Silencing Eve

working on a freighter that was due to leave Daytona in four weeks for South Africa. Sandra’s mother had brought her down there on vacation, and she was partying on the beach every night.” He shrugged. “So was I. Booze and drugs and sex. Sandra liked them all. I wasn’t the first or the last man that she took under that pier to screw.” His gaze was on her face. “You don’t like my saying that. You’re protective of Sandra even though she wasn’t a good mother to you.”
    “No, I don’t like it. But I asked you, and I’m not ignorant about Sandra’s past.” She paused. “And she was good to my Bonnie when she was alive. She loved her. Everyone loved her.” And she vaguely remembered Sandra’s telling her about that vacation in Florida and that Eve was conceived at that time. “If she was that promiscuous, how did you know I was your daughter?”
    “I didn’t.” He grimaced. “The next week I took off for Johannesburg. Three months later, I received a letter from Sandra telling me that she was pregnant and that she was certain that the kid was mine. I didn’t believe her.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because my shipmate, George Royce, who had also spent a good amount of time beneath the pier with Sandra, received a letter stating that she was sure George was the father. I figured that she had just sent out letters to all of her partners, hoping that one of us would believe her. She wasn’t too bright to send a letter to both George and me. She might have known we might talk to each other.”
    No, Sandra had never been bright. “Desperation?”
    “Perhaps.” He was silent. “But I preferred to think she was victimizing me. It was more convenient. I wasn’t a particularly good kid, but I still had a few ingrained scruples left at that period of my life. Enough to feel a twinge of guilt. I sent her some money and turned my back on her.”
    “But you came back later. Why did you come back?”
    He shrugged. “Curiosity? That possibility always stayed with me. Maybe because those nights in Daytona were the last carefree time I had before my life changed.” He corrected, “No, before I changed. I’m the one who joined a mercenary army in Johannesburg and discovered my true vocation. Any blame belongs solely to me, not fate. I learned to accept that truth with no excuses. That’s probably why I wanted to make sure that I’d made the right decision about Sandra.”
    “And how did you do that?”
    “DNA. It was difficult, but I managed to get your hairbrush and a blood sample.”
    She stiffened. “And what did the DNA show?”
    “That for once Sandra had told me the truth,” he said quietly. “You’re my daughter, Eve.”
    She inhaled sharply. She had been expecting it, but his words still came as a shock. “I’m surprised you went to those lengths.”
    “I was curious.”
    It could be true but she didn’t think that was the entire story. “And if I was a target because I was your daughter, then you had to know that someone else might find it out, too.”
    “Someone else did find out. Doane. I wasn’t careful enough when I was checking that DNA. I left a trail. At the time, I had no idea that a man could be so obsessed that he would spend five years hunting down every single bit of my history. I should have known. You wouldn’t be here now if I’d taken care of Doane five years ago.”
    “If,” she repeated. “Who knows? Doane is crazy. We just have to take what we’ve been given and try to get out of this. Though we haven’t been given a hell of a lot.” Her brow wrinkled thoughtfully. “Doane mentioned Kevin’s mother, Harriet, out of the blue. What do we know about her?”
    “That she’s in control, that her dainty little finger is on the detonator, and she’s only waiting to set it off until she sees Doane blow my head off. And that she’s probably going to be here very soon to take care of that little matter.” His brows rose. “Is that enough information?”
    “More than enough. How soon?”
    “She’s in Chicago, so we may have a little time.”
    “Doane hates her. We may be able to use that.”
    “Divide and conquer? Don’t count on it. Where my imminent demise is concerned, they stand united. I killed their beloved Kevin.” He added, “But all is not lost. Catherine will be scouring the coastline for a cottage with a graveyard of driftwood.”
    She stiffened. “What?”
    “Providing there really is a macabre collection of driftwood outside? Since