“Don’t even try to justify it,” she says coldly, backing away.

His look of sympathy evaporates. “I don’t have to justify anything. You made a mess, I cleaned it up. It was the only big one you ever made, but it damn sure ruined most of what came after.” He swings back to me. “Thanks to this punk.”

“Leave me out of this,” I tell him. “You’ve had the wrong idea about me for twenty years.”

“How so?”

Livy looks at me and shakes her head.

“Ask her.”

“Livy?”

“I don’t know what he’s talking about.”

Leo’s eyes roam over the study, taking in the wine bottle on the bar, his bookshelves, and finally the desk, where his gaze settles on the Sig-Sauer lying beside Livy’s purse. He is nearer the gun than I, and he knows I’m thinking that.

“It was you who said Ray Presley was coming here to kill me, wasn’t it, Cage?”

“That’s right. I was doing you a favor.”

“I think you were lying.” He stabs a finger in my direction. “I think you broke in here looking for some kind of evidence. And I think I’d be within my rights to blow your goddamn head off.”

He picks up the Sig-Sauer, cycles the slide, and walks around the desk.

“Presley killed Ike Ransom tonight,” I say quickly. “He tried to kill me, but I got clear by sending him after you. I told him you gave him up to the FBI as part of your deal with Hoover.”

Something twitches in Leo’s cheek. “You’re still lying. You’re using my daughter to try and get at me.” He turns to Livy. “The trial’s tomorrow, and he’s desperate. He’s using you.”

A dark light shines in Livy’s eyes. “The way you used me against him?”

Leo isn’t much of an actor; his feigned surprise is almost comical.

“Once I got here,” she says, “I realized why you’d asked me to come. What you wanted me to do. The sad thing is, I wanted to do it. I thought Penn could wipe away all the mistakes I’d made. I thought his wife’s death was fate. That we were being given a second chance.”

“That’s only natural,” Leo says in a soothing voice. “But he took advantage of you, honey. What did he ask you to do for him?”

“Nothing. He loves me. He always has.” Her smile is full of irony and self-disgust. “And he has more integrity than both of us put together.”

Leo snorts. “Spare me the wine and roses. Did you have to bring him here? Couldn’t you have checked into a motel?”

“The way you always did?”

“Olivia—”

“Don’t say anything. Just go back to your room. Go upstairs and take care of Mother. Better late than never.”