I wasn’t ready to make that leap. “Maybe a dealer, yes. Maybe someone else. Let’s take a step back and do a deep dive into people close to the victims: Relatives. Friends. Work associates. Social networking connections. Anything. It might not be that they have a connection to each other but a connection to an individual who hasn’t appeared on our radar screen yet. We find that link—”

“We find the Matchmaker,” Greer said.

“Yes. Possibly.”

I offered to look more closely at the victimology. Sasha agreed to leverage her resources at the DEA to find out more about the Selzucaine, ways to mold it for shipment and where else Blake’s mannequins might have been shipped around the country.

DeYoung spoke up. “Counting Jon Murray, we have four known interrelated instances of someone videotaping their own suicide while someone else is present. If that person was influencing them, how do you talk someone into doing something like that? How do you convince a person to take his own life, especially in such shocking ways?”

“Choices are rational,” Ralph noted, “not random. Even if people aren’t consciously aware of it, they’re always evaluating the cost-benefit ratio before they commit a crime: how badly do I want this thing? And usually—although not with suicide—how can I get away with this action without getting caught?”

“So, make him a promise or make him a threat,” Greer suggested. “If you’re trying to get someone to do something that drastic, you’d have to make a promise or threat big enough to convince him that it’s something worth dying for.”

DeYoung returned to his whiteboard. “Okay, let’s play this out. Jon Murray is approached by someone who promises to reward him in some way or threatens to harm a person he loves. In order to find out why Jon might’ve killed himself or why the victims in the other videos might have done so, we need to find out who they loved the most—or anyone who might’ve benefited from their death or somehow been protected because of it.”

“I’ll take that,” Greer offered.

“Also, let’s see if the senator has any legislation before him right now that has to do with the pharmaceutical industry or laws related to regulating Selzucaine. That could be the connection with the guy in Phoenix.”

“On it,” Ralph said.

After the briefing, I glanced at my watch and decided it would probably still work for me to meet Calvin at noon for lunch, as long as we could get together close to the Field Office. Just to make sure, I cleared things with DeYoung to confirm that he was on board with me brainstorming some investigative avenues with the famed environmental criminologist.

“Werjonic’s worked with us before,” DeYoung told me. “I trust him. If he can be of any help, I’m open to bringing him on as a consultant.”