“But not necessarily.” Her eyes darkened a bit. “Look, Detective,” she said. “I wish to God that I believed for even a second that they were still alive. But I don’t. And my guess is, when you dig a little deeper into this, you won’t either.” Her anger washed away into worry. “And now, Zoe and Chloe . . . Jesus, I hope I’m wrong.”

It wasn’t much, but it was something. Bentz had never been completely convinced that Caldwell had been the killer, but he’d been off the case since he’d moved to New Orleans, long before Donovan was collared.

“LA was his killing ground.”

“Was,” she repeated. “He’s on the move. Heading east.”

She held his gaze for a second as he scanned the news articles again.

“Now, he’s here because of you.”

“Me?” He lifted his head to stare at her. “Why?”

“Because you were one of the first detectives on the case. There was a big gap when he killed, twelve years, right?” When he nodded, she went on. “The first time when you were the lead detective on the case, and then a dozen years later when you went to LA on a different case, something more personal,” she said.

The muscles in his back tightened when he remembered that trip and the reasons he’d ended up in LA, a place he’d left years before and a place he’d vowed to never return. He met this serious woman’s gaze. So far, she had her facts straight. “That’s right.”

“And I bet there was some speculation at the time that the reason he’d quit was that he’d moved on, or had been imprisoned or was somehow out of commission. Did anyone suggest that your appearance in Southern California might have spurred the new killings?”

“There was discussion, yeah. Never any real proof.”

“So what if that’s right? What if you are the impetus for him to start killing again?”

“I’ve never worked in Phoenix or Dallas.”

She waved away the argument. “He was on his way east and opportunity struck.”

“21 doesn’t leave much to chance.”

“Whatever,” she said, her gaze level. “My guess is he’s taunting you, but really, who knows?”

He wanted to dismiss her, to believe that she was dead wrong and the killer was locked away forever, but he saw desperation in her eyes. “Okay, so just for the sake of argument, let’s say you’re right, so 21 does what? Drives to Phoenix to find his next victims?”

“Maybe he didn’t choose Phoenix. Maybe he found out via the Internet or mutual acquaintances that there were twins about to turn twenty-one, so he drove there.”