“She was going to go to the board,” Halloran continued, his eyes still closed. “She was going to ruin me. Everything I built.”

“So you killed her,” Lorenzo said.

“I didn’t do it myself,” Halloran sobbed. “I just… I told them which car she was driving. I told them when she was leaving the charity dinner.”

“Who is ‘them’?” Lorenzo asked.

“The people who funded the research,” Halloran said. “The offshore group. They couldn’t let her expose the trial failures.”

The headlights behind the gate flickered as the car engine revved slightly, then went back to a low idle.

I thought of Sophia, of the framed photograph on Lorenzo’s desk, her smiling eyes.

She had died alone in the dark on a wet road because she wanted to protect children.

“And Leo?” I spoke up, my voice surprising both of them.

Halloran looked at me then, his eyes wide and bloodshot.

“Why the baby?” I asked, stepping up beside Lorenzo. “Why my sweet Leo?”

Halloran shook his head, his teeth chattering from the cold.

“It wasn’t supposed to kill him,” Halloran whispered.