“Safe? Do you have any idea what it was like for me in foster care?” Pia snarled. Burim was startled by the sound of her voice.

“Do you?”

“But you’re going to be a doctor, look how it all ended up!”

“This is how it ended up, you moron. Guns, gangsters, murderers. That’s what I remember from being a kid. And my mom was there, and then she wasn’t. What happened to her?”

“I don’t know.”

“You’re a liar!” Pia turned and screamed the words. Buda opened the door—he must have been standing right outside.

“Everything okay?”

“Leave us, please,” Burim said. Silent tears were tracking down Pia’s face. She turned back around and faced the wall. Pia couldn’t make sense of what was happening. How was her father involved with the people who murdered Rothman, Yamamoto, and Will McKinley? They had been waiting for him to show up, which meant that he might be able to stop them killing her too. When she spoke again, Pia’s voice was quieter.

“That’s all I know about you. That you’re a liar.”

“I’m here now.”

“Are you here to finish the job they started?”

“I understand why you say these things, but you have to believe me, I am here to save you.”

“You and your white horse.”

“What?”

“Whatever.”

“What I am telling you is no lie. Those guys in the other room, they have been paid money to stop you because you were looking into some deaths. And they want you to stop looking.”

Pia said nothing.

“They know you have an Albanian name and they asked around if anyone knows you, and I said, ‘Yes, maybe.’ It’s the case that Albanian cannot kill Albanian: not in our business unless the killer wants to die too. If you weren’t Albanian, if you weren’t my daughter, you would be dead already. Do you understand?”

“That’s very nice of them.”

“Actually, it is, yes.”

“They murdered my teacher and another doctor by giving them typhoid fever and a massive dose of polonium. Tonight they murdered my friend by shooting him in the head because he was helping me. I should be grateful to them because they’re sparing me?”

“I can’t do anything about the other people. What I can do is save you.”

“And how will you do that?”

“I guarantee them that you will give up your investigation. And that you won’t mention their involvement to the authorities. Take a vacation. Something. We can work it out.”

“You? You haven’t seen me since I was six. They’ll take your word?”

“If I give it, yes. I have shaken their hand, and my family honor is at stake.”

“Or they’ll kill me.”

“Or they’ll kill you.”

“And you’ll take my word that I’ll give up?”

“If you give me your word, yes.”