Jump in the lake? “I didn’t say he went for a swim. I said he cleaned up.”

“Kara seemed to think he jumped. You should talk to the head of Spokane’s forensic investigations, Miles Jordan. Anything like this, Spokane comes in to assist. Jordan thoroughly processed the crime scene. Kara talked to him, pointed out a few things. Don’t know that he appreciated her help, but I did. Couldn’t have asked for a better witness.”

Matt was still skeptical. He didn’t know Quinn or her background, and that she was involved with the investigation—before he even got here—made him both curious and suspicious.

A woman in scrubs pushed open a swinging door. “You can come in and suit up, Officers.”

They used the small staff room in the morgue to pull on disposable gowns, booties, gloves, and hats. “We don’t usually have law enforcement witness our autopsies,” she said. “We record every homicide or suspicious death.”

“Good,” Matt said, “but I’d like to get a sense of what happened to the victim.”

The woman eyed him as if he’d never investigated a homicide. “Dr. Reynolds will provide a full report, and we video every exam,” she repeated. “Your presence isn’t necessary.”

“It helps me, from a profiling stance, better understand the crime when I observe. I’ll stay out of your way.”

She gave him a skeptical look, then led them inside the autopsy room.

Dr. Reynolds didn’t seem to have the same animosity at being observed as his pathologist. He laid out his lab rules, and then said, “The last cop I had in here puked. I do not tolerate puking in my lab. You will leave before you contaminate my space, understood?”

“No puking. Got it,” Matt said.

The victim, Victoria Manners, had been prepped. Now that her body was naked and clean, it was clear that the killer had cut her body sternum to navel, then sliced it three times across the midsection, giving it the appearance of having been gutted. It seemed ritualistic. Kara Quinn had been right.

Three times across the midsection. Three is important to him. March 3. Three victims, three days apart. Three years to cool off and start again. Three.

The wounds were so deep that no one could have survived even the first cut.

While observing autopsies wasn’t routine for FBI agents, Matt had done his share over the years, sitting in on a couple dozen, starting with two during his training at Quantico. He wasn’t concerned about his reaction, though Knolls looked a little green.

“No puking, Knolls,” Matt whispered.

“You don’t mind if I sit this out?”

“Not at all. Can you inspect her personal effects, see if there’s anything the CSI missed? And arrange a meet with Jordan. I have some questions.”

Knolls nodded, then left the room. Matt caught the disapproving eye of the pathologist and winked. She frowned and turned back to the doctor.

The pathologist started the recording. “Nancy Waring, senior pathologist with the Spokane County Medical Examiners Office, assisting Chief Medical Examiner Douglas Reynolds during the autopsy of Victoria Manners, twenty-eight.” For the record, she detailed how Manners had been identified. She glanced at Matt. “Also present is FBI Agent Mathias Costa.”