Calmly, the shooter returned to his vehicle, a blue four-door Toyota, and drove away, his bumper only slightly damaged.
More surveillance supplied by Diego indicated the Toyota headed south on I-5 before they lost coverage. LEOs eventually found the vehicle on fire in an abandoned factory in Tacoma.
The sites where the doctors and nurses had been found had little footage, showing weird angles and poor lighting. A few people had used their phone to record the dead nurses, so she got a partial view as they stood around, watching.
She had the best footage of Dr. Daniels—not David—who had collapsed of a heart attack outside a bank.
Jane returned to that one and watched everything again. She’d studied each death numerous times, spending late nights at the office. Hal and Joe had checked in, and Hal had offered to run some special software he’d concocted to recognize patterns.
If she didn’t find anything today, she might take him up on the offer. But she didn’t think Rapp or Gambol would want one of Team Ten hacking into their servers. Not to mention Hal might still be wanted for crimes he’d committed in the course of work for her uncle. Best to keep him out of the federal loop whenever possible.
She was on her fourth cup of coffee that evening, watching a video of the fourth victim, when she thought she spotted the suspect. Something about the way the guy stood, the slant of his hips, the way he leaned back on his feet a little. How he bobbed when he walked…
She hurriedly inserted a DVD of one of the nurses into the player and watched it on a smaller monitor.Yes.There. Him again. She couldn’t make out his face, half-hidden by a dark, nondescript ballcap, but she’d swear it was the same guy from the EMT footage.
Scrambling for the EMT video, she noted the way the man in the mask moved. A little jerkier, as if he tried to move differently to fool anyone watching. But she could tell it was him.
After going through all the videos she could find and comparing images, she stuck her head out and called for everyone to join her.
Despite it being close to 8 PM on New Year’s Eve, everyone remained working.
“Whatcha got?” Diego asked.
He, Gina, and Rapp crowded into the room behind her. She sat in the chair and pulled up different feeds to different monitors, then pointed at the masked man on the large screen with the EMTs in addition to the other two videos.
“There. He’s our guy.”
Gina spoke first. “How do you figure? I went through all this and still don’t see it. He only appeared in the EMT footage.”
“I don’t get it either,” Diego said, though he sounded hesitant. “Although he does resemble the guy from Nurse2—I mean, Nurse Anna Field.”
Rapp leaned in, and Jane caught a whiff of subtle cologne. Or maybe aftershave.
It annoyed her to find it pleasing. She drank more hazelnut coffee to drown him out.
“You wanted an expert on it, I’m the expert,” Jane insisted. “And that’s him.”
“So humble,” Gina muttered.
“I’mthe expert.” Diego protested, “I’m the one who found all the footage.”
“That we both went over a million times,” Gina said.
Jane knew her worth, and she saw what others missed often enough that she had no problem taking credit for work well done. “Well, I notice things. That’s why you brought me in.”
“Oh, and we don’t? We’ve been meticulously going over these videos.” Gina’s voice rose, her frustration evident.
Jane shrugged. “What do you want me to say? You missed it.”
Gina enunciated her icy reply, “I guess our best isn’t good enough, is that it?”
Rapp interrupted, ignoring the drama, pointing at the screens. “No. That’s him. Look. She’s right. See how he moves? It’s our guy at every site.”
Getting Rapp’s approval changed the tone in the room, the energy suddenly vibrating with excitement.
It came as a surprise when Rapp told them all to go home. “We’ll continue the day after New Year’s. I’m ordering you all to take a day off.”
Diego darted from the room. “Don’t have to tell me twice.” And he was gone.
