“And no witness evidence of Partridge in the park at the time of the killing?”

“No.” Eden shook her head. “If anyone saw him, they didn’t come forward. The circumstances fit the same pattern as the girls in Spring Lake Park. Beth Hunter came to the park regularly. Partridge would’ve been able to study her movements and plan his attack.”

“Any security cameras in the park?”

“The gate has a camera. The Vallejo PD checked the film, but a lot of cars are exiting the park at that time of day—games finishing, concessions closing, people going home to dinner. Partridge was driving a 1999 white Mazda pickup, according to the rigging foreman. So Jermany’s checking tapes for that vehicle.”

“What do you think of Jermany?”

“Seems conscientious. Case file’s in good shape. He was willing to help when he found out why I was interested.”

“Did he have any other ideas?”

“No, but I do.” Eden spoke now without any prompting from the paperwork. “I started wondering if Partridge might have left any DNA when he made those signature cuts. No one looked in the original examinations. We’d have to exhume the bodies.”

“Susan Hart was cremated. You’ll have to talk to the coroners here and in Vallejo about the others. It requires a court order.” Mahler pushed himself off the table to leave.

“Sir, I think I found something else.”

“In Vallejo or here?”

“Neither. In Fresno.”

“Fresno?” Mahler sighed. Where was this going?

“Wait. Just listen. I talked to former Detective Woodhouse.”

“Tom, I know.” Mahler thought of the retired detective in the car an hour earlier, swearing himself to secrecy.

“And he said we should look where Partridge has been the past three years.”

“Partridge lives here.”

“But he’s made visits outside the area.”

“To Fresno?”

“Lorin Albright told me she’s from Fresno. She said Partridge goes with her when she visits home.”

“When? Do we have dates?”

“Albright wouldn’t say. But Partridge moved to Santa Rosa in September 2006 and met Albright about that time. So I’m looking for similarities in female homicides from December 2006 to now.”

“So how many homicides are we talking about?”

“Thirty-seven.”

“Thirty-seven?” Christ, what a world.

“Yes, sir, thirty-seven.”

“Big number.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And ViCAP has no record of a similar case in Fresno?”

“No, but it might have been missed.”

“So you’re looking through thirty-seven separate cases?”

“Well, yes. But I can sort them by ideal victim type and geographical location, like I did before. I just started and—”

Mahler sat down and gestured with one hand to silence Eden. “When your application came in, I read your thesis and that FBI report on the Highway 60 serial murders. The FBI thing—all 246 pages, and how many endnotes?”

“A lot. They require details be included as endnotes for future investigators. So I …643.”