“Other side?” Eve repeated.

“Do you think your daughter is still alive?” She shook her head. “It was a spirit I saw. You might as well stop looking for her. It was her ghost that I saw running beside that man and trying to get his attention.”

Eve inhaled sharply as if the breath had been taken out of her. “A spirit?”

“I see them all the time. The first one was my first cousin, Edgar, about ten years ago. Then there was my neighbor, Josh Billiak, who was killed in an automobile accident in the next block. After that they just seemed to keep coming. It made me nervous at first, but then I got used to it.” She lifted her chin proudly. “I decided that I must be special or something. That’s why it didn’t surprise me to look out my window and see your Bonnie. No sirree, you’re not going to find her alive. She’s dead as a doornail.”

Joe wanted to strangle the woman. “Thanks for your time.” He nudged Eve toward the door. “We have to go now.”

“No thanks?” Nedra Tilden stepped forward and grabbed Eve’s arm, her dark eyes greedily searching Eve’s face. “You didn’t want to hear what I had to say, did you? But I did you a favor. You have to come to terms with the grim reaper.”

“You come to terms.” Joe opened the door. “We’ll wait until we have more evidence.”

“Wait.” Eve pulled away from him and looked at the woman. “You hurt me. Why did you want to hurt me?”

“I only did my duty,” Nedra Tilden said righteously. “You have all these cops and FBI people running around and spending taxpayers’ money. I barely manage to get by on Social Security, and they’re pouring out cash trying to find a lost kid. You should accept that your Bonnie has been butchered and let everybody go about their business.”

Eve turned pale. “But I can’t accept that.” She turned away and walked out of the house. “Any more than I can believe that if she was dead, she’d make an appearance to someone who is as vicious as you.”

Joe followed, but stopped to bite out to the woman who was starting to scurry after Eve out on the porch, “Say one more word and I’ll have you taken in for a psychiatric evaluation.” He slammed the door in her face and ran down the steps after Eve. “Vicious is right.” He opened the car door for her. “I told you she wasn’t stable.”

“That’s very close to saying I told you so, Joe,” she said dully.

“No, it isn’t. I’m just reminding you that you shouldn’t pay any attention to anything the bitch said.” He ran around and got in the driver’s seat. “None of that bullshit was in the police report. Evidently she was saving it for you.”

“How kind.” She was rigid, staring straight ahead. “I wanted to hit her.” Her hands were clenching on her lap. “No, I wanted to kill her. I’ve seen cruelty before, but not like that. I couldn’t understand why she’d do it. I’d never done anything to her, and yet she was drinking in my pain … she liked it.”

Joe nodded. “That’s why I wanted to get you out of there.”

“Thank you.” She looked back at the porch, and Joe could see her start to shake. She was sitting so straight, struggling desperately for control, but her body was betraying her. “I couldn’t understand…”

And Joe couldn’t take it any longer. He reached over and pulled her into his arms.

She stiffened. “No.”

“Shut up,” he said hoarsely. “You’re hurting, and I’m offering comfort. That’s all this is about.” It was a lie. But God, he hoped she believed him. He had to find some way to help her, or it would kill him.

She was still, frozen. Then she slowly, tentatively, relaxed against him. “She said ‘butchered.’” Her words were muffled against him. “She said my Bonnie was butchered.”

“Because she’s a crazy woman.” His hand was in her hair. He loved the feel of her, the textures of her. Ignore them, help her. “And you handled her; you told her the way it is. I was proud of you.”

“I couldn’t let her words hurt me, hurt my Bonnie.” She gave a long, shaky sigh. “I wouldn’t believe the police or you. I had to talk to them myself. And now look at me. I’m acting like a child.” She started to push him away.

Not yet. Another minute. Another hour.

Another lifetime.

His arms tightened, then he slowly released her. “You’re no child. You’re very brave. And I feel honored you let me be here to help you. That’s what friends are for.”

She met his gaze. “Are you my friend, Joe?”

“I think we’re on our way.” He pushed back a strand of red-brown hair that had fallen across her forehead. “Don’t you?”

She didn’t answer for a moment, then nodded. “I believe we may be. It feels very strange for me. I haven’t had time for friends. First, I was fighting my way out of the slums, then there was Bonnie.”

“I was fighting, too, but not in the same arena.” He started the car. “Come on, let’s find a restaurant and get some dinner. You haven’t eaten all day.”

“You don’t have to do this,” she said quickly. “I’ve taken enough of your day. You can take me home.”

“Yes, I could,” he said. “But I’m not. You’re going to eat and we’ll talk, and by the time you go home, you’ll have forgotten that bitch.” He grimaced. “Well, not forgotten, but you’ll have a different perspective on her. Now, where do you want to go to eat?”

“I don’t care.”

“I’ll pick someplace close to your place so that you can dump me and walk home if I bore you.”

She smiled slightly. “That’s a good idea.”

One step at a time. Just don’t let her close herself away from you, he thought.

She was looking out the window. “What if that woman was right? Bonnie could be dead. We both know it, Joe.”

“Yes, but we knew it before we went to see that witch. It was no revelation.”

“She said Bonnie wasn’t frightened. That was a revelation. I pray every night that Bonnie will be safe and not frightened.”

“Eve, back away from what happened tonight. She’s crazy. And you’re crazy to let anything she said linger with you.”

“Am I?” She glanced back at his face. “Is it a sign of our budding friendship to call me insane?”

“Damned right. I’m being honest. You said that was important to you. It’s important to me, too. Only the best of friends have the guts to tell you the truth.”

“I can see that,” she said quietly. “But no pity, Joe.”

“I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t tell you there will be moments that I won’t be able to help myself from pitying you. You can only feel what the situation dictates, and this situation pretty much sucks.” He smiled. “But I’m a callous bastard. I’ll have no trouble keeping it to a minimum.”

“Are you callous, Joe Quinn?” She tilted her head. “You don’t impress me as being … but we don’t know each other. All I know is that you’ve been kind to me.”

“Plus all the stuff you managed to squeeze out of the Quantico office,” he said. “I’ll let you judge for yourself after I tell you the story of my wicked life over dinner.”

She smiled. “That will be interesting. It will be good for both of us to think of something besides me and my problems. Are you promising to be honest about that wicked past, too, Joe?”

He nodded. “Every detail.”

Being honest about the past would be no problem.

It was the present that would have giant lapses of truth.

One step at a time. Protect her. Help her. Never let her see anything beyond what she wanted from him.

Damn, it was going to be hard.

*   *   *

“I LIKE THIS PLACE.” Eve gazed out the window at the Chattahoochee River flowing lazily only yards from the restaurant. “It’s peaceful.”

“Slindak recommended it.” Joe handed the menus back to the white-jacketed waiter. “You’ve never been here before? He said it was popular, and you’re a native.”

“I’ve heard of it.” Her gaze shifted back to him. “But it’s not cheap, and I’m a single mom with a daughter to support. A night out for me is a visit to McDonald’s.”

“Then you should have ordered something besides salad and a sandwich. No wonder you’re thin.”