This was the question he kept coming back to: why would anyone take three girls and kill one? Did the kidnapper need four girls, or want four girls, and something went wrong? Had the kidnapper wanted just one of them, and the others had to be taken out as witnesses? Would any of the four girls have done?

He thought again of Carl Lenah. He was still on the run, and with cops like Doble around, no wonder. In an ideal world, he’d throw more resources towards finding him, but they could only do so much. His instincts told him not to waste time on Carl Lenah.

When it came to directing resources, he needed to find out more about Bree. He hadn’t even spoken to her parents himself, except briefly on the day of the disappearance, up at the trail. Detective Coops had spoken with her father, Marcus Wilkins, and then also spoke to her mother later. The report hadn’t said much, so Con hadn’t looked into it any further. He couldn’t be everywhere at once, he barely had time to think as it was. He had learned to set limits, otherwise he overreached and made mistakes . . .

But was he missing something? He needed to gather more information about Bree. Did post-traumatic stress come into it? Did she snap and kill Georgia? No, that’s not how mental illness works. People rarely just snap and commit murder, that only happens in movies.

Was he dodging Bree because he didn’t want any uncomfortable questions about post-traumatic stress coming up?

Unless drugs are involved, then people can snap. Are drugs involved?

Cannabis was, but anything harder? When he’d first met Murphy, the man had clearly been under the influence of something else. He could see it in his eyes, in his reaction speed, and then in how he lost it and lashed out at the SES worker.

Murphy had mentioned Jack having ice debts. The teacher’s assistant definitely needed more attention too, but he was currently in a medically induced coma.

Murphy was in the box for people who weren’t suspects. Currently he was the only person in that box.

What about Eliza? Which box should she go in? Surely she wasn’t a suspect, but she’d known about Madison’s plan and hadn’t done anything. Why was she protecting Tom? Was she hiding anything else? He needed to speak with her again.

Bloody hell, there was so much to do! He couldn’t be everywhere!

Did one of the girls kill the others and they just hadn’t found all the bodies yet? How did the Honcho Dori Club come into it? What about the girls’ plan to disappear?

Maybe whoever killed Georgia knew in advance they were going to try and disappear . . . Lawful Evil, Madison . . . or it was motivated by something else, even random . . . Chaotic Evil . . .

Maybe the Hungry Man really is the most logical answer . . .