“Eddie, you saw my report?” Rivas asked. “Peña says he saw our victim Saturday night with three individuals. Probably a drug buy. If it’s true, we should find those guys.”

Mahler nodded. “Get the ADA on it. If Peña has something more to tell us, I want to hear it this afternoon. And, Martin, ask the roommates about the three men.”

Coyle abruptly stood and approached the whiteboards. “Eddie, listen,” he said, startling Mahler from his thoughts. “The new information Eden found is important for the Partridge case. But it also puts our latest victim, Elise Durand, even further outside the pattern of the other killings. We can’t ignore that. Everything’s different.”

“Except it’s a young woman strangled and left in Spring Lake Park.” Mahler turned back to the photos.

“Yes, but the way it was done is different. You know, we all know, these guys have a pattern. They almost never vary from it. It’s how they’re wired. It’s what allows us to do what we do.”

“Almost never?” Mahler faced Coyle. “Is that what you want to go with here? You want to lead with that? You want to tell the press and the city we’re not going to find another girl’s body up there tomorrow night? And when a twenty-one-year-old’s left on a dirt footpath, or under some bushes, and we put her photo on this board, you want to tell her parents that, according to the latest research and the best analysis, this almost never happens?”

Coyle held his ground. “All I’m saying is I think this new information on the signature cut changes things.”

“Let’s just do our job.” The room fell quiet. Mahler walked back to his spot on the wall. For the second time in five minutes he regretted his words. Did he think Coyle and the others needed reminding of the consequences of the case? Did he know anything they didn’t? Should he tell them a few hours ago a dead girl told him the key to the latest case was the victim’s breathing?

After a minute, he said, “Daniel, make a timeline for this girl. Lerner says she was at work on Monday. Talk to the admin. Find out exactly when Elise Durand left work. The building where she worked may have security videos. When Martin talks to the roommates, we’ll find out if they saw her after work. We need to know where she went and who she saw Monday evening.”

Frames, Rivas, and Coyle left the room.

Eden packed her laptop into a carrying case. “I’d like to talk to former Sergeant Woodhouse, the one who worked the earlier cases.”

“Tom?” Mahler frowned. “What for?”

“Ask some questions on his case notes.”

“Okay, but this isn’t a research project. We don’t have a lot of time.”