She couldn’t breathe. She stiffened in shock. “You gave her to me.”
“Did you like the packaging? I took a long time figuring out just what to put together to make it meaningful. After all, I had to intrigue you. There wasn’t any chance that I’d let you ignore her and walk away from her, too.”
“Too?”
“You’re so much in demand, Eve. World-renowned, the one forensic sculptor everyone wants to hire to take those poor, broken skulls and give them some semblance of life again.”
This was madness. But he knew too much. And the accent was definitely Irish. She was beginning to believe him. Her hand was trembling as she pressed the record button on her phone. “That’s not what I do. I just want them identified.”
“But what you want and what’s needed can be entirely different,” he snapped, and she could sense the barely leashed anger.
“I’m not talking to you about how I work,” she said curtly. “Who are you?” She paused. “And why did you bring me Sylvie Jordan’s skull?”
“I think you must know who I am.” His voice was calm again. “Between your Joe Quinn and Gavin, you’ve made great progress. But that’s fine with me. I was only waiting for you to get this far along before I indulged myself by talking to you. It’s going to be a great game, Eve. I was barely holding myself in check until I had all the pawns in place so that I could start the first move. But that’s done now. Quinn will tell you all about it. Actually, I thought I’d have a little more time, but you have such efficient people surrounding you, don’t you?”
She braced herself to say it. “Norwalk?”
“Oh, yes. And if you know my name, you must know a good deal more about me.”
“I know you killed Sylvie Jordan and her mother. I know you’re a murderer and a monster.” She looked down at the reconstruction of Sylvie. “Why did you do it? What did they ever do to you?”
“Nothing. They were merely a means to an end.”
“Means to an end? What end?”
“Why, to you, Eve. It all ends with you.” He chuckled. “At least, this part of it does. All that horror and disbelief in your voice at what happened to poor Sylvie. But it was really all your fault. I might have gone another way to get to Kaskov if I hadn’t been so angry with you.”
“My fault? You’re crazy. I don’t know you. I never met Sylvie or her mother.”
“But everyone chooses to reach out or not. You chose not to reach out to me.” His voice was suddenly harsh. “So that’s why I decided that you had to be punished. First, it was only going to be the girl, Cara. She was the only one who was important to Kaskov. But then I realized that you were sitting there on your pretty lake thinking that you were some kind of goddess. And you’d not only cheated me, you’d helped Kaskov by taking in his granddaughter and protecting her.”
“Helped Kaskov? He’s nothing to me. Cara is the only one who’s important to me.” She drew a deep breath and tried to control herself. “Why did you call me? What are you going to get out of telling me this?”
“Why, satisfaction. I want you to know what’s coming. My brother, Sean, never knew, and I’m grateful.” His voice was low, intense, bullet fast. “But you’re going to know, feel it, taste it, as, one by one, your family dies. Did you know I almost took your son that first night? But I had to keep to the plan. I wanted you to see it happen.”
“Michael.” She felt a bolt of pure panic. “Don’t even speak his name. I’d kill you before I’d let you touch him.”
“I will touch him. And you’ll see it, Eve. I’m going to hang up now, but I don’t think I’ll be able to resist phoning you again. This has been such a very satisfactory call even though I’m sure you recorded it. But that’s okay, I like to think of you playing it over and over. I was feeling very much alone. I feel that way all the time now. It’s good to know that I can reach out, and suddenly you’re right here with me.”
“Wait.” She had to keep him talking. She had to know more. Everything was terrifying and crazy, but he was a threat who had to be stopped. “If this is all about me and Kaskov, why Sylvie? Why did you kill Sylvie?”
He laughed. “You weren’t listening. Means to an end, Eve. Tit for tat. I needed a twin.” He cut the connection.
She stood there for a moment, staring down at the phone. She felt frozen. She’d been bombarded by ugliness and monstrous shock … and bewilderment. Is that what Norwalk had wanted her to feel? There had been so much venom in his tone. She had no doubt he’d been telling the truth about the satisfaction he’d been feeling about exposing her to that poison. How long had he been anticipating bringing her into his cocoon of horror?
But hadn’t he done that when he’d handed her that skull to reconstruct? And since that night, he’d gradually been increasing the terror and tension while remaining like a macabre shadow just out of sight. But now he felt confident enough to come out of the shadows. My God, he’d almost been boasting.
All pawns in place.
She gazed down at Sylvie’s beautiful face and those parted lips that made her look so eager and alive.
Means to an end. Only a means to an end.
She felt sick.
But that would mean weakness, and she wouldn’t let herself be weak because of anything that bastard had said. She drew a deep breath and turned away from Sylvie and moved across the room. Her hand was shaking a little as she dialed Joe.
He answered after the first ring. “I was just going to call you.”
“Come home, Joe,” she said unevenly. “I need you home. Now.”
“What’s wrong?”
She’d scared him. “Everyone’s safe. But we have to talk. We have to figure this out. Everything has changed. Come right away. Okay?”
“I’m on my way. I was heading back anyway. I’m calling the precinct after I hang up from you.” He added grimly, “You’re right, everything’s changed.”
“The precinct?”
“I just found Kaskov’s man, Sakov, at the far end of the lake. His throat has been cut.”
*
“Are you going to tell us what’s happening?” Cara asked Eve in a low voice as they watched the officers, techs, and plainclothesmen streaming over the far bank. “Other than the obvious. But since you’ve never even had anything to do with Kaskov’s man, Sakov, I didn’t think you’d look this shaken. You’re white as a sheet, Eve.”
Eve nodded tensely. “I’m fine. I’ll tell you more when I figure it out myself. I have to talk to Joe first.” She grimaced. “I didn’t get a chance to do that before this place was overrun by all his police buddies.” She glanced back at Darcy and Michael sitting on the couch watching a DVD of Darcy’s Golden Days. “I’m just grateful that you and Darcy are distracting Michael while all this is going on.”
“I had to tell him what was going on out there. There was no hiding it,” Cara said. “He took it well. Like you, he’d never met him, so I think it was no shock.” Her brow wrinkled. “Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Michael shocked. Is that a good thing?” She shrugged. “Anyway, I’ll take it that way. Look, do you want Darcy and me to take Michael to Baskin Robbins to get some ice cream after he and Darcy stop making fun of her sitcom? It would get him away from—”
“No!” Eve said sharply. “He stays on the property. All of you stay close to the house. No one takes Michael away from here.”
I will touch him.
“Okay,” Cara said soothingly. “Just a thought. Hey, we’ve got that ice-cream maker Joe used last Fourth of July. We’ll take it down to the barbecue area and make our own. That’s only a few feet away from the porch. Is that all right?”
Eve nodded. “That’s fine. Sorry.”