Mostly, she thought, she needed to help with this case because she was a cop first and cops solved crimes. If her boss wouldn’t let her go back to work yet in Los Angeles, she could volunteer her time here.

After all, she was on a paid vacation. And her idea of a perfect vacation was working.

Yeah, she thought wryly. I’m as normal as they come.

15

Spokane
8:45 a.m.

Michael Harris and Jim Esteban were both gone when Matt walked back into the war room, and Ryder wasn’t around. Matt sent Ryder a message to do his own deep backgrounds on all seven victims, prioritizing Anne Banks, and to tap Tony Greer to pull in help from national headquarters. If Catherine Jones thought the killer was tied to Anne Banks’s past, Matt would move heaven and earth to learn everything about her from the minute she was born.

It was nearly nine, and Matt needed food—he didn’t care much about what he ate, as long as he ate. He left Detective Jacoby—the Portland cop who had run the Anne Banks homicide investigation—a message, and told the desk sergeant to mark it urgent. Then he headed to the hotel lobby where they still had the continental breakfast laid out. Not bad—eggs a little dry, bacon and toast, orange juice and coffee. He sat far away from any people so he could send Tony a status report, then review the old Anne Banks case file in semiprivacy.

Ryder Kim came downstairs twenty minutes later while Matt was getting seconds. He sat down and said, “Go ahead and eat. Working breakfast.”

Ryder wrinkled his nose at Matt’s plate. “I ate earlier.”

Matt had seen the mini fridge in the operations room—Ryder had ordered it in for the team, but he was the only one who used it. Granola, soy milk, yogurt, and some fruit Matt didn’t even recognize. Matt himself would eat just about anything—food was fuel. He’d probably even eat yogurt if there was nothing else.

Ryder slid over today’s newspaper.

“Anything I need to know?” Matt said without picking up the paper.

“Uh, yeah.”

“I’m not going to shoot the messenger.” He picked up the paper but didn’t immediately see anything he’d be interested in.

“It’s about the briefing yesterday. You’re not going to like the slant.”

Matt rarely liked the slant the press gave anything. “You could have sent me a link.”

“The hotel provides free copies.” Ryder flipped the paper over.

The headline was front page, below the fold, followed by a worse secondary headline.

Serial Killer Targets the Spokane Valley

FBI Takes Over Investigation of Murdered Nurse;
More Bodies Likely to Follow

“Fuck,” he muttered. He quickly skimmed the article. Someone who’d been at the briefing had talked. His first guess would have been the Spokane chief because he was an ass, but he hadn’t attended the entire briefing. Still—he would have known all this information. “Did anyone call for a quote?”

“Yes, and I sent them to Assistant Director Greer—that’s what you indicated two days ago until we get a spokesperson for the team.”