“He said he was going to, but I don’t know if he did or who it might’ve been. If he did pass along someone’s name, it was while I wasn’t there with him.”

“We need to put out a BOLO for Springman,” Thurman said, stating the obvious. “We find her, she might be able to lead us to Blake.”

Ralph put a call through.

“While we’re on it,” I said, “we should try to find this guy, Reese, in Phoenix. Let’s send a couple of agents over to have a word with him. If he is connected to Blake’s people, maybe he can give us the intel we need to locate him.”

Greer let us know that he used to work with an agent who was stationed down there. “I’ll contact her, put it into play.”

Sasha asked, “What’s the purpose of the observer if the suicides are being recorded anyway?”

“There’s a lot bigger thrill to being present when someone dies than there is to simply watching it online like any other casual observer might do,” Thurman explained.

DeYoung was going about things old school and laying out what we knew on a whiteboard, complete with arrows, boxes, and a slew of sticky notes. He included names as we discussed the known relationships between them: Blake, Reese, Ibrahim, Aaron Jasper, Mannie. Then Jon Murray, Senator Murray, Julianne Springman. He repeatedly peeled off and restuck the stickies as the briefing moved forward.

It might have been helpful for visual learners, but to me it ended up looking like a tangled mess of spaghetti with yellow square meatballs splayed throughout it.

Finally, he drew three empty boxes and labeled them (1) Julianne’s new partner? (2) The Matchmaker? and (3) The Observer?

“Thoughts on the next step?” he said.

“I want to know about the tox screenings from the previous suicides,” I told him. “I still haven’t heard the results.”

He jotted that down on a legal pad.

“Did Jon leave a suicide note?” Thurman asked.

“Not that we’re aware of,” I said.

“What about the other suicides?”

“In two of the cases, yes. But there was no indication in them that someone was going to be present to watch the deaths.”

DeYoung gave a heavy sigh. “Where does that leave us?”

“Victimology,” I replied. “What do the other suicide victims have in common with Jon Murray? From what the team has pulled up so far, it’s not past residences or schools attended. Not employment. There’s no evidence they ever called, contacted, or even met each other. Nothing in credit card receipts that match up with each other.”

“If they were all Selzucaine users, it might be their dealer,” Sasha suggested.