Maggie looked as if she wanted to argue for the sake of arguing, but then she said: ‘Yeah, Nathan said the same thing. He thinks we were wrong about Janine. I don’t know, boss. I hate to say we blew it, but I think we blew it.’

Stride knew what Cindy would say. Told you so, Jonny.

‘Let’s forget about Janine for the time being,’ Serena said, interrupting his thoughts. ‘We’ve got other problems.’

‘Meaning?’

‘Meaning my weird little nerd, Mort Sanders, was on to something,’ Serena told them. ‘Mort was chatting online with a woman named Erin from Grand Forks. He says she was being chased by the same stalker who was involved with Kelly Hauswirth. Kelly was hooked up with a guy who called himself Lakelover, and Erin’s boyfriend was Mattie_1987, but Mort swears they’re the same guy.’

She held up an enlargement of a driver’s license from North Dakota, which showed an attractive blond, just over twenty-three years old, oval face, blue eyes, with a smile that was innocent and sexy at the same time. Stride couldn’t help but notice the similarity between this woman and the Colorado photograph of Kelly Hauswirth. They could have been sisters.

‘This is Erin Tierney,’ Serena said. ‘She’s a dental hygienist from Grand Forks. She’s been missing for at least two weeks. Her Nissan Versa hasn’t turned up anywhere. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.’

‘You think Erin’s the replacement for Kelly?’ Maggie asked.

‘Could be.’

‘Did she talk to anyone at home about having a new boyfriend? Or about taking a trip to Duluth?’

Serena shook her head. ‘No, Erin sounds like a loner, like Kelly. That may be part of the personality type this guy looks for. These girls live out fantasy lives online. In real life, they’re shy. Not many friends.’

‘Two weeks is a long time,’ Stride said. ‘If she was in the city, they may already have smuggled her out.’

‘Or they’ve got her stashed somewhere,’ Serena said.

‘What about these online user accounts?’ Stride asked. ‘Can we trace them?’

‘They’re fakes,’ Serena replied. ‘Their online bios don’t check out at all, but the details match up. I think Mort is right that we’re looking at the same guy. And there’s definitely a Duluth connection. I was able to get the ISP data for both accounts, and all of the logins come from the Twin Ports area. Both sides of the bridge. Whoever this guy is, he’s smart. He hunts for free Wi-Fi and never hooks into the same network twice, and there’s nothing in the pattern to suggest where he’s really located. He could be anywhere in Duluth or Superior.’

‘Have we shut down the two accounts?’ Maggie asked.