MR. SWIFT: So there was another man specifically in Anne Donovan’s room before you arrived?

MR. THIROUX: Actually, he was still there when I arrived. I informed Madame Conti that he needed to vacate Miss Donovan’s room as I had an understanding with her that Anne would always be available to me.

MR. SWIFT: So you were paying a retainer for her services?

MR. THIROUX: Yes.

MR. SWIFT: So it was unusual to see another man in her room?

MR. THIROUX: Yes, very. In the nine months I had been seeing Anne, I had never encountered another man in her room.

MR. SWIFT: Can you describe this man?

MR. THIROUX: I did not get a very good look at him, as his back was to me, and I left the room immediately. But he was dark-haired, with what appeared to be an olive complexion. I can get no more specific than that.

MR. SWIFT: But Madame Conti saw him in Miss Donovan’s room?

MR. THIROUX: Yes. As stated, I demanded she force him to leave, which she did. I heard her offering him three girls for the price of one as compensation for his inconvenience.

MR. SWIFT: Did she refer to him by name?

MR. THIROUX: No, she did not.

MR. SWIFT: Were you inebriated at that point?

MR. THIROUX: Not in the slightest.

Gabriel was shaking the hand of the young, personable physician in the ER who had treated Rochelle, ready to leave now that her parents had arrived, when he suddenly realized what he had never bothered to investigate. He had read all the online articles in reference to Jessie Michaels’s murder case. But he had never seen any pictures. The articles had all been text.

He wanted to see Dr. Rafe Marino, who Sara seemed to think was attractive and charming, with a heart of gold.

Gabriel had his doubts about the good doctor’s true character, especially after his conversation with the Florida journalist.

It was the biblical and Michelangelo references. They had been rolling around in his head, bothering him, nagging that something was not right.

So instead of going home, he headed straight over to the library, ignoring the fact that he’d been up all night and hadn’t eaten. He did a general search on Dr. Rafe Marino. He got what he wanted immediately. A staff picture from the hospital in Naples where Dr. Marino had worked prior to his arrest.

“Holy shit.” Gabriel sat back in his chair, heart pounding. It couldn’t be.

It was Raphael.

A fallen angel.

Once a healer.

And now, obviously, a killer.

The face smiled back at him, familiar and open. Raphael wasn’t suave yet disdainful like Alex, or quiet and intense like Gabriel. Raphael had always been the one who could put people at ease, could draw out a smile, a laugh, even from the most devastated.

How could he take that trust and destroy mortal lives?