“I think that you might be confused about what you want,” Gabe said. “We caught him, he's painted himself red. He and April have the exact same alibi. She's probably his accomplice.”

That was exactly the problem. It was too easy, but if Thorne was simply a copycat, maybe easy was the right answer.

“He's too obvious,” Ruby said. “Maybe this is his entire game.”

“Vallejo's, you mean? Are you still on that angle, even with this moron right in front of you? Look at him, he wants to be here, he wants to be a killer,” Gabe said, gesturing to Thorne sitting alone on the other side of the glass.

Bellisario came through the door, coming to join them at the window. Thorne hadn't stopped smiling eerily at the glass.

“That's the ex?” Bellisario asked, his brow furrowed. “Looks like a piece of work.”

“Because he is,” Gabe agreed. Gabe rubbed a hand across his face. Too many interviews and not enough answers must have been getting to him.

“Well, a piece of work, but it's looking like he's not our guy,” Bellisario said. “We got credit card charges from the Roxy theater and a parking lot near it.”

Ruby's stomach sank. She didn't necessarily want to be right. It would be nice to have a straightforward case that conveniently tied itself up. She didn't want to be right when it meant there would be more victims.

“You're kidding,” Gabe said. “He must've sent the new girlfriend to get the receipts.”

Gabe crossed his arms over his chest. Ruby wondered vaguely if all Gabe wanted was to tie the case up and get his first Quantico case done in record time.

Bellisario shook his head. “The theater's sending security tapes to be sure, but an usher says he remembers kicking a guy out around midnight. Sounds like Brett Thorne.”

“Too late to be across town at our crime scene,” Ruby said. She stared blankly at Thorne's knowing smile.

“Goddammit,” Gabe said, “we're really going to have to let this bastard go? Our victim had a restraining order on the guy.”

“A restraining order that she dropped,” Bellisario said grimly. “Hope you've got another lead.”

Ruby took a deep breath, pushing down her own frustration. She’d pulled too many stunts already. Giving Bellisario attitude now would not help her position.

“Hope is the right word,” Ruby said. She wished might've been a better one. It was like they were starting from square one all over again.

Bellisario gave one last look at Thorne before leaving Gabe and Ruby without a viable suspect.

“I said he was too sloppy,” Ruby replied.

“You ever heard of the phrase, ‘when you hear hoofbeats, think horses not zebras’?” Gabe asked, “he looked like a perfectly good candidate.”

“Except he isn’t,” Ruby said, “so we’re going to go back over those casefiles and look for some damn zebras.”