17 - Eve Duncan 06 - Countdown by Iris Johansen

Author:Iris Johansen
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Adoptees, Eve (Fictitious Character), Mystery & Detective, Women Sculptors, Duncan, General, Women Art Students, Suspense, Women Sleuths, Facial Reconstruction (Anthropology), Fiction, Louisiana
ISBN: 9780553586510
Publisher: Bantam Books
Published: 2004-01-02T06:00:00+00:00

13

What are you thinking about, Jock?” Jane’s pencil flew over the sketch pad. “You’re a million miles away.”

“I was wondering if you were angry with me,” Jock said soberly. “The laird is angry. He said I shouldn’t have tried to protect him from that Mario this morning.”

“He’s right. Mario was doing nothing wrong and you can’t just go around killing people.” Good God, how simplistic that sounded. “If MacDuff hadn’t stopped you, you’d have done something terrible.”

“I know that—sometimes.” Jock frowned. “When I think about it. But when I get worried, I can’t think, I just do it.”

“And you worry about MacDuff.” She looked down at the sketch. “What else do you worry about?”

He shook his head and didn’t answer.

Don’t push him. She sketched in silence for a few minutes. “Mario is very sad. It wasn’t MacDuff he wanted to hurt.”

“That’s what the laird told me. He wants to punish the man who works with—” The last name came out with difficulty. “Reilly.”

“Yes. And Reilly too. That should please you. Don’t you want Reilly punished?”

“I don’t want to talk about him.”

“Why not?”

“I’m not supposed to talk about him. Not to anyone.”

A fragment of that damn brainwashing was obviously still in place. “You’re supposed to do anything you want to do.”

A sudden smile indented his lips. “Except kill Mario.”

Good God, a flash of bitter humor. For an instant as she met his eyes there was nothing childlike about him. “Except kill anyone innocent of wrongdoing. But no should be able to control your mind or free speech.”

“Reilly.” Again he struggled to get the name out. “Reilly does.”

“Then you have to stop him.”

He shook his head.

“Why not? You have to hate him.”

He looked at her.

“Don’t you?”

“Not allowed.”

“Don’t you?”

“Yes.” He closed his eyes. “Sometimes. Hard. Hurts. Like a fire that won’t go out. When the laird came for me, I didn’t hate Reilly. But lately—it’s there, burning me.”

“Because you remember what he did to you.”

His eyes opened and he shook his head. “I don’t want to remember. Hurts.”

“If you don’t let yourself remember, if you don’t tell us where we can find Reilly, then there will be other people who are hurt and killed. It will be your fault.”

“Hurts.” He stood up. “I have to get back to my garden. Good-bye.”

With a feeling of helplessness, she watched him walk away. Had she even made a dent? She called after him. “I’m not finished with the sketch. Meet me here at five.”

He didn’t answer as he disappeared into the stable.

Would he come?

“You upset him.” MacDuff was walking toward her from the stable. “You were supposed to help him, not stir him up.”

“It will help him to remember that bastard Reilly. You must think so too. You told me yourself that you tried to get information out of him about Reilly.”

“And failed.”

“Maybe it was too soon.”

“And maybe the wounds are so deep that he’d bleed to death if he started probing them.”

“People are going to die, dammit.”

“I’m trusting Trevor to find Reilly before that.”

“But maybe it would only take a few words from Jock.

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