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  Eve frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  “You and Joe have a giant problem, and I don’t want to make it any bigger.”

  “How could you do that?”

  “Easily.” Her lips twisted. “I’m good at what I do. I’m an expert. I just set my mind to it and cause the sky to fall.”

  Eve slowly rose from the swing and went to stand beside Catherine. “Talk to me.”

  Catherine looked away from her again. “I told you I’d pay you back, remember. I was so grateful, I wanted to give you what you wanted most in the world.”

  “And I told you to forget it.”

  “That’s not in my makeup.” She was silent. “What you want most in the world is to bring your Bonnie home. To do that, you have to find her killer. When I came home from Hong Kong, I had lots of time to concentrate on thinking about your problem. Luke didn’t want anything but his books. I tried to look at the crime from an objective and fresh point of view. Then I started to dig. I used every contact and information-gathering unit I had at my disposal and at Venable’s disposal. We even tapped the NSA.”

  Eve could feel her chest tightening. Don’t hope. The search had gone on too long for Catherine to just step in and perform a miracle. “Joe was FBI at the time Bonnie was taken. We didn’t exactly stop at local law enforcement.”

  “But all the information wasn’t available then.”

  “I know that. My friend Montalvo has recently given me a list of three new suspects. Two didn’t pan out, but I still have the third one to investigate. Paul Black. Is that the name you ran across?”

  “His name popped up.”

  Her gaze narrowed on Catherine’s face. “But?”

  “I was more interested in someone else.”

  “Who?”

  “He had opportunity. He might have had motive.” She was speaking quickly, tersely. “In this type of crime, there’s ample precedent for this kind of perpetrator.”

  “Dammit. Why are you being so evasive?”

  “Joe. I can see you’re having to walk very carefully where he’s concerned. He’s very emotional about your obsession with Bonnie. He’s nuts about you.” Her hands tightened on the porch rail. “And he doesn’t need to come face-to-face with this to tear him apart. Hell, it might tear you both apart.”

  “Catherine.”

  “Okay.” She drew a deep breath. “Joe has been thinking about you as being totally his own since the moment you met. It’s been the saving grace when he had to come to terms with your obsession with Bonnie. It would disturb the hell out of him to lose that security.”

  “There’s no way he would lose it.”

  “No? You’re very cool, very controlled, but it wasn’t like that always. There was a time when you lost your head and spun out of control over a man.”

  Eve was beginning to see where Catherine was going. No, it couldn’t be. It was impossible. “Catherine, who killed my Bonnie?”

  “I didn’t say I was certain.”

  She was shaking. “Tell me. Tell me the name.”

  “You want a name?” Catherine drew a deep breath. “The name you didn’t even see fit to put on the birth certificate, Eve,” she said gently. “Bonnie’s father, John Gallo.”

  Also by Iris Johansen

  Shadow Zone (with Roy Johansen)

  Eight Days to Live

  Blood Game

  Storm Cycle (with Roy Johansen)

  Deadlock

  Dark Summer

  Quicksand

  Silent Thunder (with Roy Johansen)

  Pandora’s Daughter

  Stalemate

  An Unexpected Song

  Killer Dreams

  On the Run

  Countdown

  Blind Alley

  Firestorm

  Fatal Tide

  Dead Aim

  No One to Trust

  Body of Lies

  Final Target

  The Search

  The Killing Game

  The Face of Deception

  And Then You Die

  Long After Midnight

  The Ugly Duckling

  Lion’s Bride

  Dark Rider

  Midnight Warrior

  The Beloved Scoundrel

  The Magnificent Rogue

  The Tiger Prince

  Last Bridge Home

  The Golden Barbarian

  Reap the Wind

  Storm Winds

  Wind Dancer

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  CHASING THE NIGHT. Copyright (c) 2010 by Johansen Publishing LLLP. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

  www.stmartins.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Johansen, Iris.

  Chasing the night / Iris Johansen. — 1st ed.

  p. cm.

  ISBN: 978-0-312-65119-0

  1. Duncan, Eve (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Facial reconstruction (Anthropology)—Fiction. 3. Kidnapping—Investigation—Fiction. 4. Women sculptors—Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3560.O275C47 2010

  813’.54—dc22

  2010029216

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Epilogue

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Epilogue