“Yes. Eddie Booker. He just made it under the wire for his free lunch. I thought he needed the money, but he said he was out of here. I don’t blame him.”

“Could I have his number, too?”

“Sure.” He searched a list, wrote down the numbers, and gave them to Decker.

“Thank you. Can you tell me who was working here on Sunday?”

“It wasn’t me.” He checked the books. “It was Booker. Ah, this makes sense. He completed his shift, worked through the night, and clocked out Monday morning. Then he quit.” Zatch looked at Decker. “Eddie’s a good man. He’s been married for twenty years and has children. He goes to church.”

That meant nothing. More than one serial killer had been a deacon. What caught Decker’s attention was Booker’s timing. Not only that he worked the night Terry had disappeared, but that he quit the next morning.

“Thanks for your help,” Decker said.

“No problem, Detective. At least I do something useful other than sweat.”

ADRIANNA’S HONDA REMAINED parked in its spot, undisturbed, until the tape’s time read 2:14 Monday afternoon—the time that Adrianna was found dead. At that point, Marge turned off the machine. “She never made it to her car.”

Oliver stood up and stretched, blinking to bring moisture to his dry eyes. “Could she have left the hospital from a different door?”

“Only one way to find out.” Marge held up the cassette tapes.

“What time is it?”

“About ten of five.”

“Aren’t we supposed to meet up with Aaron Otis and Greg Reyburn?”

“I’ve got to check my messages. They’re supposed to call me when they get into town. My cell is dead in here.”

“So they could have called and you wouldn’t have known about it?”

“Exactly. Let’s take a break. I’ll check my phone.”

Just as Marge stood up, Povich returned. “Any luck?”

“We’ve gone through the most important tape once,” Oliver said. “We did see Adrianna park her car and go into the hospital at around quarter to eleven. We didn’t see her coming back to her car on this tape.”

“That doesn’t mean she didn’t leave,” Marge said. “But now we need to check all the other hospital entrances and exits. That’s going to take a long time. It would be helpful if we could view the tapes at our station house. That way I could put a lot of people on them and move this along at a quicker pace.”

“Eventually the hospital is going to have to give them to us,” Oliver said. “They’re evidence.”

“Evidence to what?” Povich said. “There was no crime here.”