CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
Cami knew she needed to show Connor, and Jacenta, that she could act with a cool mind, and in the cooperative way that Jacenta had put such emphasis on.
“I’m sorry, Connor. I overreacted. I understand the databases are privileged. Is there a different way we can do this? Would you let me take a look under supervision? Or could I just instruct another agent on what to do?”
She waited, holding her breath, and felt a flare of relief when he nodded.
“Let’s put what happened aside, and get moving on this,” he said. “We don’t have time to waste. We need whatever information we can get because this case is now critical. I checked the history. The victims did use IP addresses. So now, we need to work remotely with Ethan, to look for footage, and track this guy down.”
Hustling to the back office with him again, Cami felt as if things were moving forward. There was an atmosphere of excitement and tension in the office, and Ethan was already on speaker phone.
Since the victims had logged in using IP addresses, the killer could very well have gotten their approximate location by using those. Now, Ethan was busy checking if there was camera footage near any of their homes that could be used to catch sight of him as he’d tried to pinpoint their location physically.
“There’s nothing near Kate Warner’s place,” Ethan said, sounding disappointed.
“And the others?” Cami asked.
“Yes. I’m picking up a few traffic cameras and security cameras in the apartment lobby, which will also help us. That footage will be fairly quick to obtain. I’ll work on it immediately.”
“While you get that done, I need Cami this side,” Connor said. She turned to him.
“I’m going to show you how to access the case archives. I’ve cleared it with Fraser. You may need to get into historic cases from time to time, so it’s right that you have permission. We’ve created a guest passcode you can use,” he said. “Bear in mind it is traceable. Your movements within the system will all be visible to other users.”
Cami felt astounded and pleased that he was giving her this access.
Had she managed to prove herself to him at last? He wouldn’t have changed his mind about that unless he’d decided he could trust her. Not Connor, whose thinking had felt as if it was set on railroad tracks, unchangeable and cast in steel.
She felt proud that she’d managed to get over herself, to show that she could work together with him. She was pleased that she had the permission to do this. And more than that, she felt surprisingly pleased, as if a conflict point that could have destroyed things, had been worked through.
Moving over to the computer as Cami scooted onto the chair, Connor showed her how to log into the FBI databases and access the case archives. It was a fairly simple step by step process, requiring a couple of passwords and authentication along the way.
“Thanks for the information,” she said, turning to the screen again and running through the protocols once more so she was sure of them.
Connor got on the phone again and began speaking rapidly to Ethan.
“The first footage should be coming through in a moment,” he told her.
As she sat by the computer, waiting for the footage, Cami turned the angles of the case over and over in her mind, looking for other ways, other possibilities that could be used to track him down.
She took another look at all the player avatars in the case files. How was he choosing them, she wondered. What were his parameters? For a start, he seemed to be killing only in Boston, but the gamers were from all over the country and the world. So that alone would mean that he spent a lot of time narrowing down his potential killing field. And again, it would point to good IT knowledge and the ability to do research. How did he know where they were from? IP addresses only?
He was also a gamer. That was obvious. He knew his way around the game and how to use it for his purposes. So, that meant he was someone who played often. Cami had no doubt he was highly intelligent. He had to be.
“We’re starting to get information,” Connor said, interrupting her thoughts. “We got lucky on this. Adriana’s neighborhood has cameras at every intersection, and they are forwarding that footage now. With a camera at each end of her street, and on the corner, it would pick up for sure if a car was driving up and down, looking to locate a certain IP address.”
“That sounds good,” Cami said.
“And Liz Hughes’s apartment block has a camera in the lobby, and also one outside. The footage outside doesn’t cover the entire street, but maybe we can get lucky.”
“He might have scoped it out earlier and come back. If I had been him—I’ve been trying to put myself into his mindset—that’s what I would have done,” Cami said. “I would have located the person first, knowing it might take time. And then, when they were playing online the next time, it would be easy to come back again.”
Connor narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.
“Yes. That makes sense. Too risky to do everything in one go, especially since two of the kills took place in the evening, when traffic would have been lighter and if a car had been driving up and down, it might have been noticed.”
“So, we are looking for a vehicle, or a person, that came in twice. He could have come in his own car, or a rented car, or even taken a cab though. It depends how carefully he was looking to cover his tracks.”
Cami frowned. This was definitely a complex issue.