The margarita she ordered was perfect. She’d had at least a drink a day since Hope went missing, but it helped calm her nerves.

“The designated driver is officially jealous,” Scott said, using his finger to taste the salted rim.

She didn’t realize how hungry she was until she opened the menu. Scott ordered the burger, while she went with the Croque Madame, described as a grilled ham and cheese with a fried egg on top and a salad on the side.

The bartender was telling her she was going to be very happy with her selection when her phone buzzed with a new message. Carter Decker. Got the flyers. She held it up for Scott to see before dropping it into her purse. “He probably wants me to thank him. Again. For offering to do the laziest version of his actual job.” At Scott’s urging, she had sent him a polite email with the file, moderating her tone and expressing her “sincere gratitude” for his help.

“Look, I know I only met the guy for half a second, and you’ve had more of a chance to form an impression than I have . . .”

“But?”

“I can at least understand why he’s not totally convinced there’s some accomplice serial killer out there who’s gone undetected for twenty years and counting.”

When Lindsay learned of the DNA match to the College Hill Strangler case, of course she assumed there was a connection. And when she read in an old newspaper article that the woman who was killed was a volunteer at a nearby summer camp, she had even imagined a teenage camp counselor who might have been the one to choose Janice Beale as the duo’s next target. “It does sound a little crazy,” she conceded. It was just as likely that the blood belonged to some kid who ran to Beale’s house when he cut himself on the playground. “If I had to guess, when Decker heard about the cash advance from Evan, his mind was made up.”

“Well, what if you could find a way to make her past actually work in her favor?” Scott suggested. She knew he was trying to make up for the things he had said about Hope earlier. “If you could offer the police a theory where Hope’s background makes it more likely she’s in danger, rather than a runaway, maybe they’d be more willing to take it seriously. You always thought Hope’s memory loss was from some kind of trauma.”