“Because you were looking for me, not a unisex teenager. Put my hair up in a cap, take off makeup, wear a loose jacket, I can pass for a fifteen-year-old boy.”

He snorted. “Hardly.”

“You see what you expect to see. A young person carrying a skateboard doesn’t draw your attention. Just a kid trying to figure out what’s going on. Unless you’re that little punk who saw a crowd and thought it was time to make a quick buck.”

“The next potential victim—I want to do more, and I don’t know what, other than putting a cop outside every house.”

“And is that realistic?”

“They don’t have enough cops in the county to cover every teacher and administrator.”

“Look, Matt, you’ve done everything you could. Andy is doing everything he can. We thwart the killer this time, we win this battle.”

“I still can’t shake this feeling that it’s not going to be enough. That we won’t win the war.”

The appetizer platter came and they each ordered another round of drinks. Matt ate for a bit, then said, “We’ve done everything physically possible to warn teachers. But even if we save this victim for now, we still have to think about the cop who may be next. And whether he’ll strike again. This killer is smart and methodical. If he sees our presence, he might just back off. And if I’m wrong and he still gets to a teacher...”

His voice trailed off. He refocused on what he could control. “Either way, I can save the cop. I need your eyes, ears, instincts. Anything about the first two cops who were killed—anything in there that might tell us about who he’s going after now? One cop was white—Boyd in Missoula—and Nakamura in Portland was Japanese American, so race doesn’t help us.”

“Both were men.”

“And that might mean something—except that the first educator who was killed—a principal in Portland—was a Caucasian female named Rebecca Thomas. The college professor in Missoula was an African American male named John Marston. All three nurses were female, but nursing is still predominately a female profession. And while they were all trauma nurses, the educators were in completely different fields. A vice principal and a college professor.”

“Yet the first victim was a retired trauma nurse. No longer working. Maybe there is something else in common with the second victim in each set.”

“Ryder and our analysts in DC are running deep backgrounds on all seven victims. Catherine thinks there’s something connecting the victims to the killer, but until we can connect more than two victims together, I have no idea what. And do these locations even mean anything? I think it’s his way to fuck with us. Different states, different jurisdictions, almost impossible to put everything together into a cohesive investigation.”

“You’re worried about the cop.”

He hadn’t said it, but Kara was right. He was worried, really worried.

“March 9. This Tuesday. Probably early morning because this guy doesn’t want to wait anymore. He killed Victoria Manners early in the morning before dawn. Catherine concurs that he’s going to kill someone in the next few hours, before dawn tomorrow, if he can get to them. He’s antsy. Growing impatient. But he won’t deviate from the day. So even if we get everyone under wraps tonight, we’ll have to stay diligent until midnight tomorrow. And then worry that we missed something and there’s a dead teacher somewhere, while also trying to protect every damn cop in the area.”