postpone my other commitments.” She paused. “Please don’t give me a hard time, Joe. It won’t do you any good. I’ve decided I have to go.”
“You don’t have to go, dammit. You told me yourself that Jill Cassidy played you. Why should you let her have her way?”
“Because she made sure that I’d know her way was my way this time. I can’t do anything else.” She added wearily, “I’ll e-mail those photos and biographies Jill gave me to you. Then I think you’ll understand.”
“Oh, I’ll understand,” Joe said. “But it won’t make me want to keep from boiling her in oil at the earliest opportunity. I did a little more research after I hung up with you last night. I could see this coming. Granted, Maldara isn’t the powder keg it was two years ago. But between Zahra Kiyani’s power grab and all the other ex-mercenaries and crooks who are trying to line their pockets with what’s left of that country, it could still be lethal. I don’t want you there.”
“Three weeks. A month tops. It’s all I promised Jill.” Then she realized what she’d just said. “No, to hell with Jill. It’s what I promised myself. And I may not be able to do reconstructions on more than a portion of those children. I’ll have to examine the skulls and make a decision. I may be done sooner. But if I’m successful with only a few, it will show what can be done and might encourage the U.N. to hire someone else to complete the job.” She paused. “Remember when I said the timing was just right for you to go to Scotland Yard and Michael to take his trip with Jane? Well, maybe this timing is right, too. Maybe if I can help the relatives of those children, then it was meant to be.”
“I’m not in the mood for you to bring up fate at this particular time.” Joe was silent another moment. “I’m going with you.”
Just what she’d expected. “No, you are not,” she said firmly. “I wouldn’t get anything done with you floating around like a drone ready to strike. You’re going to stay at Scotland Yard, keep an eye on Michael, and call me on Skype as you’d planned to do. If I get nervous about anything, I’ll let you know.”
He didn’t reply.
“Look, Joe, I gave you the names of those officials at the embassy and the U.N. that Jill sent me. She even supplied you with a CIA operative and someone from MI6 to call. Check them out. They should be able to tell you anything you need to know.”
“Maybe. I recognized one of the names. I ran into Jed Novak two years ago when I was over here picking up a counterfeiter in Paris.” He was silent again, thinking. “They’d given Novak a team and sent him to go after a terrorist ring in southern France. He has a reputation that’s…impressive. I wonder what he’s doing in Maldara…”
“Discuss it with him and find out.” Jill had been right, Eve thought. A detective like Joe would feel more secure about her if he knew she was going to be surrounded by law enforcement he knew and understood. “I’ll call you when I get there. I’m sure by that time, you’ll have all the information you need.”
“Are you trying to get rid of me, Eve?”
“Lord, no.” The sound of his voice, the knowledge that he cared, was a comfort even when she had to argue with him. “I just have to get back to Nora if I’m going to finish her tonight. So just do all the things that will make you feel better about my going because it’s going to happen.”
He didn’t speak for a moment. “I think it is, dammit. So by all means I’ll do everything I can to prepare for it. Count on it. Good night, Eve.”
Eve put down the phone after he’d disconnected. There had been a tinge of grimness in that last sentence. He was already planning what he could do, whom he could use to protect her. She wished she was like Joe and could prepare and make plans for the weeks ahead. There was no way she could do that this time. She just had to go with what she felt.
Because she couldn’t see anything but the pitiful photos of those slain children and the siren call of the tales Jill had woven about each one of them.