That was Catherine’s original focus when she first caught the case—the date and the number three. She’d looked at every possible religious motivation—like the Holy Trinity, for example. She looked at the number not only in the Bible, but in other religions, too, and in triangles and triangulation theories. They had mapped out the victims’ houses and where they were last seen and where their bodies were found, to see if there was another pattern to emerge when putting three points together—nothing. They looked into the date itself—March 3—and any significance for any of the victims. None were born on March 3. Of those married, none were married on March 3. Of those who had children, none had children born on March 3. No major life events or tragedies occurred on March 3 for the victims that might tie them together or create a pattern.

Catherine knew the number and date were important to the killer, but why. Something must have happened to the killer on March 3—3/3—that led to his obsession with the number three.

Until she figured out how and why the Triple Killer targeted his victims, they’d never solve this case, that is unless he was caught red-handed, which would be unlikely considering how well he planned. She had initially suspected he’d moved from Portland to Missoula primarily because they were different states and it would take the police longer to connect the murders, giving him time to execute his plan then disappear. And because the FBI had been called in so late, that is exactly what happened. Now, Liberty Lake. A very small town near a small city in yet a third state. Were the locations important to him? Did he pick them for a specific reason?

There wasn’t one witness who had come forward who had seen anyone or anything suspicious near where any of the victims had been kidnapped. Matt’s new information that the killer had cleaned up in the freezing water, disposing of his knife and the clothing, told Catherine that the murderer did the same thing at the previous crime scenes—he was careful to destroy evidence.

She had to look at not only each case individually, but at all the cases together in different ways. Because a pattern was there—maybe not one she could see yet, beyond the number three—but a pattern that made sense to the killer. She just had to find it, crack it. She had to think like he did, and she would find him.

9

Spokane
3:30 p.m. PT

He itched to kill, but he couldn’t. He had to wait until Saturday. Had to be patient. He just had to. Or he would ruin the plan.

He was antsy, so stayed inside all day and worked. Routine computer programming was the perfect ritual to keep him from thinking too much about his upcoming plans. He worked remotely, could work from anywhere. He only had to visit the main office once a month for staff meetings, and the occasional project meeting—the last was in February, and he had two weeks before the next.