“You murdered a man, so in my eyes, you’re in the same category as the people you’re after. Why should I help you throw other people in jail when you yourself are trying to avoid it?”

Anna Kiel nodded as she pensively chewed on her lower lip.

“Let’s make a deal,” she said. “Once these people have been revealed, so the whole world can see them for the monsters they are, then you’re welcome to come after me.”

“No thanks,” Heloise said. “When this is over, I’m out, do you understand? I don’t want to hear any more from you after today. Anything that happens from here on out is your problem. Agreed?”

“Agreed.”

“But you can’t run forever. You know that, right?”

Anna Kiel smiled. “I’m willing to take the chance.”

“How are you getting by?” Heloise asked. “Is Kenneth sending you money?”

Anna Kiel’s face softened for a second. “You don’t need to worry about that.”

“If you’re really his friend, then doesn’t it bother you that you’re risking causing him serious problems with the law by letting him help you?”

Anna Kiel smiled briefly. “You don’t need to worry about that,” she repeated.

CHAPTER

42

THE TWO WOMEN looked at each other for a moment. Then Anna Kiel broke the silence. “Do you want to hear the story or not?”

Heloise nodded. She took her voice recorder out of her inside pocket and held it up in front of Anna.

“I’d like to record this. Is that okay?”

“Sure.”

“You should know that I’ll probably use whatever you tell me in my article. You will be quoted.”

Anna leaned in over the table, put her hands together, and looked down at the top of the table for a moment, as if she were studying the knots and the grain of the wood. Then she said, “Do you have any idea what it feels like to grow up in an empty house without any real contact with grown-ups, totally alone?”

Heloise shook her head.

“No.” Anna smiled. “Your father told me about your life together, about when you were little. It sounded like you had a good childhood.”

“I did,” Heloise agreed.

“Yeah.” Anna nodded. “It sounds like it. He loves you. You know that, right? But it wasn’t like that for me. There was no love in my home, no grown-ups present. My father was always at work or in town, and my mother”—she smiled sarcastically—“she was too busy to be a mother. She was always out spending all the money my dad earned.”

“On gambling?”

“Yeah, on gambling, exactly.” Anna nodded. “Anyway, there was rarely any food in the fridge, just beer, and no one came home and tucked me in at night. No one took care of me.”

“Why didn’t anyone intervene? No one at school reported what was going on at your house?”