When I have some downtime on an investigation, I make lists.

In this case, the downtime is involuntary; I just can’t think of anything else to do. So while I’m sitting here in my office, I might as well do the lists.

I do it in two columns. One column includes the things I know or think I know, and the other includes the things about which I don’t have a clue.

The “things I know” list is unfortunately the shorter one, and I really don’t pay much attention to it. It’s the other list, the longer one of the things I’m in the dark about, that holds the answer to this case.

Most importantly, I don’t know who has been committing these murders. Starting with Conner, then Tony Silva, and now Lewinsky, I feel like we’re being led to believe that it’s a mob war between Tartaro and Silva. But I just don’t see why they would be fighting such a war, or what they’d have to gain from it.

I also don’t know why Lewinsky would have been killed, since it likely ends the cash cow that the hospital drug flow represented. I don’t think Silva did it, but whoever did was willing to cut off the drug supply. It’s unlikely that Lewinsky was killed because he was turning himself in, because he had no reason to turn himself in. Ranes hadn’t even talked to him yet, so Lewinsky should not have been afraid he’d be arrested.

What could the FBI’s view that they had a possible terrorist case have to do with any of this?

Why would a homeless murder victim like William Simmons be something that Lewinsky and Silva would be concerned about three years later?

Where is Salvatore Tartaro?

Why did Shawn bring me into this investigation in the first place? What would anyone have to gain by our reopening the Carlisle investigation?

And maybe most important of all, what happened to Rita Carlisle, and why did it happen?

Reading this list and realizing how little I know at least leads me to one key decision; I’m going to stop making lists. It’s too depressing.

Nate and Jessie come into the room, walking quickly as if something significant has happened. “We are in the presence of a genius,” Nate says.

I shrug. “Thank you.”

“I didn’t mean you, asshole. I meant Jessie.”

“I sensed that. What’s going on?”

“You tell him,” Nate says, and Jessie nods.

“I looked at the hospital records for Travis Mauer, the patient at Bergen that Galvis said was an example of Lewinsky’s stealing the drugs. He said Mauer didn’t exist, remember?”

I nod. “Yes, that’s one of the things I remember.” I’ve got to stop being so sensitive about memory comments; Jessie didn’t mean anything by it.

“So he had an address, phone number, insurance information … all of that was faked. No such person.”

“That’s what Galvis said.”

“Every patient has to list someone to be notified in the event of an emergency, and in the Mauer file it was a woman named Cynthia Crowder. There was an address for her in Garfield that was a fake as well. No one who is there has ever heard of Cynthia Crowder.”

“So what’s the big discovery?”

“The phone number for her had an area code for Des Moines, Iowa. It’s a real number, but it’s not listed to Cynthia Crowder; it’s listed to Eileen Manningham. It struck me as strange that if Lewinsky was going to fake a New Jersey address he would use a Des Moines number, and a real one at that. I mean, where would that come from?”

I nod. “Definitely strange.”

“Right,” Jessie says. “So I called Ms. Manningham and asked her about it. She told me that Travis Mauer is her brother-in-law, and lives about a mile from her in Des Moines. And get this; he was visiting friends in New Jersey when he fell and hurt his back. He aggravated herniated disks.”

“And they treated him at Bergen Hospital.”

“You’re not as dumb as you look,” Nate says, jumping in to pick up the story. “So when Jessie told me about this, I called Mr. Mauer, with the medical records in front of me. Nice guy, had great things to say about the hospital, and he confirmed everything in the records. He even thinks the listing of drugs that they gave him is accurate.”

“So the guy is real in every respect, except for his personal contact information?”

“Yes,” Jessie says. “Apparently Lewinsky, or whoever, forgot to change that one phone number when he was changing the contact information.”

Nate jumps in. “Which brings us to the question, why would Lewinsky fake records to steal drugs, if the patient actually got those drugs?”

“He didn’t,” I say.

“He didn’t get the drugs?”

“No, he got the drugs. Lewinsky didn’t fake the records.”

“Somebody did, or at least they faked the contact information,” Jessie points out.

I nod. “Right. But it couldn’t have been Lewinsky. He had nothing to gain from doing so. The only reason to conceal Mauer as a patient would have been to pretend that he got all those drugs, when they really went to Silva. But there were no drugs to go to Silva, because they went to Mauer.”

“So who changed the records?”

“My money’s on Mitchell Galvis.”