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Lynn pokes her head around the detective. “I keep saying you’d make a great PI.”

Jake stares at me. “You got all of that from touching the car?”

“No, not all of it. Psychometry is like a puzzle. Some puzzles have thousands of pieces, and some have a few. The complexity is different depending on the object. I see the many pieces, not necessarily in order, and put them together. It’s part reading the visions, part connecting the images, and part filling in the blanks.”

His brows arch over the lenses. “So . . . sometimes you have to guess?”

I squint, trying to see through the mirrored shades. “Guess isn’t the right word. It’s more of an educated conclusion based on evidence, experience, and also a knowing.”

He rubs his forehead as if soothing a headache. “A knowing?”

“That’s what I call it. I just know. You would probably call it a gut feeling or a hunch. It’s part intuition and part experience. A cynic might say it’s the subconscious connecting the dots behind the scenes while waiting for the brain to catch up.”

He stares at me for a long moment and then concedes with a slight dip of his head. “I’ll cross-examine this with what we found in the cars of the other missing women and see if the same was done to their cars. Until now, these have been investigated as separate cases. We never had a reason to think they were linked.”

I nod in return. “You didn’t find Alice’s phone, right?”

He adjusts his position. His legs must be hurting from squatting for so long. “No.”

I make a move to get out of the car. “Can you hack into her Find My Phone app and track her locations for the day she went missing?”

He stands and steps back. “Not without a subpoena. I’m trying to get one. The privacy laws are pretty strict, and without a body, there’s always the possibility that she isn’t missing, but somewhere she doesn’t want to be found. In most cases, the missing person shows up after a couple of days.”

“What about the other missing women? All three of them just wanted a vacation from life?”

He presses his lips into a thin line. “No, I don’t believe that. When Lena disappeared back in January, there was a chance she left on her own. When Victoria went missing in March, I suspected a connection was possible, but without any evidence to link them, each case is investigated individually. But now, with Alice, I’m convinced they are connected. Three missing women, three months apart, but I have no proof.”

I stand next to Lynn and nod. “What else have you found of hers? Do you have anything else?”

He locks the car and turns his back to it. “We have nothing.”

“What about where she lived?”

He runs a hand through his hair, grips at the ends, and lets go. “I already talked to her roommate, and she had nothing to add. No clues.”

“Make that call to the roommate. If she allows, I can check the house. It may give me some clues.”

He crosses his arms, feet set wide, drags a deep breath in, and releases. “I’ll call the roommate about the locks and try to set up something.”

“What about the other missing women?” Lynn asks him and then looks at me. “You might be able to see a connection the police didn’t. Find that link he’s talking about.”

A rush of foreboding runs down my spine with icy fingers. As soon as Lynn suggests it, awareness settles over my shoulders like a weighted blanket, confining and calming at the same time. I’m certain the other missing women are linked to this case. And if Alice is dead, the other two probably are, too.

Jake nods. “That’s a good idea.”

He faces me, and my fingers itch to remove his sunglasses so I can see his eyes. I stuff my hands in my pockets instead.

“What’s next?”

“Can you come to the station in a day or two and check what I have on the other missing women?”

I turn to Lynn, reluctant to abandon her when this is supposed to be our vacation.

She puts a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry about me. I’m going to tan myself by the pool and eat my weight in ice cream.”

“That’s a yes, then. I can come either day, tomorrow or Wednesday.”

Jake removes his sunglasses and squeezes the bridge of his nose. “Can you meet me tomorrow around noon?”