Alex let out a breath. Pursed her lips. Felt the sympathy from everyone in the room. “No, I’m sorry. You were right. I wasn’t helping. What do you want me to do?”

His eyes flashed approval and appreciation. And respect. “For now, just try to be patient. We’re getting warrants for phone and financial records on both Davis and Mansfield to try to tie them to each other or to the other two Wade mentions or to the man who killed four women. And we hope that somewhere this guy makes a mistake.”

She nodded and looked back to Wade’s letter. “Wade says he didn’t kill Alicia. At that point, why would he lie? So if he didn’t, and Fulmore didn’t, then who did?”

“It’s a good question,” Talia said. “I’ve talked to seven of the twelve surviving rape victims and they all tell the same story. If Simon and his friends raped Alicia and left her alive like they did all the others, but she was dead when Fulmore found her in the ditch, what happened in between?”

Next to her, Alex felt Daniel tense when Talia mentioned the twelve victims, but his expression didn’t change. She filed it away. She’d ask him later.

“Whatever happened, Alex, you saw something,” Dr. McCrady said, “and it had to do with the blanket Alicia was found in. If you’re up to it, we need to find out what you saw.”

“Let’s do it,” Alex said. “Now, before I lose my nerve.”

Mary gathered her things. “I’ll get ready. You’ll come when the meeting is finished?”

Daniel nodded. “We will. Chase, have we informed all the women at risk?”

“There were a few we couldn’t reach. A couple were out of the country. A couple aren’t answering their phones. But the ones we did talk to will be smart if they just stay home with all the doors locked.”

“And their guns cocked,” Alex muttered.

Daniel lightly smacked her knee. “Sshh.”

“I’m going now,” Talia said. “I’m leaving early in the morning to drive to Florida to talk to two of the victims who have moved.”

“Thanks,” Chase said. “Call me if you find anything new.” When she was gone, he turned to Daniel. “We got Lisa Woolf’s cell phone LUDs. No calls from anyone she hadn’t been receiving calls from for months.”

“And her roommates?” Daniel asked.

“They say she went to a bar last night to unwind. She never made it home. But they did find her car about five blocks from the bar.”

Everyone at the table seemed interested by this. “What?” Alex asked.

“None of the other cars have been found,” Daniel said.

“What kind of car?” Chase asked.

“She was a grad student with no money,” Chase said with a shrug. “She drove an old Nissan Sentra. It’s being brought down here on a flatbed so we can take it apart. Maybe we’ll get lucky and find something he left behind.”

Daniel considered it. “Janet had her Z, Claudia a top-of-the-line Mercedes, and Gemma drove a ’Vette. None of those have been found, but he ditches the Nissan.”

“The boy likes fancy cars,” Luke said.

“We processed the scene at Alex’s bungalow,” Ed said. “Lots of prints to work through. It was a rental property, after all. Nothing on the bathroom window or sill. The bowl of dog food had a very high concentration of tranqs. If your dog had a normal digestive tract, Daniel, he’d be barking with the choir eternal right now.”

“I stopped by the vet on my way in from Bailey’s,” Daniel said. “Riley will be okay and now we know they were likely looking for the key that Bailey sent to Alex.” He looked at her. “Don’t forget to call your ex.”

“I won’t.”

“Then until tomorrow,” Daniel said and started to get up.

“Wait,” Alex said. “What about Mansfield? I mean, I understand how you have to be careful not to show your hand, but the man can’t be allowed to simply roam free.”

“We’ve got him under very close surveillance, Alex,” Chase said. “We started setting it up minutes after Hope picked him out of the photo array. Try not to worry.”

She huffed out a breath. “Okay. I’ll try.”

“Then until tomorrow,” Daniel repeated and started to get up again.

“Wait,” Luke said. He’d been typing on his laptop during much of the conversation. “I eliminated all the minorities and dead people from our list of graduates.”

“Right,” Daniel said, then caught his breath. “But there was one other that was killed ‘for the secret.’ ”

Luke nodded. “Still taking out the minorities, there have been five deaths among the Dutton males graduating within a year of Simon, not including Simon, Wade, and Rhett.”

“Check them out,” Chase said, “along with their families.”

Daniel looked around the table. “Anything else?” When nobody said yes, he said, “We’re sure? Okay then. We all meet back here, tomorrow, eight a.m.”

They all stood, then Leigh poked her head in the door. “Daniel, you have a visitor. Kate Davis. Garth Davis’s sister. She says it’s urgent.”

Everyone sat down again. “Show her in,” Daniel said. He looked at Alex. “Can you go and wait with Leigh in the outer office?”

“Of course.” She followed Leigh to the front where a young woman in a trendy suit waited. Alex searched her face and the woman met her gaze unflinchingly. Then Leigh took her back to the room while Alex settled in one of the chairs to wait.

Chapter Twenty-one

Atlanta , Thursday, February 1, 5:45 p.m.

According to Luke’s speed-of-light Google, Kate Davis was a bank manager in her uncle Rob’s bank. She was barely a year out of college, but her eyes looked old.

Daniel rose when Leigh brought her to the door. “Miss Davis. Please sit down.”

She did. “My uncle’s grandson was killed last night.”

“Yes, Atlanta Homicide is handling the investigation,” Daniel said evenly.

“He was a sweet boy, a little slow. Not the kind to mastermind any plot.”

“We didn’t say we thought he had,” Daniel said. “What can we do for you?”

She drew a breath. “I got a call from my sister-in-law an hour ago. She’s somewhere out west with my two nephews.”

Daniel lifted his brows. “Not a vacation, I take it.”

“No. She ran because she was scared. She called me because she wants this to be over, because she wants at some point to be able to come home. Garth and my uncle Rob argued this morning. Garth’s done something that’s made him a target. He’s been sitting down the street from my house for the last two nights, watching me. I saw him both times. I thought it was sweet. You know, he’s my big brother, and he cares.”

“But?” Daniel asked.

Her chin lifted a fraction. “My sister-in-law said Garth received a threat on my life with a demand for money. Garth wired a hundred thousand dollars from his sons’ college fund. She wanted to go to the police, but Garth wouldn’t let her. He said Rhett Porter was executed because he said too much. This doesn’t surprise you.”

“Go on” was all Daniel would say.

“Then Garth said Jared O’Brien had also been eliminated.” Her eyes narrowed. “That does surprise you.”

Daniel glanced at Luke. Luke typed, then shook his head. “He’s not dead.”

“He’s not been declared dead,” Kate corrected. “He disappeared more than five years ago. I was still in high school at the time. I’m sure you all can dig up the old police reports. Unless, of course, it was investigated by Loomis’s department.”

Daniel wanted to sigh. Instead he kept his voice even. “Explain, please.”

“Garth asked my uncle if he would go to the police. Rob said, ‘Not in this town.’ Then Garth threatened to report Rob for bank fraud if he said a word. My sister-in-law said she’d put up with Garth’s affairs for years, but wouldn’t allow him to jeopardize the safety of her sons.”

“Do you know where she was?”

“No, and I didn’t ask. I suppose you could subpoena my phone records if you really wanted to trace it. She used her own cell phone. She asked me to come and talk to you if I wasn’t afraid. If I was afraid, she said she would call you herself. But she said she wanted me to know that Garth was afraid for my life.”