“Imissed it. I’m the profiler. I should have seen it.”
“Why? Are you God?”
“Chris—”
“Catherine, you can’t blame yourself for this.”
“Like hell I can’t. This isn’t the first time I missed a profile and someone I care about—someone I love—got hurt.”
“Catherine, don’t do this to yourself.”
“I can’t stop thinking about Beth, about Matt, that I should have seen it.”
“Do you see it now?”
“I don’t know. I can’t tell if I’m pulling things out of thin air. He has a partner. That much is certain. But I haven’t had time to study the murders again, to see if itwasobvious and I just didn’t see.”
“Catherine, sweetheart, breathe.”
“If Matt dies, it’s my fault.”
“It’s not. Who’s with you down there?”
“Everyone.”
“You know what to do. You know how to find them.”
“They’ve been missing for nearly thirty-six hours. Every minute that passes puts them in greater jeopardy.”
“Trust the team,” Chris said. “No one is slacking.”
That was true. “We’re meeting at the resort when the sheriff takes over surveillance of our suspect, but I’m scared for Matt and Kara. Ryder blames himself—because he suggested that they stay for a mini-vacation. Michael is angry he didn’t stay in Florida with them, but he’s closed himself off, won’t even discuss anything but the work. Jim is working far too hard, thinking all the answers are going to be in evidence he has already looked at a half dozen times.”
“How many times have I heard you say that the only person responsible for a crime is the person who committed the crime?”
She smiled tiredly. “Quoting me to me?”
“You’re a smart woman, darling. You’ll find them. You know,” Chris said, “when I’m faced with an inexplicable case at the hospital, when I don’t know why a child is ill or unresponsive, I go back to the beginning. The first time the child showed signs that something was wrong. Haven’t you also said that you can trace a killer from before they started killing? What was his trigger?”
“Knowing what I know about his childhood and college years, I would never have guessed that Garrett would turn into a killer. A con artist, a manipulator—yes. He seduced older women, manipulated them into bed and out of money.”
“He didn’t kill them.”
“No. And there are no outstanding warrants, no arrests, no restraining orders, no investigations. No one filed a complaint against him for theft, fraud, or assault. He’s clean as a whistle.”
“Then maybe it’s the partner who brought violence into their relationship.”
“What if the partner is a woman?” Catherine said.
“Is she?”
“We have some evidence that his partner is a woman. Which... well, I’ll be damned.”
“You figured it out.”
“Maybe. Maybe. I have to go. I love you, Chris. Give Lizzy a hug for me.”
“Will do. I love you, Catherine.”
