Blood Game Read Online Free Page A

told me that the serial killer who she’d thought might have killed Bonnie hadn’t done it. She told me that you’d found a virtual killing ground of children on that island in the swamp that he had murdered.” She paused. “She didn’t tell me that you’d withdrawn from her like this. She downplayed it. But you didn’t even look at her. And not only her. Have I done something lately to make you angry with me?”
    “How could you? You’ve been in Paris at your art gallery.”
    “Maybe you think I should have been here and supporting Eve. I did try, Joe. She wouldn’t have it.”
    “I’m not blaming anyone for anything.” Joe’s smile was forced. “Look, we just have to work through this.” He checked his wristwatch. “And it’s time I got to the precinct and did some work on cleaning up that case. We still haven’t identified all those bodies.”
    “And you won’t tell me what’s wrong,” Jane said bluntly. “You’re running away. Don’t bullshit me, Joe. You and Eve practically raised me. I know you.”
    “Do you?” He started down the porch steps. “Then you know that I’m a cop and when I have a job to do, I do it. I’ll call you and Eve later and tell you what time I’ll be home.” He could feel Jane’s troubled gaze on him as he got into the driver’s seat. As he started the car, he saw Eve come out of the house and stand beside Jane on the porch. Two strong, intelligent women, the two women he loved most in the world.
    And because of their strength and intelligence he had to avoid them like the plague right now. He didn’t need them focusing that keen intelligence and perceptiveness on him. They might see something he didn’t want anyone to see.
    He waved as he backed the car out of the driveway.
    He’d be okay. It had only been the stress and strain of the years of searching for Eve’s little girl that had sparked that hallucination earlier this morning. He wasn’t nuts. As long as he recognized the problem, then it was no problem at all. There would be no more hallucinations.
    There would be no more ghostly visits from Bonnie.
    “WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME, Eve?” Jane watched Joe drive down the road. “I’ve never seen him like this. I know you’ve been having problems, but Joe was almost . . . distant.”
    “I couldn’t tell you what I didn’t know,” Eve said. “He was fine when I left to pick you up at the airport.” No, not fine. Joe and her relationship was strained, and the failure to find Bonnie on that island and bring closure to the agony of the years of searching had not made it any better. But he hadn’t been the stiff, almost remote man who’d greeted Eve and Jane when they’d returned to the lake cottage. “Yes, we’re not absolutely on the same page, but we’re working through it.”
    “Are you?”
    She shrugged. “We’re trying. We may not make it. If we don’t, it will be my fault. I have to find Bonnie, but that’s my obsession, not Joe’s. I don’t know why he doesn’t just walk away from me.”
    “Yes, you do. He loves you. You’re his center,” Jane said. “And he won’t walk away from you.”
    “He came close this time,” Eve murmured. “I told you, he needed for me to find Bonnie. He wants it over, Jane.”
    “You said you were working it out. As long as there’s hope, he’s not going to give up.” Jane gave her a hug. “He said that you were going through a rough patch. Maybe that’s all it was this morning, just a reaction to that horror on the island. I don’t know how in hell you survived.”
    “We had Megan. She was the one who almost didn’t survive. She went into shock and was in a coma for hours.”
    “So you told me.” She slid her arm around Eve’s waist and led her back into the cottage. “Though some of the things you told me are pretty hard to believe. Come on, let’s have a cup of coffee, and we’ll talk it out.”
    “I can’t make you believe in her, Jane. I thought Megan was a phony, but