Mary let out a sigh. “Go ahead and print, Lakshmi. You’ve got your confirmation, from the FBI no less.”

Lakshmi started giggling.

Caitlin looked over. “What’s so funny, giggle-puss?”

“He said ‘fuck buddy.’ ”

That accent got her again. The trio laughed all the way to the car.

Chapter 53

CHAPTER

53

THE NEXT MORNING, Mary’s toes nudged Caitlin from the opposite end of the couch. “Remind me why we’re here instead of at the press conference with Lakshmi?”

Caitlin opened the box of BPD Chapman files on the coffee table. “That girl can handle the conference with one arm tied behind her back, or at least in a cast. This is the Chapman mother lode, and judging from Foreman’s attitude last night, our access is on borrowed time.”

The massive, unbound volume made Caitlin’s sexual assault report look like a cautionary pamphlet. Whatever the BPD had done wrong in their investigation, they hadn’t neglected their paperwork.

“You think Amireau killed both girls?”

Caitlin shook her head. “I think Chapman overdosed, Michelson disposed of her body to protect his drug empire, and Amireau suffered a life of public shame for two years, only to finally snap and kill Paige Lauffer.”

Caitlin flipped through her pages. She had Greenwood’s initial reports, basic summary info, pictures of Chapman’s apartment, and full schematics of Michelson and Amireau’s place at the Villas.

Mary dove in as well. “What are we looking for?”

“Detectives look at the pieces to string together a narrative. Chapman goes missing, they assume she’s run away. No personal items absent, the story changes to foul play. We’re looking for anything that didn’t follow that narrative, or did but was omitted from common knowledge.”

“So everything?”

“Relax, Lubbers. You’ve got two hours and then you’re free to go teach or whatever it is you do with your days.”

Mary stuck her tongue out. “Usually I grade the homework, not do it.”

They read in silence for ninety minutes.

Mary broke the silence with a guttural “Huh.”

Caitlin looked over. “Got something?”

“Greenwood’s got a note here. Only two words: See Shepherd. That mean anything to you? I haven’t found anyone in the interviews named Shepherd.”

Caitlin felt a flutter in her chest. “Shit, I might know.”

She opened a browser window, typed a query. “The other night, when Lakshmi was all high, I asked her who she talked to at BPD before Greenwood.”

“Jerry wasn’t the first detective?”

“No, his wife had just died and he was on leave. They brought him in as soon as they knew it was something serious, the second day, maybe the third. I asked our little doper who the first detective was, and she said, ‘Sheep man.’ ”