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“Except prosecutors never question overkill,” Esperanza added.
“Because,” Myron said, “it plays into their preconceived narrative.”
Win nodded. “And again to be fair, viewing any one case in a vacuum, there would be no reason to doubt anyone’s guilt here.”
Myron walked toward the screen on the wall. “Something else is bothering me.”
Win and Esperanza waited.
Myron’s eyes moved from case to case. Then he asked, “How did the FBI put it together?”
No one replied.
“I mean, think about it. Nothing links these cases. No strands of hair. No locations. No victim type. The killer has been careful about that. Ingenious even. So what made them put it together now?”
“Greg Downing?” Esperanza asked. “Isn’t that the point? He’s the link.”
“Yes, but only in two of the cases set, what, five years apart? How do you go from that to a serial killer? Chronologically, the first murder was Kravat. Greg is linked to that murder because his girlfriend’s son was involved with the victim.”
“Pretty loose link,” Win said.
“And again, going in chronological order, the, what, third or fourth murder, is Cecelia Callister’s. Okay, that’s a big link obviously. DNA and all that. But how did the FBI link those two murders to Keating or Barry or Stone or…? Wait, hold the phone.”
Myron stopped, looked up, didn’t move.
Win leaned toward Esperanza and said sotto voce: “I think our boy has a thought. I wish he’d cry ‘Eureka’ so we could be sure.”
“Funny.” Myron suddenly took his phone out of his pocket and hit the fourth number on his speed dial. Terese answered right away.
“Hey,” she said.
“I have you on speakerphone,” Myron said. “I’m with Win and Esperanza.”
Everyone did the quick-greeting thing.
“So what’s up?” Terese asked.
“The Ronald Prine murder case.”
“What about it?”
“He was killed, what, two days ago?”
“That’s right.”
“And you said they’ve already arrested someone?”
“A woman named Jacqueline Newton,” Terese replied. Then she said, “Oh, I see where you’re going with this. I was starting to wonder the same thing.”
“Tell us.”
“Newton insists she had nothing to do with it, but the murder weapon is her father’s hunting rifle.”
“Where did they find the rifle?”
“In her closet. Right where she said it was. Newton claimed that it hadn’t been fired in years, but a quick lab test showed it’d just been used.”
“Any DNA tying her to it?”
