Stalemate (5 page)

She bent down and touched the top of the box. "It's...cold."

"Keep your hands off it. Evidence."

"I don't care. Dammit, Montalvo wouldn't want to blow me up. Open it. If you have to preserve your damn evidence, do it. But open the box."

"The two actions don't coincide. Oh, shit." He took his penknife and carefully cut the tape binding and slowly opened the lid. "Step back while I--"

Blood.

"Oh, my God," Eve whispered.

Joe slammed the lid of the box shut.

"No." Her voice was shaking. "I'm okay. Open it again."

"You've seen it. It's a man's head."

"Open it."

He hesitated and then opened the box again. Brown eyes stared blindly up at her from the man's head lying in the box.

"Gonzales?" she whispered.

"I don't know. We have no idea what he looks like. It could be Soldono."

She felt sick. "Why? I told him we'd talk."

"He might be nuts. He might have recognized it as a stall. Who the hell knows?" He took out his phone. "But I do know I'm going to get a forensic team out here to examine this box."

She nodded. "You're right. I probably shouldn't have asked you to--" She stopped, gazing down at the head. "Wait. There's something wrong."

"Tell me about it. Very wrong. The bastard beheaded him."

"No. The eyes..." She extended her hand toward the head.

"Don't touch him."

"I don't think..." She moistened her lips. "At least, the eyes..." Her fingertips touched the left eye. She drew a deep breath. "Bring the box inside."

"I'm not moving it."

"I want more light." She picked up the box herself. "If you won't help, get out of my way." She could hear Joe cursing as she set the box down on the floor inside the door. "It's not what we thought."

He's not what you think. He's not what anyone thinks.

Bonnie had said that about Montalvo, she thought absently. Or maybe Eve had sensed it from her conversations with Montalvo.

"What do you mean?" Joe asked.

"The eyes. They're glass."

"You're sure?"

"I wasn't until I touched it. It just struck an off note when I was looking at him. I've put thousands of glass eyes in reconstructions over the years. And if he has phony eyes, he could--" She turned on the top light and looked at the bloody head. "That son of a bitch."

Joe muttered a curse. "It's a fake."

"Not even a good fake. If it hadn't been so dim on the porch, we would have been able to tell. And the blood didn't help. It was immediate shock value." She was shifting the model from side to side in the box, examining it. "Dry ice to make us believe it had to be refrigerated. Everything done very elaborately just to scare the hell out of me. It's like a bratty kid's practical joke. I want to--" She stopped as she caught sight of something lying in the pool of blood in the bottom of the box. An envelope. She picked it up and tore it open.

"A letter?" Joe asked.

"No letter. A photograph." It was a photograph of a young, good-looking, dark-haired man with his arm around a smiling woman. Two children, a boy of about four and a girl who looked to be eight or nine, were standing before them. The little girl wore a stiff white dress and the boy was wearing a white shirt and tie. They looked like they were dressed up to go to church, Eve thought. "What the devil is this?" She turned the photo over and brushed a smear of blood that had leaked through the envelope to obscure the writing on the back. The ink had also smeared but she could read it. "Pedro and Maria Gonzales. Manuel and Rosa on her First Communion." Her hands were bloody from handling the photo, she noticed dully as she dropped it. "The head definitely resembles the man in the photo. I suppose Montalvo wanted us to know who he was. It's absolutely bizarre." She whispered, "I hope that's what he wanted to do."

"We've got to call Venable."

"Wait."

"Why?"

"Montalvo's going to phone me." She sat back on her heels. "Any time now. He must have known we'd find out fairly quickly that his surprise package was a fake. He's going to do a follow-up."

"Maybe."

"No maybe." Her gaze was fastened on the head. "He's going to do it. I couldn't be more certain."

The house phone rang.

She jumped to her feet and ran toward the phone.

"Did you get it?" Montalvo asked.

"What kind of sadistic bastard are you? What did you think to accomplish by that macabre joke?"

"You did get it. Then my timing is impeccable. I couldn't have my courier stick around to make sure. There was always the chance Quinn might set out on his trail, and the man is valuable to me."

"I got it. And it didn't fool me for more than a minute. Whoever did it was no expert."

"I didn't have a lot of time to have it done properly." He paused. "I had to examine my options. I was going to send you Gonzales's head, but I liked this alternate better. I figured it would get your attention."

"Is Gonzales still alive?"

