River North is the Chicago pickup location that gives Zoe Bentley and Tatum Gray a geographic starting point in their attempt to trace where the killer took Lily. Its importance in the investigation lies in the route it helps them construct, not in any confirmed identification of the place where he went afterward.

Setting and Known Connection

Tatum identifies the corner of Clark and Grand in River North as the place where the killer picked up Lily. He locates the intersection on Google Maps and compares it with Huron Street, where he believes the killer took her. The evidence establishes River North as the pickup point; it does not identify a particular building or business there.

Role in the Search

Using River North and Huron Street as endpoints, Tatum reasons that the killer would have taken Lily somewhere along the route between them, or to a place near where he killed her. Zoe cautions that he might instead have favored a shop elsewhere in Chicago, which would make the route-based search inconclusive. Tatum accepts that limitation but argues that if the killer used a shop on the route, the investigators would have a finite number of malls to check. River North therefore serves as one fixed point in a practical but explicitly uncertain search strategy.