The sun was bright and strong as they jogged across the street to the parking garage. Evan didn’t speak again until they were pulling onto Cambridge Street.

‘Banville told me about the listening devices you found.’

‘I’m surprised you persuaded him so easily,’ Darby said. ‘I was expecting more of a fight.’

‘Banville is under the spotlight. He needs to be able to say he exhausted every resource when the Cranmore girl turns up dead.’

‘I don’t think she’s dead.’

‘Why’s that?’

‘Rachel Swanson was kept alive for almost five years – Terry Mastrangelo for two. That may buy us some time.’

‘Right now one of his victims is lying in a hospital room. If he’s smart, he’ll kill the Cranmore girl, bury her body someplace where we’ll never find her and then blow town.’

‘Then why would he bother with the listening devices?’

‘I think he’s hoping to discover just how much we know about him so he can change his tactics before he moves on,’ Evan said. ‘What are your thoughts?’

‘He seems very organized, very careful and methodical. I think he watches these women for a long time, gets to know their habits and routines – I think he had a key to Carol’s house. He brings his victims to a private place where nobody can see or hear them.’

‘And what does he use them for?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘You think it’s something sexual?’

‘There’s no evidence of that, although there’s always some sexual component to these sorts of cases. Did Banville tell you about the evidence we found at the house?’

Evan nodded. ‘Our lab is still trying to identify the paint chip.’

‘You didn’t seem surprised Carol’s abductor left a package.’

‘He’s trying to establish control. It’s what most psychopaths do when cornered.’

‘Is that what you think we’re dealing with here? A psychopath?’

‘Hard to say. I’m not a big fan of labels.’

‘I thought you profiling types lived for labels – and acronyms. There’s your fingerprint system. AFIS. You have CODIS –’

‘You can’t slap a label on every type of behavior,’ Evan said. ‘Have you considered the possibility that the man you’re looking for abducts these women simply because he likes it?’

‘There’s a motivating reason behind every type of human behavior.’

‘What made you interested in this field?’

‘Are you profiling me, Special Agent Manning?’

‘You’re avoiding the question.’

‘I took a criminal psychology course in college. After that, I was hooked.’

‘Banville told me you went on to get a doctorate in criminal psychology.’

‘I’m not a doctor yet,’ Darby said. ‘I still have to do my dissertation.’

‘Which is?’

‘I have to pick a case and analyze it.’

‘And you picked the Grady case.’

‘I’ve been toying around with the idea.’

‘What’s stopping you?’

‘There are some missing pieces in the case file,’ Darby said. ‘Riggers, the detective who handled the Belham case, didn’t leave much detailed information in his notes.’

‘I’m not surprised. In addition to being an idiot, the man was lazy. Tell me what you know and I’ll see if I can fill in the blanks.’

‘I was able to look over the evidence files – the chloroform-soaked rag Grady dropped in the woods behind my house and the dark blue fibers he left behind in the bedroom door. I also read a copy of the fed’s lab report. I know they identified the manufacturer of the rag. They narrowed down their search to automobile shops in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. The blue fibers matched the same brand of coveralls used at the North Andover automobile shop where Grady worked.’

‘We found all that out later, after Grady died.’

‘I read that,’ Darby said. ‘I also read about Grady’s criminal record. He had two counts of attempted rape.’

‘Correct.’

‘According to the case file, Riggers was investigating about a dozen or so possible suspects. What made him move Grady to the top of the list?’

‘A tip came through on the hotline about Grady. The caller, a regular customer at the garage where Grady worked, called in and said he saw a pearl necklace on the floor of Grady’s car. The necklace appeared to have blood on it.’

‘But why didn’t the caller report it to the police? Why did he call the hotline?’

‘Because one of the missing women, Tara Hardy, was last seen wearing a pink cardigan sweater and a pearl necklace,’ Evan said. ‘That picture ran in the papers for weeks. It was all over the TV. The caller thought it might have belonged to her. The hotline was being flooded with calls. Everyone was trying to cash in on the reward money.’

‘And then what happened?’

‘Riggers, wanting to be the hero, took it upon himself to search Grady’s house. Riggers found clothing belonging to several of the missing women and left to get the search warrant. The problem was one of Grady’s neighbors saw Riggers invite himself into the house.’

‘Making the evidence he found inadmissible.’

‘If he had played by the book, we probably would have nailed Grady before he killed himself

‘Did his suicide surprise you?’

‘It did at first. Later, we discovered his family had a history of mental illness. His mother was bipolar. If I remember correctly, his grandfather committed suicide.’

‘I saw that in the notes.’

‘My guess is Grady got spooked after Riggers went through the house. The day he killed himself, we went to the garage where he worked with a search warrant. I think he felt the walls starting to close in on him and took the easy way out.’

‘The case file mentioned that Riggers was bothered by the fire,’ Darby said. ‘He thought someone might have killed Grady and started the fire to burn away evidence.’

‘The fire bothered me too. What bothered me more was what Grady used to kill himself – a twenty-two.’

‘I’m not following.’

‘Cops generally use a twenty-two as a throw-down piece. You ever hear a twenty-two go off? Makes a small pop, you can barely hear it. If someone slipped inside Grady’s house and shot him, you wouldn’t hear it, especially if something like the TV or the radio was turned on. There were rumors someone clipped Grady. I’m sure you heard them.’

‘No.’

‘I was at Grady’s house the night of the fire,’ Evan said. ‘I was watching his house. I would have seen someone.’

Darby had seen Grady’s house once, at night. She had driven there on her own, about a month or so after coming home. She had hoped seeing the blackened shell of the house would somehow keep the nightmares away. It didn’t.

‘There’s one question you can answer for me,’ Darby said.

‘You want to know if Melanie Cruz was on one of those tapes.’

‘The audiotapes were given to the federal lab for analysis. No copies were ever forwarded to Boston police.’

‘The heat from the fire either damaged or destroyed most of the recordings. It took months to have them enhanced. We had the victims’ families provide us with voice samples for comparison purposes. Melanie’s parents gave us a home movie. Because of the condition of the audiotape, we couldn’t get an exact match, but our voice expert agreed that, in all probability, the voice on the tape belonged to Melanie Cruz. The parents didn’t feel the same way.’

‘They heard the tape?’

‘They insisted on it. I played the part where Melanie… She was calling out for help. The mother shut the tape off and said, “That’s not my daughter.” She said her daughter was still alive and we had to find her.’

Darby saw a snapshot of Helena Cruz turning her back to a cold blast ofwind, clutching the sheets with Mel’s picture against her chest so they wouldn’t blow away.

‘Did Mel say anything on the tape?’

‘Not much that I recall,’ Evan said. ‘Mostly I remember her screaming.’

‘Was she in pain?’

‘No, she was scared.’

Darby could tell there was more. ‘What did Mel say?’

Evan paused.