*
He couldn’t see that wound on her temple on this damn reconstruction now. Duncan had carefully erased it. He held the skull higher.
It was as if the blow had never happened.
And those green eyes were blazing with defiance at him as they had when he’d broken her fingers.
No, they weren’t. Glass eyes. They were only glass eyes. But how had Duncan known that little girl had green eyes? How had she known about that pointed chin, those eyebrows?
Guess work. It was only a lucky guess.
And in another moment, all her work would be devoured in these flames.
“No, they won’t. I won’t let you.”
He froze.
Her voice.
His eyes widened in shock, his gaze locked with the green eyes of the skull’s reconstruction.
Ignore it.
He was hearing things.
He had been concentrating so hard on that long-ago night that he had only thought he’d heard Jenny speaking to him.
Hallucination.
As soon as he got rid of the skull, he’d be fine.
“No. I told you that you were stupid. You’ll never get rid of me.”
The voice wasn’t coming from that skull. It was coming from his left, over in the trees.
Don’t look.
“Are you afraid of me? I’m not afraid of you. You can’t do anything to me that you haven’t already done. But I’m only learning everything I can do to you. Look at me, Walsh.”
His head slowly turned.
And then he saw her.
White dress, black, patent-leather shoes, and those eyes as green as the glass ones in this damn skull.
Those eyes that had wept but never held fear.
He could feel his heart pounding and the cold sweat break out. “I’m looking at you, bitch. You’re not real. You’re dead. You’re only a damn hallucination. Once I settle this, I’ll forget you just like I did before.”
“And go on and kill that little girl in Carmel? Isn’t that what you’re thinking?”
“I’ll do what I please. And you don’t know what I’m thinking.”
“Then how did I know about the little girl? What’s her name, Walsh?”
“See, I told you that you didn’t know anything. If you were Jenny, you’d know. Go away.”
“So you can toss my skull into that fire? I can’t let you do that.” She took at few steps closer. “I haven’t decided what I’m meant to do with you, but I won’t let you destroy Eve’s work.”
“Let me? What can you do about it?”
“Try it.” She took a step closer, her eyes glaring into his own. “You can’t let it go. You remember when I bit your hand? I didn’t. Not until it all came rushing back to you, then I remembered. There are all kinds of things I don’t remember yet. But I think it will all come back to me. Except the pain. I may not ever remember that entirely. But I can make you remember your pain. Your hand will start to hurt just as it did that night, only the pain won’t go away until you take the skull back to the car.”
“I will drop it.” He started to release the skull into the flames.
Pain!
He screamed.
He backed away from the fire.
The pain lessened but didn’t go away.
“No, Walsh, I won’t let you destroy me all over again.”
Green eyes staring at him, golden skin gleaming in the firelight, lips tight.
He was cursing. “It’s not you. You’re not real. I’ll get over this; and then I’ll burn this skull. Then I’ll find wherever they’ve put your skeleton and burn every bit of you until you’re ashes.” His hands were shaking as he shoved the skull back in the FedEx box. “And then I’ll throw them into the ocean for the fish to eat.”