“It’s possible. However, looking at these forensics I think it’s the same guy, and the three murders in Spokane were his first. The one in January, he gets a taste for it, but it scares him. He waits. Builds up his courage, then does it again. Twice, close together, only weeks apart. Then he waits. For what? I don’t know. There could be other victims we haven’t identified yet. But I think it was around this time that he started thinking about retribution. About people he felt deserved to die. Starting with Anne Banks. It took him time to build up to that.”

“You are brilliant, Dr. Jones.”

“I’m going to send all the forensics to Jim Esteban and put him in touch with the ME in Bozeman.”

“Great.”

“And be careful, Matt. You’re now the face of this investigation and if the killer thinks you’re in his way, he won’t hesitate to come after you.”

They were close. Matt felt it in his bones.

When they were back at the hotel, Matt started going through the lawsuits more carefully, looking at the statements of both Hamilton and McCafferty. “Ryder,” he called out.

“Yes, sir?”

“Do we have current addresses on these men?”

“No, sir. Hamilton left Washington State after he lost his home. I was able to trace him to Montana. He had a job there for a while, then nothing in more than ten years. McCafferty went to college on the East Coast and there’s no record of him returning to Washington. I have headquarters looking for him and working on finding local family.”

Maddox had sent over copies of the first three crime scene reports of the murdered homeless men. Matt was reading through them when his phone vibrated.

“Costa.”

“This is Assistant Special Agent in Charge Bryce Thornton. Is this Special Agent Mathias Costa?”

Shit. He’d avoided Thornton’s calls for two days because he didn’t want to create a problem for Kara when she went back to LA. He’d thought the email he’d sent on Friday would suffice.

“Special Agent in Charge,” he said. He’d pull rank early if he had to because he wanted to get out of this conversation as soon as possible. Not just because of his promise to Kara, but because he had a lot of work to do.

“I’m sorry, sir.”

“What can I do for you? I’m in the middle of a high-profile investigation right now. Sunday isn’t my day off.”

“I’ll make it brief. Your assistant inquired about LAPD Detective Kara Quinn the other day, and I was following up.”

“Did you not get the email where I told you I had what I needed?” Of course he had, but Matt would play this game any way he needed to.

“Yes, but as I indicated, there are things you should know if you’re working on a joint operation.”

“We’re not. I spoke to her boss and got the information I wanted. My assistant was just going through channels, which was ultimately unnecessary.”