Kendra saw that Griffin was already scribbling in his notebook. "That's 2-HXW-...?"

"One hundred," Kendra finished for him. She turned to Jimmy's mother. "Did you see it?"

She shook her head. "No, but that doesn't mean anything. I was more concerned with getting Jimmy into his lesson." She thought for a moment. "But he did call out a license plate. Like I said, he's been doing that lately, so I didn't think much about it."

Kendra turned back to Jimmy. "What did the car look like?"

"It was white. And it kind of looked like that one." He pointed to a black pickup truck parked on the street. "But it was bigger."

Lynch knelt beside Kendra. "That's really good, Jimmy." His tone was the same nonpatronizing tone he'd used on Jimmy earlier. "You have a cool memory. What else can you tell us about this guy?"

"He had a phone just like Mommy's."

His mother held up an iPhone.

Jimmy nodded. "I saw the silver apple on the back."

Santini grinned and shook his head. "A license plate, the maker of his cell phone? d.a.m.n. This kid's sharper than most of the people we work with."

"Tell me about it," Kendra said.

Santini made a face. "I'm not sure if you're complimenting the boy or doing your usual scathing job of-"

Keep any additional conflict away from the boy. She cut him off. "Did you hear that, Jimmy? Agent Santini is with the FBI. You know how important and brave those people are from watching TV, don't you? It's really something that he thinks you're smart."

"Thank you ... I think," Santini said.

"It's important that law enforcement be respected. I've set the bar," she said without looking at him. "Don't disillusion him."

He gazed at her without expression. "I'll try not to."

"Good job." Kendra patted Jimmy on the shoulder. She looked around at the other agents and police officers. "Are we finished here?"

Santini nodded.

She turned to Jimmy's mother. "I need to do something with Jimmy day after tomorrow. I'll need your permission."

Tina frowned, puzzled. "It's not his usual day for an appointment."

"No, but will you bring him anyway? It will take at least a day to get this mess cleaned up, then I'd like him back here." She turned back to Jimmy. "You know when we climbed up into the ceiling? We didn't go all the way. I was thinking that if there was a fire, we'd need to know if we could make it to the next building. Will you go up with me and help me check it out?"

He stared at her warily. "I ... don't know."

"I won't force you. But it could save someone's life." Gently, she repeated, "We should go all the way, Jimmy."

He thought about it. "Okay, maybe I won't be scared this time."

"I don't think you will." She stared meaningfully at his mother. "We'll make it fun."

She understood and nodded slowly. "Sure, I'll bring him day after tomorrow." She turned. "Come on, Jimmy. You've been a hero long enough. Let's go home and make supper."

Lynch watched them get into their car before turning to her. "Why?"

"Jimmy lives inside himself. Sometimes he has nightmares. He'll remember what happened today, and he'll remember himself as a victim. Day after tomorrow, we'll play in that ceiling as if it were a kid's gym, and we'll go back and forth two or three times. I'll get his sister involved, but Jimmy will be in control. He'll truly be the hero. When he leaves, he won't be a victim any longer." She turned and headed for her car. "I'm going home to take a shower and change clothes. You drive. I'll take a taxi back here tomorrow and start to clean the place up. I'm tired."

"And rattled?"

She gave him a cool glance. "Maybe."

"You deserve to be rattled," he said quietly. "You handled the situation better than anyone I know could have done."

"You're d.a.m.n right." Grudgingly, she added, "You helped. Though you shouldn't have dropped the ball by letting that b.a.s.t.a.r.d get away." She got into the pa.s.senger seat of his car. "I don't want to talk right now. I'm tired and angry, and I have to make a decision that I don't want to make. I only have one question. Do you have any idea who that b.a.s.t.a.r.d was? Are you keeping anything from me?"

"No, I don't know who he was." He paused. "And maybe I've not been totally open with you. I have problems with transparency. But if I have kept anything from you, it has nothing to do with what happened tonight. I had no idea you'd be targeted, Kendra. You were only supposed to be a consultant, a sort of tech."

"But you knew there might be a possibility."

