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“I’m sorry, Kevin,” Jennifer said softly. “I don’t know what happened here, but I can see it left its mark on you. Believe me, if we weren’t up against a clock, I wouldn’t have brought you back here in your present state.”

She cared for him, didn’t she? She really did. A tear slipped from his eye and ran down his cheek. The emotion was suddenly beyond him. He began to cry, and then immediately tried to swallow it, which only made the condition worse. He hid his face in his left hand and started to sob, horribly aware of the foolishness of it all.

She drove out of the neighborhood and then stopped. He looked up through blurred eyes and saw that they were by the park. Jennifer sat still, looking at him with soft eyes.

“I’m . . . sorry,” he managed past a tight throat. “It’s just . . . my life’s falling apart . . .”

“Shh, shh, shh. It’s okay.” Her hand touched his shoulder. “It’s okay, really. You’ve been through hell these last two days. I had no right.”

Kevin put his hands over his face and took a deep breath. “Man. This is crazy. Nothing like making a fool of yourself.”

Her hand rubbed his arm again. “Don’t be silly. You don’t think I’ve seen a grown man cry before? I could tell you some stories. There’s nothing quite like watching a three-hundred-pound, heavily tattooed gorilla sob uncontrollably for an hour. I don’t know any decent man who could go through what you’ve gone through without a good cry.”

He smiled, embarrassed. “Is that so?”

“That’s so.”

Jennifer’s smile softened and she looked away. “The Riddle Killer’s last victim was my brother. His name was Roy. That was three months ago. He was chosen because I was closing in on the killer.”

Kevin wasn’t sure what to say. “Your brother?”

“You remind me of him, you know.” She faced him. “I won’t let this maniac kill you, Kevin. I’m not sure I could survive that.”

“I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”

“Now you do. Want to go for a walk? I think we could both use some fresh air.”

“Okay.”

They walked side by side over an emerald green lawn, past a pond with ducks and two large geese. She was laughing and telling him about a goose that had once chased her for the sandwich she held. Next to the horror that had swept over him not five minutes earlier, Kevin felt unusually peaceful, as if he were walking with his guardian angel. He wondered about Jennifer’s true intentions. She was a professional, doing her job. All FBI agents talked and laughed like this— it was their way of making someone in his shoes feel comfortable enough to work with them.

The thought made him feel suddenly awkward. Clumsy. Like a three-hundred-pound gorilla. On the other hand, she’d lost her brother.

He stopped.

She touched his arm. “Kevin? What is it?”

“Like a three-hundred-pound, heavily tattooed gorilla.”

“That’s what he—”

“The boy had a tattoo,” Kevin blurted.

“The boy you locked in the cellar? Where?”

“On his forehead! A tattoo of a knife.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes! He had it covered with a bandanna that last night, but I saw it the first night.”

They exchanged stares. “How many men have a tattoo on their foreheads? Not many.” A smile nudged her lips. “That’s good,” she said. “That’s very good.”

12

Saturday

Afternoon

SAMANTHA WAS THE LAST PASSENGER to board the flight to Sacramento. An hour and a half later she entered a little-known conference room at the attorney general’s headquarters, the office of the California Bureau of Investigation’s “Alpha Division,” as it was known by some. A bulldog of a man named Chris Barston, who was up on suspicion of aiding terrorists by promulgating bomb-construction methods on the Internet, sat across the table. They’d hauled him in last night. His Internet dealings were not her concern, but the information he had to share evidently was, or Roland, her boss, wouldn’t have insisted she come. Roland sat at the head of the table, leaning back in his chair. She’d liked the chief from the moment they were introduced, and when she came to him two days after her orientation and asked to be assigned to the Riddle Killer case, he’d agreed. The FBI and the CBI were both active in the case, but Samantha suggested that the killer had inside connections, and the possibility had intrigued Roland.

The call from Kevin had blindsided her. She hadn’t expected the Riddle Killer to surface in Southern California at all. She wasn’t necessarily convinced that the Riddle Killer and Slater were the same. If Slater was the Riddle Killer and he was also the boy, it would explain his ties to her, Kevin, and Jennifer. But certain details about Slater’s calls to Kevin nagged at her.

“Thanks for coming, Sam. Enjoy your holiday?”

“I wasn’t aware I wason a holiday.”

“You’re not. Your witness.” Roland looked at Chris, who stared past him.

Sam pulled up her chair and opened a blue file Rodriguez had brought to her at the airport. She’d read the contents on the way in.

“Hello, Mr. Barston. My name’s Samantha Sheer.”

He ignored her and kept his eyes in Roland’s direction.

“You may look this way, Chris. I’m going to be asking the questions. Have you ever been questioned by a woman before?”

The man stared at her. Roland grinned. “Answer the woman, Chris.”

“I agreed to tell you what I know about Salman. That’ll take thirty seconds.”

“Great,” Sam said. “Then we can limit our exposure to each other so we don’t . . . you know, rub off on each other. I think we can stomach thirty seconds, don’t you?”

The man’s face darkened.

“Tell us about Salman.”

He cleared his throat. “I met him in Houston about a month ago. Pakistani. You know, India and all. Speaks with an accent.”

“Pakistanis live in Pakistan, not India. That’s why they call it Pakistan. Go on.”

“You going to mock me for the full thirty seconds here?”

“I’ll try to control myself.”

He shifted. “Anyway, Salman and I had a mutual interest in . . . you know, bombs. He’s clean; I can swear that. He had this tattoo of a bomb on his shoulder. I got one here of a knife.” He showed them a small blue knife on his right forearm. “Then he showed me one on his back, a huge dagger. Said he wanted to have it removed because the chicks didn’t dig it back in wherever.”

“Pakistan.”

“Pakistan. He told me he knew a guy who had a tattoo of a knife on his forehead. He didn’t tell me nothing about this guy except that his name was Slater and he was into explosive devices. That’s it. That’s all I know.”

“And you think the name Slater interests us why?”

“The news of Long Beach. They said it could be a man named Slater.”

“When did your friend know this Slater?”

“I said that’s it. That’s all I know. That’s the deal. If I knew more, I would tell you more. I already wrote down where this Salman guy works last I knew. He’s straight up. Talk to him.”

Sam looked at Roland. He nodded.

“Okay, Chris. I guess your thirty seconds are up. You’re free to go.”

Chris stood, glared at her one last time, and left.

“What do you think?” Roland asked.

“I’m not sure what our man would be doing all the way down in Houston, but I think I’m going to Texas. I want to make contact first. For all we know, Salman doesn’t even exist. It may take a day or two to track him down. Until then I want to go back to Long Beach.”

“Fine. Just keep a low profile down there. If the Riddle Killer’s working with someone inside, we don’t want him suddenly running scared.”

“I’m limiting direct contact to the FBI agent in charge. Jennifer Peters.”

“Just watch what you say. For all we know, Agent Peters is Slater.”