Conor let the truth wash over him. Zoe had killed a fellow student over a grant. But not in a fit of jealousy. This had been cold, calculated, premeditated murder. Zoe had planned every detail. She’d taken opportunities to improve her scheme along the way, like adding additional killings and framing Conor for the deaths.

She’d done a bang-up job of it too. She might have gotten away with it if she hadn’t gotten cocky and kidnapped Louisa. Actually, Conor thought, staring at the gun, she might still get away with it.

The threads of her twisted logic were unknotting in Conor’s mind. “How are you going to win the grant if you’re presumed dead?”

“I’ll be found at another location, dehydrated but alive.” She lifted her hands toward him. Plastic ties encircled each wrist. The too-tight binds had left bloody rings in her skin. “See? I have ligature marks on my wrists. They’re on my ankles too.” Pride beamed from her smile. “I won’t know why you didn’t kill me. Maybe you were driven to suicide when you killed Dr. Hancock. I won’t dwell on that. I’ll consider myself lucky and not look back. I’ll be the brave survivor of a crazed serial killer.”

“What was my motivation for killing the girls and Dr. Hancock?”

Zoe lifted a hand in a that’s an easy one gesture. “Before you blow your brains out, you’ll write a note of apology to your siblings. You’ve always had a violent side. You’ve managed to keep it in check, but the killing in Maine whetted your appetite. And since Dr. Hancock was the only one who figured out the truth about what you were doing to her interns, she had to be killed too. But you also loved her and couldn’t live without her.”

“No one who knows me will believe that.” As he argued, terror swept cold over Conor. She’d studied him.

“The opinions of your friends and family don’t really matter. The police will buy it. You were a boxer. That implies a certain comfort level with violence. You’ve been in two physical altercations in the past two weeks. The media has blown them both out of proportion. Heath will attest to your bloodlust. If that gangbanger dies, I’m sure the police will try to hang his death on you too.” She smiled as if she knew a secret. “I’ve been watching the news at night on my laptop. You’ve been on the top of the suspect list the whole time. Convincing them won’t be hard.”

No, it wouldn’t. Jackson and Ianelli had wanted Conor so badly for these crimes. They’d jump on Zoe’s explanation. Conor already thought he knew the answer to his next question, but he asked anyway. Anything to spin out some more time. “Did you stab Hector Torres?”