Page 159 of Dead Man's List

“I hope so,” Navarro said, frowning. “We can put surveillance at that street corner, in case he comes back looking for another young girl.”

Sam was frowning, too. “I’ve seen someone do that recently. The sleeve-tugging thing. I’m trying to remember who. Damn, I hate it when I can’t think.” He needed to get some sleep.

“Wait,” Navarro said, something odd in his tone. “Our murderer likes young girls?”

“The girls at New Horizons said the girl he took away was thirteen or fourteen, so yeah. Young.”

Navarro grabbed the mouse from Sam’s hand. “Sorry. We need to see something else.”

Sam watched as Navarro found whatever he was looking for.

“Here,” Navarro finally said. “This one.”

Sam froze as the video started. It was one of the interviews Kit and Connor had done the evening before. “Peter Shoemaker?”Whose wife had been murdered sometime between seven last night and seven this morning. Her throat had been slit. Kit had texted him shortly after discovering the woman’s body.

“Yes. Kit and Connor went to pick him up this afternoon for the rape of a minor.”

Sam’s stomach rolled. “Who?”

“His daughter,” Navarro said grimly, fast-forwarding the recording. “She came straight from college to tell us what he’d done. Started on her when she was only nine years old. She hadn’t told before because she feared her mother’s reaction.”

“But now her mother’s dead,” Sam said quietly. “Let me guess. Other children in the home?”

“Got it in one. Twin girls, eight years old. Watch.” Navarro hit play.

On the screen, Peter Shoemaker was putting on his jacket after Kit and Connor had left the room. He shook his shoulders, then tugged on his sleeves.

Right after scratching the inside of his wrist.

Peter Shoemaker was Neckbeard. Peter Shoemaker, who had killed seven people—Munro, Shelley Porter and her mother, Walter Grossman, Hugh Smith, Aylene Tindall, and Lila Ramsey.

“I missed that last night,” Sam said numbly.

“We weren’t looking for that last night. I need to call Kit and Connor.”

“But…” Something wasn’t right. “Bert Ramsey’s wife was also murdered, but that was this morning. Wasn’t Shoemaker still in jail then?”

Navarro paused, his finger hovering over Kit’s name on his cell phone. “He was. Or at least he showed up in a taxi just as Kit and Connor were arriving to confirm his alibi with his wife, just after noon.”

“His wife was his alibi, which can no longer be confirmed or denied,” Sam said.

“Exactly. Wait.” Navarro dialed another number, put the phone on speaker.

“Courthouse. Can I help you?”

“Yes, this is Lieutenant Navarro, Homicide Division. What time was Peter Shoemaker released today?”

“Let me check, Lieutenant.”

They waited several minutes in a tense silence.

“Lieutenant?” the courthouse clerk finally said. “Peter Shoemaker was released on his own recognizance at ten thirty this morning.”

“Thank you,” Navarro told the clerk. “You’ve been very helpful.” He ended the call and looked up the addresses of Bert Ramsey and Peter Shoemaker.

“Ramsey and Shoemaker only lived a few miles from each other,” Sam said. “And Shoemaker was released early enough that he could have killed Ramsey’s wife before returning to his own house in a taxi.”

“The ME said Mrs.Ramsey hadn’t been dead long. Yeah, Shoemaker had time.”

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