Page 317 of A Matter of Time

“What does that mean?”

“That means they stayed on top of the case, from the first guy killed in your old apartment to today when we pulled that man out of a dumpster this morning. Unlike us, they saw the killings as one singular case instead of four different ones.”

I stayed quiet, listening.

“The profilers there put together a report and they sent it over early this morning. They feel that the murders are the work of a serial killer.”

“Because there’s more than three,” I said confidently, because everyone knew that.

He scowled at me.

“True crime documentaries are important, Sam.”

He huffed out a breath. “I’m sure they are.”

“What else links the crimes together?”

“Pardon me?” He sounded so pained.

“Just tell me,” I pressed him.

“All the victims look alike.”

“Why didn’t anyone notice that?”

“I told you—the timing, the three-year span, and the fact that the first one was thought to be an attack on you by Roman.”

“Okay.” I tried to absorb everything he’d said. “And who are the guys that got killed?”

“Trey Hart was first, three years ago, and he was a student who’d just moved here from Atlanta. The second and third were hustlers, Ron McCall, and then Nolan Allen.”

“When were they killed?”

“McCall in 2000, Allen earlier this year, and then today, Donald Bower, who was a teacher here in Chicago who was supposed to be at an art seminar in Pittsburgh that he never made it to.”

“So two this year?”

He nodded.

“That’s weird, right? One, three years ago, another in 2000, and then two just this year?”

“This is why everyone had trouble with the pattern, or even discerning that there even was one because it makes no sense.”

“But the FBI thinks it’s all the same guy.”

“Yes.”

“Because why?”

“Because they’re all young blond guys, and other random coincidences like one of the rent boys lived in the same building as you, just not at the same time.”

“Which building?”

“The one your brother owned, across from the jazz club. That’s the address that was on your license that we found on Bower this morning.”

“That’s weird but, is it enough to draw conclusions over?”

“The FBI thinks so,” he said miserably. “Plus, Allen was employed by the catering company that worked Dane’s engagement party.”