“We think that Mike ordered Marland to kill Danielle when she finally rebelled against his control. We think the burner phone she gave Kyle was to communicate with him where Mike couldn’t know. She didn’t want to have an affair with Kyle; when she found out that her son was enmeshed in a drug scheme, she could see it was a revenge play not against just your family, but hers as well. She wanted to find a way to warn you all without putting your family and hers in mortal danger. If she warned Kyle, she risked her son’s death. She was trying to figure out how to do it, how to contact him, how to tell him without him freaking out that Sasha’s father was mounting an intelligence operation against your family. I believe when she threatened to go to the police to protect Ned—then her usefulness was done. She may not have even known her old colleague Marland was the drug dealer. He killed her, using pipe Mike had stolen from your house at some point. He must have called the one number in the burner phone he found in her pocket and realized it belonged to Kyle. Kyle told the police the truth, that he got an early-morning call from her burner…but not that Marland hung up when he realized it was Kyle on the other end. Then they knew they had to escalate the attack against your family.”

Iris feels cold in a way she hasn’t felt since the awful moments in Bukharin, with Anya dying in the snow.

“But they couldn’t remove the listening devices in her house until Ned left the house with your daughter. That’s what Marland was doing when your husband went inside Danielle’s house—cleaning up the evidence, making sure nothing could point to them because they still had to destroy your family. Marland beat Kyle and then told Mike about bloodying him in the bag, and that was a perfect way for the murder weapon to be produced. They planned long term, but they took advantage of sudden opportunities. Very good at his job.”

Iris can’t quite bear the admiration in Jill’s voice and she looks away.

“What about Peter?” She hates Mike, Marland, the Butlers…but she feels sorry for Peter.

Jill takes a deep breath. “What Peter told Grant on the plane is true. He is Anya’s older son. Your child’s half brother. We just confirmed it with DNA testing.”

Iris takes a deep breath. All this time…his own brother, right there. Grant had slashed Peter’s arm to get free from the room.