She studied him for a moment before she said, “Not to mention a big, strong guy who was heading for him, not running away like most would once they saw that knife. But you never hesitated.”

He stared at her. What was he supposed to have done, hidden somewhere, maybe called 911? A lot of good that would have done. He knew too well the truth of the old saying, when you need help in seconds, the police are only minutes away. They would have gotten here, but long after she’d been dragged into that car. And she’d likely have been dead before they found her.

A shiver went through him at the thought. Amanda, who had gone back to stirring the scrambled eggs, spoke as if she’d read his last thought.

“I wonder why he didn’t kill me right there? He had that knife, he could have easily cut my throat.”

Adam stared at her anew, she said it so calmly. Matter-of-factly. He himself had to fight for calm to answer her the same way.

“Probably had a plan, of where to do it, how to hide the evidence, how to deal with...the aftermath.”

“You mean dispose of the body? I suppose that would be the most problematical.”

He couldn’t stop himself then. “This is you we’re talking about. Not some random stranger you’d hear about in the news the next day. How can you sound so...unruffled?”

She looked up from the eggs. “Oh, I’m ruffled. Matter-of-fact, now that I’ve had time to think, and when I woke up feeling those aches you mentioned, I’m pretty hacked off.”

“You’re...mad?”

“Furious. Taking my father from me wasn’t enough?”

“So you’re convinced now, it’s connected to him?”

She went back to stirring the eggs, and turning over the pieces of bacon she had cut into thin slices. “It’s the only thing that makes sense. And if Quinn’s right, and Trevor Malachi isn’t behind it, then it has to be that file, doesn’t it?”

“Pix,” Adam muttered. “Whoever or whatever the hell that is.”

“Yes.”

“I’ll go through it all again,” he said wearily. “If I read it a few more times, maybe something will pop.”

Amanda’s head came up sharply. He realized belatedly that was a phrase he’d picked up from Greg. He had his mouth open to apologize when she spoke.

“His old whiteboard,” she said. “We could set it up, like he used to.”

I like having it all there in front of me, because sometimes seeing it all at once makes something pop.