Hide Away by Iris Johansen Read Free Book Online Page A

him.”
    â€œHe was walking a tightrope with his hired killer, Walsh. I imagine every minute they were afraid of being butchered by Castino if he found out Salazar had paid for the kidnapping.”
    â€œNo one could prove it.”
    â€œThe situation is changed now. We have Cara.” Joe looked across the jetway at Cara and Eve standing in front of the huge windows. “And as long as Cara is alive, she’s more of a threat than she’s ever been to Salazar. Find out who this Kevin Roper really is, so I can identify that particular threat.”
    â€œI’ll work on it. But I’m not going to be your clerk, Quinn. You and Eve Duncan are the smallest pieces in my puzzle of how to control these cartels. But I’ll ask around.” He hung up.
    A moment later, Joe’s phone pinged, and the e-mail photos arrived.
    Just two photos but Manez must have thought they were enough.
    The Salazar photo showed a tall, handsome, heavyset man in his forties with a thick head of black hair and dark eyes beneath a beach umbrella beside a swimming pool. He was wearing slacks, his white shirt open to the sun. He was sitting next to an attractive plump blond woman in a bikini with her hair tied back in a ponytail. They were both smiling at a young boy sunning himself on the tiles beside the water. Salazar and his wife, Manuela; presumably the boy was his son. A warm family picture. No one would dream that the man was a murderer who would kill a child without compunction.
    He scrolled down to the next photo. It was taken on the street outside an outdoor restaurant. Castino was a dark-haired, slim, athletic-looking man who wore an elegant white suit that made his obviously good body appear excellent. He had fine features and a long nose that managed to look almost Roman. He was walking beside a tall, curvaceous, young woman with gleaming dark hair worn in a chignon. Natalie was dressed even more elegantly than Castino and was smiling and clearly talking vivaciously to him. Joe could see a faint resemblance to Cara in that face. Beautiful. Joe agreed with Manez that a man might go a little crazy over her. They were a perfect couple, assured, powerful, striding through life and paying no attention to anything in their path.
    Joe could see why Salazar might have wanted to destroy that arrogance with one swift blow.
    Yes, Manez had given him a capsule of the two men and their motivations with these two pictures. Joe needed more, but he couldn’t push any more right now. Manez and his men were strained to the breaking point with trying to keep order and sanity in this madness of vice and drugs he was facing. He’d help Joe if it wasn’t too taxing on his resources. And informants could be expensive and difficult to handle.
    He could only hope that Manez would be able to hit it lucky.
    *   *   *
    â€œYou look absolutely fascinated.” Eve’s gaze was on Cara’s face as the girl stood at the tall windows overlooking the runways. “That’s our plane at the gate. We should be boarding soon.”
    â€œI know. I heard them announce it.” Cara’s gaze never left the plane that was taking off on the far runway. “Look at them. Aren’t they beautiful? I’ve seen lots of planes on TV, but I’ve never been as close to them as this. Elena and I never had enough money to travel by plane. We always took her car or a bus. But jets have so much power … They seem to sing as they lift off, a deep roar and then the higher notes that follow…”
    â€œOnly you would hear music in that sound,” Eve said. “I’m certain that the neighborhoods surrounding the airport aren’t appreciating them as you are.” Yet it was entirely natural Cara would be able to hear music where others did not. Eve had been told by Cara’s teacher that she was an extraordinary violinist though Eve had never heard her play. “And I don’t hear