“It doesn’t matter. I know her.” She gestured weakly. “Trust is like glass. You think you can see through it, that you know what’s on the other side of it. You pretend you know your partner and that he knows you. But it’s all an illusion. One day you bump against it and it cracks and you cut yourself and you bleed.” She noticed his hand on her abdomen. “You can see how much I bled. Go ahead, I don’t care, look at my scars.”

He lifted her shirt, gasped. It was as if her entire abdomen had been scissored opened and hastily reclosed. “What happened?” he whispered.

“I ran into a bad man.”

“Who?”

“It doesn’t matter. I fixed him. But what about you? How do I fix you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Simon.” She reached up and brushed his hair. “Your mother must miss you.”

“I told you, my mother’s fine.”

Her arm dropped. She closed her eyes and began to doze.

“The dragon lives,” she mumbled.

She was asleep before he could ask what she meant.

TWELVE

TWELVE

Kelly Fienman did not awake that same day until well past noon: sore, relieved, and confused. Grateful as well; and what a curious feeling to have for the subject of one of the biggest manhunts in FBI history. For she cared about Matt Connor, even though she didn’t completely understand him. But most of all she worried about him, as he had worried for her all night.

It was not a small problem.

She had accepted the Acid Man’s advice and stalked Amy. It had taken a mere two days for Amy to lead her to Matt and Jimmy and the apartment by the sea. That had been quite a moment—seeing the couple embrace by the swimming pool, Jimmy laughing in his stroller.

Right then, Kelly had thought it over. The mystery finally solved, justice ready to be served. But as she stared at Matt—still handsome in his fake beard and wig—she felt inexplicable sorrow. His own mother had explained Amy’s betrayal, and no single talk could have moved Kelly more.

She knew she would have to turn Matt in. She was a law enforcement officer and she got paid to catch bad guys. But she did not know him, and felt she could not destroy the unknown, when the reverse should have been true. She remembered the first time she had seen his picture in the paper. A haunted stranger who was supposed to be dead. His face had stirred something deep inside that had set her on a collision course with her own nightmare. But when she finally saw Matt in person, she felt she came face-to-face with the ghost who walked beside her in her dreams of the Acid Man. Only he was a friendly ghost, who kept telling her not to be afraid.

A major dilemma gripped her.