“Hmm. Maybe.” He sent an email to Catherine about social media. She’d already confirmed that the killer would be tracking the investigation. How might they be able to use that to their advantage? Then he forwarded the message to Ryder. The kid probably had already thought about tracking social media, he seemed to be up-to-date on modern policing.

Ryder called as he hit Send. He had the public transportation tapes they’d asked for and would be reviewing them while Matt was at the press conference. No dice on the taxis—nothing fitting their profile. Private rides were harder, and Tony was working on that angle from DC. Would the killer be so bold as to take a private taxi all the way to the hospital? Or would he jump around? Walk? Take a combination of public and private transportation? Where was he all day after hiding the ATV at the vacant house?

Matt wrapped up the conversation, confident that if there was anything to find with transportation, Ryder would find it.

He glanced at his watch. It had been more than fifteen minutes since he left Packard, and they were ten minutes late for the scheduled press conference. Where the hell was he?

Matt glanced through his messages. He had a response from the ASAC in LA, Bryce Thornton.

I would like to discuss Detective Quinn with you at your earliest convenience. If she’s assisting on one of your cases, you need to know who you’re working with.

Matt ignored the message. He couldn’t be bothered with interagency bullshit right now, and he’d promised Kara he wouldn’t pursue it. It wasn’t relevant to his case, and she was helping, and that’s all that mattered: finding this killer before someone else died.

A female cop approached with a warm smile for Michael. He reciprocated and touched her arm as she passed by. Great. Matt didn’t need a sexual harassment lawsuit when his team was barely out of the gate.

“Agent Costa?” the cop said. “I’m Sergeant Diana Jackson, the PIO. Chief Packard is ready. Please follow me.”

They followed Jackson around the side of the building to the front steps. As soon as they arrived, Packard stepped to the podium and spoke briefly about the murder of Victoria Manners and detailed that SPD was working closely with Liberty Lake and the Sheriff’s department gathering and processing evidence from the crime scene. He wasn’t doing bad, and he didn’t give away any key details—which was a plus.

While the chief was talking, Matt got a text from Jim that they had confirmed that Manners had been drugged with an opioid.

Fentanyl is an opioid and we’re testing now for that and a broad range of narcotics. It’s likely a compound. Once I get the results, we can ask Portland and Missoula to test their victims—if they properly collected samples of blood, tissue, etc. I also asked the ME to go over the body again looking for an injection site. If small, it may not be obvious.