“Not necessary. I thought about it when we were there, but didn’t think there was any way in hell she was letting me leave with her laptop. It was surprising she let me take her phone.”
“It was.”
“We’ll get the warrant and have her laptop dropped off at Central. That way we’ll be in front of any argument she’s going to make.”
“I’ll work on the paperwork and have a judge signoff,” Trent offered. “What do you want to do with those threats we have against Dominique?”
Amanda would like to forget that stack of folders existed. If it wasn’t for her father’s admonition about turning over every rock, she might find justification. She might anyhow. “We can take an honest look at them. The thing is, though, if she received a threat from someone she’s hiding from us, I doubt it would be in with what we have.”
“True. But that’s assuming…”
“We’re onto something with that? I know.”
They drove the rest of the way to Central in silence. Amanda was trying to untangle why Dominique wouldn’t want her killer stopped.
THIRTY-SEVEN
It was midafternoon Thursday, and instead of an arrest, they had a second murder to add to the investigation. Amanda was frustrated by the lack of progress thus far, but at least there were a lot of threads to tug. It was just hanging in until the law of averages kicked in and their efforts paid off.
Amanda had ended up calling Judge Anderson about the electronics warrant to cover Dominique’s phone and laptop. She just wanted to ensure he would sign off on the request before they compiled all the paperwork. He did better and gave them a verbal go-ahead. They’d still need to compile the paperwork, but this allowed things to get moving.
A phone call was made to Officer McRoy at the safehouse to collect Dominique’s PIN for her phone and password for her laptop, and to have the latter brought to them at Central. Amanda didn’t envy him that job. Time would tell if Dominique let him keep his head.
While they waited, Amanda and Trent each attacked a folder.
She rubbed her forehead. The dull pain of an impending headache was lingering behind her eyes.Is it too much to ask fora break in this case?Her cell phone rang.No way.Had calling out to the universe worked?She took out her phone and a rush went through her at the sight of the name on the screen. “Trent, it’s Nadia Webber.”
He left his cubicle and joined her, and she answered on speaker.
“Well, I’ve got some news for you,” Nadia began. “ViCAP returned five similar cases within the last two years.”
“You can add one more to her tally,” Amanda said.
“Don’t tell me Blackburn died.”
“He did.”
“Jeez, how horrible.”
They faced so much death on this job it could desensitize a person. Amanda refused to ever lose sight of the fact victims were once living people with dreams and goals. “You said five similar cases. What can you tell us about them?”
“The FBI has flagged these cases as being linked to a serial killer investigation that tied back to the dark web and a site that posted ads for contract killers.”
The fact such a thing existed didn’t surprise her. Amanda just never expected to encounter one in her work. “What do we know about this woman? Anything?”
“Not a lot, but given how she wraps up her victims tightly in a tarp, agents on the case think she goes by the moniker the Anaconda Killer.”
“Don’t anacondas suffocate their prey by wrapping around them and squeezing?” Trent asked.
“They do. But you can see the parallel, yes? You said the word yourself,wrapping,” Nadia reiterated.
“Is her profile on this site still active?” Amanda was hungry for more specifics, having seen her work up close.
“That site was taken down by the FBI, but there are active ones still out there. Our tech branch is always taking them down. For every one, there’s five morethat pop up.”
“Has she turned up on any of them recently?” Amanda asked.
“Not with that username anyhow. So you know, though, I have already made a note in this file, but I would like to add your case to ViCAP. Of course, I’ll need you to provide all the information in writing. I can provide you with the form.”
