Colleen narrowed her eyes. “You think Brewster was after the kid? Because Aidan’s taken four or five polygraphs where he’s had to volunteer his entire sexual history. Pedophilia has never come up.”

“I don’t know what I think,” D.D. said. “Except, by all accounts, Sandra Jones is a very beautiful woman, and let’s face it, twenty-three isn’t that old. In fact, what does that make her? The same age as Brewster?”

Colleen nodded. “Same age.”

“So, we have a beautiful young mom and a registered sex offender living just houses away. Any chance that Aidan is good-looking?”

“Sure. Shaggy blond hair. Blue eyes. Kind of surfer dude, but in a sweet sort of way.”

Miller rolled his eyes.

D.D., however, kept spinning the theory out. “So Sandy’s husband works most nights. Meaning she’s alone a lot, isolated with the kid. Maybe some evening she’s out in the yard with her daughter, and Aidan comes by, strikes up a conversation. Maybe the conversation leads to a relationship, which leads to …”

“She runs away with him?” Colleen suggested.

“Or they get into a fight. She finds out about his history, gets mad. After all, he’s been around her kid, and according to all reports, Sandra Jones would do anything for her kid.”

“So he kills her,” Colleen said matter-of-factly

“Like you said, these guys are desperate not to go back to prison.”

“So Aidan Brewster seduces the lonely housewife down the street, then murders her to cover his tracks.”

D.D.’s turn to shrug. “Stranger things have happened.”

Colleen sighed. Picked up a pencil, bounced the eraser end on her desk half a dozen times. “All right. For the record, I think you’re off base. Aidan already entered a high-risk relationship once before and he got nailed for it big-time. Given that, I think if he saw a woman like Sandra Jones out in her yard, he’d turn around and run the other way. No need to tempt fate, right? But the fact remains, Sandra Jones is missing and Aidan Brewster is the unlucky SOB that lives down the street. Protocol is protocol, so we’d better check him out.”

“Glad to hear it.”

Colleen bounced the pencil twice more. “Timeline?”

“Sooner versus later. We’re trying to get as much done under the radar as we can. We figure by seven A.M. tomorrow Sandra Jones will be missing more than twenty-four hours, meaning she’ll be upgraded to an official missing persons case and the media …”

“Will swarm you like bees on honey.”

“You got it.”

Colleen grunted. “You said she’s pretty, a young mom, a local teacher.”

“Yep.”

“You’re screwed.”

“Totally.”

“All right. You convinced me. I’ll pay Brewster a call this evening. Do a little walk-through of his home, ask about his recent activities. See if I can sniff out anything that warrants further investigation.”