“Now that I'm finally here, I get to watch women drop like flies while we count things in an office,” he said bitterly.

Ruby's stomach turned, her body tensing. She was split between knowing that feeling so well, and wanting to go on the defensive. She had been there. Vallejo was one of her first cases. Thirteen people had died. One of them was her partner. Gabe didn't need to wax poetic about his frustration to her.

“What is your brilliant theory then? This copycat theory you're leaning toward? What drove him to see Vallejo as his salvation?” she asked.

“Could've been abused as a kid,” Gabe replied. “I don't think that's likely. I mean, it's on the shortlist, but it's not what's going to make him tick.”

“Then what?”

“Then it's all a big joke to him,” Gabe replied, “a great big joke. I mean, that's what serial killers do, isn't it? Remind us of our own mortality?”

Ruby did not reply. Gabe was a good profiler. He had a good theory about the nature of this killer. Vallejo's crimes had been as much about forcing other people to react to him as it was about acting on his own needs.

There were too many things to keep in mind. Ruby felt like she was profiling Vallejo for who he would select as his protégé, profiling the victims to see if there was a commonality between them, and lastly trying to understand the killer himself. Clearly he had to be the kind of person who would admire Vallejo, but what else? Was he acting on his own preferences when he chose victims, or was he acting on a creed that Vallejo had put in place for him?

“What do you think?” he asked.

“I just wish we had more than that,” Ruby said.

“We don't need more than that, Hunter,” Gabe said, “not if this is just a copycat. He's a fan, he likes stabbing people. He figures out how to do it without being seen.”

That was another question that kept coming to mind. He'd had such a short window to avoid being spotted at the last crime scene. There was a precision to that.

The phone rang on the table, and Gabe snapped it up first. Ruby rolled her eyes. He may have technically been assigned as her partner, but she was the one with the seniority here.

She watched as his face paled, his brow furrowing.

“We're on our way,” he told the caller, before he hung up and looked over to her. “They have another body.”

He was already moving, grabbing his coat and heading for the door. Ruby sighed, following behind him. She could see this unrated nightmare going on for a long time yet, and she wasn't looking forward to the constant thrumming in her head that told her that someone else was going to get killed.