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Jessie didn’t believe the ghost theory for a second.

But she didn’t tell Oliver Stanton that. She let him think she might be open to the idea for the rest of the interview and while she and Riddell drove him to the Sheriff’s station. They put him in the same interrogation room where they’d spoken to Mark Dawson and had him write out the statement he’d given her verbally earlier.

When he was done a half hour later, they asked him to stick around so they could keep him safe and told him they wanted to have him give a description of the woman he’d seen to a sketch artist. After they left the room, Jessie checked her phone and found that she had three texts from Ryan, all asking her to call him back as soon as she could. She motioned for Riddell to join her in a conference room and returned the call.

“You’re on speaker with me and Detective Riddell,” she said the second Ryan picked up. She didn’t want a repeat of the earlier call when her husband had talked smack about her current partner when he was listening. “What’s up?”

“First off, Captain Parker wanted me to update you on the status of getting these club members to come in,” he said, skipping any spouse pleasantries that he would have likely offered if Riddell wasn’t on the line.

“What’s the situation?” Riddell interjected.

“Parker got authorization from both Chief Decker and Sheriff Hauser to pursue your plan to bring these guys in,” Ryan answered. “She directly made the requests to all of their lawyers, asking them to come in for their own protection. While I wasn’t on the call, my understanding is that while these were technically requests, it was made clear that if their clients didn’t show up quickly and voluntarily, they were at risk being taken into custody in connection with an ‘ongoing investigation.’”

“That’s actually pretty good,” Riddell said, impressed.

"I thought so, too," Ryan agreed.

Jessie noted that her husband, who had a rocky relationship with Captain Parker, sounded sincere.

“And how did they react?” she asked.

“The last I heard, the attorneys for both Archie Crittendon and Jackson Dwyer were negotiating the time and place for their surrender—excuse me—'accepting protection.’ Joel Cisco’s lawyer said he couldn’t get hold of him but would keep trying. We don’t yet know if that’s legitimate or just a stalling tactic.”

“Why do you suspect he’s stalling?” Jessie asked.

“Because according to Jamil and Beth, the guy is being investigated for financial improprieties in relation to his work. He’s a financial advisor to some big time billionaires and there have been allegations that he siphoned some of their money for his personal use.”

“Did Parker explain that this isn’t about that?” Jessie wanted to know.

“She said that she made it clear to Cisco’s lawyer what this was about and the danger he might be in, so I’m inclined to think the lawyer is being straight about not being able to reach him, but who knows for sure. He said he’d call back once he’d made contact with Cisco.”

“So it’s a waiting game then, “Riddell said unhappily.

“Not necessarily,” Jessie countered. “Are Jamil and Beth there with you, Ryan?”

“Yeah, I’ll put them on speaker,” he said, then continued a moment later, “Okay, go ahead.”

“Hey guys,” she said. “I know you’ve got your hands full, but we need your help.”

“Whatever we can do,” Beth replied enthusiastically.

Jessie gave them a rundown of Oliver Stanton’s statement before explaining what she wanted.

“He gave me the date of this yacht party outing. It was on March 9 th , three years ago,” she said. “I need you to look into missing persons in this area starting from that date. A sketch is being done now, but we believe this was a brunette female in her early to mid-twenties. If we can lock down her identity, maybe we can locate her now, assuming it really is the same woman.”

“We’re on it,” Jamil said, though without his usual verve.

“What’s wrong?” Jessie asked.

He paused a moment before replying.

“Of course we’ll pursue this, Ms. Hunt,” Jamil told her, still constitutionally incapable of calling her by her first name, no matter how many times she’d reminded him.

“But?” she prodded.

“But I’m just wondering about the likelihood of a woman being harmed and thrown overboard, seemingly left for dead, then managing to get back to shore and stay off the radar for the next three years, all so she could engage in an elaborate revenge scheme. It just seems so involved.”

“I agree that it would be a lot,” Jessie conceded. “But frankly, I’ve encountered wilder scenarios. And right now, it’s our best lead. So let’s see where it takes us.”

***

For much of the night, it didn’t take them anywhere.

Despite the skill of the HSS research unit, and even with the sketch provided by Oliver Stanton, they had hit a wall. They’d looked out a full three months after the night of the party and couldn’t find any record in the South Bay region of a woman going missing who met Stanton’s description. They’d now expanded the search to the entire Westside of Los Angeles for that time period.

