Page 17 of Sinful Reality

“So where the hell did he go, Pax? Dammit!” I straighten out andsnarl. “These people don’t just stop. They die, or they’re incarcerated. He didn’t die, and you’re telling me he wasn’t in prison? So, what? Where? And why the hell did he take a break?”

“I don’t know.” His frustration is just as palpable as mine. But as always, he has control over it in ways I don’t. “You’re not asking anything I haven’t already, Min. You’re spot on: they don’t stop. But I’ve run these cases through every database this country has access to. Whoever he is, he’s yet to leave DNA on a crime scene he was pinched for.”

“He’s not even careful,” I groan. “He leaves his semen in them, Pax. He put a baby in Alana! He returns to the scene of the crime, every friggin’ year, sneaking in under everyone’s nose. He doesn’t clean them off, doesn’t wipe hair or skin particles from their bodies. He doesn’t even try! All we need is for him to spit in the street one single time and let a cop see it, and this is all over. But somehow, he remains free.”

“I don’t know what to tell you, Min. He’s slick.”

“I’ve helped put away much smarter killers! I’ve turned the key on men who leftnothingbehind. I’ve solved puzzles that had a million missing pieces. Butthispuzzle is missing only one. Yet, we still can’t figure it out.”

“We just need him to spit in the street,” he agrees softly. Comforting, the way so few can be. “We’re gonna get him this time, okay?”

“You don’t know that.” Stubborn, I lock my jaw and stare across at a watchful Aubree. “We’ve wanted him behind bars since the beginning, and so far, he’s been ahead of us every step of the way.”

“He came back when he could have stayed gone,” he counters. “We thought he was dead, which means he could have gotten away with seventeen murders and lived out the rest of his days as a free man. But he came back.Thatwas his mistake.”

“It’s no mistake if he doesn’t return the girl, and he won’t return her till she’s dead. You’re telling me that for this case to be solved, another child needs to die?”

“I’m saying that he’s just a man. He’s human. And humans aren’t infallible. We’re gonna reread every report, we’re gonna close our net and find our suspects, and then we’re gonna paw through their trashuntil we find something to send off to the lab. The second we have a match, it’s done.”

“Find the connection,” Aubree murmurs, shyly playing with her fingers and avoiding my gaze. “There is one person on this planet who has touched on each of those girls’ lives. One crossover. Find that, and you’ll be closer.”

“We did that.” Ignoring Pax, I stare at my friend instead. “They’ve investigated schoolteachers, bus drivers, delivery kids, supermarket clerks, and so much more. Nothing overlaps except the parks, and the parks are owned by the city. None had facilities on site where someone might be employed, and even the cleaners worked for the city and rotated out regularly. There is no connection that spans all seventeen cases.”

“There is.” Slowly, she brings her eyes up. “Theremust. You just haven’t found it yet.”

“Who is that?” Paxton’s temper alights, anger spilling into his harsh tone. “Min? I didn’t realize this conversation came with an audience.”

“She’s an autopsy tech and particularly intuitive in these types of cases.” Which is way better than sayingshe’s my best friend who just so happens to have an otherworldly gift no one would believe even if I tried to explain it.“This conversation is still private. She has clearance and won’t leak the details of your case.”

“Well, you can tell her we’ve run everyone.Everyone,” he snaps. “There’s no crossover.”

“Maybe it’s not the same role in each girl’s life.” I slump in my chair and roll my bottom lip between my finger and thumb. “Could be different for each.”

“How do you mean?” I hear the scratch of pen on paper. “You’re speaking in riddles.”

“I mean, you’re looking for each girl to have the same teacher, or the same bus driver, or the same whatever. But maybe this person is a schoolteacher to one of them, and grocery clerk to another, and bus driver to a third.”

“Not everyone is a machine who works on no sleep and too much coffee,” he grumbles. “The average joe can’t have that many jobs.”

“So maybe it’s not his job! Maybe he shops at the same store as someof them, but goes to the same movie theater as others, and buys stationery where some of the others do. You’re looking for one connection to stretch eighteen ways when it could very well be eighteen connections, all pointing to one. Every child came from a single mother; so what do single mothers do that is slightly more specific to them?”

“Like…” He groans and, I just know in the back of my head, taps his temple as though it helps him think. “These kids aren’t sent to different schools—some for married parents, and some for the singles.”

“No. But kids from single-parent homes are possibly more likely to spend time with the school counselor.” I think of sweet baby Mia and know she’ll have a solid relationship with hers by the end of this year. “Kids of single-parent homes, which means single-income homes, are more likely to visit places that are free: the park, obviously. But what else is free?”

“The museum,” Aubree inserts. “Not always, but they sometimes do weekend passes or whatever.”

“Right. Or the aquarium.” I think back to my childhood, knowing that although I had both parents in the home, my medical needs gobbled up every spare cent they earned.

“Movie theater, too,” Aubree adds. “These places aren’t typically free, but I’d bet a dollar they ran promos a couple of times a year. A savvy single mom will know when to snag those tickets and treat her baby to something out of the ordinary.”

“So maybe he worked the concession stand at the movies,” I ponder. “Or the ticket booth at Rockefeller.”

“Or at a recruiting agency!” Aubree tosses in enthusiastically. “Single moms probably have a decent relationship with those places. That’s a wide brush to generalize with, I know, but unless they were already set up with a career before their child came along and the father split, chances are, they worked in low or no-skill areas. These types of places have seasonal peaks, and those peaks are often delegated to agencies for management instead of keeping it in-house.”

“They were all taken in January.” New theories weave through my mind. New ideas. “Right after the Holiday rush. Summer is when lots of casual jobs come up in theme parks and excursion-type places, but the holidays will peak with hotel stays and cleaners needed.”

“Not all the victim’s mothers worked these jobs,” Pax counters. “We already have a list of employers from these women, and every single one of them has been cleared on our end.”

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