"I won't lie." He got into the driver's seat. "There's always a possibility."

"That's all I wanted to know." She closed her eyes and leaned her head back on the headrest. "Take me home, Lynch."

SHE UNLOCKED THE DOOR OF her condo. "Come in, Lynch."

"I had no intention of doing anything else. Stay here in the foyer while I have a look around." He did a quick safety check of each room before he came back to her. "All clear."

"Nothing is clear. But it's going to get that way." She strode to the kitchen and started to make a pot of coffee. "I guarantee."

"Kendra, perhaps it's time our partnership came to an end."

"Really? I see. I'm no longer useful to your investigation?"

"You know better than that. You're extremely useful. Maybe even vital. But I'm obviously not the only one who thinks so. I'm sure that's why you were targeted today."

"I'm sure of it, too," she said sarcastically. "I generally don't have thugs attacking me on my home turf."

"I'm sorry, Kendra. When I think what could have happened to you and that little boy..." He shook his head. "I really didn't think this would be dangerous for you."

"Bulls.h.i.t. As you said, there's always a possibility, and you disregarded the possibility because I had a skill you wanted." Jeff. He was just like Jeff. No, probably worse, because Jeff had made excuses and lied to himself on the grounds that any threat was for the greater good. Lynch had just taken what he wanted with total ruthlessness and let the chips fall where they might. "Well, I used that skill, and apparently it's extremely dangerous to be me right now."

"We can fix it. Back off. You're obviously being watched. Whoever knows you've been on the case will just as quickly realize that you're no longer a part of it. You should be okay after that."

"If they don't kill me before they make that judgment."

"Leave town for a while. Just disappear someplace and make a vacation of it. I'll keep you posted, and when things settle down-"

"That's your brilliant plan?" she said through set teeth. "Ship me off to a beach while you try to figure out what happened to Jeff? While you try to catch that sc.u.m who was taking potshots at me and a twelve-year-old kid?"

"It's for your own good."

"I'll decide what's good for me." Her hands clenched into fists at her sides. "You've seen to it that I can't do my job any longer. There's no way I'd endanger any other child the way Jimmy was threatened. Do you know what that means to me?"

"I can guess."

"No, you can't." Her eyes were blazing at him. "I make a difference, dammit. How many people can say that? When I'm with one of my kids, I'm not some freak with a weird gift. I may be only a piece of a bigger puzzle, but I can be the crucial piece. And you took that away from me." She was fighting for control. "And not only that, you risked the life of one of my kids. The life of any child is precious, but a special kid works so d.a.m.n hard, fights for every step that comes easily to normal kids. Jimmy was making great strides. Now I may have to go back a few steps unless I can strike a balance. And he could have been killed just because I was an easy target while I was teaching him."

"That's all true. I've already admitted that I'm to blame. Now I'm trying to make reparations."

"Screw your reparations." She drew a shaky breath. "That son of a b.i.t.c.h came barging into my place and didn't care whom he killed as long as I went down. He was going to kill Jimmy, too. Do you think I'm going to let him get away with it?"

"No." His gaze was narrowed warily on her face. "I don't believe you are. But I'm not sure whether you're going to go after me or that b.a.s.t.a.r.d who had you treed."

"I'm not sure either. But I may need you."

"That's rea.s.suring," he said. "Would you care to go into that in more depth? I always like to know where I stand."

"Oh, that's my intention. You want to know where you stand. Behind me, Lynch. You and Jeff and the rest of those Bureau guys have used me and had me tag along and patted me on the head when I threw you a bone."

"There's something wrong with that a.n.a.logy."

"It sounds fine to me. The only thing that's not fine is that I'm tired of relying on you to keep my life and career intact while I tried to help you. No one gives a d.a.m.n about me. Not you, not Jeff. But you'd better give a d.a.m.n about those kids I work with, or I'll castrate you."

"I'm duly chastened, actually terrified."

"I'm not joking."

"Neither am I. I'm only pretending-to save my pride. Is there something else?"

