Yael clenched her jaw and rolled her shoulders. They were going as fast as they could but it still took about forty seconds per person which meant it might take them all day to work their way through the massive list.

They had a system going. Alex said a name. Yael and Ashley pulled up the matching HR and driver’s license files. It was monotonous and boring after the first hundred.

Shane handed her a Coke and she took a quick sip. She needed the sugar hit.

“Ethan Grice,” Alex intoned and spelled the last name.

Yael’s search came back blank. She sat forward. “Wait. There’s nothing here. No HR file…”

Yael watched Ashley pull up DMV files for the name. The document loaded and horror gripped her insides.

“Shit.” Shane stood and his chair clattered across the floor.

“You recognize him?” Alex asked.

“Yeah.” Yael’s mouth tasted like sawdust. “That’s Laura’s new boyfriend.”

27

“Hey! I found a link between Ethan Grice and two of the victims…” Yael said from her position bent over a laptop in the corner of the small kitchen area.

“What is it?” Shane asked with half an ear tuned into the preparations HRT were making.

“Up until four years ago, victim number three, Derek Vincent, was a correctional guard at Dresden Detention Center where Ethan Grice served time. Vincent was fired for misconduct and fudged the details about that period on his resume. And guess who Grice’s public defender was? One Phillipa Everard who went on to marry a guy called Douglas Laurent.”

Phillipa Laurent was the judge who’d been murdered.

“Any idea what the misconduct Vincent was accused of was?” Shane asked with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Yael’s big brown eye met his. “He was accused of sexual assault but he was never charged. I assume the prison service wanted to sweep the allegations under the carpet.”

Made sense for something that egregious to paint a target on Vincent’s back. “Do you think he hid people he had a genuine grudge against amongst innocents or were all of the victims specific targets?” Shane asked.

“I suspect he hid those he saw as guilty amongst innocent victims. It’s a good way of getting revenge without getting caught,” Ashley Chen interrupted, coming over to where they stood. “I’ll pass that onto BAU-4 and see what they say. Good work, Yael.”

Yael nodded and went back to staring at her screen.

Shane watched his teammates get ready for the assault.

The task force had set up in an empty hotel suite at the far end of the corridor from Laura Bay’s hotel room.