“It would need to be a big cut, on his head or arm, to leave a fresh spot of blood on the wall as he passed by. Did you see a cut like that?”

“No,” Duncan said.

“That’s why I know it’s Caitlin’s blood. She must have been cut by Coyle during a struggle, or he cut her to prove he was serious, like he did with the woman he raped,” Eve said. “The DNA results on that spot of blood, and the blood found in Caitlin’s room, will prove I’m right, but by then it will be too late to save her.”

“It already is,” Moffett said. “Caitlin is dead. She has been since Wednesday.”

Eve ignored him and turned to Duncan. “Remember what you said when you saw the surveillance video at Walmart and all the junk food that Coyle bought?”

“He eats like a kid,” Duncan said.

“That’s because he wasn’t buying the food for himself, he was buying it for her,” Eve said. “The Planet of the Apes DVD he bought there was for her, too.”

“Eve, I know you want her to be alive,” Duncan said. “We all wish she was. But she’s not.”

She looked at the faces of the three men and saw nothing but skepticism and sadness. They didn’t believe her. She knew the sheriff and the captain would be a hard sell, but she was counting on Duncan to be on her side. And he wasn’t.

Duncan sighed. “You need to take a deep breath and be reasonable about this. You’re seeing what you want to see . . . but it isn’t there.”

She wasn’t going to give up. She couldn’t. Not while there was a chance of saving Caitlin.

Eve took out her phone and swiped through the pictures that Knobb sent her until she found one of Roger Karpis’ gaping neck wound. She held up her phone and showed the picture to the men as she spoke.

“This man is Roger Karpis, a ranger at Malibu Creek State Park, where Planet of the Apes was shot. His body was left in a pickup truck sometime Wednesday night or Thursday morning on Mulholland at Mulholland, which is only a hundred yards from where Coyle lives.”

She swiped to a photo of the bloody knife on the passenger seat and showed it around. Lansing studied it.

“This is the knife that nearly took off the ranger’s head. It’s the knife that Coyle used to murder Tanya, Troy, and Donna,” she said. “I’ve had it sent to our lab. The DNA tests will prove me right . . . but it will be too late.”

“I’m not seeing what this all means,” Lansing said and handed the photo back to her.

“Because it doesn’t mean a thing,” Moffett said.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.