In the intervening hours, word came that both Archie Crittendon and Jackson Dwyer had presented themselves to authorities. But conveniently for them, they’d both done so at far-flung stations. Crittendon had gone to Oxnard and Dwyer to West Covina, each of which were over an hour’s drive away, even though both men lived in the South Bay.

It was a transparent attempt to secure police protection while avoiding questioning from the case investigators for as long as possible. And it was working. Jessie and Riddell couldn’t afford to travel that far when their murderer was likely nearby. And they weren’t going to ask detectives unfamiliar with the case to question the men.

“Maybe we question them over video conference?” Riddell suggested.

“I don’t think that will be very effective,” Jessie said. “These guys are going to keep quiet as long as they can, and it will be hard to put pressure on them from a distance.”

“Even if their lives might be in danger?” Riddell countered.

“Even then,” Jessie said. “First of all, they aren’t in imminent danger now that they’re in custody. And they don’t have any reason yet to talk about what happened that night. There’s no evidence of a crime on their part. For now, their lawyers will surely tell them to play the waiting game.”

“That’s a risk,” Riddell noted.

“Yes,” Jessie agreed, “but it’s a calculated one.”

Meanwhile, there was still radio silence on Joel Cisco. Riddell had sent a unit to search Cisco’s boat, but they came up empty. It was unoccupied. He told them to stay in the yacht club parking lot in case the man showed up.

There were additional units positioned outside Cisco’s home and his office, though there was no sign of his car at either. Captain Parker had authorized Jamil to get approval to access the GPS location data for both his phone and vehicle, but the authorization hadn’t come through yet.

“I say we have the officers parked outside Cisco’s house knock on the door and talk to his wife,” Riddell suggested grumpily over the conference call line.

“It’s 4:15 in the morning,” Beth reminded him over speakerphone. “Are we sure we want to do something that dramatic?”

Jessie thought about for a moment and decided that they did.

“I think Riddell is right on this one,” she said. “At this point, with Crittendon and Dwyer in custody, Joel Cisco is the default next potential victim. And right now, we don't yet have access to his GPS data. By the time we get it, it could be too late. We can't err on the side of caution any longer."

“What does that mean exactly?” Beth asked.

“Let’s have the officers knock on their front door,” Jessie said. “Maybe Cisco has been home all night and we didn’t know it because his car is in the shop. If not, we ask his wife where he is. If she doesn’t know, maybe she has “Find My” on her phone and we can track him that way. But we need to start getting aggressive here. Cisco could be in danger as we speak.”

“I’ll have them approach the house now,” Riddell said.

“In the meantime,” said Jamil, who had been quiet during this entire conversation, “I think I may have just found your ghost victim.”

“Who?” Jessie and Riddell demanded in unison.

“Her name is Heather Silver,” Jamil told them. “Her photos match the sketch that Stanton provided. She is—or would be—27 now, but she'd have been 24 at the time of the yacht party."

“Why are we only hearing about her now?” Riddell demanded gruffly.

“Because she wasn’t reported missing within the three month window after the yacht party occurred,” Jamil explained. “To be honest, looking that far out felt like a stretch as it was. Who would wait three months to report a missing person? Turns out there was a good reason for it.”

“What?” Jessie asked.

“Heather Silver was reported missing by her younger sister, Monica, three and a half months after that night,” Jamil said. “According to Monica’s statement, she was doing field research in the Amazon rain forest for her degree in Applied Biological Sciences and had minimal phone and internet access.”

“They didn’t keep in touch at all?” Jessie pressed.

“Monica said spoke to her sister just before she went into the field,” Jamil said. “Heather was moving to L.A. the following week from Baltimore. Apparently, Monica e-mailed her several times and tried to call her twice but never got a reply. She chalked it up to connection issues or Heather just being too caught up in her new life to spare a minute."

“So that would have Heather moving to L.A. only two weeks before the yacht party,” Beth calculated. “It might explain why no friends reported her missing. She might not have had any yet.”

“Who knows where she was living either?” Ryan added. “Maybe she was staying at a cheap motel or crashing in a hostel until she found an apartment. Then there’d be no landlord to demand rent payment and report her if they didn’t get it.”

