Silencing Eve

as the car pulled out on the road. Doane hadn’t found the clay message.
    Safe.
    Not safe. That bit of clay could be found by a maid cleaning up the room and tossed out.
    It was the best she could do.
    She could only trust that Joe and Jane might be close enough on her trail that they would find the motel.
    And then they would have to find that message written in clay that she had so carefully hidden, she thought in discouragement. She wasn’t expecting much, was she?
    Not expecting, hoping, praying. It was a very slim chance but the only one she had.
    “You’re very quiet,” Doane said. “I guess you don’t want to be gagged. I’m glad you’re being smart.”
    She would have to be smart, she thought. She could rely only on herself as she had done in the mountains. She glanced around, trying to see some avenue for escape.
    They were on the outskirts of Casper, and there were very few buildings around except the motel.
    A tire shop directly across the road.
    A strip mall a mile distant.
    Police? State troopers?
    No. None in sight.
    Oh, for a Dunkin’ Donuts.
    Joe would not be pleased she’d had that thought. That old, stale joke always irritated him when he knew how hard policemen worked.
    Forgive me, Joe .
    Lord, she missed him.
    She leaned back on the seat and closed her eyes for a moment. I’m so tired of this, Joe. I want to see you, touch you. I want this to be over. Let it just be a bad dream .
    She opened her eyes to see Doane in the seat next to her, the passing stream of traffic and the knowledge that the nightmare continued. All exactly the same, she thought dully.
    No, not quite.
    She heard the throb of the rotors of a helicopter in the distance. Then saw the silver blur of metal on the horizon.
    But that was the only thing that had changed in that brief moment of poignant wistfulness, and it had nothing to do with wishes coming true.
    She had to make her own wishes come true and fight her own nightmares.
    She straightened on the seat and turned to Doane. “So what’s the next step? Where are we going now?”
    *   *   *
    “CASPER IS ABOUT FIVE MINUTES away,” Catherine said to Zander as she studied the map on her lap. “And that Starlite Motel should be right there.” Her finger tapped a building. “Have the pilot land somewhere nearby but not obvious enough to cause too much attention. Maybe in those hills over there.”
    “It’s difficult not having a helicopter landing cause attention,” Zander said dryly.
    “That’s why I said to try those hills.”
    “Any other orders?” Zander asked silkily.
    “No,” she said quietly. “Because you’re obviously the dominant type who objects to not being in charge. I know you’re in charge. I just have a problem with it when I know I’m just as competent as you are.” She took out her phone. “Now I’m going to call the desk at that motel and see if anyone of Doane’s description is registered and in what room. You do whatever you like about the landing. But please remember we’ll need a car to get to the motel once we land.”
    He stared at her for a moment and smiled faintly.
    “I had Stang arrange for a rental car before we left Denver. The driver is on standby within ten miles of that motel. All I have to do is call and tell him where to pick us up.”
    “Very good.” She started to dial.
    “I’m glad you approve.”
    “I never doubted that you were an expert in practically every way,” she said coolly. “You’d have to be to have survived all these years. I just question your judgment where daughters are concerned. It’s completely—” She broke off as the desk clerk at the motel answered. She immediately got down to business. During the call, she was aware of Zander’s gazing at her curiously, as if she were some strange, rare species. She didn’t care. She was curious about him, too, and he was stranger than she had ever dreamed of being.
    “There’s a man of Doane’s description registered in Room 7A,” she said a few minutes later as she hung up. “He’s easy to describe.” She made a face. “All you have to do is say he looks like your best friend or your favorite brother. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the photos of him. Anyone would trust that face.”
    “A number of children whom Kevin wanted lured into his web trusted his father enough to let him bring them to him.”
    “So I’ve heard. There’s something completely corrupt about deceiving and harming children.” Her lips thinned.