Page 12 of The Search

“Not so much. I made a good deal.”

She chuckled. “That’s what you always say.”

He smiled. “I told him it was joining the collection of a woman who should have been born a queen in the time of the pharaohs. There were no rules then but the ones they made for themselves.”

A shadow crossed her face. Things had been going so well that he had moved too fast. He pretended to misunderstand the withdrawal. “You were just being polite? You don’t really like it?”

She walked into his arms. “I love it. I always love everything you give me.”

She leaned back and looked up at him. Her eyes were night dark and he could see himself mirrored in them. His reflection was always better, almost godlike when he saw himself in Chen Li’s eyes.

She was gazing at him uncertainly. “Martin?”

Don’t scare her. She was closer to him than ever and there would soon come a moment when she would be his. Just don’t scare her.

He lifted her hand to his lips. “Happy birthday, Chen Li.”

One of her last birthdays.

He could feel warm tears blend with the rain on his cheeks.

“Rudzak.” He turned to see Carl Duggan coming toward him. “I’ve set the timer. We’ve got to be out of here before someone trips it.”

“In a minute. I want to leave Logan a present.” He carefully placed the box behind a boulder where it would be sheltered from the blast. He whispered, “Happy birthday, Chen Li.”

Rest in peace, Bonnie Duncan.

The minister’s words echoed in Sarah’s mind even as the casket was lowered into the grave. It wasn’t only Bonnie who was at peace now, she thought as she looked at Eve Duncan, who stood between Joe Quinn and Eve’s adopted daughter, Jane MacGuire. After all these years of searching for the remains of her child who had been murdered over a decade ago, Eve had brought Bonnie home. The DNA report that had just come through had confirmed these bones were her daughter’s.

Tears were running down Eve’s mother’s face, but Eve was not weeping. Her expression reflected peace, sadness, and completion. She had wept her tears for Bonnie long ago. Her daughter was home now.

But Sarah felt tears sting her own eyes as she tossed the rose in her hand on top of the casket.

Good-bye, Bonnie Duncan.

“I think we should leave the family alone to say their good-byes,” John Logan said in a low voice. “Let’s go back to the cottage and wait for them.”

Sarah hadn’t been aware that he had moved to stand beside her. She instinctively shifted away from him.

Logan shook his head. “I know how you feel about me, but this isn’t the time to burden Eve with it. We’ve got to help her get through this.”

He was right. She hadn’t been pleased when she had seen him drive up to the cottage a few hours before it was time to go to the burial site, but she couldn’t fault his behavior toward Eve and Joe. He had been both sympathetic and supportive. And he was also right about leaving the family alone now. She turned away from the grave and started the short walk around the lake toward the cottage. It was pretty here, she thought. Eve had chosen a lovely spot on a small hill overlooking the lake to bury her daughter.

“Where’s Monty?” Logan asked as he caught up with her.

“I left him in the cottage. Being at the grave site would have upset him.”

“Ah, yes, I’d forgotten what a sensitive canine your Monty is.”

“More sensitive than some people.”

“Ouch.” He grimaced. “I didn’t mean to slam your dog. I’m actually trying to be pleasant.”

“Are you?”

“And evidently not succeeding.”

“Right.”