Joe smiled and lowered his arm. ‘I know this seems like an obvious question, but I’m assuming the neighborhood was canvassed last night. The Kensingtons live in a pretty affluent area, so it stands to reason that at least one of their neighbors had a working security system. Did any of them pick anything up?’

‘The area was canvassed,’ Cord said, ‘but it was late, and a lot of the neighbors either didn’t answer the door at all or claimed not to have seen or heard anything. With the acreage between the houses, that makes sense. It also explains why, of the security cameras we were allowed access to, none picked up any suspicious activity – that we noticed anyway.’

‘Well, that just sucks.’ Joe wadded up a piece of paper and tossed it across the room into the wastebasket.

‘Can’t disagree there,’ Hal said. ‘But can we take a few minutes to focus on the oddity in the different modes of death.’ He moved his mouse, enlarging the photo of the area surrounding Gabriel’s body. ‘The rolling pin and the knife from the Kensingtons’ own kitchen hint at this being an unplanned attack – whether the Kensingtons knew their assailant or not. On the other hand, that bullet plus a disabled security system hint at premeditation. We could be dealing with anything from someone who was burned by the Kensingtons in the past to something more current, like one of Gabriel’s cases or anything in between. What isn’t making any sense to me is what was the purpose of kidnapping Addis and Emerson? The Kensingtons are dead, so holding the girls captive in the hopes of getting revenge or something in return is off the table.’

Tension crackled in the air, and Alyssa knew everyone’s thoughts had turned to the sex trafficking case, the same one that had altered Tony’s personality.

Shoveling his hands through his hair, Cord was the first to voice out loud what none of them wanted to consider, even if they had to. ‘As much as I don’t want to put this out there—’ He huffed out a puff of air. ‘Unfortunately, we’re all aware that there are some real sick bastards in this world, and we don’t know for sure if we rounded up everyone involved in May’s sting. It’s possible some of the players are still out there’ – his jaw clenched as he continued through gritted teeth – ‘and we all know that two cute teenage girls equal more money.’

One glance at her partner was all it took for Alyssa to know that Cord had been transported back to a dark time in his own past, one that involved his younger sister. Beneath the table, she stretched out her leg to nudge his foot, dragging him back before he could get lost in the agony of remembering. Shaking his head, he threw a grateful but sad smile her way.