Taking Eve(85)
“You’ll get it done. I’ll be here beside you until it’s finished.” His big hand grasped her throat. “And you’ll finish soon. I want it done by tomorrow.”
“And what if I won’t work on Kevin? It would be foolish of me to complete him when that’s all you’re waiting for to shoot me.”
“But that’s not all I’m waiting for,” Doane said. “It’s true that I want to see him again the way he was before he was butchered. But it’s more than that.”
“You wanted proof of his identity?” She shook her head. “No, you know this is your son. DNA would be the legal proof, but you wouldn’t care about that.” Her glance went to the photo album on the floor. “No one is going to care about bringing to justice someone who killed a monster like him.”
“Oh, you’ve been looking at Kevin’s souvenirs?” He made a clucking sound as he picked up the album and put it on the desk. “But you shouldn’t have been so disrespectful. Kevin wouldn’t like it.”
“You mentioned one little girl. I guess I didn’t want to think that a ‘release’ for a killer like him would have to be plural. It was too painful for me.” She couldn’t take her gaze off the album. It was like Pandora’s box hiding all the evil of the world. “How many, Doane?”
“Kevin never kept count. I wasn’t with him when he was overseas in the military. I know he started needing release when he was fourteen.”
“How many?”
“I told you that—” He shrugged. “I suppose there were at least fifty or so. But they weren’t all little girls. He liked them best, but there were boys and even a few women.”
Eve felt sick. “But he liked the little girls best. Why?”
“He said that the release was more potent because the girls seemed to have a kind of strong purity.” His lips turned up with malice. “I’m sure he would have enjoyed your Bonnie. He likes little girls. Isn’t it nice that he still has one available? Perhaps since they’re together he’s enjoying her now.”
She wanted to kill him. He had chosen just the right words to lacerate. “They’re not together.”
“How do you know?” he asked softly. “I believe there’s some kind of connection.”
“Then you’re insane.” She tried to keep her voice steady. “She was special, and he was a demon.”
“I’m sure the parents of those girls in my album thought they were special, too.” He flipped open the album to the first page. “Look at them. Do any of them have a resemblance to Bonnie?”
“No.”
“You’re not looking.” He took her hair and forced her head toward the album. “Perhaps the little girl in the center. Anna Grassker. She had curly hair like your Bonnie.”
But not red curls, the child was blond. Yet Anna’s face was sweet and her eyes bright with joy, and it hurt Eve to look at that photo. “Why are you doing this?”
“You made me angry. I like things easy, and you’re making them hard.”
“Did you help Kevin kill those people?”
“Not all of them.”
“Some of them?”
“When Kevin needed me. I didn’t actually touch them, that would have spoiled the release for Kevin.”
“And that would have been horrible, right?”
“Yes, why take a life if it provided him no value?”
“How did you help him?”
“He trusted me to scout, to bring the little girls to him. It was easy for me. People like me, they trust me. Kevin was smarter than me, but I was happy and proud that I could help him. I got really good at it.”
Yes, Eve could see that he was proud. His son might have been a monster, but who was the most twisted? She could imagine a little girl looking up into that face and giving him her trust. “You’re his father. You could have stopped him. At some point, you would have had the opportunity to persuade him that what he was doing was wrong.”
“He wasn’t wrong. He was different. It took me a little while to realize that he couldn’t be held to ordinary rules. When I did, it seemed very simple and clear.”
“And you became his enabler.”
“I don’t like that word.” His hand tightened on her throat. “That’s what Kevin said they’d call me if I stayed by him in that courtroom.”
“Enabler,” she repeated deliberately. “You’re as dirty as your son. Why did you try to tell me that the court case concerned only one child if you’re so proud of helping him?”