Page 108 of Fatal Betrayal

Kim gave her a knowing smile. "You want to get me talking, give your team a chance to find you. It won't work. No one knows where you are."

"Cooper will figure it out."

"He won't," Kim said. "He can't."

Her heart twisted at Kim's words. "Why would you hurt him?"

"If he's hurt, it's because of you. You were always trouble for him and for his family. I knew you would end up at your father's house, that you'd want to get your little journals. I encouraged him to contact you, to make sure you knew that he had them, that he wanted to give them to you. But after speaking to you the other day, I wasn't sure you'd do it. You were so angry with him. But in the end, you couldn't resist. You played right into my hands. Then I sent someone to get you."

"Why? Why bring me here?"

"Because I can't take the chance that you won't keep looking for us. Once you're dead, and the evidence is destroyed, there won't be anyone else to find our trail."

She felt sick to her stomach because the way Kim was talking, it sounded like Cooper was dead. But she couldn't let her see that her words were destroying her. She couldn't give her that satisfaction. "Why didn't you just have someone kill me in the garage?"

"Because I wanted to see you. I thought after all your stubborn investigating, you deserved an answer before you died. Call me sentimental. I also couldn't trust that you wouldn't get away again. I needed to see you trapped with my own eyes."

Kim wasn't sentimental; she was evil, and maybe overconfident. Because as long as Andi was alive, there was a chance she could still get out of this. She did need to keep Kim talking. Maybe no one was looking for her, but at least she'd get more answers. "I assume you're the one who sent someone to blow up my apartment and then try to shoot me."

"I tried to warn you off, but that didn't work. You're too stubborn, so I had to take stronger action. Unfortunately, you proved to be elusive, and my people proved to be incompetent."

"Was one of your people Agent Burnett?"

Kim smiled again. "You figured that out, did you?"

"How did you make that happen? Did you involve him after the kidnapping or before?"

"Before. I made him an offer he couldn't refuse, actually more than one offer," she said cockily. "We got very close over the years."

That thought turned her stomach. "Why did you kill him if he was working with you?"

"Because he couldn't help me anymore," she said pragmatically. "Jim knew too much, and he was getting soft, worrying about himself. He wanted to magically "find" Elisa so he could win back his boss's respect and save the day. Then he tried to persuade me that that action would get rid of you. But the baby was worth far more to me than his offer, so I started following his communication channels. I kept up with who he was calling and texting."

"And you saw that he had called and texted me. You're insane, Kim."

"I'm smart. That's how I've built one of the biggest operations in the country in the past twenty years."

"What about your husband?" she asked. "Was he part of this?"

"Of course, Steve was part of it," she said with a shrug. "This started years ago."

"Did he actually die two years ago, or did you kill him, too?"

"You have a mouth on you, don't you?"

She ignored that. "What about my father? Did the two of you have an affair while he was married to my mother?"

"Yes. He was a very lonely, unhappy man, and your mother was a cold, unfeeling bitch."

"My mother is a wonderful person. And you were her friend. You betrayed her. You're the cold, unfeeling bitch. And someday everyone will know it."

"Shut up," Kim said, obviously not liking that she was losing control of the conversation.

"I'm not going to shut up. You brought me here to talk. So let's go back eighteen years. Who kidnapped Hannah? Was it you? Was it your husband? One of your boys? How did you get Hannah out of the neighborhood? Was she at your house? But she couldn't have been, because the police looked through your home, all the neighbor's houses…" Her voice trailed away, as she remembered the search, and the fact that one house wasn't looked at for two days, because it was for sale, and the owners were out of the country. "Your husband's firm had the listing on the house for sale across the street. He told the police you couldn't reach the owner for consent to search. When you finally got that consent, there was no one there. You'd moved Hannah somewhere else."

"So, you've figured it out. Bravo." Kim gave her a mocking clap. "It's too bad no one will ever know how brilliant you are."

"I still don't understand why you took Hannah and then raised her within your smuggling ring. It doesn't make sense."

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