Man's Ruin was definitely one of those bands that capitalized on referencing serial killers and gory horror movies in their songs. But screaming lyrics into a microphone was not enough to keep Marcia in an interview room for very long. Although Ruby always got the impression that there was something Marcia was hiding, she had no clear reason to believe that it was something that would help. Ruby couldn't figure out the right questions to ask Marcia, so she never got answers. She never even made Marcia uncomfortable the way she hoped to.

Instead, Marcia was too good at getting under Ruby's skin. She flirted shamelessly with Asher. She was dismissive toward Ruby. She essentially acted like a high school girl trying to destroy Ruby's self-esteem. But the joke was on Marcia. Ruby was overly familiar with those tactics. She'd survived it in high school and she could survive it as an FBI agent.

“Was she a suspect back then?” Gabe asked.

“Not exactly,” Ruby said, “it was a right time, right place kind of thing. One of our suspects was a fan and we noticed that they had a concert very close to one of the crime scenes. At first, we were just asking around to see if any of the concert attendees had seen anything suspicious.”

However, Marcia Reuben's fans were not the types that wanted to talk to law enforcement. Ruby did not love that they were diving back into that side of humanity.

They walked down the dingy corridor of the rundown hotel, the kind of place that only passed health inspection by greasing the wheels a little.

“She was a bit of a troublemaker,” Ruby said, “I don't think she was involved in the killings, but she was definitely a bad influence on the people around her. The manager even said she was a handful, kind of like you might expect.”

Ruby stopped in front of a door, rapping hard against it three times.

A guy dressed in a leather jacket and distressed jeans answered, his hair a mess. He looked like he'd just gotten up after partying all night. His eyes were bloodshot and droopy.

Ruby attempted to look past him into the room. It wasn't much, but she supposed it was an upgrade from sleeping in a van with the rest of her band. It at least gave them a lot more surfaces to snort illicit drugs off of.

“We're looking for Marcia Reuben,” Ruby said.

“We have some questions about her fanbase,” Gabe added.

Ruby was very aware of his presence there, of the way he shifted his weight ever so slightly. She wondered if it made him nervous that she stood between him and this man. Gabe wouldn't be able to get a clear shot with her there, should the need arise.

There was something about the man that drew her attention.