“Come on, Hunter. If you say the Zodiac is the only lead we have right now, you’re going to sound like a conspiracy theorist,” he said.

Pegging the suspect as an astrologer would be a hard sell, but there was something about it that got Ruby’s attention. Maybe she was just looking for any sign pointing her in any direction at all.

“Did you know there are thirteen constellations in the Zodiac? There are all the ones everyone knows, but there is one more,” Ruby said. A reference to a secret thirteen sounded like exactly the kind of obscure reference Vallejo would love.

At that, Gabe laughed.

“That’s what you’re reaching for? There are a hundred simpler motivations. Maybe we do have a copycat on our hands. Maybe our guy is just using thirteen stab wounds to throw us off, make us waste our time on a connection that isn’t even there,” he said.

Ruby bristled. For a flicker of a moment, she wished the Bureau had stuck her with a rookie again. Her fresh-faced past partners may have needed more training, but at least they weren’t explicitly contrarians.

“Those wound patterns at the coroner’s office, those don’t just match each other, they nearly precisely match Vallejo’s first victim,” she said. “There are two ways someone could get that information: either from the authorities or from Vallejo himself.”

“Or some fanatic got his hands on that information and decided to share it with the whole goddamn fan club,” Gabe countered.

There was so much space between them, both the physical distance across the room, an entire table between them, and in what they knew. Ruby knew Vallejo. She knew him better than anyone, but to say that out loud would sound twisted. The Vallejo that Ruby knew would not carelessly toss out details of his craft. Part of his allure was mystery. Part of it was also control. There was no way he would let the unworthy plagiarize his work at random.

“I think I should talk to him. Somehow, he must be involved,” Ruby said.

“He’s in prison, Hunter. You put him in prison,” Gabe said. “When men behind bars commit murders, it’s the prison guards who have to clean it up, not us.”

That was how Ruby knew Gabe couldn’t understand. He’d never been up against someone like Vallejo, who couldn’t be stopped by anything. Gabe hadn’t spent thirteen victims getting to know Vallejo from the inside out.

In that moment, the pang of missing Asher, her old partner and the last person she truly trusted, hit her hard and fast. There was no way she could have a partnership like that again. Asher challenged her sometimes, but he always had faith in her. He was always willing to go the extra mile.