She went into the building, went straight to the squad room, and saw that Biddle and Garvey were at their desks and on their phones. They both acknowledged her with a nod. Duncan was at his desk, too, working his way through a mountain of paperwork. He looked up at her as she passed.

“Make any progress?” he asked.

“Two steps forward and one step back,” she said.

“Let’s hear about the steps forward.”

“Coyle’s got a drawer full of little knickknacks, stuff he could fit in his pocket, that he stole from the places he serviced as a plumber,” she said and told him about cross-referencing Coyle’s service calls with reports of crimes and how that led her to Vickie Denhoff and Esther Sondel. “I think he slipped into their houses later, when nobody was home, and took the items as souvenirs of his secret visit.”

“How much of that can you prove?”

“The women picked out their stuff from photos of his collection and Cleve Kenworth ID’d the pink camera as Caitlin’s.” “How do you know he didn’t steal those items during his service calls?” Duncan said. “It doesn’t prove he broke into the house later or killed Tanya and her kids.”

“There’s more,” she said. “Denhoff came home early from work one day and was raped by a guy wearing a monster mask who was hiding in her bedroom. I think Tanya walked in on him in her house.”

“Did we get any DNA from Denhoff’s rapist?”

Eve shook her head. “She cleaned herself up before reporting the rape.”

“Is that the step back?”

“No, it’s bigger than that,” she said. “CSU hasn’t found anything in Coyle’s house or in his car that ties him to the murders. And before you ask, I checked with Mr. Plunger. All of their trucks were accounted for on Wednesday and Thursday, so he didn’t use one of their vehicles.”

Duncan frowned, but he didn’t seem to Eve to be thrown by the setback, at least not to the degree that she was.

“Coyle could have borrowed or stolen a car,” Duncan said. “Maybe one that belongs to one of his neighbors or a friend who was out of town.”

“Even if he took another car to Tanya’s house, we know he went back there again in his own car after he went to Walmart for supplies.”