Page 100 of Fatal Pattern

Every detail Hoult had delivered matched the file they’d read. Purple pajamas, shared bedroom, bunk beds.

Blade didn’t buy it. Too clean. Too rehearsed. Someone had fed Hoult those details, coached him through each memory like lines in a script. Blade flattened his palm against the observation window, the glass cold against his skin.

Through the barrier, he could see Tori hunched forward, her hands trembling against her thighs. She’d swallowed it whole. The lie had landed its punch.

Edwards poked his head into the observation room. He nodded toward Tori through the glass. “She needs a minute.”

“Yeah, I see that.” He stepped back from the window, needing a moment himself.

He dialed Harlee’s direct line. She picked up on the first ring.

“What’s up, Tiger.”

“Tori told you about that, huh?”

“Totally,” Harlee said, keyboard clacking in the background. “How’d it go?”

“I’ll tell you later. I need a few things. Off the books. Urgent.”

Her typing stopped. “Go.”

“I’ve got our office running a DNA comparison between Jeremy Hoult and Tori using his stored sample, but I need everything you can dig up on Aletheia Psychiatric Research Institute in Seattle. Patient records, staff directories, anything from 1998 to 2024. If Hoult’s name pops up, I want to know immediately. I also want you to see if there’s a connection to the Mandelbrot Group.”

“That’s a tall order for—”

“There’s more. Nikos Crew Jr. had his name changed. We’ve got to figure out what it is now. And Officer Edgar Segarra, Millie Beach PD. Died ten months after the Crew murders. Shot during a traffic stop. No witnesses, no arrests.”

Harlee took a sharp breath. “You think this is connected?”

“I think something is going on. I just need to prove it.”

“How long do I have?”

Blade watched Tori through the glass. She pressed her palms against her eyes, her entire body shaking. The confession had shattered something fundamental inside her. The brother story offered closure wrapped in poison.

“Fast as you can manage. And Harlee? This stays between us until we know for sure.”

“Copy that.”

The line went dead. He pocketed the phone and returned to the window. Edwards had entered the interrogation room, his hand gentle on Tori’s shoulder. She looked up at him with gratitude, accepting comfort from a man who’d just delivered her greatest hope and deepest nightmare in a single package.

Tori stood and gathered her notebook, her pen, her composure. The professional mask slipped back into place, but cracks showed around the edges. She’d found her brother and lost him in the same breath. A monster wearing the face of her deepest longing.

The observation room door opened. Edwards stepped inside, his expression troubled.

“She wants to see him again.”

“That’s not happening.”

“She says she needs closure.”

Blade turned from the window. “She needs the truth. And that wasn’t it.”

Edwards studied his face. “You sound certain.”

“I am certain. Question is whether I can prove it before she destroys herself believing a lie.”

Edwards checked his phone. “Blood type’s right, but we’ll do a preliminary kinship DNA to confirm. Should have results within seventy-two hours.”