“That’s probably right,” Jamil confirmed. “I can’t find any record of a Heather Silver in any county database. She isn’t listed with the DMV, probably because people don’t have to get a California license or plates until they establish residency. She was just too new to town to put down any roots yet.”

“Which would also make her very appealing to a group of guys looking to take advantage,” Jessie noted. “A girl new to town, without a support system, just trying to find her way. Then she meets up with a bunch of rich yacht club guys who want to show her a good time. She was ripe for the picking.”

“But I still don’t get how her disappearance wasn’t reported until her sister came back to the country,” Riddell said. “Didn’t she have any friends or family back in Baltimore who got concerned when they couldn’t reach her?”

“The officer who took Monica’s statement back then asked the same question,” Jamil said. “According to her, they didn’t have any living family. Their dad split when they were little, and their mom died in a car accident when they were teenagers. They were put in the system, bouncing around foster care, until they were eighteen,.”

“And friends?” Jessie asked, feeling an ache of empathy grow in her chest.

“None of note,” Jamil said. “According to Monica, Heather struggled with addiction and checked in and out of multiple rehab facilities. She never developed any strong, long-term personal relationships. She was supposedly trying to change that by making a new start out here.”

“Not the best place for a new beginning if you don’t have your head on straight,” Riddell muttered.

Jessie noted that the comment, while harsh, was true. L.A. could crush the dreams of the most self-assured person. A young, friendless, parentless person with no support system and a history of drug abuse was a sitting duck for the predators out here.

“Did they do any investigation?” she asked, though she knew the answer.

"According to the officer who filed the report," Jamil said, his usually detached voice betraying a hint of emotion, "he told her that without anyone to interview out here or any indication of foul play, there was nothing they could do. He took a photo that Monica gave him for the file but closed the case less than 48 hours later. His notes suggest that she likely left town or that she possibly overdosed, theorizing that perhaps the folks with her when she OD'd dumped the body to avoid questions. But he apparently didn't base those conclusions on actual evidence or ever share them with Monica."

Jessie was quiet for a moment before saying aloud what she suspected was in all their heads.

“One has to wonder if maybe Monica Silver wasn’t satisfied with the answers she got and started poking around on her own. Maybe she unearthed some of the same secrets we’ve recently discovered.”

“Where is Silver living now?” Riddell asked, nodding in agreement with her theory.

“It looks like she established residency here just weeks after reporting her sister’s disappearance. She was working on her master’s in Environmental Science at Loyola Marymount University just up the coast about ten miles from where you are now. She moved around for a while but for the last year she’s lived in a condo in Hermosa Beach. I’m sending you the address, as well as her DMV photo and the picture of her sister from her case file.”

As Jessie waited for the messages to arrive, she noted an anticipatory tingle in her gut. Something about Monica moving here only weeks after her sister went missing felt crucial to everything that was going on. She sensed that they were on the verge of something big.

Jessie's phone pinged, and she quickly opened the attachments in Jamil's texts. She had to blink when she stared at the photos of the two women.

“You said that Monica is the younger sister?” she double-checked.

“Yes,” Jamil assured her, “by three years.”

“They look like they could be twins,” Riddell marveled.

“That might explain the ghost that Oliver Stanton saw,” Jessie said quietly, before squinting at some numbers scrawled below the photo of Heather from the case file. “What are those numbers under Heather’s photo? I can’t read them.”

"It looks like a date," Beth said. "It's a little hard to read, but I think it says 4/25/99 . I assume it was her birthdate.”

“It was,” Jamil confirmed.

A shot of adrenaline shot through Jessie’s body as the truth fell into place for her.

“April 25th isn’t just Heather’s birthdate,” she said, barely able to get the words out fast enough. “It’s also her birthday. And the first victim, Daran Peterson, was killed four days ago, on April 25 th .”

Over the phone, she heard Beth gasp.

“I can’t believe I didn’t pick that up right away,” Jamil muttered.

“She’s been living here for years,” Jessie told them all, “setting everything up in order to start delivering payback on her sister’s birthday. She’s way ahead of us.”

The rest of the group was quiet for a while. It was Riddell who managed to find his voice first.

"Well, maybe we can catch up," he said. "Her place is close."

“Let’s go say hi,” Jessie told him.