“The bags do that. Tell us why he probably chose her. If she was really his first and he was just learning to be a predator. They grab a tempting target they can’t resist at first. Often close to home or work, because they haven’t yet learned that’s a bad idea. Convenience. Maybe just opportunity in this case. Because she was leaving and he knew or just saw her and realized. Because she wouldn’t be missed. Maybe he was close enough to watch her pack. Or maybe in a town this small, she might not have lived or worked close to him, but he still somehow knew she was leaving. Maybe when gossip about her being jilted got around.” Hollis turned suddenly to stare up at her partner. “I do wonder. Cole Ainsworth stormed out after he and his wife had a fight. So leaving in a way. Megan was packed and ready to leave town. And what about whoever he has now, the third one?”

“Might have been leaving too. It would be a good way for the unsub to hide what he was doing, at least for a while, grabbing people very likely to not be missed right away. In this case, at least, it probably would have been a while longer if Megan hadn’t come to you. Though I’d call it stretching coincidence that three members of the Five—assuming they really are the targets—were so conveniently leaving Salem right when he needed victims.”

“Yeah, especially this time of year. Not really the usual time for vacations. As for colleges and universities, the winter term is going on, right? Through the end of this month?”

He nodded. “So less likely someone would be leaving to begin a new term. Though Finn did send his nephew back to school early.”

Hollis was frowning. “And saw him safely out of town, and talked to Robert once he was back at school just to be sure he arrived safely, I know. One we can hopefully cross off our list. But . . . if two victims have been taken in just a few days, at least one of them is probably already dead . . .”

“Then he’s working fast. Or is still holding at least the one grabbed most recently.”

“Maybe he hasn’t been held . . . long enough. Maybe he’s still okay.”

“ ‘He’?” Reese questioned.

She nodded slowly, still frowning. “A man, I think.”

“Any sense of the victim we believe is Cole Ainsworth?”

“No, nothing. I believe Megan; he’s dead.” She shifted uneasily. “This morning I was getting emotions down in town when I dropped my shields, at least from nonpsychics, getting what Tia wanted to tell me. Up here, nothing, even when I tried. My shields are back up, and still weirdly strong. For me, I mean.”

“The luggage?”

“I just knew it was there. Maybe something that got through my shields.”

It was Reese’s turn to nod slowly. “From what the clairvoyants in the unit have said, that sense is less likely to be blocked by the interference of energy. In fact, energy tends to make them more open even with shields.”