Except when it came to his effectiveness.

Kelly checked the time; it was noon. She had struggled for three hours without results. Lunchtime, and no appetite to drive her out of the building. Where was Charlie? Probably checking out the local McDonald’s.

She went outside anyway, took a long walk, ended up buying a chicken sandwich and a Coke from a deli. Sitting on a bench not far from the UCLA campus, she picked up a discarded newspaper and noticed an article on a plane crash in the ocean off Ventura. There was a picture of a handsome young man, Matt Connor. No body found, no reason for the accident. She did not bother reading the piece. It would only depress her.

Yet there was something about his face that made her hang on to the paper. Matt was one of those rare people whose gaze was more focused internally than externally. She suspected he had been exceptionally intelligent. There was intensity in his eyes, strength in his brow. He looked both haunted and innocent. Had a part of him known he would die young? He had presence—his ghost seemed to stare out at her through the photograph.

Perhaps a spirit touched her.

An eerie sensation of isolation swept over her, as sudden as it was unexpected. She was not sure what triggered it. Could she be experiencing a delayed reaction to the murders? The whole matter threw her off center. Even before Slate had shown her the videos, she had felt an almost supernatural foreboding. She was not normally keen on New Age intuitions, but this feeling was powerful—overlaid with fear for her family.

Where was the connection? She sought to understand its source.

The loves in her life were definitely in conflict: family and career. But was Tony telling her more than he was saying? Was he about to do something that would destroy their home? Was there another woman?

“No. I’m destroying it,” she said aloud. Her passion was her job. Why, already she was obsessed with finding the Acid Man, probably a normal reaction after seeing the pain he had caused. However, focusing on the idea of hunting him brought the same fear of losing Tony and Anna.

“Why?” she asked aloud. How were the two fears connected?

The Acid Man killed women and she was killing her family. If she was to save her family, she had to leave her job. That was obvious. But to get out of her job, she had to find the Acid Man. That was not so obvious. Where did that idea come from? Because he was such a bad guy and she was such a dedicated agent that she could not rest until he was caught? She didn’t buy it; the world was filled with murderers, as well as capable FBI agents.

Yet she wanted the asshole. Damnit, she wanted to bring him down!