“Well, I lost something, too,” Vaill said. “Mrs. Burke, I’m not speaking to you as an agent. I’m not even here to vilify your husband. I’m here because of this scar.”

He pushed aside his hair to give Lola a look at the track left by the bullet that had torn through his scalp and into his brain.

“Why are you showing this to me?” Lola asked, looking away quickly.

“Because that’s where your husband shot me,” Vaill said. “I was standing next to my wife, my partner, a beautiful woman named Maria, when he shot her dead at point-blank range. Right here, just above the bridge of her nose. Then he shot me—twice.”

“Please stop.”

“I didn’t see evil in Alexander’s eyes. I saw fervor—a belief. And I don’t see any evil in you, Mrs. Burke. I see a woman who loves her husband very much, the way I loved my wife. And I think he made a promise to you. I think he told you he’d come back for you when he could, when it was safe. But I’m here to tell you that he’s never going to come. He’s never going to come because sooner or later we’re going to get him—and because the belief that led him to kill my wife is stronger than his love for you. Like me, the person you love more than anything, is never coming back.”

This time, Lola’s quivering lip and the tears welling in her eyes seemed genuine.

“I … I want you to leave,” she managed.

“We can do what’s right, Mrs. Burke,” Vaill went on, ignoring her plea. “We can do what’s right and not turn our back. Please, Mrs. Burke, you’re not in any trouble. You won’t be in trouble. You have my word on that. But please stop lying for him. Tell me everything you know that might help us and we’ll be gone.”

Lola bit her lower lip.

“Please go,” she said. But there was no force behind her words.

Vaill forged ahead.

“Do it for my wife.”

He withdrew the envelope with the crime scene photos inside and spread the three of them on the table. It had ripped at his guts to keep it so near to his heart, but Lola Burke was close to cracking. This was a beautiful woman’s flesh and blood and bone. Lola gasped at the gruesome photographs. Even McCall looked disturbed. Vaill kept his eyes fixed on her, in part to keep himself from looking at the pictures again.

A tear broke loose from the corner of Lola’s right eye and wound down her cheek. She flipped the photo facedown on the table.

Then, without a word, she stood, walked through the kitchen entranceway, and disappeared down the hall. McCall was reaching for his gun, but Vaill raised a hand to hold him back.