“Is that why you want to talk to Joe?” Her lips tightened. “No way, Sandra. I won’t let you put him on the spot like that.”
“No, that’s not why I need him.” She took her cup of coffee and wandered over to the reconstruction on the worktable across the room. “Another one, Eve?” She made a face as she looked at the skull that looked like a voodoo doll with the red markers piercing it like swords. “Ugly. I’d think you’d get tired of this job. So depressing.”
And Sandra had shied away from anything depressing all her life. That rejection was evident in every aspect of her appearance. She must be seen as young and beautiful no matter what her age. That’s why she had asked Eve to call her by her first name from the time Eve was only a child. She had always been Sandra to her daughter. She was smaller than Eve and very pretty, with stylishly layered red-brown hair that flattered a face that had undergone at least two face-lifts, to Eve’s knowledge. Very good face-lifts—she looked almost as young as Eve these days and was far better dressed. She was wearing a short beige skirt, high heels, and a cream-colored hip-length sweater with a glittering gold multistrand necklace.
“Yes, I do get depressed occasionally,” Eve said quietly. “How can I help it? But what I’m doing can bring resolution to parents who have lost their children to monsters. You know that, Sandra. I’d have been grateful if someone had been able to do the same for me when Bonnie was taken.” She looked her in the eye. “We both went through hell not knowing, remember?”
Her eyes slid away. “I try not to remember. I’m not like you, Eve. You’re stronger than I am. You always work and try to change the world. Well, I don’t care about the rest of the world. I care about me.” She lifted her chin defiantly. “And why not? I grew up in the slums and kept getting beaten down. I never hurt anyone. All I ever wanted was a good time. I deserve the right to forget about all that ugliness.”
“I grew up in those same slums, Sandra.”
“It was different for you.” She walked away from the reconstruction. “You made it different. I was weaker; I couldn’t fight them. But that doesn’t mean I was wrong. I had to do what they told me.”
Eve frowned. What was Sandra talking about? The drugs she’d been on all those years ago? “I’m not condemning you for anything, Sandra.”
“You’d better not. I did the best I could. My mother wanted me to have an abortion when I got pregnant with you. I kept you.”
“This is all past history. Why are you bringing it up now?”
“I don’t know.” She gestured toward the skull. “Maybe it’s that ugly thing. It made me think about— Where’s Joe? Shouldn’t he be home by now?”
“Soon.” Sandra was definitely upset. Her hands were shaking, there was color in her cheeks that wasn’t rouge, and she was moving around the room like a bird afraid to land. Joe didn’t need to have to deal with her in this state. “Maybe. It could be longer. Why don’t you talk to me? Joe will tell me anyway. We don’t keep secrets from each other, Sandra. Why do you need a police detective?”
“I don’t need a detective. I just want to have someone check into something for me.” She amended quickly, “Well, not for me. It’s for a friend in my casino club. Jackie Mestrad.” She frowned. “But I don’t want to talk to you, Eve. That’s not what I planned. I don’t want you involved.”
“What you ask Joe involves me. So we’ll wait for Joe, and you can tell us both.”
“Oh, very well,” she said, annoyed. “But it’s practically obscene that you’re so close. You’d think that two people would want to live their own lives.”
“Jackie Mestrad,” Eve prompted.
“It’s just a favor. Jackie’s concerned about a cousin, a young woman in a mental hospital in California who seems to have disappeared, and I told her I’d have Joe check it out.”
“California?”
“Santa Barbara. Well, it’s not as if he’d have to fly out there. I wouldn’t ask him to do that.”
“I wouldn’t think that you would,” Eve said dryly. “Since California is a little out of his jurisdiction. Has your friend contacted the police out there? What does the hospital say?”
“Nothing. They say there’s nothing to worry about. The woman