Eve felt sick. “But he liked the little girls best. Why?”

“He said that the release was more potent because the girls seemed to have a kind of strong purity.” His lips turned up with malice. “I’m sure he would have enjoyed your Bonnie. He likes little girls. Isn’t it nice that he still has one available? Perhaps since they’re together he’s enjoying her now.”

She wanted to kill him. He had chosen just the right words to lacerate. “They’re not together.”

“How do you know?” he asked softly. “I believe there’s some kind of connection.”

“Then you’re insane.” She tried to keep her voice steady. “She was special, and he was a demon.”

“I’m sure the parents of those girls in my album thought they were special, too.” He flipped open the album to the first page. “Look at them. Do any of them have a resemblance to Bonnie?”

“No.”

“You’re not looking.” He took her hair and forced her head toward the album. “Perhaps the little girl in the center. Anna Grassker. She had curly hair like your Bonnie.”

But not red curls, the child was blond. Yet Anna’s face was sweet and her eyes bright with joy, and it hurt Eve to look at that photo. “Why are you doing this?”

“You made me angry. I like things easy, and you’re making them hard.”

“Did you help Kevin kill those people?”

“Not all of them.”

“Some of them?”

“When Kevin needed me. I didn’t actually touch them, that would have spoiled the release for Kevin.”

“And that would have been horrible, right?”

“Yes, why take a life if it provided him no value?”

“How did you help him?”

“He trusted me to scout, to bring the little girls to him. It was easy for me. People like me, they trust me. Kevin was smarter than me, but I was happy and proud that I could help him. I got really good at it.”

Yes, Eve could see that he was proud. His son might have been a monster, but who was the most twisted? She could imagine a little girl looking up into that face and giving him her trust. “You’re his father. You could have stopped him. At some point, you would have had the opportunity to persuade him that what he was doing was wrong.”

“He wasn’t wrong. He was different. It took me a little while to realize that he couldn’t be held to ordinary rules. When I did, it seemed very simple and clear.”

“And you became his enabler.”

“I don’t like that word.” His hand tightened on her throat. “That’s what Kevin said they’d call me if I stayed by him in that courtroom.”

“Enabler,” she repeated deliberately. “You’re as dirty as your son. Why did you try to tell me that the court case concerned only one child if you’re so proud of helping him?”

“The court case was only about one child, Dany Cavrol. The prosecution usually chooses only one victim even if there are several.”

Eve’s gaze was on the photos in front of her. “Which one is she?”

“None of them. Dany lived in Marseilles.” He reached out and flipped several pages of the album. “This is Dany. I think they chose her because she had a wistful appeal. The bastards wanted to make sure the jury crucified Kevin.”

A newspaper from Marseilles, France, and the little girl couldn’t have been more than five. Dany had tight dark curls framing her thin, solemn face. She was heartbreakingly adorable.

“You see?” Doane asked. “Kevin didn’t have a chance.” His voice was harsh. “Dany’s father, General John Tarther, set it up. What the hell did he care about the kid? She was illegitimate and lived with her aunt. Her mother signed the kid over to Tarther and left for London. Tarther made payments for Dany’s upkeep but rarely came to see her. Kevin thought it was safe to take a chance on punishing Tarther for getting in his way while he was working with the al-Qaeda in Pakistan. And it should have been safe for Kevin. Who would know that Tarther would go crazy? But Tarther stirred everyone up. He hired detectives to find out who had killed Dany. Then he flooded the media with photos and stories, bribed politicians.”

“How inconvenient,” she said unevenly. “Love isn’t necessarily governed by legalities.” She couldn’t look at the picture of Dany Cavrol any longer. She was too beautiful. The thought of that ugliness touching her was too painful. “You skipped a lot of pages to get to Dany. What’s on the other pages?”

“Oh, much the same. Naples, Istanbul, Liverpool. Do you want to see them?” Doane said. “This is the only one that’s at all important. The only case where they charged Kevin.”

“And they executed him?”

“No, Blick managed to bribe a witness, and the case was declared a mistrial. Kevin escaped when they were taking him back to jail. I was so happy. I’d arranged a place for him where he’d be safe until he was ready to take charge of his life again.” His lips twisted. “But I never saw him again. Tarther sent his bloodhound after him.”

“Bloodhound?”

“Zander.”

“A detective?”

“Detective?” His laugh was harsh. “A killer. Tarther called my Kevin a killer, but then he sent that snake after him and told him to make sure that Kevin never faced another judge who would let him go free.” He was looking down at the album, but Eve knew he wasn’t seeing it. “Kevin and I had arranged to meet in Athens. I’d hired a captain to take us to Istanbul. Kevin had contacts with a terrorist group who operated out of there. He never showed up, never met me. Blick called me and told me that Kevin had been shot in an alley near the wharf. Zander butchered him.”

“How do you know who did it? A child killer has a world of enemies. Anyone in that courtroom would have been enraged when Kevin was let loose without being punished. I probably would have killed him myself.”

“Yes, you would. Because you’re like Zander, aren’t you? Filth. Pure filth.”

Ignore insults, find out as much as you can. The more she learned, the more weapons she had against him. “Blick knew who killed Kevin?”

“No, Kevin was picked off by a shot from a shop across the alley. It was an excellent shot. Straight to the heart. Zander’s so good he didn’t bother with a safe head shot. Blick ran like a scared rabbit, but he crept back later and saw Kevin being picked up by Nalaro Crematorium.” His lips twisted. “I didn’t get there before the funeral director, Guido Nalaro, threw Kevin into his damn furnace, but I saved Kevin’s skull.” He paused before he added with grim malice, “And I threw Nalaro into the furnace to keep Kevin company and burn with him.” He shrugged. “I shouldn’t have done it. I was in a rage, and I wasn’t thinking of anything but Kevin. I should have waited to kill Nalaro until after I’d questioned him about the man who murdered my son. I ransacked his office afterward, but I couldn’t find any clues to who had done it.”

“Then how did you find out it was this Zander?”

“It took years. I couldn’t move right away. When I thought it was safe, I sent Blick back to Athens and told him to question Nalaro’s family. I’ve always found that sometimes you can get what you want by going through the people surrounding the prey. Nalaro was a secretive bastard, and his wife and children didn’t know anything about his being bribed to get rid of the body or who bribed him. But his father knew, and Blick found out. Would you like to know what Blick did to him to make him give us Zander’s name?”

“No.”

“Squeamish? He deserved it. I had to have that killer’s name. But I knew it must have been Tarther who was behind it all. I knew I had to start there. But I couldn’t make a mistake like I’d done by killing Nalaro. Tarther was a bigwig general in the Army, and he was surrounded by Army Intelligence and CIA. I had to be patient. I had to gather in Tarther and the man who’d killed Kevin and anyone else who had been involved. I had to make them suffer. I wasn’t smart like Kevin, but I knew I’d find a way. Kevin had already given me the tools to do it. I thought that he just meant to keep me safe, but maybe he knew…”