Page 24 of Go Alone

“Nothing?” Kate asked.

He shook his head. “Her personal financial records are squeaky clean. Her business records are nowhere to be found.”

“Probably at her office,” Anita said.

“Yeah, I called the building manager. He’s out of town. He said he’ll be back tomorrow morning, and he’ll unlock it for me.”

Anita scoffed. “Everyone’s out of town. Odum’s out of town, the Mirzoyans are out of town, the building manager’s out of town. No one who could help us is actually here to help us. Except Deborah Holt’s ex-husband, I guess.”

Kate crossed her arms. “The killer knows that. He knows that his victims are vulnerable.”

“That suggests he knows the victims,” Anita said, “but if he did, then someone else would recognize him, right? Maybe not Deborah Holt’s neighbors, but Trout would have known a friend of Howard’s. You can’t show up twice in Millbrook without the whole town knowing your name.”

Kate shook her head. “They don’t know him, but he knows them. He’s been here. He’s been watching them, probably for weeks, observing their movements, memorizing their habits. Not just theirs, but those of the people around them, their friends, their neighbors. He’s being very careful and attacking only when he knows he can get away with it.”

“If that’s the case, then why hasn’t he been seen other than the one time by Trout and the neighbor who saw him in Jeffery Park?”

“He probably needed to get close to scope out the actual scene,” Marcus said. “When did they see him in Jeffery Park?”

“Three days ago.”

Marcus nodded. “Trout saw the delivery driver five days ago.”

“So three days before each murder,” Anita said.

“Two instances isn’t enough to suggest that the three-day gap is going to hold up,” Kate said, “but I’ll bet anything Marcus is right, and he’s only exposing himself to reconnoiter what he can’t learn from the shadows. He needed to know how to get his victims from their homes to their neighbors’ homes without being seen and how to leave the neighborhood without being seen.”

Anita got to her feet. “I’ll talk to the officers here and get Columbus to put an APB out. Might as well pass one along to the surrounding counties. Maybe someone will see this guy scoping out his next scene and call us. Sure wish we had a better description.”

“I’ll let CSI know they can have the scene,” Marcus said, standing as well. He looked at Kate. “If that’s all right with you.”

Kate nodded. “Yeah, go ahead. I’ll wait in the car.”

She followed them out of the house, but she didn’t wait in the car. Not yet. She leaned outside and looked up at the sky, letting the cipher play out in her head.

Cox had left her another message. Embedded in the killer’s condemnation of Deborah Holt was another condemnation of her father. The false witness spurned the right to glean the harvest. He took the gleanings and the harvest along with it.

If Cox was lying, then he was leaning heavily into this lie. Whatever narrative he was creating or recounting, this lay at the heart of his obsession with her.

But what could William have done to Cox? Even if he stole another doctor’s research or lied about them somehow, how would that affect Cox?

And this was personal. She was sure of it. Cox killed people who violated God’s commandments, but he had a warped relationship with Kate. It went well beyond wanting to punish her father vicariously. He thought of her as the key to the final accomplishment of God’s plan for his life.

But what had her father done? Why couldn’t she find any record of it?

Maybe her mother knew something, but Kate was beginning to wonder if this was something only Cox knew. He could be forcing her to rely on him, to need him.

And he would win. She needed to know the truth. If she couldn’t find out what past action Cox was referencing, she would seek Cox out, and she would demand her answer.

Even if it meant playing right into his hands.

Footsteps pulled her from her thoughts. Anita and Marcus had returned. They entered the car silently and Anita drove them in equal silence back to Millbrook. She only broke the silence when she dropped them off at their hotel. “Good luck to you two. Sorry if I got a little surly. I haven’t given up yet.”

“Neither have we,” Kate assured her. “It’s okay to be upset. It’s part of the job.”

Anita nodded. “Think I understand now why people leave big city jobs to come to Wayne County.”

Kate’s brow furrowed, but Anita only waved and drove off. Kate watched her pull out of the parking lot, then followed Marcus into their room.