“Hello to you, too, Mathias.”

He rubbed his eyes and sighed. “Hello, Catherine. How was brunch?”

“Good. I’ve been back for a few hours.”

“And Chris? Lizzy?”

“Well, thank you.”

“Are we done?”

“I saw those homicides in my files,” she continued as if they hadn’t attempted small talk. “I was writing up a report about unsolved stabbings. There are three more stabbings of homeless men that I think is the work of the same killer.”

“You think the three in Spokane is the work of the Triple Killer?”

“I think it’s possible, but what I meant was that the three in Spokane are connected to three other stabbings.”

“All the same city?” he asked eagerly.

“No. Santa Barbara, California. Eugene, Oregon. And Reno, Nevada. All in the two years before Anne Banks was killed.”

“And nothing in the last six years?”

“I’m still processing the information, but nothing that matches this MO. All the victims were homeless men, all addicts. The first six victims—the three in Spokane, and the three spread out six years ago—had multiple stab wounds. A lot of rage, very disorganized. There was also a man stabbed to death nine years ago in Bozeman, Montana. Same basic wound pattern. He wasn’t found for months, and the remains were compromised. But the investigator believes that the killer intentionally hid the body, unlike the other similar murders. And while they believe the man was homeless, they don’t know for certain. Only that no one was reported missing of his age and general appearance at that time.”

“Why would he do that? Could he have left evidence?”

“Possible. Or the victim connects to him in some way. They couldn’t ID the body because of advanced decomp, though the ME is certain that he was the victim of multiple knife wounds, including a blow that nearly decapitated him. Do you realize how difficult it is to decapitate someone?”

“Yes.”

“There is nothing that suggests it’s the same killer. The MO doesn’t match the Triple Killer, but because these murders were all earlier in his life, he may have been experimenting before deciding on his more disciplined approach. However, though TOD was virtually impossible to determine, based on advanced entomology, the ME believes the victim died the first week of March.”

“March, nine years ago.”

“Exactly.”

“You know what I think of coincidences.”

“I’m going to dig around into these findings a bit more, see if anything else pops. But I’m going to go out on a limb.”

“You? A limb?”

“You’re not funny, Matt.”

But there was a bit of humor in her voice, which told Matt that the brunch today with Chris and Lizzy had gone very well, and maybe they could—finally—find a way to deal with Beth’s death.

He said with mock offense, “You wound me.”

“While the six homeless stabbings may or may not be the work of the Triple Killer, I’m confident that they are the work of the same killer.”

“So you’re saying there might be a second serial murder case.”