She grabbed the cell from the nightstand and punched the button. “Hello.”
“Kendra Michaels. It took you a while to answer. Did I wake you?”
“Yes.” She rubbed her eyes. “But it was time. I didn’t mean to sleep this long. I haven’t been getting a lot of rest lately. Why are you calling, Kendra?”
Kendra was silent a moment. “Curiosity. I don’t like leaving anything undone. It nags at me. Did you find your sister?”
“Yes, she’s with us now.”
“And how is she?”
“How would you expect her to be? Bewildered, suspicious, scared, brave, angry. I keep thinking of Sleeping Beauty and what she must have faced when she woke. Even if I help Beth through this nightmare, she’ll still have a hell of a lot with which to contend just coping with a life she’s not prepared to face.”
“Even if she gets through?” Kendra asked impatiently. “I thought that finding her would be the difficult part. Why the hell else did you make me come up there and help you? I gave her to you, now it’s your job to straighten out the rest.”
Eve smothered a smile. That rude demand was so typically Kendra. “I’m doing my best. There have been a few obstacles in the path.” She quickly filled Kendra in on everything that had taken place since she had left, and ended with, “But as Beth says, we’ll work our way through it.”
“It doesn’t sound as if you’re doing very well.”
After putting their scant progress into words, Eve could only agree with her. Every time they took a step forward, they were stopped in their tracks. “We have Gelber’s disc. That may lead us somewhere.” She changed the subject. “How is Justin?”
“Good. Breakthrough. I’m working with his parents on the follow-up.”
“Fantastic.”
“Yes, it is.” She added, “Yes, I am.”
Eve chuckled. “No doubt about it.”
“And since I’m so fantastic, it would be very clever of you to try to persuade me to come and help wrap this up for you.”
Eve’s smile faded. “Clever isn’t right. Four murders in the past couple days. You never bargained for that when you agreed to help us. Beth was just a missing person.”
“Who turned out to be a victim of attempted homicide. I’m having problems turning my back on her.”
“You shouldn’t. Beth’s my problem. Concentrate on Justin, Kendra.”
“I am. He doesn’t need me right now. You’d be a good fill-in.”
Eve couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re impossible.”
“I have that reputation.” After a moment, she added, “I don’t like it that Drogan got so close to you. One bad break, and you might have been one of those victims.”
“I don’t need you to guard me. I’m not alone, Kendra.”
“Shit happens.”
“Not with Joe around.”
“If you told Joe I’d offered to come, he wouldn’t turn me away. He wouldn’t worry about how right or moral it was to throw me into the mix if it would deflect attention from you.”
“He’d worry.” But she couldn’t argue that Joe would do exactly as Kendra was guessing. “No, Kendra.”
“Okay. Just tell him that I called,” she said. “And say hello to Beth for me. I’d like to meet her sometime. I’m curious about the chemistry between you.”
“You’re curious, period. You remind me a little of Beth in that way. She has a voracious appetite for learning everything, seeing everything.”
“Understandable. I was the same way after I gained my sight. I was no Sleeping Beauty, but I had my own garden of thorns to fight my way through. Just watch that she doesn’t tear herself to pieces trying to do too much, too soon.”
“That’s the least of my worries right now. The next move is just keeping her safe from Drogan. Thanks for calling. Bye, Kendra.” She hung up.
Too much, too soon.
She could see Beth racing through experiences as she had those downhill slopes, and crashing or burning.
But as she had said, preventing that was low on her priorities at the moment. Forget it. Kendra’s call had made her even more uneasy, and she had to put it behind her.
She swung her feet to the floor as she called Joe’s cell number. “Where are you?”
“Newell’s room, working on the disc. I thought I’d let you sleep.”
“I just woke up.” She paused. “Kendra called and woke me. She didn’t like the idea that Drogan was so close. She offered to come if we needed her. I told her we didn’t need her.”