Benbow looked worried, maybe annoyed. "It's a risk, Heidi. If Sarah contacts her husband or reaches out to anyone she knows, she'll put you and your kids in mortal danger."

"I trust Sarah. I love her. She's my only true family."

Benbow drummed his fingers on the table, then said, "Okay. We'll take you to a safe house while we make arrangements. All of you have to leave now, Heidi. No phone calls. No good-byes. You can't take anything with you but what you're wearing."

Heidi was overwhelmed by the enormity of this imminent and complete break with her past-and with the idea of a future without Pete. What would it be like to live without fear, to be with Sarah every night and in the light of day?

They could all have full lives.

Tears filled Heidi's eyes again and spilled down her cheeks. She covered her face with her hands and let the tears come. When she could speak again, she said to Boxer and Benbow, "Thank you. God bless you both. Thank you."

Chapter 104

I WALKED WITH Heidi out to the street. She looked up at me, puffy-eyed and dazed, and said, "I don't know what to tell the kids."

"I know you'll find the words. Heidi, do you understand what happens next?"

"We spend the night at the FBI safe house in LA while arrangements are made. Then we fly out-"

"Don't tell me where you're going. Don't tell anyone."

"We're dropping off the edge of the earth."

"That's right. Is that your friend Sarah?" I asked as a red Saturn pulled up to the curb.

"Yes. There she is."

Heidi stepped away from me and leaned into the car through the passenger-side window. She spoke to the driver, then said, "Sergeant Boxer, meet my friend Sarah Wells."

Sarah was a pretty brunette, no makeup, late twenties, wearing oversize clothes. She put a pink rubber ball down on the seat and reached across to shake my hand. She had an impressive grip. She said, "Listen, it's good to meet you at last. Thanks for everything."

There was an odd expression on Sarah's face-as though she were afraid of me. Had she had run-ins with the police?

"Meet me at last?"

"I meant, since you found Stevie."

"Of course."

Stevie was in a car seat in the back, sitting beside a little girl. The boy put the flat of his hand on the window and said gravely, "Hi, lady."

"Hey, Stevie," I said, putting my hand on the other side of the glass, overlapping his small palm. The girl announced, "Stevie is in love with you."

I grinned at the two children, then Heidi gave me an effusive and tearful hug. She settled into the car, then reached out her hand to take mine.

"Be happy," I said.

"You, too."

A black sedan pulled alongside the Saturn, and Agent Benbow leaned out of the car window. He told Sarah that he'd be in the lead. A second car positioned itself behind the Saturn, and then the three-car caravan drove away, escorting Heidi, Sarah, and the children to the next chapter of their new lives.

I hoped they were going to have good ones.

I watched until the cars were out of sight. I thought about Heidi and wondered how Pete Gordon would react to her disappearance with his children. And I wondered how in God's name we would find him before he killed again.

Chapter 105

LEONARD PARISI LOOKED particularly ragged the next morning when Yuki and I came to his office requesting a search warrant. Parisi, known as "Red Dog" for his dark-red hair and his tenacity, pawed through the pictures of approximately four million dollars' worth of stolen jewelry and a copy of the letter from Hello Kitty.

"Do you have any leads on this Kitty person?"

"She buried herself in a crowd coming through the front door. The security camera picked up the mob scene, but we couldn't see who left the case," Yuki said.

"Sergeant?"

"We have nothing on her identity," I told him. "The jewelry is at the lab. So far, we haven't found prints on anything. All we have is that Kitty returned every last piece. I think that gives her some credibility when she says she didn't kill Casey Dowling."

"What the hell do we have security cameras for?" Parisi groused.

Like the rest of us, Parisi had taken vast quantities of crap for his department's low conviction record in the face of San Francisco's rising crime rate. That would be our fault-the police, who didn't bring the district attorney's office enough evidence for them to build airtight cases.

"So that leaves us with what, Sergeant? The unsubstantiated statement of an anonymous self-confessed jewel thief that she's not a murderer? You actually think Dowling did it?"

"Kitty was adamant the two times I spoke with her, and I found her convincing."

"Never mind her. She's nobody. She's a ghost. What about Dowling?"