She hesitated, then nodded. “Would you like some coffee? I just made a fresh pot.”

Kelly would have loved coffee. “I wouldn’t mind a glass of water,” she said as she stepped inside and cursed her medical condition. Yet with each day she felt stronger. The doctors had said the liver was a forgiving organ. Portions of it might be growing back. A shame her intestines couldn’t do likewise.

The apartment was small but neatly furnished. Pictures of a dead husband and a dead son on the wall. Nice one of Matt standing beside a Cessna 172. No pictures of Amy and Matt together. Kelly sat on the edge of a sofa as Mrs. Connor returned with water and coffee. Kelly gestured to the photographs of Matt.

“I understand you lost your son a year ago,” she said.

Nancy’s lips quivered. A long year it had been. “Yes. He died in a plane crash.”

“Amy told me. I’m so sorry, it must have been devastating.”

Nancy tried to smile, failed. “He was such a dear boy.”

Kelly suddenly seized on a strategy. “I’m not here to question you about Matt. But with this kidnapping, to solve it, we feel we have to get a better grasp on Amy. For that reason, I’d like to ask about your son’s relationship with her. All we know is they had one, but that it ended suddenly. But we don’t understand why. Whenever I broach the subject with Amy, she gets evasive.”

Nancy scowled and set down her cup. “That girl isn’t who she pretends to be.” Then she stopped and shook her head. “But to lose a child—no one deserves that.”

“Amy hurt Matt?”

Nancy stared at her. “Oh yes. She hurt him badly.”

“Tell me.”

And so Kelly heard the full story of Amy Techer’s betrayal. It would have made her angry anyway, but given her experience with Tony—and ironically, the Acid Man—it made her feel sick. Because it was obvious from the start that Matt was an innocent, one of those rare creatures the Acid Man said did not exist. Innocence and insanity were often close friends, however. Amy’s cheating had given Matt the perfect motive to seek out revenge, and consequently made him the perfect suspect in the kidnapping.

Except Matt was supposed to be dead.

“It amazes me Amy tried to convince David she had hardly known Matt,” Kelly said when Nancy finished speaking. “That must have been quite a task when your son and Amy had been together so long.”

“I don’t think it was as hard as you think for Amy,” Nancy said. “Matt was cut off completely. He wasn’t allowed to speak to David. He wasn’t allowed to speak to Amy. He was discarded like garbage.”

“There’s no worse feeling,” Kelly said quietly.