"Yes, I'm done with your games and being your pet bloodhound. You've taken away my purpose and my job, and I'm going to get them back. I'll show those sons of b.i.t.c.hes they can't walk in and try to hurt one of my kids." Her voice was vibrating with rage. "And I'm running my own show now. I'm not going to be used. I've been trailing along in your world. Now come and visit mine. If it doesn't scare the s.h.i.t out of you. Stand aside, Lynch. Or, so help me, I'll run right over you."

He was still studying her, and a faint smile lit his face. "You know that might even be an enjoyable experience."

"Don't count on it. I'm not amused."

"I'm not counting on anything but the fact that something extraordinary is occurring, and it's interesting, very interesting." He turned to the coffee that she'd started to make. "I'll make the coffee. You go take your shower, then we'll talk." He lifted a finger as she opened her lips. "Just a suggestion, not an order. It was what you told me you wanted to do. Can't you see how obedient I'm being?"

She could see that he was intrigued and perhaps a little s.e.xually aroused. Under some circ.u.mstances, conflict would have that effect on Lynch. What else? She would explore whatever other effect her words had made on him later. At that moment she had to take control and cool down. Anger was a danger if it interfered with thought when dealing with a man like Lynch. He would manipulate it and turn it into something-No, he wouldn't. She wouldn't let him.

She turned toward her bedroom. "I'll be back in fifteen minutes. Then we'll go over our descriptions and impressions of that sc.u.mbag who doesn't give a d.a.m.n about targeting kids."

"Kendra."

She looked at him over her shoulder.

"I really was trying to give you an out. I know how torn up you were on that last kidnap case with Jeff, when you couldn't prevent those two children from being murdered. I could see that you were making an a.s.sociation at that crime scene this morning. You were ready to blame yourself."

She stiffened. "What makes you think that?"

"Everything. It was in your posture, in the way your eyes narrowed, the lines that appeared on your forehead." He shrugged. "I'm not nearly as good as you, but I do have some powers of observation."

She glanced away. She hated being so easily and accurately read even though she did it to other people all the time. It made her feel vulnerable. "I don't need an out. I don't need permission from you or Jeff or anyone to walk away. And that out would only last until you decided you needed me again. Then you'd pick me up at my beach cottage in Kauai and whisk me back into the fray."

His lips twisted. "Probably. I can be a b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

"I noticed. And I'll watch you like a hawk."

Her bedroom door slammed behind her.

San Diego County Medical

Examiner's Office

Kearny Mesa

"You look exhausted, Sienna." Dr. Ross, the medical examiner, frowned at her. "Go home. I can call you with results."

Special Agent Sienna Deever shook her head as she stared at Paul Renshaw's corpse, shimmering in the reflection of the examination table's stainless-steel surface. She had been with the body since her roadside blood test at 4 A.M., and the office had kept her waiting all day until her medical examiner of choice could be flown in from a conference in Denver. She had worked with Dr. Christian Ross on the other victims in this case.

Ross was a bearded, heavyset man in his early sixties, and Sienna had been impressed with his thoroughness and powers of concentration. He had been the one to identify the DNA-altering properties in the victims' mutagens before she had even joined the investigation.

What was just as important, Sienna had a history with him.

He took a scalpel from his a.s.sistant, a rail-thin young man who had barely spoken in the several hours he had been there. Ross lowered the scalpel and made a Y-shaped incision into the corpse that began at each shoulder, met at the breastbone, and continued down to the pubic area. He peeled back the muscle and soft tissue in each direction, gently placing the chest flap over the victim's face. He looked up at Sienna. "Are you sure? I promise I'll call you with the preliminary as soon as I'm done."

She half smiled behind her surgical mask. "You think I'm squeamish, Doctor?"

"You? Nah."

"Good. Remember, I was in Iraq."

"Yeah, you've told me your war stories, Sienna. I'm thinking more about those deep dark circles under your eyes."

"I'm here for the long haul. I'll leave when you do."

"Whatever. Makes no difference to me." He used a bone cutter to clip the rib cage, then he lifted away the sternum and ribs as he sliced away the attached organ tissue. Ross studied the exposed vital organs for a long moment. "Whew," he whispered.