“Were you on the scene in Fond du Lac?” he asked.

Maggie took a long swallow from her can of soda. She draped her head back and stared at the ceiling. “Yeah.”

“Did the girl make it?”

“No. She was dead when they pulled her out of the water.”

“How about the boy? The one on the bicycle?”

“Lucky. His vitals are good. The docs think he’ll pull through.”

“How are the girl’s parents?”

Maggie shook her head. “They’re both wrecks. Mary was everything to them. Taking care of her destroyed their marriage, but they lived and breathed for that girl.”

“I hope the mother doesn’t blame herself for leaving the girl alone,” Stride said. “It was a terrible accident. There was nothing she could have done.”

“I’m not so sure it was an accident.”

Stride balanced his elbows on his desk. “What do you mean?”

“Donna Biggs thinks the peeper was there. She thinks that’s what spooked Mary and made her run. When she went into the water, he took off.”

“Is there anything to back it up?”

“Donna swears she saw a car parked just up the hill from where she was. She says it was a silver RAV4, which tracks with the reports of a mini-SUV near several of the peeping scenes. No one got plates, of course.”

“That’s not much.”

“Donna also saw a man get into the RAV when she was running up the trail after she heard Mary scream.”

“Can she recognize him?”

“No.”

“Is there any physical evidence?”

“We’ll be searching the woods between the trail and the spot where the car was parked.”

“I don’t want to sound like a pessimist, but even if you find this guy, it’s going to be a tough road to prove he was responsible for Mary’s death.”

“If he tried to grab her, and she wound up dead as a result of his actions, we can make a manslaughter case out of that.”

“I know, but with what evidence?” Stride asked.

“The peeping history with the girl. The car. Any physical evidence we can find. Mary’s scream. Hell, who knows what souvenirs this guy kept? Maybe when we find him, he’ll have pictures. If I can put a few of the pieces together, Pat Burns can make a jury see the light.”

“You sound like this case is personal,” Stride said.

Maggie nodded. “I saw the girl when she was sleeping at her house. She was sweet. I told her father he didn’t have anything to worry about, and now the girl winds up dead. We were staking out Clark’s house and Donna’s apartment, but it looks like he outsmarted us. Donna says she stopped at this park every Friday night before she dropped Mary off at her ex-husband’s place. He must have been following them.”

“Or the mother is wrong.”

“I don’t think she is.”

Stride trusted Maggie’s instincts. “Go with your gut,” he said.

He picked up the photograph from his desk and studied it again. He was having a hard time shrugging off the past. “You know, I’ve always believed that Ray’s death was one more ripple effect from Laura’s murder,” he said.