1. Gas canisters used at vet office were military grade.
2. Whoever stole evidence from police lockup had full access and moved in and out unnoticed.
3. Red gas cans used in three recent fires are the same common type used in the fires ten years ago.
4. Person setting fires knows exactly what they are doing. Could be firefighter or someone with substantial fire knowledge.
5. Person causing accidents knew victim routines and how to intercept them.
6. At first we thought Lacey was the target in the accidents and vet fire. Pink letter suggests Lucy and June were intended targets, with Lacey caught by mistaken identity.
7. Bracelet found at Teacups under cooker where fire started. Unknown if planted or dropped before or after fire.
8. Blue sedans with recent front-end damage: Mina Dillinger, Judy Vernon, Clive Morrison.
a. Judy bought hers some time ago. Clive got his recently.
b. Ruled out as hitting Lacey: Mina Dillinger, Judy Vernon.
c. Not ruled out: Clive Morrison. Car towed to junkyard outside Sandpiper Shores with rush-crush order signed by Victoria Morrison.
d. Victoria, not Clive, was driving the car when it sustained front-end damage.
9. Lucy believes Judy Vernon fought back during kidnapping. Skin cells recovered from beneath Judy’s fingernails have been sent off for comparison.
10. Victoria Morrison and Alfred Smythe both have scratches on tops of hands.
11. Direct line from Morrisons’ back garden to Ember Lake and Memorial Campground, specifically toward the burnt-out cabin.
12. Lucy’s real truck is being brought back to Sandpiper Shores this evening.
By the time Holt stepped back from the center board, every person in the room was staring at it.
He capped the marker, then looked at the faces in front of him.
June looked grave, her pen resting idle above her page. Carmen’s folded arms had tightened higher across her chest. Zane was reading the board with the expression of a man trying to see whether the pattern on it was legal, logical, or both. Willa looked pale. Harvey had stopped pretending he was only there as a helpful extra set of hands. Margo sat motionless beside Rad, her eyes glued to the whiteboards.
Holt moved to the clean board on the left.
At the top, in black, he wrote:
10 YEARS AGO
Then he crossed to the clean board on the right and wrote in black:
SUSPECTS / TARGETS
He divided the right board into five columns.
At the top of the first, in red, he wrote:
SUSPECTS
At the top of the second, in brown:
MOTIVES
At the top of the third, in purple:
