“So you only invited us over to ask about Anthony Curtis?” Joe asked.

“I’m only here for the excellent coffee, and you two sometimes look so dejected, it seemed like I should make an effort. I’m sure there have to be much more interesting things you could be doing for the bureau than skulking after me. The reason I asked about Curtis has to do with fairness.”

“What do you mean?” Shelby asked.

“Your job is to catch me doing something you can lock me away for. I get that. I understand that. This game we play will go on for as long as I’m alive. You being outside my door and ten steps behind me is like blinking. It’s something we do, some of us less than others, but still something that’s a part of our lives that we can’t change,” Cain said, and she and Joe smiled at the dig. “My problem is the shortcuts some of you take to provoke a reaction that will finally bring me down. When those shortcuts involve my children and wife, that’s beyond the parameters of our game.”

“We agree with you on that, and we are actively looking for him,” Joe said.

“I believe you, but that doesn’t account for Hannah, does it?” Cain spun the knife on the table.

“Wait.” Shelby held her hand up. “What do you mean by that? Emma confronted me about it, but you can’t seriously think we’d try to get to you by using a kid in kindergarten, do you?”

“Surely not, but then I have a bullet wound scar from an FBI-issued weapon. I also didn’t think one of your little buddies would take the side of an animal like Luis, so what the hell do I know?” Cain pushed her cup aside and held up three fingers this time. It didn’t take long for some warm apple pie to arrive.

“It’s hard to argue when you put it like that,” Joe said.

“Try,” Cain said and laughed. “I thought you were the FBI,” she said the letters slowly. “What’s impossible for the FBI? Tell me how low you’re willing to go to get your man.”

“All I can tell you is that neither of us has ever done anything close to what you’re suggesting,” Shelby said. “We can’t deny there’ve been bad people working for us, but it has nothing to do with me or Joe.”

“That’s true, but everyone has a breaking point, Agent Shelby. Take your partner here. It wasn’t that long ago that his anger drove him to distraction. Not everything that happens leads to my door, but there you are banging away when something does happen.”