“No.” He hesitated, then decided to share a bit with this cop. Because she was more astute than most rookies he’d worked with, and definitely better than the average witness. “This is the fourth victim out of seven who was found outdoors. Only one of the previous victims was found near water—next to the Columbia River, in Portland.”

“I’m surprised I didn’t hear about these murders.”

“Missoula was three years ago this month, Portland six years ago.”

She looked up, as if thinking, then nodded. “I was deep cover.”

“You’re an undercover cop?”

“Detective.”

“Detective?”

“Am I not speaking clearly?”

“Sorry.”

She smiled, but didn’t answer his unspoken questions—how long had she been a cop, what kind of undercover work, did she have homicide training. If she was a detective, she had to be older than he initially thought. She knew he wanted those answers. Was she going to make him ask?

He didn’t. He’d find out on his own.

“Maybe not a ritual, but a convenience,” Quinn said. “Seven victims?”

“That we know about.”

“You think there’s more?”

“I’m not ruling it out.”

“When did the feds get involved?”

He hesitated. This was the kind of information they kept in-house, though Quinn was a cop. Even if she was on vacation.

Quinn said, “Do you want to see my badge?”

He almost said yes, then didn’t. There was nothing he was telling her that couldn’t be found through other channels. “Three years ago—but the killer’s been on a hiatus, of sorts. Now that he’s active again, we’re using every resource at our disposal to stop him.”

“Any suspects?”

“Not yet—we haven’t had an eyewitness or any forensic information that matches anything in our database.”

“Smart killers are rare, but they’re out there.”

He wasn’t confident that her tone referred to killers—or cops. Then she smiled at him.

“If you need anything else from me, call. I’m sure Andy gave you my contact info.”

Matt nodded, trying to think of more questions because Kara Quinn was different—and he couldn’t put his finger on why. But he simply watched as she jogged off at a quick pace.

Then he pulled out his cell phone as he walked back down to the lake. “Ryder, it’s Matt Costa.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Don’t call me sir.”

“Sorry, sir.”

Matt rolled his eyes, feeling like he was in a damn movie. He liked Ryder a lot—they’d been the only two people officially working on the MRT unit until now—but the kid couldn’t seem to drop the formalities, no matter what Matt said or did. Matt supposed he couldn’t undo three years in the military in only a few months.

“I need everything you can find on the witness who found Manners. Detective Kara Quinn, Los Angeles PD, here on vacation. Confirm her identity, background, training, how long she’s been a cop, what she did before, the name of her superior officer. If he’ll talk, talk to him. Find out where she’s staying locally, if she has family here, the whole nine yards.”