“He will go to jail,” says Edison Lam. Then he sighs. “My son defied me at every turn. He was impossible to deal with. His mother spoiled him too much, I think. He was her only child. He wasn’t good at reading situations, or people, properly. Some things you can’t teach.”

He lapses into a thoughtful silence. I’m ready to fall asleep on this couch. “We both want David Tao to face justice. We want him off the streets. He seems to be obsessed with you and, like my son, I want to use that. But we don’t have time to waste with lies and deception. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“You want to use me as bait.”

“Yes. Will you consider it?”

“No need,” I say. “You’re right. He needs to face justice for what he’s done. Let’s finish this.”

There’s movement by the door as Kristof comes closer. “Jon Brazuca told us to look into those bikers and WIN Security.”

I nod. “WIN had a connection to Ray Zhang, Dao’s previous employer.”

“WIN Security is a big operation in the Pacific Northwest. They’ve worked with almost all the major players in this region. Including Michael Acosta’s Nebula Corporation.”

“Who Dao used to work for—at least until he murdered your son,” I say, looking at him.

“Yes,” says Mr. Lam. “After the Indonesia video surfaced and authorities identified the same man in both that video and the report of violence against that mining protester, Michael Acosta is suddenly unavailable for comment. Neither he nor WIN will go anywhere near Dao. It’s too dangerous. They’ll disavow all knowledge of him moving forward and will hide behind carefully worded public statements.”

“The bikers, then.”

“No.” Kristof shakes his head. “That pickup truck was set on fire. There were human remains found inside. They have just identified Curtis Parnell as the deceased. That was the man who rammed Brazuca’s car and pulled you from the passenger seat.”

“When I escaped, I shot him,” I say. “I killed him.”

“You grazed his thigh,” says Kristof. “It was nothing serious. My people were watching and saw someone come by and pick Parnell up. He was later seen at that clubhouse walking on crutches.”

“But someone killed him. Put him in that truck.”

They exchange glances. “We think Dao must have.”

I shake my head, let my hair down to ease the tightness of my scalp. “But that doesn’t make any sense. He leaned on them because of their Three Phoenix connection. He needed them.”

Edison Lam looks at me. “If you’re right, and he’s not in his right mind, it’s possible his emotions got the better of him. From what you say, and from what I saw in that video, he’s unstable. He didn’t have to kill my son, but he did. He didn’t have to kill this Parnell man—”