I stare at the photo. It’s by far the most disturbing of all of Lander’s drawings. The man with the wolflike teeth and eyes is staring down at the other man, who is sleeping at his feet . . . or maybe he’s not sleeping.

Maybe he’s a victim.

I pull out a pen and a discarded receipt from my bag and start to work on it again.

YELLOW FINK DECENCIES.

Probably not.

OWL KNEELS DEFICIENCY.

Unlikely.

It goes on like this for a while. Lander’s conversation stretches on and I try combination after combination. The sense of urgency I had while trying to solve the other anagrams isn’t here now. I don’t want to trap Lander. I don’t even want to believe there’s a reason to. I just want to know him.

When there’s no more room on the receipt paper, I crumple it up, dump it into my purse, and pull out one of Travis’s business cards. I stare at the picture again and then try the word we.

I sigh and glance back toward the hall. What the hell could they be talking about for this long? Lander’s manners normally wouldn’t let him go on like this with a guest waiting.

SILENCED

That sounds promising. I bite my lip and examine the letters that are left. There’s still an O. And an L. And an F and an E . . .

My heart stops and the entire room suddenly gets very, very cold.

I stare down at my hand. I’m shaking . . . more than I was after that confrontation with Micah and Javier. I can barely keep hold of the pen. Still I manage to write the letters down, each one shakier than the next. It’s unlikely that anyone else would be able to even read my handwriting.

But I can read it. I can read each word perfectly. I know the solution to the anagram.

E.’S. W.O.L.F.L.I.K.E. I.N.D.E.C.E.N.C.Y.

WE SILENCED NICK FOLEY.

I feel my stomach lurch in a sudden and violent cramp.

It lurches again and I have to run to the bathroom. Dry-heaving as I kneel over the toilet, I’m unable to purge myself of this new evil. There’s a buzzing in my ears that’s so loud it’s impossible to believe that it exists only in my head.

I was fooling myself. There can be no question about it now. Lander was involved in Nick Foley’s death. He was responsible for setting my mother up. He knew what was happening. He knew the truth.

And he never spoke it.