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Jessie was still nursing her anger well after they had returned to the station.

She was sitting on the couch in the research department, flipping through a list that Jamil had compiled of people who might have connections to Forrester and both victims. But she could feel Ryan’s eyes on her. She knew that he could sense her frustration, and he was clearly doing what he could to mitigate it.

“I think we should put a tail on Forrester,” he suggested, “just to be safe. We may not have anything on the guy yet, but if he turns out to be our killer and he does it again because we lost track of him, that would be inexcusable.”

“I’ll request a unit be posted outside his building,” Beth offered.

“That would be great,” Ryan said.

Something about the way he acknowledged that Forrester was still a credible suspect, even after they'd made no headway with him, comforted Jessie. Ryan wasn't the type to have officers assigned to watch someone just to assuage her. He clearly had his doubts about the guy, too.

Just knowing that calmed her down a bit. And the second she felt a bit of the tension escape her body, she found that she could think more clearly and make concessions that she couldn’t have even two minutes earlier.

“I will say that Forrester doesn’t seem like the type to kill people that he despised by prolonged poisoning,” she said. “He strikes me as more of the stabby-shooty type.”

“If it was him, maybe that’s why he went that way,” Ryan countered. “He knows what kind of reputation he has. Could he be trying to use an unexpected method of murder as a way to throw suspicion off himself?”

“That would be pretty clever,” Jessie said. “I don’t know if he has it in him. Then again, the guy was still showing active animosity toward Marcus Vega even after he ‘learned’ that the man’s wife had been killed. That indicates that he either has zero impulse control or he wanted us to be having this conversation—to make us question whether any man being questioned about a murder would express such antipathy to the victim.”

“So he’s either too explosive to have pulled this off,” Jamil mused, “or that’s the impression he wants to give.”

“That’s not the only thing that gives me pause,” Jessie said. “I can’t but think that even if Forrester was wearing a ski mask when he invaded the home, Marcus Vega would have eventually recognized him while sitting in their living room for hours. He’s a big guy. And they’d had enough conversations that Vega would have surely recognized his voice.”

“I don’t know, Jessie,” Ryan said. “The man’s wife was dying right in front of him. He might not have been that focused on the physical characteristics of the person responsible.”

Jessie couldn’t deny that. When people were in high-tension situations, their ability to notice details or retain them later was often questionable.

“I may have found something,” Jamil said, pulling Jessie out of her thoughts.

Jessie, Ryan, and Beth all stopped what they were doing. When Jamil found something, it was usually important.

“We’re all ears,” Beth told him.

"When Ms. Hunt pointed out that Vega might recognize Forrester's voice, a thought popped into my head. Have you ever seen the movie Throw Momma from the Train ?” he asked.

“You mean the movie based on the Hitchcock film, Strangers on a Train ?” Jessie teased. But even before she’d finished talking, she sensed where the brilliant, young researcher might be headed with this.

"Oh right, that's the old-timey movie they reference," Jamil said. "Well, in the movie I saw, this guy wants his writing teacher to kill his mother and offers to kill the guy's ex-wife. That way, they both have alibis for the murder they might actually be suspected of."

“Where is this headed?” Beth asked, confused.

“Let me guess,” Jessie ventured, “you’ve been looking for potential connections between Daniel Forrester and the man who had a grudge against the first victim, James Whitaker—Dr. Ethan Blackwell.”

“That’s right,” Jamil said, “and I found one.”

“What?” Ryan asked excitedly.

“Two years ago, Forrester had an emergency appendectomy,” Jamil said. “Guess who the anesthesiologist for the procedure was?”

“Really?” Beth asked. “It was Blackwell?”

“It’s right here in the file,” Jamil said with a shy smile.

“So the idea is that Forrester killed James Whitaker for Blackwell and Blackwell killed Elena Vega for Forrester?” Ryan asked.

“It’s just a theory,” Jamil cautioned.

“It’s not crazy,” Jessie conceded. “I could see Forrester wanting Elena Vega killed instead of Marcus just to make the man watch her die and suffer more.”

“And it would explain why neither victim’s spouse could ID the person in the mask,” Ryan acknowledged, “they might never have seen them before.”

“And it would give each killer an airtight alibi for the murder that he could be connected to,” Beth added.

Jessie agreed that there was promise in the hypothesis, but she did have some reservations. She tried to raise them diplomatically.

“That’s great work, Jamil” she said, before noting a caveat that she hoped wouldn’t dim his pride. “I know that when I had my brain surgery last fall, the anesthesiologist introduced himself before the procedure. But if this was an emergency situation, can we even be sure there was time for that sort of thing?”

“I’ll try to find out,” Jamil said, undaunted.

He turned back to the screen in front of him. Jessie was about to return her attention to her own file when Captain Parker walked in.

“Hi Captain,” Beth said amiably, “how did the event for your son go yesterday?”

“Fine, thanks,” Parker said, sounding mildly defensive.

Jessie noted that the captain had bags under her eyes, and she wasn’t as put together as usual. Her clothes were slightly wrinkled, which was never the case, and her normally tight hair bun was a little loose.

“Is everything okay?” she asked.

Parker nodded, before fixing her attention on Ryan.

“I’ve been a little out of the loop this morning,” she said, her voice scratchy with exhaustion, “but I could use an update on these poisoning murders.”

Jessie looked over at Ryan and could see his agitation. He clearly thought that the captain’s dismissal of their concern for her was rude, but Jessie sensed there might be more to it than that. She decided to take the lead in answering Parker’s question rather than have Ryan explain while his mood was turning sour.

She walked the captain through their investigation up to that point as succinctly as possible. Then she offered a few conclusions.

“We don’t yet have anything definitive tying either of our strongest suspects to either murder,” she conceded, “but the connection that Jamil just uncovered makes them both worth keeping our eye on.”

“Do you think this ‘trading murders’ theory hold water?” Parker asked her directly.

“I have some reservations,” Jessie admitted, “but it’s as good an idea as we have right now. Having two different killers would answer a lot of our open questions. It would also explain both men’s confidence—even cockiness—that their alibis would hold up, even if they don’t seem rock solid at the moment. But right now, we don’t have enough evidence to go after either of them hard.”

“That’s all I needed to hear,” Parker said.

“What do you mean?” Ryan asked.

“We’ve got two victims of poisoning in the last two nights, and no solid suspects, just two persons of interest,” she said. “That’s why I’ve decided to hold a press conference. We need to warn the public about what’s going on.”

“Don’t you worry that going public with this will cause a panic?” Ryan asked.

"There's already a low-level panic going on," Parker said. "The press is reporting on one of these cases already. It's only a matter of time before they have the other one too. I want to set the terms of this thing before the situation gets out of control. I don't want any more poisonings, but I also don't want rich folks to start freaking out and shooting anyone who rings their doorbell while dressed in black. We need to get people to take precautions without losing their heads."

“When do you plan to hold this press conference?” Jessie asked, realizing that they were well past convincing the captain to change her mind.

"It's 9:45 now," Parker said, looking at her watch. "I'll get media relations to organize one for 11 a.m. That way, it'll make all the noon newscasts. But I won't be the one doing the press conference."

“Who will?” Beth asked curiously.

But Jessie already knew the answer. She realized that by choosing to brief Parker to protect Ryan from saying something he’d regret, she’d made herself a target. She was right.

“Hunt will,” the captain said with finality.