"Perhaps. Perhaps not."

"Tell me."

He didn't speak.

"I told you I'd talk to you about the reconstruction."

"You were stalling me. I knew that would be your first reaction. Since I couldn't get a commitment from you, I thought I'd take our negotiations a step further."

"Did you kill Gonzales? Soldono thought you would."

"And Soldono believes he knows me very well."

"What about Soldono? We couldn't reach him."

He didn't answer her. "Did you like the photo? I took it from Gonzales's wallet. It's a good likeness of him. Much better than that exhibit I sent you."

"Is he still alive?"

"And his wife and children? A handsome family, aren't they? His wife and the boy and girl live in a village near the compound. He got a note from them yesterday. They don't understand why he didn't come to see them this weekend."

"Then let him go."

"I can't do that."

"Because he's dead?"

"Why don't you come here and see for yourself?"

"Tell me."

He didn't answer for a moment. "I don't like playing these games with you. He's not dead...yet. Neither are his wife and children."

"His family? You were going to kill his family?"

"Ask Soldono what the punishment is for traitors among we savages here in the hills. One must have a deterrent to keep men from stepping over the line. Examples must be set."

"Children?"

"No one knows better than you that children are far from sacred."

"You son of a bitch."

"I'll make you a bargain. You come and do my reconstruction and I'll forget about setting examples. I'll send Gonzales and his family away and forget they exist."

"I couldn't trust you."

"You can, you know. I keep my word."

"Bullshit."

"You're quite right. You don't know me. I'll have to give you something you want enough to take the risk. Let me see...Ah, I have it." He was silent a moment. "I hear a faint echo. Am I on speaker phone?"

"Yes."

"Because you wanted Quinn to hear every word. Turn it off. This is just between you and me."

"I'd only tell him what you said after you hang up."

"It's possible. Why don't we see? Turn it off."

Joe motioned for her to turn it off.

She picked up the phone and pressed the switch button. "Talk. What are you going to offer me that I can't refuse?"

"What do you want most in the world? What drives you and haunts you?"

She found herself stiffening. "I want answers, not questions."

"You want one answer." He paused and then said softly, "Bonnie. It's all about Bonnie, isn't it?"

"I'm going to hang up."

"No, you won't. Because there's no road you won't go down to find your Bonnie. Even one as murky as the one where I live. I'll be very brief. You want to find the remains of your daughter. You want to find her killer. The pervert they executed didn't kill her. You thought you'd found the true killer years ago but you're not sure. You couldn't prove it. I'll find your Bonnie for you. I'll find her killer. And if you want me to do it, I'll dispose of him for you so that you don't have to rely on the courts to do it."

"You can't promise me that."

"I can do it. I have a lot of strings I can pull and I know that criminal underbelly very well. I've been dealing with them ad nauseam of late. We strike a bargain and you get what you want. I get what I want."

"I get lies. You get your reconstruction. I probably end up in a grave in the jungle."

"That won't happen. I give you my word. But I can see how you might doubt my capability to do what I'm claiming. I can understand your skepticism."

"I'd be crazy not to be skeptical."

"When you refused the money, I thought it might come down to this so I started making plans. I thought I'd set up a test for myself to show you that I can do what I say."

"A test?"

"The reconstruction you're working on. Have you finished it?"

"Yes."

"Fax me a photo."

"Why?"

"You want to know who he is and who killed him. I'll find out for you. I told you I had many contacts."

"The police can find that out once they have the photo."

"Will they try as hard as I will? Even after they know who it is, will they go after the killer with every means possible? I don't think so."

She didn't think so either. The ratio of murderers found and convicted even after the bodies were identified was not that impressive. "How would you do it?"

"Oh, I wouldn't murder anyone unless that's what you wanted. Intimidation. Bribery. Whatever it takes." He paused. "Send me the photo. What do you have to lose? You haven't committed. It's only a test to see if I can give you what you want. This is a freebie. The big pot of gold is at the end of the rainbow. I don't give you Bonnie until you do the reconstruction. I'll expect the photo within the next twenty-four hours."

"You won't get it."

"I think I will."

"What if I don't send it? Is it going to affect what you do to Gonzales or Soldono?"

"Every action has a reaction. A lack of action can also cause events to change. Have you ever seen a time-travel movie where the hero changed the future simply by what he did or didn't do?"

"This isn't science fiction, this is real life."