“But don’t we still have the issue of proving he killed Chloe?” Matty asked.

“We convict him for Chloe’s death by proving Sadie’s case.”

“I don’t understand,” Niki said.

Something came alive in Lila. She leaned in to the table as if feeding off the attention. “In order to get a conviction in Sadie Vauk’s case, the jury will have to agree—beyond a reasonable doubt—that Gavin drugged her, raped her, and then dressed her back up and drowned her in the river. That’s his MO. The jury can’t convict him for Sadie’s case unless they agree that we’ve proven the modus operandi beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Andi picked it up from there. “If we convict him for Sadie’s case…we could use that MO as evidence in the Ludlow case—show how the facts in Sadie’s case line up with Ludlow’s.”

“Exactly,” Lila said. “The jury would hear about what he did to Sadie.”

Andi continued. “Sadie’s case is only attempted murder, but Chloe’s case—and the others—are all first-degree murder. Life without parole.”

“First we win Sadie’s case,” Lila said. “Give him fifteen years or so, but then we go after the others and put him away forever.”

“So, all we have to do is win Sadie’s case,” Niki said.

“Yeah,” Andi said, with an obvious dip in her mood. “That’s all we have to do.”

Chapter 49

On the day of Gavin’s status hearing, Lila had come to work certain that it would be her last at Hennepin County. Before going to see Andi, she fired up her computer to look for an interoffice message from Frank Dovey. It wasn’t there. She remained at her desk for a moment, looking around the small room, realizing with a touch of sadness that she would take nothing with her when she left other than the picture of Joe on her desk.

In Andi’s office, Lila took her seat as she did every day, and waited for the swing of the scythe. Andi had her head down in thought, a set of police reports spread out on her desk. When she finally looked up, she launched into a to-do list for Lila. Lila hadn’t bothered to bring a legal pad, thinking “You’re fired” didn’t require recording.

When her meeting with Andi adjourned—with no bad news—Lila eagerly joined Andi in her meeting with Vang and Lopez. If nothing else, she would have one last chance to contribute to Gavin Spencer’s conviction before she left. Even if she only got to read about it in the newspaper, it would brighten her day to know that she had a hand in bringing him down.

She put Dovey out of her mind and let her thoughts drift through the tangles of the problem at hand, listening as Niki and Matty laid out the wall they were up against.

The modus operandi seemed to be the key to it all. They had evidence that Gavin had met Sadie, as well as the other three victims, in the days and weeks before they were abducted. But they had no proof that Gavin had killed the three women. Without that proof, the connection was speculative at best, so Sadie’s jury would never hear how Gavin had drowned the others and floated them down the Mississippi—just as he had tried to do to Sadie. He might be convicted for Sadie’s case, but he would walk free on the others.