Page 38 of Devoted in Death

She thought of Roarke again, and how easily she’d agreed to accept his offer of help on an official investigation.

Trust, she realized. Not just attraction, not just passion, not just a mutual goal. There had to be trust to work as a team.

With that in mind she went back to her desk to review her notes.

Eve read Baxter’s roundup of the interviews, did a spot-check on the recordings. Nothing stood out, nothing popped—and she hadn’t expected it. But it gave her a chance to evaluate Trueheart’s interview techniques, his rhythm.

A good balance with Baxter’s slicker style, she decided.

She made another note to team Trueheart up in interviews with other detectives, take him out of his comfort zone.

She finalized another report to Whitney and Mira with her conclusions that data and evidence indicated Kuper had been a random victim, the last known in a long-term spree by two unsubs, and not target specific.

She let Morris know they’d ID’d Earnestina. Morris reported that the victim’s mother had come in, had asked when she could have her son. Eve recommended the body be turned over to the next of kin or her representative as soon as possible.

No point, she thought, just no point in prolonging the misery. Kuper’s body had told them all it could.

She reached out to two more primaries, which entailed long, winding conversations, no fresh insights or information, and promises on all sides to share all data.

When Roarke came back in, she was running fresh probabilities on the New Jersey victim.

“I’ve generated several routes, with three being top contenders,” he told her. “These three run too close in probability to pull one out at this point. Even those would have any number of variance.”

“Can I see them, on screen?”

He set it up. “This brings them from southeast Texas, through Louisiana, into Arkansas, touching into Mississippi before meeting up with your first known in Tennessee. It also speculates, as you see from the highlighted points, other most probable stops in Tennessee, and across the Missouri border through Kentucky, which eliminates the gap before West Virginia, and the second point in West Virginia. Another in the western part of Maryland eliminates the gap prior to Ohio. You’ve two in Pennsylvania, but it seemed unusual, and the computer agreed, that they wouldn’t hunt in one of that area’s more rural, less populated areas, so there’s yet another point there before the jog over to New Jersey, then into New York.”

“Some detours, but a fairly direct route northeast.”

“The second comes from the west. I started as far west as California, across Nevada, into Arizona, through New Mexico. Touching on Texas, then into Oklahoma, once again into Arkansas, and the route remains as the first from there.”

“California. A long way, a lot of time.” A lot of potential bodies, Eve thought.

“Both, yes. It would be a southeastern route to start, curving into a northeastern direction. The last route supposes they had a purpose in Tennessee or changed directions there, initially coming from Florida, going through sections of Alabama and Georgia, potentially Mississippi again before your first known in Tennessee, and the following route would remain as the other two.”

“What’s the probability range?”

“From 70.2 to 73.4. It’s far too speculative for higher without more hard data.”

“Let’s take the third one.” She studied it, tried to imagine it. “Coming from the south—where it’s warm and sunny, right? They’d have started out in the fall—most likely—for this timeline—but winter’s coming. People do leave the warm and sunny for the cold and bitter, but if you’re on a killing spree, and you’ve pulled it off in the warm, why not wait for spring to drive so far north?”

“New York as destination,” he reminded her.

“Yeah, I get that, they want to come take a big, bloody bite out of the apple. But, then, why not work to get here before the holidays? See it all dressed up? People do that, they come in armies to see the holiday fuss. Why leave reasonably warm for seriously cold? Given human nature, I’m going to rate this three out of the three. The second, coming from California.”

She wandered around the board, looked back on screen. “That southern chunk, same deal, but maybe something happens. You’ve got to blow. Or you just start off. A longer trip than coming from the southeast, so maybe back in the summer. Probably that far back. Not thinking about winter, and off you go. But that’s a lot of unfounds and/or unsolveds.”

“Pick any point along that route as a starting point,” Roarke told her. “Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma. Any of those are more likely than the points north of them.”

“Yeah, that’s why I like it, and I don’t.” Studying, speculating, she hooked her thumbs in her pockets, drummed her fingers. “They could’ve started anywhere from the far western point, and it makes logical sense on the map. Timeline... it strikes more possible if they had their first here? What is this?”

“New Mexico.”

“Why did those map people, or state-naming people go with so many New Wherevers?”

“So speaks the New Yorker.”

“Question still holds. If they were so attached to the Mexico or the Hampshire or the York, why didn’t they just stay there? Anyway, about there, or that part of Texas or Oklahoma. That gets a higher bump from me, and so does the first possibility. Up from southeast Texas, hit Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas. Why is S-A-S pronounced S-A-W? It should be Ar-Kansas. Did Kansas object?”