And she did, everything becomingclear all at once. Zoe’s eyes snapped open wide, turning shocked to bothPetrovski and Flynn. She looked between them with excitement, at the blankexpressions they returned to her. They hadn’t yet figured it out. They hadn’tmade the connection, not like she had.
“I see it,” Zoe said.
“See what?” Flynn asked, frowning.
Zoe laughed out loud, causing thedivers—who had been slowly preparing to get back into the water and check forany more relevant evidence—to turn and stare. It wasn’t the most appropriatereaction at a crime scene, Zoe knew, but she couldn’t help herself. How couldshe react any other way?
“I see it now,” she repeated, lookingat Flynn with a grin she couldn’t keep off her face. It wasn’t over. She hadn’tlost her touch, or her mind. She had him now, and they would get this casesolved sooner rather than later. “The proof. The pattern. Can you not see it? Iwas right all along.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Zoe wanted to laugh at theexpression on Flynn’s face. Her headache was all but forgotten, the painignored in the face of euphoria. The rookie was clearly so confused—and hethought he’d be able to solve the case without her! Well, he wasn’t the onelaughing now.
“I don’t get it,” Flynn said,impatiently. “You’re going to have to explain.”
“Look at the ages of the victims,”Zoe said.
“We already checked that out,”Flynn frowned, shaking his head. “None of them seem to be connected. There’s nocommon factor. With this body at thirty-one, that leaves us even less connectedthan before. He seems not to be targeting a particular demographic at all.”
“But put them together in asequence,” Zoe prompted.
Flynn screwed up his face, pullinga notebook out of his pocket to begin leafing through it. “I don’t remember theexact figures,” he said.
“I do,” Zoe told him. She wasstill grinning; she couldn’t help it, even though she knew that she probablylooked like a maniac. She had never been great at controlling her facialexpressions. And everything had been so dark for so long, this one slice ofvictory was almost overwhelming. “I will tell you them. In order from the firstchronological victim, the body here, to the most recent, at the state park,they run as follows: thirty-one, forty-one, fifty-nine, twenty-six.”
Flynn screwed up his face evenfurther, and when Zoe glanced at Sheriff Petrovski, she saw that the olderwoman seemed only to be waiting for the answer. “We can’t all be math geniuses,”Flynn said, scraping his hair back over the top of his head with an impatientgesture. “Just tell us the punch line.”
Zoe couldn’t even find herenthusiasm dampened by his sullenness. It was just too good to be the one toget to tell him that he had been wrong—and she had been right, even all thewhile he scoffed at her and called her crazy. “Do you recognize this number?3.1415926…”
It took a moment for the penny todrop. “Isn’t that pi?” Flynn asked. Then his expression changed, his eyewidening, his jaw falling slack, everything giving way to shock. “Wait—that’sthe exact sequence of the ages?”
“It is,” Zoe told him cheerfully.
“It’s pi,” Flynn stated flatly. Helooked none too pleased about it. “Jesus Christ… you were right.”
It wasn’t exactly an admiringstatement, an admission that she was good at her job. It sounded more likeFlynn was disappointed. But Zoe would take it, because either way, it meantthat she was the one who had her head screwed on tightly after all.
“Matching the symbol carved ontothe bodies,” Zoe said. “They are not just random killings. They are based verycarefully on the ages of the victims to create a specific sequence.”
“Wait a second, but they aren’t notrandom, either,” Flynn interrupted. “All along we’ve been looking at these ascrimes of opportunity. That’s still true. The killer has to wait until he canget the right woman of the right age, alone and in a place where no one willinterrupt the killing or catch him. He’s not abducting them or luring them intoa trap—just being near them at the right time to take advantage.”
“It would seem that way,” Zoeconceded. She wasn’t about to argue and tell him that he couldn’t be right aswell—not when she was trying to be magnanimous in her victory. “Rational andlogical, following a numerical sequence, but carried out as soon as opportunityallows.”
“So, what are you saying? He picksout a victim and just… what? Stalks them until he can get them alone?”Petrovski asked.
“Maybe.” Zoe hesitated. “Therehave not been any reports of uneasiness or a feeling of being followed amongstthe women. But if he is careful, cautious, and quick, that does not rule outthis kind of attack.”
“But how would he know their ages?”Flynn asked. “He would have to know them personally, wouldn’t he?”
“But you have checked,” Zoepointed out. “Of all the people who came up in your searches, Olive Hansonagainst Elara Vega, there was only one correlation, and he has an alibi. And Ido not think our killer would rely on hearsay. He needs to know precise ages,or he risks getting it wrong.”
“So, how does he know?” Petrovskiput in. “He must have access to some kind of information.”
“The victims must all be in adatabase,” Zoe said, thoughtfully. “Something that records their ages, and thatthe killer has access to read.”
“But that sounds like it could bejust about anything,” Flynn said, his shoulders slumping. “Mailing lists,online stores, even a petition that they all signed—how are we going to figureout how he knows?”
Zoe cast her eyes back toward thefront of the property: the house, and behind it, the road, where the car waswaiting. “With good old-fashion detective work,” she said, looking right backat Flynn and holding his gaze to see if he would challenge her. “A logicalapproach, and a lot of research.”
He held her eyes for a moment,then ducked his head. “Then we’d better get going,” he replied. “We need tostop this guy, and fast.”
Satisfied, Zoe nodded to Petrovskiand began the walk back across the yard. She was back on the case. And thistime, they knew exactly what they had to do to get it solved.
***
“Anything?” Zoe asked, glancing upas Flynn let out a heavy sigh.
“Not yet,” he said, clicking atsomething on his screen
