Vaill hit play and Lou felt his insides go cold. The screen lit up with the image of Alexander Burke, although not the Alexander Burke who had attacked him at the hotel.

“Amazing disguise he wore,” Lou said.

“Believe me, this one’s the real deal.”

This man, clean-shaven, had gray eyes, a different-shaped nose, and straw-colored hair. He was totally at ease, and dashingly good looking, perched on a high, bar-type stool, set on a swath of brownish green lawn. Behind him, an endless expanse of steel ocean churned before an arcing horizon, and on either side, small groves of trees set off his carefully staged tableau. A small plastic device—a remote, Lou assumed—dangled in his hand. The camera, rock steady, was probably set on a tripod, and it did not look as if the killer had help in making the recording.

“Hi, Lola, hey sweet baby.” His voice was nothing like the one Lou had heard in the hotel room. His inflection was warm and full of love, incongruous with the cold eyes and the harsh memories Lou held of him. “You’re not going to hear anything from me in the coming months. But sooner or later you will, and none of it is going to be very flattering. I wish I could be there with you when it all comes out, in order to comfort you in what is going to be a difficult time. But I can’t. I have to be where I am, doing what I will be doing.”

Vaill paused the recording.

“Like I said, this has been analyzed by our best. But it’s good that we’re starting at the beginning. Pay attention to voice, his manner, the way he holds himself. I guess the best thing we could hope for is some clue as to where this film was made, but I believe that’s asking too much.”

“Got it,” Lou said. “Keep rolling.”

Burke’s image again became animated.

“You understand our cause,” he was saying, his tone far calmer than the white-capped ocean behind him. “You know what’s at stake. It’s not just about our future, but the future of this country. Somebody has to take a stand. The politicians have had their chances and it’s time for my organization to step up and make a real difference.

“I told you when we first met that I didn’t want children, because I didn’t want them raised in this corrupt and weak society. But every day I wished we had a bunch. You would have made an amazing mother, and I would have been the luckiest man in the world. As it is, I am lucky. I’m blessed to have the opportunity to make it possible for other people to have children and raise them in a country that is as strong and as financially stable as the original foundation upon which our forefathers built it.