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Ethan remembered something he’d meant to discuss with Alexa. “I expected the UNSUB to reach out to you after the vigil.” Accelerating after he left the bridge, he glanced over at her. “I figured he’d be agitated by the way things went down. We could see in the film the exact moment he must have realized that Lavoie wasn’tyou.”
The expression on Alexa’s face was more telling than a shout. He thought it wise to ignore it. The video clip showing the moment the UNSUB had approached the stand-in was chilling. Because Ethan couldn’t be certain the officers wouldn’t have behaved the same way if it had been Alexa there. Leaving her exposed and vulnerable. How close would the offender have gotten to her before their attention had returned to the woman they were supposed to be guarding? “I thought he’d contact you again if only to castigate you for not being at thepark.”
She nodded slowly. “I feared how he might react if he discovered the decoy. But I expected him to respond in some way. I don’t think he would have felt threatened by the way the evening transpired. He would have seen it as going according to plan, up until the point when he realized I wasn’tthere.”
“What do you think the UNSUB’s silencemeans?”
“It’s worrisome,” she admitted. “Not contacting me shows a self-discipline I didn’t expect. Because I think I reached him with the press conference message. He’s regrouping somewhere, considering his options. He may decide that these risks aren’t worth it and try to get out of theprovince.”
Somehow Ethan doubted it. “You don’t believethat.”
She hesitated. “I’m not sure. If four homicides in a short amount of time are him catching up for time lost, that says one thing about him. But I think it’s more than that. I’m guessing that the injuries he sustained at Fornier’s hand acted as a trigger that caused his escalation. If I had to make a prediction…right now he’s planning his nextmove.”
* * *
“Idon’t know.”Molly, the young woman who’d greeted them with a cheery smile as they entered the Dartmouth CarsNow agency now sported a worried frown as she perused the production order Ethan handed her. “I mean…I’ve never seen one of these things.” She waved at the sheet of paper. “And my supervisor isn’t in yet, and I’d be in a lot of trouble if I didn’t followprocedure.”
“You’ll be in more trouble if you ignore the order, which has been duly signed by a justice of the peace.” Ethan tapped the signature at the bottom. “What this says is you supply all client records for a window of four days.” Simard had seen the offender on Saturday. Owens had spotted Lawler being helped into a car outside Zoomey’s after midnight Thursday morning. “It narrows it down to Toyota Camrys, dark-color exterior with a lightinterior.”
“I don’t know,” Molly said again, doubtfully. “My supervisor is a real…I mean he can be difficult. And if I screw up one more time, I think he’s going to get rid ofme.”
“Chances are he’ll know what a production order means.” Alexa gave her a friendly smile. “And if he doesn’t, I’m sure he has a boss to report to, and that person will. You won’t get in any trouble for following thelaw.”
“I wish I was as sure as you are.” But she sat down at her desk and began bringing up records. “Do you want drivers of bothgenders?”
“Yes,” Ethan and Alexa responded simultaneously. After last night, Ethan wasn’t certain what to expect. If the offender had obtained the license at a DMV station and given a false name and a phony address, the picture would be that of a man. It was far harder to pull that sort of charade in clear view of a DMVattendant.
But if he’d obtained false ID…people who forged documents for a living would have no compunction about someone attempting to disguise hisgender.
“You got it.” The printer on her desk began to whir. “We’ve been pretty busy,” Molly said chattily. “What with the nice weather and it being tourist season. More and more people are asking for the small SUVs, but I always tell them, the mid-sized sedans are often roomier forluggage.”
“Were you working those days?” Alexaasked.
Molly nodded. “All of them. My day off isWednesday.”
Alexa had brought in copies of the offender sketches, and she unfolded them now, holding them up for the young woman to see. “Do you happen to remember seeing someone who looked like either of thesedrawings?”
The young woman looked up briefly from her task and smiled delightedly. “Hey, yeah, I recognize him.” She tapped the sketch Patrick had helped develop. “Can’t remember his name, but he complimented me on my tattoo.” She stopped to slip her lightweight cardigan down her arm a bit to bare a shoulder emblazoned with an intricately detailed butterfly. “I just got this because it was pretty, but he told me all about it, like the real scientific name, but I can’t remember that. He said it was… Let me think.” She tapped a finger against her chin. “He called it a Luzon Peacock Swallowtail.” She pronounced the name carefully. “Said it was from the Philippines. We had a nice long talk about it. It’s endangered, youknow.”
Ethan stilled. “What day would that havebeen?”
“Um…Saturday? Or Sunday, maybe. I told him he sure seemed to know a lot about butterflies and sort of teased him that maybe he should get a tattoo, too. But he said he liked dragonfliesbetter.”
* * *
“Robert Merkel.”
Ethan sat back in his chair, stunned elation filling him. They’d gone back to the RCMP building in Halifax and inputted the drivers’ license numbers from the rental agency into the DMV site, which in turn emailed copies of the corresponding licenses. The copy of the photo ID he’d printed out was eerily close to the second sketch of the offender, with gray hair and amustache.
“License is phony,” Ian said as he and Jonah crowded around to look at the sheet. “Seventy years old? No way a septuagenarian is hauling dead bodies through forests and downembankments.”
“Septuagenarian?” Jonah Bannon chuckled. “You’ve been doing those Word-a-Day challengesagain?”
“I know words.” Ian sounded offended. “And a Bridgewater, Nova Scotia address? He’s struck as far away as British Columbia. Until his most recent spree, he’s never been this far eastbefore.”
“Even a phony name might leave a trail,” Alexa said. She was trying to mask her excitement at the development, but she was all but bouncing in her chair next to Ethan. “And we have his matching credit cardinformation.”
“We do indeed.” Ethan turned to Ian. “See if you can match the name to the ferry passenger manifest. We have lists from the days following the New Brunswickhomicides.”