“I wish I had more to give you,” Voss said. “But the file was thin from the get-go.”

Niki stared at the picture of Chloe Ludlow, young, beautiful, but with intelligent eyes that added depth to her features. Niki put the three faces side by side in her mind.

Matty and Tony continued talking, but Niki shut their conversation out. Something was wrong—missing. She couldn’t put a finger on it, so she lined up their fact patterns in her head, carefully running down the list, checking off where they matched up—and where they didn’t.

“Chloe’s MO doesn’t fit,” she said.

The men stopped talking and looked at Niki.

“Her modus operandi is missing a step.” She paused to give Matty an opportunity to see the flaw.

When he didn’t say anything, she continued as though the pause had been for her to organize her own thoughts. “Mercotti and Abrams both met Gavin Spencer several days before they were abducted. For Sadie Vauk it had been twenty-four hours. In each case, though, he used that time to stalk them. Chloe Ludlow went missing after climbing into that black SUV, but where was the first meeting? When did Spencer make her a target? If he plans his abductions, then he and Chloe would have met before he kidnapped her.”

Niki jabbed a finger at Chloe’s picture. “We know his MO. Maybe we can work backwards and put them together before her death. We might get lucky.”

Then Niki turned to Tony. “Any problems if I go have a chat with Ms. Kempker?”

“I think you should,” Tony said.

Chapter 39

Lila spent the drive home searching her memory for Silas Jackson and finding the cupboard all but bare. She dug deep and kept coming back only to an image of him standing in a doorway, pointing at her. She couldn’t shake the belief that that image came from the party in Uptown. But surely if he had a lisp, she would have remembered it by now.

Lila walked into her apartment to find Joe in the kitchen, a pot full of water on the stove in front of him.

“About time,” he said. “I’ve been holding up dinner.” On the counter nearby lay a brown paper wrapper, unfolded, with four king crab legs inside. “Thought I’d make something special.”

“Okay,” Lila mused. “It’s not my birthday…so, what’s up?”

“Can’t a guy make an incredibly expensive meal for his girl without there being some hidden agenda?”

“Yeah, but you’re Joe Talbert, so out with it.”

Joe shrugged and smiled. “Fine, but someday I’m gonna make crab legs just to confuse you.”

“I’m listening.”

Joe took a beat, and then said, “They want me to go to North Dakota to cover that pipeline story.”

Lila hadn’t expected that to be Joe’s answer. He’d mentioned the possibility, but she’d let it fall off her radar. “So this meal is a peace offering?”

“I was thinking distraction, but peace offering works too.”

“When do they want you to go?”