Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Brady coming toward us in a hurry. He was huffing as he called out to me.

"Boxer, don't you pick up your messages? Listen, earlier today Peter Gordon's wife walked into the FBI."

Chapter 103

HEIDI MEYER SAT alone in an interrogation room, exhausted by the physical and emotional effects of trauma upon unimaginable trauma. Her world was changed. She was changed. How had she lived with Pete Gordon and never known who he was? Pictures kept coming into her mind, images of cooking for Pete, reasoning with him, trying to keep his lid on. She had given birth to his children, compensated for his shortcomings and psychic wounds. She'd slept next to him almost every night for the last ten years.

And now her husband had both literally and figuratively blown up their lives.

After Agent Benbow had interviewed her for three hours, he'd left her alone with a fresh cup of tea. Heidi thought about their interview, how she'd emptied every pocket of her memory in order to tell him whatever she knew to help him find her husband before he killed again.

She'd said that Pete had been freaky since coming back from Iraq. She'd said that he was always angry, that he scared the children, and that, yes, he kept weapons in the house and knew how to use explosives.

Heidi had shown Agent Benbow the bruises on her arms and had let a female agent take pictures of the black-and-blue blotches on the insides of her thighs.

And as she sat in the windowless room, it finally became clear to her how much Pete actually did hate her and the children, and that if he had in fact killed all those mothers and their children, it was because they were stand-ins for her and for Steven and Sherry.

She wondered where Pete was now and if he was tracking her, if he'd been watching her when she went into the FBI building, if he was waiting for her to leave. And now that she'd told the FBI everything, what was she supposed to do? Why hadn't someone told her what to do?

Heidi looked up as the door opened and Agent Benbow came back in with a tall blond woman. He introduced her as Sergeant Lindsay Boxer from the SFPD. Heidi's eyes watered. She stood and shook Sergeant Boxer's hand with both of hers.

"You're the one who found Stevie. Oh my God. I can't thank you enough."

"You're very welcome, Heidi. May I call you Heidi?"

"Sure."

Benbow left the room, and Sergeant Boxer pulled out a chair. She said, "Catch me up, okay? I haven't been fully briefed. Where are Steven and Sherry now?"

"They're with my friend Sarah Wells. We work together at Booker T. Washington High."

"And where is Sarah?"

"She's driving around, waiting to pick me up. She can't go home. Her husband... she's left him. We have no place to go. Even if my house wasn't bombed-out, I have to get far away from Pete."

"Let's just talk for a little bit," Sergeant Boxer said.

"Sure. Whatever I can tell you."

"Have you spoken to your husband since the events at your house?" Sergeant Boxer asked.

"He left me a voice mail. He said that when he was driving around, he was planning to kill Stevie, but then he saw something in Stevie's face. He said, 'He looks just like me. But you, Heidi. You look nothing like me at all.' "

"That was pretty ugly. What else did he say?"

"He said to tell the authorities that if he didn't get the five million bucks, he was going to find me and the kids and shoot us. That's when I contacted Agent Benbow. I gave him my cell phone with Pete's message still on it."

Sergeant Boxer nodded and said, "Excellent," and then asked, "Where do your parents live?"

"My mother was a single mom. She passed away five years ago. Sergeant, what am I supposed to do?"

The door to the interrogation room opened, and Agent Benbow returned. He had a precise haircut and a military bearing, but his expression was sympathetic, almost warm. He took a seat at the head of the table.

"Heidi, you've heard of the Witness Protection Programs?" Benbow said. "We want to put you and your kids in the program. You'll be given documents supporting new names, new identities, and you'll be given a new place to live."

"But I'm no good as a witness. I don't know anything."

"We've put people in the program for far less than being in Peter Gordon's sights. You have to let us protect you, Heidi. If we can find him, you'll do very well as a witness. He's demonstrated violence against you. And you can give a firsthand account of that."

Heidi's mind flooded with thoughts. Benbow was saying that, for her own protection, her life as Heidi Meyer was over. That for the safety of her kids, she had to disappear, delete her real life and start over as a new person. It was damned near inconceivable.

Only Sarah could make this bearable.

Heidi told Sergeant Boxer and Agent Benbow about Sarah Wells, her close friend and confidante, Stevie's godmother. And she was adamant. Sarah had to come into the program with them.