“How did you get my cell number? How did you know my husband left me?”

“Oh, that information. There was one other man in the FBI that I paid off. Do you know Agent Lentil?”

Kelly felt disgust. “I know him.”

His tone hardened. “What happened at Michael and Julie’s house?”

“At Scott’s house?”

He blinked. “You know.”

“Aren’t you proud of me?”

He waved the gun. “Talk.”

“I discovered you had a brother. I went looking for him but couldn’t find him. But then I began to put a few facts together and it was obvious. Unfortunately, I asked Scott revealing questions and tipped my hand. He drugged Julie and Robert and tried to kill me.” She shrugged. “But lucky me, I managed to inject a syringe filled with vinegar into his heart.”

The Acid Man went very still. “He’s dead?”

“Yes.”

His grief was real. Her admission was a sword through his chest. He struggled to catch his breath. In the process she was surprised he did not pull the trigger. He bent over and his aim wavered.

“How did you overcome him?” he gasped.

“Your brother was a textbook psychopath. You know that. You ruined him at an early age. He was predictable, and as a result he was easy to manipulate. When I spread my legs, he got all excited and I killed him.” She added, “I didn’t enjoy it.”

The Acid Man wiped at his eyes with the gun. His right hand was still tied down.

“I regret having involved Scott in my personal difficulties,” he said quietly. “When I was a teenager he was the only friend I had. I had no one else to share my pain with.”

“Sounds like you guys shared more than pain.”

“You spoke to my father?”

“Yes. What did he know about all this?”

“He knew my brother was sleeping with my wife. That’s all.”

“You lie. He wasn’t totally innocent. He suspected a lot more than that.”

“My father was a good man.”

“But he wasn’t your father, was he? I read the pain in Dr. Banks’s face. Your mother’s affairs were more numerous than he wanted to admit, even to himself.” Kelly paused. “Do you know who your real father was?”

He hesitated. “The milkman.”

“I understand.”

“Do you? As a child I saw her with this man that was not my father. She did little to hide the affair. Twice, I saw them fucking. Then I began to see I looked like the other man. I was seven years old at the time.”

She nodded. “Your father was everything to you. You were your father’s son. And when that was taken away from you, you were no one.”

“No one,” he whispered, sinking inside.