After my third knock, the one where I added, “I’m not leaving, Kim,” she opened the door. She’d always looked fragile, and nothing had changed. She was like fine porcelain – so delicate, I feared one wrong word would shatter her.

“Sorry,” she said, gesturing me inside. “I was washing dishes.”

She didn’t look like she’d eaten a bite since I saw her last. “I was wondering if we could talk.”

“Sure.” She didn’t seem happy about the prospect but didn’t argue, either.

We sat in her tiny living room. Since the sun had set, a single lamp was the only light afforded us. It made the sharp angles of her face stand out.

“Have you seen him?” she asked, her voice small and unsure.

It angered me. “Yes, I have seen him, and he should’ve come to see you the minute he got out.”

She shook her head, defending him as always. “No, no, I understand. He doesn’t want anyone to know about me.”

“That was before, when he was being charged for murder. He has no reason not to visit you, Kim.”

Her eyes watered instantly. “He has every reason,” she said, almost begging me to understand. “You don’t know what he endured for me.”

“I do, actually.” When she offered me a questioning gaze, I said, “I have a picture from that time.”

“A picture?” Dread flooded her central nervous system.

“Yes, of Reyes being —” I didn’t know how to put it mildly, because there was nothing mild about the picture. “You told me a while back that Earl Walker had kept pictures in the walls. Is that what you meant? Pictures of Reyes being tortured?”

A slender hand covered her mouth as tears pushed past her lashes.

“Is that why you’ve been burning down all the places you lived growing up? Because Earl hid the pictures in the walls?”

Her surprise was palpable. Her grief even more so. She rose and went to the kitchen for two glasses of sweet tea and a tissue, then sat back down, her resolve solidifying. “Yes,” she said, closing her eyes in shame. “I’ve been burning down the buildings, the houses, the filth-infested garages… Everywhere we lived, every place Earl defiled my brother. They’re all soiled, stained with decay and degradation.” She handed me a glass of tea and took a drink herself.

I took a sip, giving her a moment, then asked, “Kim, I know we’ve talked about this, but did Earl ever… did he —?”

“No,” she said, swallowing. “Not me. Not ever.” A savage disgust fueled the next look she gave me. “He liked boys. He liked Reyes. He took women only when he had to, as a means to an end.” She cast me a puzzled gaze. “Why would any woman give that pile of sewage a second look?”

I shook my head, seeing a strength in her I had never seen before. A fierce determination to protect Reyes. She would do anything for him, and he didn’t even have the decency to visit after he got out. I was furious with him at that moment, but I could deal with that later. Now was about Kim. About getting her help. I took a sip as I watched her, giving her a moment to vent.

“Reyes did everything to protect me. He still does. With this apartment. With the money.”

I knew about the money. She’d told me, and it did play a big part in my plan. Fifty million dollars went a long way to appease insurance companies, especially when almost every place they’d lived, every place she’d burned to the ground, was little more than squalor. I placed a hand over hers to get her complete attention. “Kim, I think I can get you a deal.”

“A deal?”

“With the police. With the DA.”

“Oh.” She looked down, embarrassed. “Of course. I’ll be arrested. But I made sure no one was in those buildings. I would never have hurt anyone.”

“I know, and I’ll make sure they know it, too. I think that if we paid back the insurance companies and offered any other restitution, considering the unusual circumstances —”

“No!” She stood and backed away from me. “You have to leave Reyes out of this. No one knows he was ever a part of my life, and I will not drag him down for this. If anyone found out —”

I put my glass down and stood, too. “Kim, if it means —”

“No. Charley, he went to prison without anyone the wiser about what Earl did to him. You don’t understand the kind of scars he has, the kind of weight they carry.”

She was right. I didn’t understand. But if I was going to get her the deal of the century, I would need to bring him into it. Reyes may not have been willing to let the government know he had a pseudo-sister to save his own ass, but surely he would to keep his sister out of prison. I was scared to death she wouldn’t survive prison, and since I was going to be the one to turn her in, if she did go and she didn’t make it, whom would Reyes blame? He would have no choice but to blame me.

Kim sat again and took another sip to calm down. I did the same, giving her a moment to gather herself and me a moment to decide how clean I should come. If I went to Uncle Bob and the DA and explained everything, if I had evidence… A thought hit me. I wouldn’t need her statement. I had the picture. I had a piece of the very thing she was trying to burn down.

“Can you excuse me?” she asked.

I nodded as she rose to go to the bathroom, giving me time to think through my plan. I had no idea if it would really work or if the DA would have her in shackles the minute we stepped through the door. I needed some kind of guarantee. I checked the clock on my phone. Almost eight. Surely if I called Uncle Bob, he’d have time to call the DA and set something up for tomorrow morning. And if I had to, I’d confide completely in Ubie. He could tell me how to go about this while guaranteeing Kim’s rights and safety. Maybe I would even call Gemma, see if she could be at the meeting as backup. And I might should have a lawyer on standby in case things went south.