“Are you thinking that they’re in this together?” Matt asked. “A father-son killing team?”

“No. I think Glen killed his father in Bozeman.”

“Whoa, I am completely lost.”

“Remember I told you earlier that there was a stabbing victim in Bozeman nine years ago? His remains were severely compromised—there wasn’t a lot to work with. Because it was obviously a homicide, and the victim was unidentified, the ME stored the body in cold storage—as required by state law. So we still have the remains to work with. And your team traced Zachary Hamilton to Montana. I’m going to contact the Bozeman medical examiner to have them send the remains of their stabbing victim to Jim Esteban. I’ll expedite it—and if I can’t, I think Esteban needs to fly to Bozeman ASAP.”

“So you think John Doe is Zachary Hamilton.”

“I do. If you follow the killer’s pattern—the homeless alcoholics were substitutes for his father. Glen Hamilton killed those men in a rage. I’ve viewed the autopsy results, and they indicate a lot of anger, multiple stab wounds. And the first Spokane homeless murder was only months after the father, Zachary, lost the family home and left the city. Hamilton hated his father, but at the same time, he adopted his father’s cause—the need to punish those who took from him.

“If his mother had never died, none of this would have happened,” Catherine continued. “His rationale is that if his father wouldn’t have drank too much, he wouldn’t have lost his job, wouldn’t have lost his house. That was the final trigger. The house. Stability. Where Glen grew up. Where all the memories of his mother were. I was looking over the reports you sent—the bank put everything from the family home in storage. I followed up on that, learned that no one claimed the goods, so after 120 days, they were auctioned off. Everything that Glen had—everything that had been his mother’s—gone.”

“Believing your theory and proving it are two different things,” Matt said.

“That’s why we need the body from Bozeman. If we can confirm that it’s Zachary Hamilton, it will certainly give us enough for a warrant to trace Glen’s phone, search his home, travel records, credit card receipts—whatever we need.”

“You think so?”

He could hear the smile in her voice when she said, “If I make the argument, absolutely.”

Welcome back, Catherine.

Michael and Matt were still driving back to Spokane when Matt received a call from an unfamiliar number.

“Costa.”

“Hello, is this SAC Mathias Costa?”

“Yes.”

“This is Special Agent Tammy Sherman from the Seattle field office. I was sent to Tacoma to follow up on Glen Hamilton.”

“Did you make contact?”

“He wasn’t home. His neighbor said that he travels a lot for work and she hasn’t seen him since the middle of February, and then only for two or three days. Before that, it was January.”

“I need a current photo of Hamilton, if you can get that for me. And follow up with his employer—I’ll text you the information. I talked to them briefly. He works from home, but they didn’t say anything about travel. I want to know if his company is aware that Hamilton hasn’t been in Tacoma in nearly two weeks. Is he on vacation? Or possibly lying to them about his work location? If he works remotely on a company computer, his employer may be able to track him that way. I want to know anyone he may be close to in his office. Talk to them—find out everything you can about this guy.”