"Are you sure Sam and Gabe are the same guy?" Eric said as they pulled into the driveway of the house Gabe rented.
"He was in all three videos at the coffee shop," Fletcher said. "What are the odds?" He stared at the house as he put the car into park.
"About the same as three women coming up with the same outlandish story, I suppose."
"So don't you think it's at least worth looking into?"
"All right, say he's somehow been coordinating this. Why would women who rejected him on a dating site later work with him to murder people?"
"Maybe it was all some kind of elaborate ruse." Despite the click-clacking of Eric's phone, Fletcher didn't take his eyes off the house. "How long do you reckon it would take to drive from Connie's to here? About five minutes?"
"Give or take," Eric said. The clacking stopped. "Why?"
"Because in the videos, all three women get up and leave Connie's about five minutes after he walks by them."
"And…?"
"Nothing. It's crazy."
"The great Sherlock Holmes isn't suggesting that he's beginning to believe them, is he?" Eric was looking over at him with a look suggesting he thought Fletcher was just as crazy as the women were.
"They all reported that they were locked in a dark room in a man's body. A fat man's body."
"Yeah, but you and I both know that can't happen!"
"And the only lead we have in these murders is a fat guy. A fat guy who happens to walk past all three of them five minutes before they get up and leave—the exact amount of time it takes him to drive home. There are too many coincidences here."
"Please don't tell me that you're starting to think that this guy somehow changes bodies with these women, then goes and kills people?" Eric said. "Forget why he would do that—how? How on God's green earth would he do that?"
"I don't know," Fletcher admitted, shaking his head. "But you know what I think?"
"Go ahead, Einstein. I know you're going to tell me no matter what I say."
"I ain't no Einstein."
"You were going to tell me…?"
"Both Renee and Nicole closed their match with Gabe. And as near as I can tell, they did so without ever meeting him. What if Gabe intentionally created a fake profile in order to trick these girls into going out with him?"
"But he didn't go out with them. He left shortly after they showed up." Eric resumed typing furiously on his phone.
"Right. So he must have had other plans. He didn't want to meet with them, he wanted to use them."
"To murder people?"
Fletcher put the car into reverse. He looked over his shoulder and backed out of the driveway.
Looking up from his phone, Eric said, "Where are we going?"
"Sorry. It's crazy, I know. I don't know why I even considered it."
"Considered what?"
Fletcher looked over at Eric. "You know, sometimes I wonder about you."
"What do you mean?"
"Half the time I wonder whether or not you're paying attention."
"So where are we going?"
"I thought of something else I want to look into." Fletcher shifted into drive and pulled away from the house. "Besides the part about being in a man's body trapped in a dark room, what else hasn't made sense?" Eric didn't answer, and after a moment, he answered his own question. "The lack of motive. Why would Renee kill Marlon? She claims she didn't know him. And Nicole didn't know Hank. But what if Gabe did?"
"We'd have a motive?"
"Exactly."
"So where are we going?"
"First, Book World," Fletcher said.
"Why?"
"Do I really need to spell it out for you?" Fletcher looked over at Eric, who was just staring at him, phone in his hand. "To see if he knows Hank."
"But he wasn't on the list of witnesses."
"What's his alibi?" Fletcher said.
"I don't know. He's not a suspect."
"Not yet. But if he had been there, we could immediately rule him out."
"So we see if he knows Hank, then bring him in for questioning?" Eric said.
"Maybe."
"Sounds like a bit of a stretch to me. Just because you know someone doesn't mean you have a reason to murder them."
"True. But if he knows either of them, it'd be more of a connection than either Renee or Nicole has. Even more so if he knows them both. Besides, we don't have any other leads right now."