“Maybe,” Miranda agreed.

Hollis frowned. “Wait. Megan’s car?”

Bishop said, “According to Finn, there’s no sign of Megan’s car. There was no search for it months ago, obviously, since everyone believed she had driven it out of Salem herself, but deputies are on the lookout now and he’s officially put out a BOLO statewide. Nothing yet.”

Quentin said, “The unsub’s had more than enough time to get rid of that car. I doubt we’ll ever find it.”

Hollis nodded. “One car missing for months, yeah. Cole didn’t take his car, which his wife assumed meant he was somewhere nearby with a friend. But we can’t assume that because we don’t know where he disappeared from.”

“Probably not too far from home,” Quentin speculated. “Educated guess says the unsub grabbed Cole from the downtown area at or near his condo—somehow; immobilized him—somehow; and hid him—somewhere.”

Diana asked, “Did Megan live in one of the downtown condos too?”

“No, at her family home out in the valley,” Bishop replied. “No one in her family and no one else who knew her saw her leave. With everything that was happening then, her clothing and car gone, it was just assumed she had left to get away from all the unpleasant attention.”

Hollis muttered something under her breath, then said, “And last night he grabbed Simon Cavendish, who was walking home, as usual, through part of the downtown area. On a weekday. No car to ditch, but still the unsub had to be careful, fast—and lucky. Because he still had Cole stashed somewhere, and if what I felt yesterday was right, he’d already started torturing him. Started—and then stopped to go grab Simon? Does that make sense?”

“Still depends on the why,” DeMarco said.

“We were here,” Hollis pointed out. “And by late yesterday everybody knew it. Some of us on the slopes, some in town, at least until it started to get dark. Pretty damned visible. But obviously not a deterrent.”

“Wait,” Diana said. “Once we knew yesterday there was already a victim, we weren’t just searching the slopes and being visible in town; Finn’s deputies were canvassing here in town, looking for anyone that might have been missing. Literally going door-to-door. Businesses as well as homes. Could the unsub take the chance of not being where he was supposed to be?”

“Good point,” Quentin told her. “He might have stopped working on Cole because the deputies were moving through town knocking on doors, others calling citizens, trying to find out who was missing. All of us were out. He might have realized what was going on.”

“Especially,” Hollis said, “if he’s psychic. Just because we’ve been having trouble with our extra senses doesn’t mean a psychic born and raised here has the same problem. Dammit.”

—

HE WAS AS comfortable on the mountain slopes as he was on a paved street, and he had the sharp night vision of an owl, so he was able to find the precise spot quickly and easily even in the dark. The tools he had hidden remained undisturbed, as did his earlier work.