Sloane nodded and made notes on her phone. "I'll start calling around to local business associations and networking groups. See if either of them were members."
Kate continued studying the files on the monitors. There had to be something else, some detail that would help narrow down why these two women specifically had been targeted. The killer had chosen them deliberately, had known where they lived and when they'd be home alone.
"Did Patricia have any security cameras?" Kate asked.
Sloane checked the report. "No. The house was older, and she lived in a quiet neighborhood. Her sister said she never worried about safety."
"Same with Rachel. No cameras, no alarm system. Our neighborhood is generally pretty safe."
"So the killer could come and go without being recorded." Sloane pulled up a map on one of her monitors, marking the locations of both victims' homes. "The crime scenes are only about two miles apart. Both in residential areas, both in houses rather than apartments."
Kate looked at the map, seeing the proximity of the crime scenes to her own house. Patricia's address was in a neighborhood she'd driven through countless times. Rachel's house was just streets away from where Michael played in their backyard.
"There's something else," Kate said, an idea forming. "James mentioned that Rachel was excited about her business. Shehad three clients already and more people calling. What about Patricia?"
Sloane scrolled through the interview notes. It took nearly a full minute before she found what she was looking for. "Here we go… her sister said the life coaching business was taking off. She'd just gotten certified and already had several clients booked. Said she was blowing up on Instagram and TikTok." She paused, reading more carefully. "Maybe the killer saw her on social media if she was gaining a lot of traction there.”
"Rachel might have been doing the same thing,” Kate said. “Most new businesses use social media for marketing." Kate pulled out her phone. "We should check their social media accounts. If they were both advertising their services online, that could be how the killer found them."
Sloane was already typing on her keyboard, pulling up search results. "I'll request access to their accounts. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, anything that might show their business activities."
As Sloane worked, Kate continued reading through the files on the monitors. The similarities between the cases were striking, but there was still something nagging at her. Some detail that didn't quite fit.
Then Sloane said something that made everything shift.
"You know what's strange?" Sloane stopped typing and turned to look at Kate.
“What’s that?”
"Who owns a letter opener anymore?"
Kate blinked, the question hitting her harder than she’d expected.. The question hung in the air between them. Kate felt her perspective on the case shifting, pieces rearranging themselves into a new pattern. If the killer had specifically targeted women who owned letter openers, that suggested a level of premeditation even beyond what they'd alreadyassumed. It meant the killer had been in these homes before, or at least had knowledge of what was inside them.
Or it meant something else entirely, something Kate hadn't considered yet.
She looked at Sloane with growing respect. The younger agent had just identified a detail that Kate had completely overlooked, a detail that might be crucial to understanding how the killer was choosing and approaching victims.
"Sloane," Kate said slowly, "that's a damn good question."
CHAPTER NINE
The elevator ride down to the forensics department was quiet and tense. Kate looked over to Sloane and could tell she was deep in thought. Years of experience had her catching little tics—like how Sloane made little nervous fists out of her hands and then released them over and over again; how she chewed at her lower lip just barely. Kate then watched the floor numbers descend, her mind back to the letter openers and the kind of person who would use them as murder weapons.
The letter openers,Kate thought.Maybe I would have picked up on the out-of-date instrument fairly soon, but it came to Sloane almost right away.She was sure it could be a generational thing, but there wasn’t time to wax philosophical about such things right now.
The elevator doors opened on the basement level, where the forensics labs occupied a series of interconnected rooms with reinforced doors and specialized ventilation systems. Kate had been down here countless times over the years, but it still felt slightly surreal to be back in this slightly restrained capacity.
They found Jacob Green in the third lab, bent over a microscope with the kind of concentration that suggested he was looking at something interesting. He was in his early forties, with graying hair pulled back in a short ponytail and wire-rimmed glasses that he pushed up his nose as he straightened.
"Agent Wise," he said, recognizing her. "It’s been a while!”
“It has. Good to see you, Jacob.”
“What can I do for you?"
"This is Agent Erica Sloane," Kate said. "She's the agent in charge of the Thornton and Holmes murders."
Jacob nodded at Kate. "Ah, yeah. I just finished processing that one. What do you need?"
