“Yes, or when he showed up she wasn’t surprised or he had a good reason for being there. Which can point to Grant or Monroe or her ex-husband or her brother. It isn’t a random act of violence. Not a break-in, and I can’t see at this angle of wound, and the depth, that it was someone she didn’t know. If you encounter a stranger and they get close enough to stab you, you’re going to back up. If they’re running at you or attacking you, they’re going to stab overhanded, using their strength and momentum to penetrate. But underhanded, you get close, and the victim may not even notice you have a knife. It was dark, they were outside, Victoria knew the killer, was likely having a conversation with him. She didn’t run away when he got closer. Nothing was disturbed—at least from the pictures you have, I couldn’t see that there was overturned furniture or anything broken. But the killer would have had blood on him—his hand, his clothes. You can’t stab someone that close and not get blood on you.”

“Two months have passed,” Max said. “Wouldn’t all that evidence be gone?”

“Most likely,” Lucy said. “The knife would be a key bit of evidence, and the chances that the killer wore gloves are slim to none. Not in early September. I’d think Victoria would have noticed.” SAPD would have completely printed the house, the yard, anything the killer might have touched. Any fingerprints would be gone two months later. But the reports Max had didn’t show the house, only Victoria’s body and immediate area. There had to be a blood trail. The killer had left the property. Touched a door or a gate. Wouldn’t the police have checked?

She shook her head. She couldn’t second-guess SAPD—they were a competent department that had investigated thousands more homicides than she had. She didn’t know Detective Reed, but she was a senior detective and would have done due diligence. And Max didn’t have everything here, only a small part of the investigatory detail.

Grant confessed … What happened after his confession? What other inquiries had they started prior to the confession that stopped because they thought they had the killer in custody? Time … time was not a friend of evidence. Evidence disappeared. Disintegrated. Became corrupted.

She could talk to Ash Dominguez. They were friends, he would let her look at the evidence on the QT. Though she didn’t want to go that way. She wanted Reed’s cooperation.

“You’re thinking about something,” Sean said.

“I need to handle the bank tomorrow, then I’ll talk to Reed and the crime scene investigators.” Not necessarily in that order. “They don’t have to share anything with me, but I’ll be on my best behavior.”