“He was in their apartment,” she said flatly.

“We’re dusting the entire place, including everything in the refrigerator. I have my assistant taking blood from Abby to confirm that she was also drugged. They were drinking rum and Coke last night. The alcohol coupled with the narcotics would have knocked them both out.”

“Which is why she didn’t wake up until late this morning.”

Gage nodded. “And we found something else. A small hole in the kitchen cabinet.”

“Why is that important?”

“Because there was also a small motion-activated webcam attached. It runs on a battery. I’ve bagged it for Patrick. I don’t know enough about the electronics to tell you the range, but I’m sending my assistant downtown to get it analyzed ASAP.”

“Thanks, Jim.”

“He was watching them,” Nick said.

“Why the kitchen?” Carina asked. “Why not the bedrooms?”

“Because he wanted to know when they were drugged,” Nick said. “So he could come in and kidnap Jodi without commotion.”

“Why Jodi?” Jim asked. “Why not Abby? Or both of them?”

“Like Angie, Jodi slept with my brother,” Nick said quietly.

“Becca had no relationship with Steve,” Carina said.

“Coincidence?”

They looked at each other and Carina started the car. “It warrants a conversation with him. Maybe there’s something else going on here.”

They found Steve at his apartment drinking iced coffee on his deck with Ava.

“Jodi is missing,” Nick told Steve.

Ava exclaimed, “Oh my God. It’s not the same guy, right?”

“We don’t know for sure what happened,” Carina said cautiously, “but I need to ask you, Mr. Thomas, where you were from four p.m. Wednesday afternoon until now.”

“You want me to recount the last nearly forty-eight hours?”

“Yes, sir,” said Carina.

Steve faced Nick. “So you’re on staff with the San Diego Police Department now?”

“Please answer the question, Steve,” Nick said.

“I don’t have to. Isn’t that what you told me? Get a lawyer to protect myself? I just didn’t think I would need to protect myself from my own brother.”

“I don’t think you killed Angie or kidnapped Jodi. What I think is that it’s a coincidence that one woman you slept with is dead and another is missing. Maybe you know something you don’t think is important, something that can lead us to Jodi before she’s killed.”

Ava put her hand on Steve’s shoulder. “Steve, you need to help.”

Steve glanced over his shoulder at Ava, then pulled her to his side. “I had a class Wednesday afternoon. I left campus at five-thirty. Picked Ava up and we went to dinner. Came back here about eight. Watched a movie.”

“What time did you go home, Ava?” Carina asked.

She cleared her throat. “I didn’t.”

“Do you know Becca Harrison of La Jolla?”

He shook his head.

“She works at the La Jolla Library,” Carina prompted.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been in there,” Steve said. “I don’t know a Becca, at least that I can remember. If I need to go to the library, I use the one on campus.”

“Ava?” Nick turned to her. “Do you know Becca Harrison?”

“No, I don’t.”

Nick looked at his brother again. Steve was still angry at him for the interview at the station. Would they ever get beyond it? “Steve, can you think of anyone who would want to hurt you?”

“Me?” His eyes widened. “I don’t have any enemies.”

“No threats? Have you felt like you’re being watched, especially when you’re on a date?”

Steve shook his head. “No. And no one knew about my relationship with Jodi. It was…brief.”

“No one knew about it until Jodi posted it online,” Carina said. “But she didn’t identify you, Steve. We were able to pick up on it because of the connection to Angie.”

“Coincidence?” Nick wasn’t sure he bought it.

“Sometimes coincidences are real,” Carina said. “Rare, but possible.” She faced Ava and Steve and said, “Be careful. Don’t go anywhere alone, especially at night. The killer has been targeting specific women-it doesn’t seem random-but we can’t discount that it may indirectly have something to do with your relationship with Jodi and Angie.”

Steve nodded. “If I can do anything, anything, to help, please let me know.”

Nick motioned for Steve to come into the apartment. Alone, he said, “Steve, I’m sorry. I should never have pushed you the other day.”

Steve looked like he wasn’t going to forgive him, but then he sighed and gave Nick a tight hug. “You’re right about something.”

“I am?”

“I haven’t done anything with my life.” He glanced through the sliding glass door at Ava. “I really care about Ava. And I can’t provide for her. I don’t have a job. I can support myself but a wife? A family? I didn’t think I wanted one, but…” he shrugged.

“What are you going to do about it?”

“I’m going to talk to a career counselor at the university next week. See what they recommend for a disabled veteran with three degrees.” He gave Nick a self-deprecating grin.

Nick’s conscience felt lighter. He clapped Steve on the shoulder. “I’m glad. You let me know how I can help, okay?”

“You hanging around San Diego?”

“For a while. I need to finish out this case.”

“What about your job? You’re a sheriff in Montana, Nick. Not like you can just walk away from it.”

“I know.” He glanced at Carina. He wasn’t ready to go home yet. “But for now, I need to find this killer.”

“Are you okay?” Carina asked Nick when they were back in the car heading to the Shack. She wanted to talk to the manager, Kyle Burns, about the closed party the night before.

“Yeah. I think Steve and I came to an understanding.” Nick had been worried he’d gone too far the other day with Steve, telling him to grow up. But it seemed to have done some good. He couldn’t say that he approved of Steve’s relationship with Ava, but she was more mature than many of her college-aged counterparts, and maybe there was some balance there. Nick suspected Ava had more to do with Steve thinking about the future than he did.

“Becca’s body was discovered at the library at four this morning,” Carina said, recounting the time line, “but she died between eight and ten the night before.”

“He had her for twenty-four hours before he killed her. That gives us a few more hours for Jodi. If his MO holds this time.”

“I don’t like the changes,” Carina mumbled. “Why can’t killers be logical?”

“They are. In their own heads. Everything he does has a purpose. We might not be able to see it, but it’s there.”

“You sound like Dillon.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“You should. I think he’s the smartest guy on the planet. Next to my dad, of course.”

She pulled into the Shack parking lot and said, “So he kills Becca. Watches the webcam to see when Jodi drinks the Coke. Sees it, dumps Becca’s body on his way to kidnap Jodi. Brazen, arrogant.”

“He’s ultraconfident right now. He’s gotten away with two murders. He thinks he’s invincible.”

“Becca lived and worked across town,” Carina said. “There doesn’t appear to be any connection between her and Angie or Jodi.”

“There is a connection between her and the killer, though. He didn’t pick her randomly. He knew her schedule, when she would be leaving the library. He was waiting for her.”

“Yes, but she didn’t regularly work on Wednesdays. She came in because they were short-handed.” Carina frowned.

“But Midge said the young man Becca spoke to looked familiar, that he’d been in before,” Nick reminded her. “Maybe Becca had told him she’d be working Wednesday night. For all we know, she’d made arrangements to meet with him.”

“So we’re looking for someone who knew Angie-knew her well enough to identify her from information on her journal. And who knew Becca, most likely through the library.”

“Steve said he used the library on campus,” Nick said. “That makes sense. If the killer goes to the university, why would he go to a public library? Why not the campus library?”