“No.” Such a simple word, and so devoid of emotion coming from his lips. “I was the one.”

“You… you did it?” Kate couldn’t hide her horror this time.

“You know, you’re overly sensitive, Kate. Too pampered, maybe.” He spoke in a mocking tone, and I wanted to get her out of there, give Foster a swift kick in the groin while I was at it. But I didn’t. White’s goal was to learn if this man’s wife had been complicit in his crimes.

“Keep going,” Kate said calmly. I was relieved to see that she’d regained her composure.

“Beth was sedated, and I was exhausted the night it happened. I never heard any sound through the baby monitor. Nothing. I thought the baby had slept through the night for the first time. But she was dead when I went into her room that morning. Cold… blue… dead. I wrapped her up and was holding her when the cleaning lady came. Just so you know, that woman was despicable.”

“Despicable enough that you made a deal with her?” White asked.

“Am I talking to you?” Foster snapped. Then he looked at Kate again. “She realized the baby was dead, and her wheels started turning right away. See, I stupidly wondered out loud how I’d explain this problem to Beth when she was finally with it enough to understand.”

“You were worried about Beth?” I could hear the skepticism in Kate’s tone.

“Oh, you are a smart one-you and your sister both.” His tone was hard now. “There were things in my past I’d managed to hide up to that point. I couldn’t have any fucking investigation over a dead kid.”

I nodded and noticed that DeShay was getting it, too. We were now seeing the real Harrison Foster, the man who’d held a gun to my sister’s head today, shot Jeff and shown no mercy to his other victims. This had never been about anything but protecting Harrison Foster-or whoever Harrison Foster really was.

“Did Christine O’Meara take the baby’s body off your hands?” White asked.

“Yes. That day. Said she’d bury it. Said she could get some herbal medicine and induce her labor. She was eight and a half months along and could provide me with a brand-new healthy baby right away for a price. Beth would never know the difference; that’s for sure.”

“Even if it was a boy?” White again. He’d probably never heard anything like this-had any of us?-and I couldn’t have kept my mouth shut either.

“Beth wasn’t a problem,” he said. “I mean, the woman was damn psychotic-still is, if you ask me. I could have convinced her of anything. But a boy would have required a forged birth certificate and probably a quick relocation away from her friends. Her family lives in Oregon, and I figured that if the O’Meara woman delivered a boy, I could always explain later that Beth got it all wrong when she called them, that she’d had a breakdown and was under treatment. Turns out, I didn’t have to worry.”

Kate nodded. “You bought a new baby?”

“Yes. And I took care of her until Beth was well enough to function again. Took months. I considered my actions an investment in my future.”

I wondered how his actions had affected that poor kid. Having this sicko for a father must have had some negative impact.

“Let me get this straight,” White said. “Your wife had no knowledge that your daughter Amy wasn’t her biological child?”

“Interesting question. A man who’s been ‘kicked to the curb,’ as you put it, might want a little revenge on an ungrateful wife, might tell you Beth was the one who forced me to switch the babies. But you know, I like Amy. I don’t want to damage her by leaving her without both her parents. She’d end up in foster care. The truth is, Beth and Amy do not know the truth.”

Damage. That word meant something to him. Another chill crawled up my arms. This man’s wife might never know how lucky she was that he’d be locked away until they put a needle in his arm.

“Your actions made sure Emma and Christine’s other children were left without a parent and ended up in foster care,” Kate said.

“Better them than Amy. If O’Meara hadn’t demanded more money from me, she’d still be alive. Stupid woman thought she could run a business. When she failed at that-and she would-I knew she’d be back. I couldn’t have that.” He shook his head. “Nope. Couldn’t have that.”

“So you shot her,” White said.

Foster blinked several times, his face impassive. “Yes.”

“You killed two other people,” Kate said, “or two that we know about.”

He smiled. “All out of necessity, sweet Kate. Billings was easy. A weak man. He told me he already had a buyer for his information, but that if I could offer him more, he’d be happy to help me out. That buyer was your sister, of course. I’d watched her hand him cash earlier in the day. No matter how much I paid him, he’d never keep his mouth shut. He chose his own fate by being greedy.”

I couldn’t believe this guy.

“That’s how you found him? Following Ms. Rose?” White asked.

“Yes. When the man got off work that day, I was right behind him,” he said.

“And behind him when you slit his throat,” White said.

I saw Foster’s lips tighten, saw his posture stiffen. He kept his focus on Kate. “I resort to violence only when necessary.”

“Did you even know if Billings had any information worth selling?” White asked.

“Didn’t matter. That man would be trouble, might mention me to Abby. She’d want a description, and I do have distinctive features. He had to go. Kate understands, don’t you?”

Kate closed her eyes for several seconds. When she spoke, her voice was so soft I could hardly hear her. “Oh, yes, I do understand. I understand everything now.”

29

DeShay and I helped Jeff walk to the wheelchair in his hospital room. He was going home after only ten days-or, rather, heading for my house. He didn’t complain as he took each slow step, even though I could tell he was hurting. “Pain is comforting,” he’d told me while he recovered. “Pain means you’re alive.” That was as close as we’d gotten to discussing how near he’d come to dying. Knowing him, we might not ever talk about it again.

I’d done the interview for Kravitz two days after Foster was caught. Makeup was provided by the very talented Sandy Sechrest, who made all of us look like movie stars-all of us being Kate, Aunt Caroline, Emma and me. Loreen had absolutely refused to be interviewed, much less taped.

With cameras and lights taking up most of my aunt’s living room, we answered Kravitz’s questions for several hours. At times the crew dragged chairs from different rooms, moved tables and lamps and had us sit in other spots-sometimes together, sometimes apart, depending on who was talking about what. I was told this would keep the audience from getting bored with the set. I didn’t really care. I wanted to be done.

I was sure most of what Stu taped would end up on the cutting room floor, and thank goodness for that, but I had the feeling Aunt Caroline might be disappointed. She’d lapped up the attention like a cat with a saucer of cream. The deal with Kravitz included a clause that Mary Parsons could air her own interview on the late news after the Crime Time episode was finished. Kravitz was concerned she’d leak something, so the plan was to tape my interview with her on the same morning the Crime Time episode aired in November.

A nurse’s aide arrived and wheeled Jeff to the elevator and out the lobby door to the car that DeShay had parked at the front entrance. A security guard was lurking, perhaps ready to call for a tow truck, but when DeShay flashed his badge, the man understood who the T-bird was waiting for. Everyone knew the story.

The ride home was blessedly quick, and Loreen and Doris were waiting for us at my place. I’d moved them from Jeff’s apartment once Loreen finally believed that Jimmy the pimp hadn’t been outside her house that night. Maybe no one had been outside.