“Hate to tell ya, but both of my parents are Mexican. I’ve been there every Christmas since I was born and spent half my summers there when I was a kid. I know what the Mexican flag looks like. That’s a Mexican flag, not Italian.”

Puzzled, Daryl turned back to his computer and did a google image search for the Italian and Mexican flags.

“Would you look at that,” said Daryl, when he had pictures of the flags side by side. “They’re almost identical, except the Mexican flag has a brown bird in the middle. Otherwise, the colors are the same and in the same pattern. From a distance, if you didn’t notice the brown circle in the center, you might think the Mexican flag was the Italian flag.”

“Italians and Mexicans wouldn’t make that mistake,” said Manny Perez, still grinning.

“All this time, I’ve been looking for an Italian name when she might be Spanish.”

“Whatever you say,” said the young officer walking away when Daryl offered no further explanation.

“What are you working on?” said Heather Kim as she placed a fresh cup of coffee on her desk. “I’ll regret this when I go to bed but it was either another shot of caffeine or I was going to pass out.”

“I could use your help with something,” said Daryl as he split the Thayer and Co list in two and handed half to Heather. “Circle all the women who have Spanish names.”

“I thought we were done with this?” said Heather. “Weren’t we looking for Italian names? What’s going on?”

“It’s a long story. Just trust me on this,” said Daryl scratching his head. “Something about Zoe Brandt’s story feels like we’re on the cusp of something.”

“The Strangler is our priority.”

“I know, but I think the Brandt woman is telling the truth. If we can prevent another murder, don’t we have to try?”

Heather’s face softened. Her partner’s dogged pursuit of the truth was one of the reasons she liked working with him. She looked at her watch and she rolled her eyes. “Okay, what do you need me to do?” she said as she sat down next to him. For the next thirty minutes, they combed through all the Thayer employee lists. Out of the 3,000 people the company employed in the New York metro region, they narrowed the list down to sixteen women with a Hispanic name with a first and last name that started with G.

Daryl whistled. “Now we’re getting somewhere,” he said and explained his revelation to his partner.

“I thought Zoe Brandt told us the woman was wearing a hat with an Italian flag,” said Heather.