“And to document it. When Marland finally acquired the CIA file a couple of years ago, he sold it to Mikhail, who decided he wanted his biological son back…but was not going to risk asking you for permission to see him. I’m not sure if he was driven more by love or a sense of outrage that you had taken something that should have been his. He blamed you for Anya’s death, hence you had to suffer. The photos of the cat in the window, the snow, all of that was from the CIA file. Danielle called us to clean up the scene, but we had little time—he owned that land. He’d bought the village to tear it down and build a complex there. I think Anya planned to wait for Mike there, with their child that he didn’t even know about yet. When he saw the CIA report, he must have dug and found her body buried on the edge of the property, and retrieved the bracelet you put back on her wrist.”

“So armed with the CIA report on how Anya had been killed while kidnapping us, he came here under an old Russian intel cover and co-opted Danielle?”

“Yes. He showed up in Austin as Mike Horvath, Canadian investor, with a teenage son in tow and conclusive proof of her involvement in Anya’s death. Obviously that would have destroyed her business and her life here. And we believe, from what Peter told us, that he threatened to kill Ned if she didn’t cooperate. He had her under close surveillance and control. Her phone had been compromised by Russian hackers to monitor her constantly. So she did as he asked. He bought her a house close to you, via this Firebird front company, so you would be neighbors, as he did later for the Butlers. Danielle, under coercion, helped establish Mike as the friendly, trustworthy neighbor. Helped him befriend your family. Helped him get access to your house so he could surveil you either through tampering with your phones or computers or listening devices—it won’t surprise me if we find your house is bugged. He had a long game, and having help—Danielle, Marland, and the Butlers—was key to his operation.”

“She could have told us. Warned us.”

“We think she was preparing to… That was why she gave Kyle the burner phone recently. But she never got up her courage to tell Kyle. Her and her son’s lives were at risk.”

“It must have been very lonely for her,” Iris says. For all her anger toward Danielle…this is horrifying to hear. To live this way, in constant fear.