Evie smiled, completely understanding that sentiment.
David studied the aerial maps clipped on the second whiteboard she had rolled in. “They brought by your two map tubes?”
“A patrol officer delivered them,” Evie confirmed. “Someone did a lot of my work for me.”
She turned her chair to scan the maps. The first tube had contained aerial images of the area around the college, taken in the late fall or early winter, so there were no leaves obscuring the ground. When the images were placed side by side, she had about a square mile of visual info—fences and storage buildings, alleys and bike paths, the semi-hidden features in a neighborhood that a local would know about and might use. Detectives had marked various buildings with numbered dots. An accompanying sheet listed forty-two locations, places she was finding referenced in interview files.
“I talked with a couple of Jenna’s friends by phone tonight,” she told David. “Her neighbor across the hall, plus a chemistry study partner. They both thought Jenna might have gone out for a walk that night and gotten shoved into a car or something of the sort, not been at the apartment when this happened. Jenna was known to take late-night strolls around the neighborhood, occasionally back to the campus. The student-union building and its coffee shop were open twenty-four hours a day back then—now it’s just six a.m. to midnight weekdays.”
“That takes this away from her apartment.”
“The search area keeps expanding.” Evie nodded toward a desk holding the contents of the second tube. She’d weighted down the corners of the oversize sheets to stop the curl.
“The second tube was equally intriguing. Photographs of buildings around the neighborhood, laid out in order on hand-drawn street maps. Some detail-obsessed detective wrote down the building address, the apartment numbers, and listed names of the residents. Both sides of Jenna’s block are completely filled in. Blocks around Jenna’s are partially complete with building photos and names intermixed with empty squares for ones that hadn’t yet been researched. I’d kiss the guy who did that work if I could find him.”
David laughed. “You’re having a good night.”
“I am. I’m mostly reading interviews so I have in mind what people told cops nine years ago and can compare it to what I hear from them now.”
“A smart plan.”
It was late, he’d come back to chase a good lead on his own case, and she didn’t want to keep him from that. “I’m getting ready to head back to the hotel to start on Jenna’s journals. I hope your active murder goes somewhere productive. You can tell me about it over breakfast.”
“If I solve mine tonight, I’m calling whatever time it is.”
Evie laughed. “I’d do the same.”
David turned to the conference room. Evie brought up the music playlist for Triple M to give him some background music.
“Thanks.”
“My pleasure.” Evie gathered her things together, paused by the desk with the hand-drawn street map and building photos. Some residents’ names had a checkmark beside them, others a circled C. According to the legend, the checkmark indicated an interview was on file, the circled C that the individual had a criminal record. The research work required to pursue various theories from her list had dropped by more than half.
The nice thing about a visual like this was being able to trail interviews back across geography. If Bob said he had a steady girlfriend, the guy across the hall should recognize the woman’s photo as someone often around—this visual made it possible to determine who should have noticed something or who would be the person most likely to know something.
Evie scanned the names. There were more women living in the buildings around Jenna than she would have guessed. Guys seemed to favor a few—if she had to guess why, probably better gym facilities.
She traced a route Jenna might have walked that night, looking at names along the way she would want to re-interview. She needed someone who worked the late shift at a restaurant or local bar, someone coming home at midnight. If Jenna went for a walk that night, she would have been seen.
She runs into trouble on her walk or . . . Evie traced her finger back to Jenna’s apartment building . . . or all this was superfluous because the crime was right here, and only here, in Jenna’s building.
A question to pursue further tomorrow. Evie got out her car keys and headed out.
Early Thursday morning, her phone showed one unread message. Expecting Rob, Evie pulled it up. David. Heading to the office. He’d sent it at 5:10 a.m. Ouch. She dropped the phone onto the second pillow. She was a morning person, but that was early even for her. She yawned and staggered into the bathroom, hoping a shower would wake up her brain, help her engage for the day.