassination. He was smart, experienced, and completely lethal. He had also had a few mental problems, fits of rage, due to torture while he was incarcerated in that hellhole of a prison. Catherine had met him when she had suspected he might have killed Eve’s daughter, Bonnie, during one of those fits of rage. Their relationship from that moment had been as turbulent and volatile as a perfect storm that neither of them could fight.
No, that wasn’t true. She was drawn sexually to Gallo, but there had definitely been a struggle to resist that magnetism. She had made her
Similar Books
