“Nothing,” she said. The word just popped out of her mouth before she realized what was brewing behind it. The Acid Man had made a mistake. She could find him. She could bring him down. Why share such a big catch with Slate? He wouldn’t understand her insights anyway.

Slate was not disappointed. It was obvious he hadn’t hoped for much from her. He let her go with a few general questions and a reminder to keep her mouth shut. “Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful,” she told him.

Kelly was in bed when Tony came home at two in the morning. He undressed in the dark, thinking she was asleep. She had been staring at the ceiling for hours.

“Were you really at work?” she asked as he slipped under the sheets.

He hesitated. “Does it matter?”

“Where were you?”

“I was not at work.”

She felt the pain of a hole in her heart. “Anything else you want to say?”

“No. Is there anything you want to say?”

“About quitting the FBI?”

“Yes.”

Her voice betrayed no emotion. Nor was there any room for it inside. Her pain went beyond reason. The hole had drained her dry. She turned away and shut her eyes.

“I’ll be flying to the Far East tomorrow,” she said. “I’ll be gone five days.”

“Just like that?”

“Yeah.” She bit her lower lip and tasted blood. “What’s her name?”

He sighed. “It doesn’t matter.”

THE NEXT morning found Kelly on a Lufthansa flight to Madras via Frankfurt. She sat in business class—she had used Tony’s frequent flyer miles to buy the ticket. Phone calls and faxes to Maya Press and Kola Press had not gained her the desired information. But both publishers assured her that they would be happy to receive her. They sounded kind of excited to be getting a visit from an FBI agent.

Kelly slept overnight in Frankfurt, in the Sheraton next to the airport, and boarded an early flight to India. Her loneliness was a weight she could hardly bear. She was losing Tony—she might have already lost him. After what he had said, anyone would know he was having an affair. But it was not like him. He was too honorable; he was still her hero. Of course any other wife would have stayed home and tried to save the marriage. But she was driven by something she could not understand. She worried it was connected to a need to self-destruct. Why else was she going after the Acid Man alone?

Madras stank of burnt cow dung and the cows themselves. She arrived late at night, and a gang of Indians fought to help her with one small bag. The humidity was as thick as molasses.

Fortunately, she found a taxi and she was able to reach an air-conditioned hotel. The first thing she did was call Tony, but he was not answering. Her weight of loneliness slowly transformed into despair. She called her office and told them she was down with a bug.