Starting with getting that son of a bitch who had killed her nephew back behind bars where he belonged.

They didn't know a lot of details yet, just what they'd read on a news Web site out of D.C. Convicted Child Killer Released-New Evidence and Death of Star Witness Key to Case.

Lily shook her head, still stunned at the whole crazy sequence of events. Some high-priced lawyer had gotten Boyd an appeals hearing. The article said there was some problem with the original prosecution, and some complete stranger had appeared out of the woodwork with an alibi. Those things, combined with Lily's supposed death, had prompted the court to let the man go and the DA had not commented on whether he intended to refile charges in the case.

As Wyatt had explained, he probably wouldn't without a witness.

She had come close to getting sick when Brandon had told them. The very thought of that degenerate being back on the street was enough to make her ill. It also made her wonder if she really could commit some of the violent acts Wyatt had described.

"You're sure we shouldn't just go straight to the DA's office?" she asked him as he drove across the Key Bridge. They had landed at Reagan and driven into the city to drop Brandon off at his place. Now they were headed to Wyatt's town house in Alexandria. With no home of her own to go back to, they'd all just assumed she'd be with Wyatt.

Brandon, she noticed, hadn't even suggested otherwise. In the hours since they'd sat in the kitchen of the beach house this afternoon, he seemed to have begun to drop the overprotective, lovesick act and started acting like the high-energy friend he'd always been to her. Because he'd noticed how she looked at Wyatt? Had he seen the depth of feelings in her eyes, heard the shuddery sighs she couldn't contain whenever their arms brushed or he touched her, however slightly?

She honestly didn't know how he could have missed those things. Nor did she think Wyatt had.

"No. We need to plan this, Lily. Figure out the right time for you to come forward. And it's not going to be until after I find a way to make sure Anspaugh, Crandall, and the others take your safety seriously. If they think you're a serial killer, that's not going to be the primary interest."

Being thought of as a serial killer. Who ever considered that happening in their lifetime? "You'll keep me safe," she murmured.

He didn't even sound worried as he replied, "I'll be on suspension and they won't let me anywhere near you."

Lily turned to glance out the window, not wanting him to see the sudden misery she felt. She'd cost this man so much. How on earth could he still want to keep taking care of her? Knowing he would not want to have that conversation now any more than he'd wanted to have it any other time she brought it up, she let it go. For now.

"They'll figure out that I'm innocent, Wyatt." And I'll fight with everything I've got to make sure you don't get the blame.

"Of course they will. But in the meantime, if you come forward, you're a sitting duck. If they don't arrest you, you'll be exposed and vulnerable. And if they do, well, you can't tell me you think Lovesprettyboys is just going to wait for you to talk about whatever you remember. The man is murderous and desperate. We know he has money and reach. It's not such a stretch to think of his finding a way to get to you, no matter where the bureau decides to lock you up. We have to think this through."

"Okay, you're seriously depressing me," she said. "I get it. No DA tonight. No anything tonight."

"Good. Let's just go back to my place, get settled, and work on our game plan. Boyd's not going to disappear in one night, not when he thinks he's totally in the clear."

Brandon had promised to come down in the morning so they could decide, as a group, how to handle telling the others on the team that she was alive. The last thing Lily wanted was to cause any of them more pain, and she had no idea how they would react.

There were other decisions to make as well, including how she should report to FBI headquarters. Should she go in with a lawyer? Go straight to Crandall's office? God knew there was no way she was putting herself in Anspaugh's hands.

Unwilling to sit back and do absolutely nothing while they figured out their next move, she also wanted to know what she could do to help in the investigation while she was stashed away in Wyatt's house. Brandon, he'd told her, had come up with other audio clips for her to listen to. That would occupy her for at least a little while tomorrow.

As for the rest? It all remained to be seen.

About the only thing they had decided for sure since Jackie's shocking phone call about Jesse Boyd was that Lily could no longer remain dead. Justice demanded that she do the right thing. No matter what it cost her.

"I was thinking I might try calling Boyd's defense attorney. I'd really like to know how she ended up with this case."

She rolled her eyes. "Like she'd talk to you?"

"She might," he said. Then he lowered his voice as if speaking to himself "I suspect she could be very interested in talking to me."

"What do you mean? Why would she?"

He didn't reply, merely mumbling under his breath about how impossible it was that this could all be a coincidence.

The same thought had flashed through her head more than once. "It does seem pretty odd that Boyd lands some new high-powered attorney and gets out right around the same time somebody's trying to set me up for murder. Sounds a lot like a desperate person covering all his bases, finding me by fair means or foul."

No matter who got hurt. No matter what little child Boyd might target next.

Not that Lovesprettyboys would care. The unsub was a sociopath, not a classic pedophile at all. When they'd first discovered him, he'd been part of a violent virtual world, Satan's Playground, and offered to pay a fortune to see such violence performed against a child in real life. So the idea of a convicted child killer going free probably delighted him.

How such people could exist was beyond her. It seemed as though every time they caught one, another two took his place. That didn't mean she'd ever give up on catching them and putting them away. Especially Jesse Tyrone Boyd.

While the courts might think he didn't get a fair trial, she didn't for one minute think anybody really believed he was innocent. Especially not her. She'd seen Zach's little face through the window of the man's panel van. She'd seen his tags. And when she saw him in a lineup, she'd easily picked him out as the man who'd been lurking around the neighborhood in the days preceding Zach's kidnapping. The man Zach said had talked to one of his friends about a lost puppy.

Why did you let him go back to that park, Laura? Why?

She thrust the anguished thought away, focusing on the case. The things she could do something about. Not the past that was gone, out of reach, inalterable, and resolute.

"You know, Boyd's mother came up to me in the courthouse during the trial."

He took his eyes off the road long enough to give her a quick, worried glance.

"She was teary-eyed, and she came to tell me how sorry she was for what her son had done. The way he had destroyed my family, cost me everyone I loved." To this day, she couldn't forget the look on the woman's face when she'd admitted what her son had done. What he was.

How did a mother survive that?

She hadn't brought it up to be maudlin, or dwell on it, only to illustrate a point. "She is his only family, and she made it clear that when she listened to his testimony, she knew right away that he was lying. And had no doubt he was guilty. She cut him off then and there, said she would never be back."

"Meaning," Wyatt said, understanding immediately, "it is very doubtful he has family members on the outside paying for a new lawyer."