Maybe Bellisario had been wrong to drag her into this. All her history did was lead her on a trail of suspicious individuals with undeniable alibis. No matter how long she stared at their wall of victims, the answers would not conveniently jump out at her.

She looked to the door as Gabe walked back in, a fresh cup of coffee in hand. They were both living off a caffeine diet now.

“Analysts combed through both Thorne and Delko’s records. Apparently Delko was out of town at a farmer’s market at the time of Vanessa’s murder,” Gabe said, dropping back in front of his computer, “and Thorne was fighting a parking ticket at the time of Pearl’s.”

Ruby stared at the ceiling. She could’ve seen that coming.

“Do you have any good news?” she asked dryly.

“The negatives from the garage are being uploaded as we speak,” Gabe said, dropping back in front of his computer.

He hit a key a few times, as though refreshing to see said upload already. Ruby perked up. Finally, something to distract her from the frustrated defeat of the last few hours.

“Took long enough,” she said.

Gabe shrugged. “I guess that’s what happens when we give them a whole party guest list worth of fingerprints and shoe treads to process.”

That was exactly the problem. They were flooding forensics with too much information to eliminate. It was bogging them down. When they had something really important to analyze, they wouldn’t be able to deal with it fast enough.

Just then, a knock came against the open doorframe. Jocelyn stood there, hauling a tabletop projector.

“Hey,” she said, “Bellisario mentioned you guys might need this?”

Ruby caught Joce giving Gabe the once-over. Gabe must have seen the same. It wasn’t as though Joce was attempting to be subtle. Ruby forgot that Gabe still had to prove himself in Quantico, not just as her partner, but as his own person. Everyone was watching.

“Yes, thank you,” Ruby said, “that would actually be great.”

They would be able to see much more detail if they weren’t hunched over a computer screen looking at scans.

Jocelyn took that as an invitation to step in, arranging the projector on the table. Ruby pulled down the projection screen as Joce helped Gabe hook up the machine to his laptop.

“This is Agent Jocelyn Fontaine,” Ruby said, “Joce, Agent Ruiz.”

Introducing them felt stilted and awkward, like two different parts of her life were clashing together, even though they all had the job in common.

“Call me Gabe,” he said, offering out a hand, which Jocelyn accepted.

“How is it going for you?” Joce asked. “Some rumors have been floating around about the case.”

Ruby couldn’t help but roll her eyes.

“Of course there are,” she said. “We’re getting there. It’s about sorting through what is useless data and what is actually helpful.”