Briefings almost always go on too long, people are rarely as prepared as they should be, and the whole affair ultimately ends up wasting time that could’ve been better spent actually looking for the offender or actively tracking down suspects.

My philosophy? Have a meeting when absolutely necessary. Send a memo when a memo will do.

However, in this case, a memo wouldn’t cover it—even I had to acknowledge that. Too much happening, too many connections, and too much at stake.

We had people committing suicide and posting their deaths online as they happened, all while someone was present watching them and refraining from stopping them. There was the drug connection. The Matchmaker, whoever that was. Blake and his team. The silent ladies and the chemist. Somehow all of those things were interrelated.

Our team was present, along with Collins, the cyber expert, and Jason Thurman, the agent whose wallet Mannie had procured during his escape and who worked with handling confidential informants when he wasn’t being accosted by fleeing fugitives.

DeYoung got things rolling, and after we’d made introductions all around, he wasted no time in telling Sasha that he was going to have a long talk with his counterpart at the DEA. “We need this task force to be coordinated and not splintered off with each agency doing its own thing.”

“I’ll let you discuss that with him,” she said in a clipped voice. “I’m just here to find Blake. Knowing his interests, going undercover as an escort was the best way we could come up with to get close to him.”

Sasha received permission from her supervisor at the DEA to update us on everything she’d discovered so far. After filling in DeYoung about her work, she mentioned that she’d overheard a woman who was visiting Blake on Saturday night say that she was the one who’d worked with Blake’s brother, Dylan.

“Wait,” I said. “Dylan’s partner showed up?”

Sasha nodded. “A woman named Julianne Springman.”

“Springman was a CSI tech in Detroit,” I told them. “I met her last summer when we were tracking Dylan Neeson.” I could hardly believe she was the one who’d partnered with a serial killer to help him commit his crimes, but I trusted what Sasha was telling us. Julianne’s apparent involvement just went to show how little you can actually know people or guess the evil they’re ultimately capable of.

We all have a wicked streak, even though we might normally keep it in check.

DeYoung asked Sasha, “Do you know where she is?”

“No. She was looking for someone with similar interests here in New York City.”

“Similar interests?”

“Someone to kill with.”

I processed that. “Did Blake give her a name?”