Zannick reached into a drawer and pulled out the .44. He admired the weapon and then slid it across the coffee table that separated their chairs to Helen.

“After I was acquitted, I went back and looked at your file, Michael. One of the things we have to prove on a statutory rape charge is the defendant’s birth date. It’s a part of the predicate. You have to be shown to be over eighteen while the victim must be under eighteen.”

“And what is my birth date, General?”

“June 16, 1978.”

“And where was I born?”

“Los Angeles, California,” Helen said, her voice soft and wan.

He smiled. “And who was my mother, General?”

“Patricia Zannick. She—”

“—and Henry Zannick adopted me at five years old. After I’d been through three sets of foster parents.” He paused. “But whose womb did I come out of?”

“Mine,” Helen said.

Zannick started to clap his hands. “Very good, Mother. I was beginning to believe you were never going to figure it out. Bravo.”

“Is that why you came to Pulaski? To play games with me?” Helen felt the beginning drumbeats of a budding rage forming under the surface of her being. She remembered thinking early on after her arrest that someone was playing her like a violin.

Someone was . . .

Zannick shook his head. “I came here to get even.”

“Did you?”

“No.” Zannick stood and walked to the window, leaning his forearm against the sill. “I thought I had, but I was mistaken.”

“How so?”

“Well, I thought I’d become the most powerful person in my parents’ hometown and that I’d framed my mother for my father’s murder.” He paused, chuckling. “That would have been a worthy effort.”

“If that was your aim, then why didn’t you leave my gun somewhere that it could be found?” She gestured at the weapon on the table. “Discovery of the murder weapon would have cinched the prosecution’s case.”

Zannick continued to gaze out the window. “Because my goal wasn’t simply to win. I wanted you to suffer.” He turned toward her. “Butch was worthless. Orchestrating his killing could be considered mercy.” He hesitated. “But you’re strong. I was going to hold out and see what you and your excellent attorney came up with. Then, at the last second, I planned to have the gun conveniently be found and pull the rug out from underneath you.” He grinned. “That would have been the ultimate revenge.”

“You’re a sociopath,” Helen said as the anger that she’d initially felt deep in her subconscious spewed to the surface. “Why didn’t you do it?”

“Because I wasn’t expecting to hear that my real father was a rapist.” He said the words as if he were somehow irritated with her for upsetting his plans, and Helen couldn’t contain her rage any longer.