“I’m pissed off about them shutting me out all of a sudden, so maybe yes. Maybe that will be my slant.” His neck was reddening and his jaw was taut.

“Can I offer you some advice?” I said. “Don’t do that. This case is about so much more. This is about how you can never really bury the past. This about three families all touched by Foster’s crimes.”

“Three families? Who else besides Emma’s family and the Fosters?”

“Emma has two half brothers she’s never met. She has a half sister she may never meet, either. But what she does have is the truth. She knows what happened to her mother now. And all the hard work she put into raising her brothers and sister will be rewarded. This is a story about horrible crimes that led to a happy, if not so perfect ending. Isn’t that a whole lot more important than a tape in an evidence locker?”

Kravitz sighed. “I’ll have to think about it. Meanwhile, you still owe me a formal interview-you promised your cooperation, right?”

Guess stairway conversations didn’t count as cooperation. “Interview, yes, but I don’t want to show my face on TV.”

“Why not? You’ve got a great face.” He smiled.

“I run a very small business and am extremely selective about my clients. Just the mention of my name on a local TV show brought Chelsea Burch to my doorstep.”

“You got a problem, then. This story was syndicated. UPI, Reuters, all of them have it. And when the Today show calls tonight or tomorrow, I hope you tell them no and give me an exclusive agreement in writing, especially since we lost one of our own to help your solve this thing.”

“The Today show won’t be calling me. That’s ridiculous.”

“Not ridiculous at all,” Kravitz said. “Seems you’re a damn hero, Abby Rose.”

Jeffs fellow officers and the hospital administration continued to shield Kate and me from the herd of reporters still waiting to talk to us. We heard that even Aunt Caroline’s name was big news. She was now the “socialite hostage” and had her own guard at the door, I guess to keep the press out. My sister and I would never be allowed to forget her important role in all this.

Before Kate and I could be escorted through a back exit of the hospital, the phone in Aunt Caroline’s room rang. She was so knocked out, the noise didn’t wake her. She’d had some strong medicine-maybe a sleeping pill the staff begged her doctor to order to shut her up.

I picked up quickly and said, “Hello?”

It was DeShay. “I’m still with Jeff, and-”

“Has something happened? Is he all right?” My heart went into overdrive again.

“He’s sleeping like a baby. No problem there. But White called. He wants you and Kate to come with me to Travis. We need formal statements. But there’s something else.”

“What?”

“Foster says he’ll confess to everything on the record-and we love confessions-but only with Kate present. She doesn’t have to do this, but I’m relaying the message.”

I glanced at my sister. This had to be her choice. “Hang on a minute.” I motioned Kate away from Sleeping Beauty and relayed what DeShay said. “You’re under no obligation, and, in my opinion, you should pass. They have plenty on him.”

Her brown eyes darkened with anger. “I’m not passing. I can’t think of anything I’d rather do.”

“You’re sure?”

She nodded.

“I’m going with you, then.” I spoke to DeShay again. “We haven’t got any wheels, planned on bumming a ride with one of the officers downstairs. Can you come up to Aunt Caroline’s room and get us?”

Don White and Kate sat facing Harrison Foster in a small interrogation room, while DeShay and I watched on a live feed in the next room. Foster’s arm was in a sling, and dried blood on his orange jail jumpsuit marked the spot where the bullet had struck him.

White told Foster they had his almost ex-wife in another room and they’d be checking Foster’s story against hers.

Foster offered his dimpled smile. “Good. What about my daughter?”

“She’s being taken care of,” White said. “But she’s not really your daughter, is she? You want to tell us about that?”

Foster ignored the question, had eyes only for Kate. “I wouldn’t have killed you. If you’d given me the money, I would have disappeared forever.”

I didn’t believe him, and sure hoped Kate wouldn’t buy his bullshit either.

Kate leaned forward in her familiar therapy mode. “You’ve harmed a lot of people when the truth would have been simpler. I’m not sure I understand why you felt the need to do so much damage.”

“You don’t know what I’ve had to overcome to get where I am. I had two dollars when I came to this city.”

Kate said, “Did your family throw you out? Maybe after you repeatedly hurt someone close to you-probably for fun? Maybe more than one someone?”

He kept smiling. “That’s why I needed you to come here-to help you understand.”

“And you’re helping us understand without a lawyer present?” White said.

Foster stared at White for a second and then calmly said, “I’ve already waived those Miranda warnings twice. You want me to write it in blood?”

His attitude, his creepy smile made chill bumps rise on my arms. How had this man masqueraded as Mr. Nice Guy? But sociopaths are chameleons, and Foster had convincingly camouflaged his true self.

“Tell me how all this happened,” Kate said. “That’s what you want to talk about, right?”

“Yes. Because my wife and my child have nothing to do with this.”

“The wife who kicked your ass to the curb?” White said.

Next to me, DeShay groaned. “Why you doing that, man? Let the turd talk.”

Foster ignored White, but I, too, hoped White would keep his attitude out of this.

Kate broke the tense silence that followed. “How did you find out your life was about to be turned upside down? When the house came down and reports of infant bones were broadcast on the news?”

“I was at work and saw the bulletin on a local TV Web site. I went to the O‘Mearas’ house, talked to a neighbor hanging around the scene and heard all about the television show. Quite a knowledgeable woman. I learned Emma’s name, heard the whole story about how her mother had abandoned her and her siblings. The O’Meara name was very familiar to me. Yes, this was about the baby-the one I knew about.”

“Knew about? Let’s not fool around. Your baby had been buried under that house, right?” Kate said.

“Of course.” Another cold smile.

Jeez.

“And you couldn’t let anyone find out, so you followed Emma Lopez that evening and ran her off the road,” White said. “Did you think that would accomplish anything?”

He smiled and kept his unwavering gaze on my sister. “That was a mistake. Panic leads to mistakes, and I’ve made too many-that first day and now today. But that’s not what you really want to know, is it, Kate? You want to know why I came after you.”

“You’re wrong,” she said evenly. “I want to know what happened to your baby. That’s the only reason I’m here.”

“You’re kidding yourself, but I must say, you are probably the first genuine person I have ever met. I truly regret we didn’t meet under different circumstances.”

Kate didn’t flinch, didn’t allow her emotions to take over even though Foster probably hoped she would.

He sat back in his chair. “In the end, you won me over, Kate. That’s why I promised the truth, and I’ll deliver. My wife, Beth, began behaving oddly after our daughter was born. I understood this better after that mother who killed her kids was all over the news a few years ago. Beth was like her. Postpartum depression. She kept saying she was evil, that she didn’t deserve a child so perfect. That maybe she should kill herself. I took her to a shrink and they doped her up good.”

“But something happened anyway?” Kate said. “She harmed your baby?”