Imagination. Everything was as it was before Mom and Joe had left. Eve just wasn't accustomed to being alone any longer. On the island she had seldom been by herself. Even when she was working, Logan was never more than five minutes away.

Face it. The chill hadn't come from loneliness but from dread and nervousness. She was no more sure than Joe of how she would react to having that skull in her hands. If she would be able to close out the horror and be totally professional.

Of course she would. She owed it to Bonnie.

Or whoever the little girl might be. She mustn't think of her as Bonnie, or her hands and mind might play tricks on her. She had to view the skull with total detachment.

But when had she ever been able to do that? she wondered ruefully. Every reconstruction concerning a lost child was heart-wrenching, leaving her emotionally drained by the time she finished. But she had to control all emotion this time. It was absolutely necessary not to let herself fall into that dark pit.

Keep busy. Don't think about what awaited her. She reached for the telephone and dialed Logan's digital number. No answer. The call went to his voice mail.

"Hi, Logan, just calling to tell you that I'm at Joe's cottage. I'm fine and I'm going to get the skull tomorrow. I hope everything's well with you. Take care." She hung up.

Not being able to touch base with Logan made her feel even more isolated. That safe, sane life with Logan seemed so far away already and was growing more distant with every second.

For God's sake, snap out of it. She'd go for a walk along the lake and tire herself so that she'd sleep.

All the clothes in her suitcases were tropical, so she went into Joe's bedroom and found jeans and a flannel shirt. She put on her own tennis shoes and grabbed Joe's windbreaker. A moment later she was out the door and going down the steps.

SHE WAS ALONE.

Dom watched Eve Duncan stride briskly down the path to the lake. Her hands were in the jacket pockets and there was a faint frown on her face.

She was taller than he remembered but appeared very fragile in the oversize jacket. She wasn't fragile. He could see that in the way she moved, the set of her chin. Strength was often more of the spirit than the body. He'd had kills that should have succumbed immediately but had fought ferociously. She would be such a one.

All that subterfuge at the airport had been interesting, but he had been a stalker too long to be taken in by it. He had learned a long time ago that you had to keep one step ahead if you were going to reap your reward.

And that reward was almost in his grasp. Now that he knew Eve Duncan's whereabouts, he could put the game in play.

Georgia State University

"Good morning, Joe. Could I talk to you a minute?"

Joe stiffened as he recognized the tall man straightening away from a wall of the Science Building. "I'm not answering any questions, Mark."

Mark Grunard smiled engagingly. "I said talk, not question. Though if you really feel you need to open up and--"

"What are you doing here?"

"It wasn't difficult to figure out that you'd come here to pick up the skull. I'm only glad my fellow journalists are too busy trying to track down Eve Duncan. Now I have you all to myself."

Joe silently cursed the Atlanta PD for releasing the whereabouts of the skeleton. "The hell you do. No story, Mark."

"Do you mind if I walk you down the hall to Dr. Comden's office? I'll take off the minute we reach the lab. I have a proposition for you."

"What are you up to, Mark?"

"Something beneficial to both of us." He fell into step with Joe. "Will you listen?"

Joe studied him. Mark Grunard had always impressed him as being both honest and smart. "I'll listen."

"YOU CAME FOR the kid?" Dr. Phil Comden rose to his feet and shook Joe's hand. "Sorry I didn't have much on my report." He moved toward the door at the end of the corridor. "I read that Eve Duncan is doing the reconstruction."

"Yes."

"You know facial reconstruction won't stand up in a court of law. You should wait for the DNA."

"It's going to take too long."

"I guess so." He led Joe into the lab toward a bank of drawers similar to ones used in morgues. "You just want the skull?"

"Yes, you can return the rest of the skeleton to the Pathology Department."

"She thinks this is her kid?"

"She thinks there's a possibility."

"Bummer." He reached for the drawer handle and pulled it open. "You know when you're working on one of these kids you can't help but think about how they--shit!"

Joe pushed him aside and looked down into the drawer.

EVE ANSWERED THE phone on the first ring.

"It's gone," Joe said harshly.

"What?"

"The skeleton's gone."

She went rigid with shock. "How could that be?"

"How the hell do I know? Dr. Comden says the skeleton was in the drawer last night when he left the lab. It wasn't there at noon today."

She tried to think. "Could the Pathology Department have picked it up?"

"Dr. Comden would have had to sign the release."

"Maybe there was some foul-up and they picked it up without getting--"

"I called Basil. No one was authorized to pick up the skeleton."