Even now he couldn’t take his eyes off the cash. “Do we get some sort of fee if you put this on TV?”

Callie shook her head. “Sorry, no TV, no hidden cameras.”

“Then it doesn’t make sense.”

“Like I said, it’s a social experiment. My boss is fed up with the criminal justice system in this country. He’s tired of seeing murderers set free due to sloppy police work, slick attorneys, and stupid jurors. So, like a vigilante, he goes after murderers who remain unpunished. He feels he’s doing society a favor. But society loses when any person dies, no matter how evil, so my boss wants to pay something forward for the life he takes.”

“That’s a crock of shit,” Trish said. “If he really believed that, he’d pay the victims’ families instead of total strangers.”

“Too risky. The police could establish a pattern. So my boss does the next best thing, he helps anonymous members of society. Each time my boss kills a murderer he pays society up to one hundred thousand dollars. And today you get to be society.”

Trish was about to comment, but Rob got there first. He was definitely getting more intrigued. “Why us?”

“A loan officer forwarded your application to my boss and said you were decent people, about to lose everything.”

Trish said, “You represented yourself as a loan officer.”

“I did.”

“And you’re not.”

“I’m a different type of loan officer.”

“And what type is that?”

“The type that brings cash to the table,” Callie said.

“In a suitcase,” Trish said.

Trish looked at the cash as if seeing the possibilities for the first time. She said, “If what you’re saying is true, and your boss is paying all this money to benefit society, why tell us about the killing at all? Why not just pay us?”

“He thinks it’s only fair that you know where the money comes from and why it’s being paid.”

Rob and Trish digested this information without speaking, but their expressions spoke volumes. Rob, thinking this could be his big chance in life, Trish, dissecting the details, trying to allow herself to believe. This was a family in crisis, Callie knew, and she had just thrown them the mother of all lifelines.

Finally Trish said, “These murderers you speak of. Is your boss going to kill them anyway?”

“Yes. But not until the money is paid.”

“And if we refuse to accept it?”

“No problem. I’ll ask the next family on my list.”

Rob said, “The person your boss is going to kill—is there any possibility it’s someone we know?”

“You know any murderers?”

Callie could practically hear the wheels turning as Rob and Trish stared at the open suitcase. Callie loved this part, the way they always struggled with it at first. But she knew where this would go. They’d turn it every way they could, but in the end, they’d take the money.

“This sounds like one of those specials, like ‘What Would You Do?’” Trish said, unable to let go of her feeling this was all an elaborate hoax.

Callie glanced at her watch. “Look, I don’t have all day.