They carefully observed the footage in the days that followed—customers coming and going, the shop owner assisting them—but again, nothing curious caught their eye, and they continued to fast-forward until they reached the prior day’s footage.

“Stop,” Warren commanded, causing Tara to immediately pause. “There,” he said as he pointed at the corner of the screen.

Tara narrowed her eyes. A woman with long brown hair stood by the entrance to the store, wearing the same brown hiking boots with red laces Tara saw only hours earlier—it was unmistakably the third victim.

“Fast-forward a bit,” Warren said, and Tara did so until she paused again and let the video play. The woman walked toward one side of the store, surveying the water jugs carefully lined along the wall. Tara studied her movements. There was nothing unusual about her behavior, and it was hard for Tara to grasp that this was the same woman whose body made her nauseated when she caught wind of its scent that very morning.

But then something else caught Tara’s eye. A man was walking toward her from the opposite side of the store. Tara paused again and rewound the footage. She’d missed him moments earlier, too fixated on the victim. But now she saw that he was there all along, concealed behind a rack of clothing. He was carefully pushing each item aside in a mechanical fashion, as if he had no intent to buy anything, and then he noticed her as she came in.

Tara studied him as his eyes looked up upon her entrance, and as they remained there while he continuously pushed aside each shirt on the rack and then gained the courage to walk over to her. Their encounter was brief. They spoke for just a moment. She smiled at him before he said something to her, and then she thanked him and left the store. Moments later he stood at the counter, speaking to Mr. Baker, who had just emerged from the back room. He purchased something and then left as well.

Tara immediately looked up to see Warren’s eyes locked on the screen too.

“Mr. Baker!” he called out, urgently.

The shop owner hurried into the back room of the store.

“What is it? I was helping a customer,” he said with annoyance. But, as he got close to the monitor, his eyes widened in confusion. “Is that the same woman you showed me a picture of earlier?”

Warren swiftly nodded. “Rewind it,” he said.

Tara did as she was told and then paused right when the woman entered the store.

“Do you remember seeing her?” Warren asked.

The man raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Uh…no…no, I don’t.”

Tara knew Warren already knew the answer, since the shop owner didn’t seem to be present in the recording, but he had to ask anyway.

“Let it play,” Warren said.

Tara hit the space bar and the video continued. They all watched intently, Tara’s eyes now fixated on the man, dissecting him for anything she missed. She finally paused again when they had a clear view of the looks of him.