She nodded and held the door for him. “Put the box on my worktable and call Forensics and get them out here for testing right away.”
“I’ll do it while I take a look around the property.” He placed the gold-wrapped box on her worktable in the studio area. “Lock the door behind me.” He headed back toward the door. “I don’t have to tell you not to touch anything until Forensics gets through with the initial investigation.”
“Just get them here soon.” She followed him to the door. “Be careful.” She kissed him quickly. “And I’m not about to do anything with that skull until I make sure Michael is okay and safely in bed. I don’t like the fact that he was the one who sent you out there.”
“A bear,” he reminded her.
“Maybe.” She closed the door and locked it. Then she headed across the living room toward the bedrooms. She carefully averted her eyes from the gold box on her worktable as she passed by her studio. Beautiful gold paper covering a horror of blackened skull.
But skulls were never a horror to her, the horror was when monsters reached out to make them that way.
Michael’s nightstand lamp was on, and she paused a moment in his doorway gazing at him. His eyes were shut, but she knew he was not asleep. Clean and shining and beautiful, wonderful and yet also full of wonder.
She saw Cara’s latest CD on top of the CD player on his nightstand. His photo of Cara was beside it. It was a picture he had snapped of her with his phone camera down at the lake. Cara was dressed in shorts and a white shirt and sitting cross-legged with her violin in her hands. She was smiling, her long dark hair pulled back in a ponytail and her brown eyes were shining with affection and humor. Eve had always loved that photo and searched out a frame for Michael when he had brought the picture to her. It showed more than the Cara who had a certain dark exotic beauty inherited from her Mexican father and Russian mother. It showed the depth, the spirit, the clean intensity of the young girl. And the heart, she thought, definitely the heart …
“Mama?” Michael opened his eyes that were so like the rich, tea color of his father’s. “You came to say good night?”
“Among other things.” She crossed the room and sat down on the bed beside him. “Don’t worry, I’m not about to lecture you anymore. That’s over.” She took his hand. “Bear, Michael? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You would have gone out to see for yourself.”
“I guarantee I wouldn’t have confronted a bear without protection.”
“But Dad is protection, isn’t he? No need for you to have to do it.”
She shook her head. “And you think we all have our places and duties? Sometimes it doesn’t work like that. So come to me and tell me if you see a bear.”
He smiled. “I’ll tell you.”
But he didn’t say when he would do that, she thought ruefully. And anyone would think she was crazy to suspect him of avoiding that commitment. He was only a child.
“I want you to do that,” she said quietly. “It will make me unhappy if you don’t.”
He hesitated, then nodded. “Then I have to do it.” He burrowed close to her. “Good night, Mama.”
“Oh, I’m dismissed?” She smiled down at him. “Okay, I’ll accept it, Michael. But there’s another thing I wanted to tell you. A few of the people your dad works with are coming over soon. They may make noise. I’ll close your door, but I didn’t want them to startle you. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
“I won’t be afraid of them.” His face was muffled against her. “Don’t you be afraid, Mama.”
She stiffened. “I won’t. Everything’s okay, Michael.”
“No. Not now.” He rolled back onto his pillow and pulled up his blanket. “Maybe soon…”
She sat there, gazing at him. “Soon?”
He smiled. “Cara’s coming. That should make it better.”
“She always makes things better. Did you play her CD when you got to bed?”
“No, I’ll do it tomorrow.”
But he’d been so eager to play it Eve knew. Though she knew she would not be playing it tonight either. “Tomorrow will be good, too.” She kissed him on the cheek and stood up. “You can look forward to it.” She headed for the door. “Remember, if you wake up, it’s only the people from your dad’s work.”
“I’ll remember.”
She stopped at the door. “A bear. It was so dark out tonight. Clouds. No moon. Why did you think it was a bear?”
“I only told Dad it might be a bear.”
“Why?”
He was silent. “Big, still, hungry, full of darkness. A bear could be like that, too, couldn’t it?”
Too?
She could feel a chill go through her. “I suppose it could. Good night, Michael.” She closed his door behind her. She stood there a moment while she recovered from that sudden icy fear.
Full of darkness.
Whatever Michael had seen or sensed out there had been full of darkness. In that moment, darkness had reached out and touched him. All his life she had been trying to see that he was only surrounded by joy and sunlight. That he would never be drawn down into the darkness that would mean he would leave her as Bonnie had done.
No!
She would not have it. Never again.
Yet that darkness had come, wrapped in gold and mirrors, and it had called Michael toward it.
But she would fight it with all her strength.
And she would not let it come near him.
*
“They want to take the skull back to the lab,” Joe told Eve in a low voice. “In case they decide to do some more tests.”
“No.” She glanced at the four techs who were gathered around the skull. “They’ve taken DNA, tooth impressions, X-rays, made an impression of the skull itself. Taken samples around that bullet hole, done a dozen other forensic tests. They’re done, Joe. The skull is mine now. I’m going to do the reconstruction.”
“A reconstruction may not be necessary if they can get another form of ID.”
“It’s necessary for me.” She added jerkily, “It was necessary for him, or he wouldn’t have delivered her to me.”
“Her?”
“Female Caucasian from what I can tell. Forensics hasn’t let me get close enough to determine anything positively. I certainly can’t judge age or if this skull suffered additional trauma other than that bullet wound in the temple before he burned her.”
“You might run into a fight trying to keep her,” Joe said. “Forensics will want to be in control.”
“They can have control of the box. They can have the mirrors. They don’t get the skull. I’m ready for a fight.”
“I can see that.” His eyes were searching her face. “Would you care to elaborate?”
“I’ve been sitting here watching all those experts working on that skull, and I’ve been thinking of that man standing out there in the woods with that box in his hands. You said he must have stood there a long time.” She met his eyes. “That means he was there when you and Michael drove up.”
“Yes.”
“And you left Michael in the car.”
He went still. “Are you blaming me?”
“No, don’t be ridiculous. Michael was within calling distance. The property is usually safe. How could you know … that … he was out there.” Her voice lowered. “What I’m saying is that he saw Michael. And when he brought that skull to the house, he didn’t put it on the porch or in front of the door. He put it on the passenger seat of the Jeep where Michael was sitting when you drove up.”
“Son of a bitch.” Joe was swearing softly. “Why didn’t I put that together?”
“You’ve had a few other things on your mind,” Eve said. “I’ve just been sitting here looking at that skull.”
“And thinking that putting that skull on Michael’s seat was a warning.”
“Or a prediction. Either way, I’m not letting that skull leave the house until I know who she is, maybe not then. He wanted me to have it, and he took a lot of trouble to do it. Perhaps it means something to him. Maybe he’ll come back for it.”
“That’s the last thing I want to happen,” Joe said. “I’ve already started to think about how to keep you and Michael safe.”
“I’m not worried. Like Michael says, you are the protection. You’ll just take extra precautions.”
“Damn right I will.”