“Zip code is correct. The letterhead is for real—that’s a genuine faculty envelope from Georgetown U.”

“So either the Butcher figured out that Gutmunsson’s studying there,” Bell says, “or Gutmunsson tipped him off somehow so they could correspond without alerting the St. Elizabeths staff.”

“Georgetown has a medical school,” Emma says immediately. “The Butcher is young—he could be college-aged. A student maybe?”

Bell looks up. “He could be getting the ether through the med school.”

“But this letter wasn’t sent through the med school,” Westfall says. “It’s care of the English department. Sender is a Dr. Gordon Lord.”

Emma groans. When Cooper looks over, she makes a face. “George Gordon Lord Byron. Simon’s obsessed with the Romantic poets. It’s the subject of his dissertation.”

“We need to check the Georgetown mail service.” Cooper is propped on the edge of Westfall’s paperwork-covered desk, arms crossed. “They’ll have both an internal and a USPS system, so it might involve some digging.”

Emma cocks her head, leaves the room as Westfall adjusts the display to show another image of the envelope.

“Everything seems legitimate. The postmark tag is some kind of departmental code.”

“How is Gutmunsson supposed to reply?” Cooper asks.

Everyone spends a little time thinking about that.

“To avoid suspicion, he’d have to send his reply back to the English department, surely,” Westfall says.

Cooper squints at the display. “Is the Butcher collecting his mail from the college in person?”

“If he’s going to school there, maybe yeah,” Bell says. “Or it might be forwarded on to his parents’ house, or something.”

“Unless you think someone in the English faculty at Georgetown is the Butcher,” Westfall adds.

Bell turns to Cooper. “We’ve been tracking this idea that the Butcher is young. Could we have the age range wrong? Could he be a professor or a teacher at Georgetown?”

Cooper frowns. “I don’t think so. The young victims, his physical strength, even the tone of this letter… everything we have about this guy feels young to me.”

Emma walks back into the room. “If the envelope is mailed on campus and shows a departmental sender, it’ll be tagged with that department’s postmark so the postage cost can be credited back.” When Cooper looks at her, she shrugs. “I just called the central mail service office at Georgetown University and asked.”

“So the Butcher mailed the letter on campus. He used the faculty envelope and the departmental-sender line to make sure it was tagged as coming from Georgetown U.”

“Mailing on campus doesn’t mean he has to be a student or a professor,” Westfall points out as he flicks the lights back on. “He could’ve ridden the bus to campus and used a postbox there.”

“Yeah, we shouldn’t rule that out.” Cooper rubs his face. “Okay, so how are Gutmunsson’s replies forwarded? We need to go talk to the faculty mail handler in the English department at Georgetown.”

Emma’s chin juts. “And I need to talk to Gutmunsson.”

“You want to shake him up with this?”