“What do you want, Venable?” he asked as he pressed the button.

“Is Catherine Ling there? She’s not answering her phone.”

“She’s here. She’s been here all afternoon. Maybe she doesn’t want to talk to you. The jobs you send Catherine on aren’t always pleasant. It could be that she wants a vacation.”

“Catherine?” He added testily, “I told her to take a vacation after Russia, but she dove right into this inquiry and pulled me in with her.”

“What investigation?”

“Just an inquiry. Tell Catherine I need her to call me. I have the final report.”

“Venable, what’s this all about?”

“Ask Catherine. I’m supposed to be discreet. You’d think that she was mysuperior.” He hung up.

Joe gazed up at the porch. It was fully dark, and they hadn’t turned on the porch light. He could barely discern the two women standing by the rail. But what he couldn’t see, he could feel. His instincts toward Eve had been honed to sharpness, and he could sense the emotional disturbance that was swirling about her.

Ask Catherine.

There was no doubt that he’d ask Catherine. He didn’t like any of this. He felt closed out.

He started toward the porch, then stopped.

What could he do? His instinct was to join them, become part of whatever was going on between them. But Eve wouldn’t appreciate his interfering. She was an independent woman. It wasn’t as if Catherine was a threat. She was Eve’s friend.

But even a friend could become a threat if circumstances warranted.

Not Catherine. He trusted Catherine.

He slowly turned and went back to the barbecue pit.

Keep cool. Eve would tell him what was going on eventually.

Ignore that uneasiness.

Until he couldn’t stand it any longer.

EVE ASKED CATHERINE, “BUTwhy not leave in the morning?”