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he’d agreed to meet Hutch and hadn’t yet stormed off showed he might still be willing to help Hutch. He decided to try a different approach.
    “How many murders do you think this guy has committed?”
    “We’ve been briefed on two,” Struk responded, still not looking at Hutch. Instead, he was scanning the room, his gaze never settling on one thing for long.
    “You think there’s more, don’t you?”
    “Yeah,” Struk said quietly with a nod. “I think we got us a serial killer, but no one in the station is willing to put a label like that on it. Cap thinks it will cause an unnecessary panic among the public.”
    “What do you think?”
    Struk wrapped his hands around his coffee mug and looked down into it. His shoulders slumped as he let out a heavy sigh, before finally looking at Hutch. “I think the public needs to be warned,” he admitted quietly.
    “I agree with you on both accounts. We are dealing with a serial killer.”
    “I knew it! Everyone keeps telling me I’m crazy and to mind my own business, but I’ve been doing a little snooping around. I think this guy has killed at least four or five.”
    “Seventeen.”
    Struk’s eyes went wide. “What? No fucking way,” he said disbelievingly.
    Hutch nodded as he quietly watched the play of emotions run across Struk’s face. What started out as true shock quickly turned to a mix of horror and outrage.
    “How is that possible?” Struk asked dubiously as he apparently tried to process what he was hearing.
    Hutch watched him carefully. Kimura’s roommate knew about the number of deaths within their small community, so perhaps Struk wasn’t gay. Yet Struk, being in a closed-minded and hostile environment, wouldn’t want his fellow officers knowing he was gay and hence wouldn’t mingle among the local gay hangouts. Hutch still wasn’t sure, but the more he thought about it, the more it didn’t matter. His only concern was if Struk would be an asset in the investigation.
    Hutch rubbed at his eyes, the coffee doing little to overcome his need for sleep. He pulled his card out of his pocket and slid it across the table. “I have got to get back to the hotel. Give me a call tomorrow, and I’ll share everything I know. Better yet, stop by and I’ll show you. I’d love to get your input on it.”
    Struk picked up the card, studying it, and then slid it into his shirt pocket. “I’ve got to work an early shift and am pulling a double, so I’ll give you a call as soon as I get a chance.”
    Hutch dropped some bills on the table and stood. “Thanks for coming,” he told Struk and held out his hand.
    Struk nodded and shook the offered hand, still looking a little stunned.
    Hutch left Struk to process it all and headed back to the hotel. Hopefully after a few hours to zone, since sleep wasn’t really an option, he’d be better prepared to run through all the deaths again, this time hopefully making some actual progress.

Chapter 4

    H UTCH OPENED the door of his hotel to find Sergeant Struk standing in the hallway looking wary. “I did a little research on my own today, and you were right. This is way bigger than I thought.”
    “C’mon in.” Hutch stepped back, allowing Struk to enter.
    “Holy fuck!” Struk exclaimed as he took in the room.
    “That pretty much sums it up,” Hutch commented as he shut the door.
    Struk scanned wildly along the walls covered with maps, photos, reports, and newspaper clippings and the large stacks of files cluttering up every available surface.
    “Sergeant Struk, Andrew Caswell and Agent Travis Green,” Hutch said, pointing first to Byte, who was sitting at the small table, fingers poised above the keys of his laptop, and then to Granite, who was stretched out on the bed.
    “Nice to meet you,” Byte said and held out his hand.
    Struk shook his hand and then Granite’s as he joined them.
    “Call me Granite.”
    “Carson,” Struk responded.
    “Byte here is working on taking all this data you see and