Her lover—supposedly the reason the Acid Man had killed in the first place.

Dr. Fred Banks continued to haunt her. His dead eyes staring at the ceiling that had sheltered him and his wife and his children decades ago. She thought of what he had told her, and what he had kept to himself. It still bothered her that, at the end of his life, he had moved within five miles of his son’s home, to be close to his grandson. He had acted like he saw Robert regularly. Yet he had never met Michael Grander, not once.

It just didn’t make sense. The whole family, were they all liars?

But why would Dr. Fred Banks go out of his way to lie to her about Michael?

He must have met him at least once, Kelly told herself. Probably lots of times.

Michael continued to watch TV. He drank coffee, black. He did not take milk or sugar. “Michael,” she said to him.

He looked over. “Yes?”

“Did you ever meet Dr. Fred Banks?”

“No. Why?”

“Just curious.”

“Did you talk to him?” he asked.

She hesitated. “Yes.”

“What did you talk about?”

“Gene’s childhood. Do you know much about it?”

“No.”

“It’s scary.” She paused. “Why do you live here?”

“It’s a nice place. Why should we move?”

“Because Gene lived here. Because he now lives only half an hour away.”

Michael shrugged. “That doesn’t bother me.”

“Really?”

“Why should it? The doctors say he’s paralyzed.”

“That’s interesting.”

He turned off the TV. “Why is that interesting?”

“Most people would find it hard to live here.” Kelly noticed that Julie had dozed off in her chair. Dropped her head with the magazine in her hands. Her long dark hair hung like a doll’s. All serial killers without exception saw their victims as objects. “Julie?” she called softly. “Julie?”

“Let her sleep,” Michael interrupted. “She’s exhausted.”

“I understand.” Kelly coughed; she had a funny taste in her throat. She had barely touched her drink. “You were here last night when I called?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“You know phones nowadays. You can forward your calls and all that.”

“I was here,” Michael said.

“I believe you.” She had believed a lot of things for a long time. Practically every word the Acid Man had fed her. She was in the Midwest because of him. She was in this house for that reason. Perhaps that’s what he had wanted …

Nine months ago, to show Julie what was going to happen to her, the Acid Man had only needed to kill Michael. He had not needed to mutilate the brave FBI agent. Why had he done so? She kept asking herself the question over and over again.

Perhaps that was her problem.

What if she was framing the question backward?

Or what if she was simply asking the wrong question?

What if the Acid Man had never intended to kill Michael?