“That ties him to the stolen pickup,” Mann said. “The owner saw that same tattoo on one of the guys who took his truck.”

“Maybe that’s why I felt so angry when I saw it,” Sandy said. “That tattoo made me think of this morning—the man at my house, the note in the bushes, the words on the wall, my dream where everything died. I saw that tattoo and something inside just snapped.

“I jumped out of the car, and when he saw me coming at him, he ran. I caught him and cuffed him, and as soon as I touched him, I knew.”

“Knew what?” Lynch said.

“He’s involved in this somehow,” Sandy said firmly. “He didn’t have any ID, so I can’t say for sure that he’s Steven or that he’s even involved until we get his fingerprints or until the owner of that pickup comes in and identifies him. But I know he’s part of this. I saw it in his eyes.”

“Where is he now?” Lynch said.

“He’s in the lockup downstairs.”

“As soon as we finish here, I need you and Coletti down there questioning him,” Lynch said. “I need the owner of the pickup in here, too. We haven’t got much time. When the medical examiner announces that Phillip Little’s death was a homicide, the media’s going to go into a feeding frenzy, and that’s going to make our job harder. We can’t afford that, because if we don’t catch this guy soon, more people are going to die.”

Everyone in the room fell silent as the truth of the matter sunk in.

“Okay,” Lynch said, looking each of them in the eye before focusing on Smithson. “Coletti told me about the dates and the profile, and he said Ivan Petrov looks like a match. But I understand you were looking at some others.”

“Yes, Commissioner. Based on the dates on Sergeant Jackson’s wall, I found a case from December 2005. A man Detective Coletti previously arrested confessed to a murder in a Darby church. The victim’s family was livid. I’m still trying to pull some records, but it looks like at least two of the victim’s uncles fit the profile. I’m looking at some older cases, too.”

“Okay, I want those names on my desk in fifteen minutes. Hopefully, one of them is our so-called angel of death. In the meantime, Mann, I need you working with the narcotics unit. If he had these guys on dope, we might be able to find them in the drug houses. Jackson, you’re off the street for now. I want you with Coletti when he interviews the guy you arrested, and I want you looking at everybody Mann brings in, because you’ve seen these guys a couple of times.”