“It’s not your fault,” she said, and she looked at him for so long, so intently, he was forced to break off first.

“When,” Laurel said, clearing her throat again, “when did she die?”

Lance sighed. This wasn’t something he liked to talk about.

“I’m guessing right about the time Roth went and found you.”

She nodded. He watched her. He could see the truth percolating through her mind.

“It can’t be a coincidence, can it?” she said.

She was angry. He couldn’t blame her. She was only now beginning to see things as they actually were.

And it would only get worse.

This was the tip of the iceberg.

Working with Roth, things were never how they seemed.

Lance shrugged. “They didn’t make you get plastic surgery, did they?”

“What? Of course not.”

“And you don’t have a sister?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Then you’ve never seen this woman before?”

“Never in my life.”

They both looked at the photo a few seconds. Laurel stared. Her eyes filled with tears. Lance felt sorry for her.

“You could be sisters,” he said.

“Yes,” she said.

“I think it’s fair to say you were recruited for more than your technical skills.”

She nodded.

“That’s not to say you’re not good at what you do,” he said.

“Please,” she said. “You don’t have to sugar coat this.”

“They wouldn’t hire you if you couldn’t do the job.”

“The job?” she said, biting her lip.

“It’s not what it seems,” Lance said.

“You know what Roth said to me when I went out to the car?”

“What?”

“That I was the bait.”

Lance nodded. “He knows what he’s doing.”

“Does he?” Laurel said, and she looked so vulnerable in that moment. So like Clarice.

He took a deep breath. Whatever he felt, he owed it to this woman to keep his cool.

“He does,” Lance said. “We’re talking, aren’t we?”

“Did you know last night, when you saw me at the bar?”

“Why do you think I loaded the shotgun?”

Laurel nodded. She went to the sink and refilled her water glass.

“How did Roth recruit you?” Lance said.

“I was in Iraq with the 82nd Airborne.”

“And he just ran into you?”

He watched her cast her mind back. He felt for her. He knew that was what Roth intended, but he couldn’t help it.

Laurel saw everything differently now. In the blink of an eye, everything she’d thought she’d been, everything she’d thought she was doing with her life, had changed.

Whatever she thought she knew would have to be filtered through the prism of this new piece of information.

She’d been chosen as bait. She’d been chosen because she looked uncannily like someone else.

Someone he’d been in love with.

“Can I ask you a question?” she said.