Andi looked hard at the second photo. “So, you have Gavin standing at her booth. Do you have them talking? Are there any pictures that put them together?”

“No,” Niki said. “But a week later, Chloe climbs into a black SUV with a stain on the door in the shape of a teardrop—her roommate saw it. Chloe also told her roommate she was leaving with a photographer to get some headshots done. That was the last time anyone saw her alive.”

Andi didn’t respond, as though waiting for more.

“We have a pattern,” Niki said. “He meets them before the abduction, puts together a plan, gets them alone, and slips them GHB. The Bronco connects the two cases.”

Andi thought for a moment before saying, “The problem is the proof—or lack of it. Gavin’s prior bad act with Chloe is only admissible in the Vauk case if we first prove by clear and convincing evidence that Gavin killed Chloe. We don’t have that. No judge will let that in.”

Niki wanted to spit. She was so close she could taste it, but again, the damned rules got in the way. “Chloe’s killer had a tear-shaped stain on his door. That’s why I knew we’d find that stain on Gavin’s Bronco. I can draw a line from Spencer’s homecoming date with Ellie Abrams to her death on Halloween. Ginny Mercotti disappeared days after she refused to pay Gavin for a photo shoot. He’s as guilty as hell. Those women didn’t commit suicide. They didn’t jump or fall into the river. They were pushed there, drowned and discarded by Gavin Spencer. If a judge would just let the jury see the damned evidence, they would know he was guilty too.”

“I’m on your side,” Andi said, “but I need more than your beliefs. We have to have proof that Spencer killed Ludlow. We can’t get his other bad acts in unless we can cross that threshold.”

“Chloe Ludlow got in that Bronco the night she disappeared,” Niki pleaded. “We can prove that it’s Spencer’s truck. That’s got to count for something.”

“I’m sorry,” Andi said. “But Sadie’s jury will never hear about Chloe Ludlow. No judge will let that in.” Her words sounded like an apology.

Lila, who had been sitting quietly next to Andi, sat up straight and held out her hand as if to stop the conversation, her eyes darting back and forth in thought. After several seconds of silence, she said, “We have it backwards.”

“We have what backwards?” Niki asked.

“We don’t use Chloe’s case to convict him for Sadie—we use Sadie to convict him for Chloe.”

The room fell silent, and Andi looked at Lila to explain.

“Rule 404 allows us to bring in evidence of other wrong acts, but not to prove action in conformity therewith—”

“Action in what?” Matty said.

“Sorry,” Lila said. “Say John Doe gets arrested for shoplifting ninety-nine times. You can’t use those prior thefts to prove he shoplifted that hundredth time. But you can bring those acts in to show that he commits his crime in a specific way—his modus operandi. And for modus operandi, it doesn’t matter which crime happened first, as long as it shows the pattern.”