to work with now though,” he said, thinking. They had it all laid out on the boards in the incident room and he’d stared at them for what felt like hours on end, but sometimes it was good to get away from that, away from the room where the same ideas had been gone over and over with no real results. Sometimes a fresh environment brought fresh ideas.
“Milo Ortiz, the man who found Toby Resnick, has no connection to him that we can ascertain. But he does have a connection to another victim, Margo Whiting, who fell to her death. Elizabeth Nolan does have a connection to Steven Sadowski who she works with, and also to a falling victim, her brother, Julian Nolan. It’s like there are all these connections, but none of them have any meaning.”
The server approached their table, breaking Reed’s concentration for a moment. She slid Jennifer’s club sandwich in front of her, asked if they needed anything else, and when they replied no, turned and left. Jennifer took the toothpick out of her sandwich and picked up half, nodding at Reed to go on. “Sadowski was left in the hospital where he worked. Toby Resnick was left in an alleyway in the same neighborhood where he lived and conducted his shady business dealings. But the third eyeless victim, Clifford Schlomer who ran the payday loan business was left in a location nowhere near where he lived or worked.”
Jennifer nodded, wiping her mouth before she spoke. “The parking garage downtown.”
Reed nodded, picturing the man slumped in the corner behind the painter’s car. What was her name? Sabrina McPhee.
It’s like he was left there just for me.
“What do we have on Sabrina McPhee?” he asked.
Jennifer paused. “The painter who found Clifford Schlomer, the payday loan dude, in that garage?” She looked to the side, thinking. “I did a basic check. She owns an art studio near her apartment. Relatively successful. Was married and divorced once. Seemed like an amicable enough split from what I saw on paper. No shared property, no kids. She has good credit, no record. Nothing stood out.”
Reed felt a small buzz of something rise from his gut to his chest. “Okay. Think about this. Steven Sadowski was left in a location where Elizabeth Nolan was the likeliest one to find him. She reported that she takes that stairway every morning at the same time, and the body was placed there directly before she arrived. Same with Milo Ortiz. He was on his regular work route. The body of Toby Resnick was left in a location where he was the likeliest to find him.”
Jennifer nodded, bringing her sandwich from her mouth where she’d been about to take a bite and lowering it to her plate. “But Elizabeth Nolan knew Steven Sadowski, and Milo Ortiz did not know Toby Resnick.”
Reed brought his top teeth over his bottom lip as he glanced away for a moment. “Okay. Let’s assume for the moment that Elizabeth Nolan knowing Steven Sadowski is a coincidence or . . . happenstance based on where they both worked.”
Jennifer looked dubious. “Okay.”
“Just for now,” Reed said. “And then Clifford Schlomer who was found in the parking garage, was left in a location, and at a time, where the likeliest one to find him was Sabrina McPhee. So,” he went on, “if those three victims were not left in random locations, they were left in places where those specific people would find them first. They were placed strategically—”
“Which would mean,” Jennifer said excitedly, “that it’s not only the victims who are important to this guy, but the ones who find them as well.” She sat back in her chair. “Holy shit,” she said. “The discoverers of the bodies are not random. Okay, maybe, yeah.”
“But why?” Reed murmured. His heart rate had increased and his skin felt sort of prickly from underneath. If they were on the right track, it meant Liza was important to this killer. He’d already questioned that based on her brother’s murder, but not to this extent. He’d assumed the killer had targeted her brother based on Liza’s random role in the crime. She’d somehow . . . come under his sick scrutiny. But perhaps her role in the crime was not random at all. Just like it didn’t appear Milo Ortiz’s role was random either.
Reed looked off behind Jennifer for a moment. “There’s another victim attached to two of the discoverers: Milo, whose mom was a falling victim, and Liza, whose