“Not a problem,” Trent said, beating Amanda to responding.
“I’ll send it to you, then, Trent. Just the fact she seems to have resurfaced should be enough to move the file up the pile.”
“Justup, not all the way to the top?” People needed to be focused on catching the Anaconda Killer even if that involved scouring the dark web twenty-four hours a day.
“You must understand there are a lot of unsolved cases, and agents can’t be assigned to work every single one all the time.”
Amanda hoped the FBI didn’t have plans of sweeping in and taking over the case. She was all for collaborating with them though. “Tell us more about the cases on file. Are they identical to ours? And did you ever catch the people posting the ads?”
“Not to date. We can hope our luck changes. In all five cases, the victims were found wrapped in tarps, as was Christine Lane. Not always under beds, but they were killed in their homes or hotel rooms.”
Amanda perked up at that last tidbit. “Hotels have cameras. Did any capture her?”
“Yes, and I was getting around to telling you that. Some homes had doorbell cams, but none of them caught anything. We got lucky at the hotel. We have two brief videos of her and derived a still shot from that. It’s rather pixelated, but it gives you the general ID. It was run through facial recognition databases without success.”
“We’ll want to see all of that,” Amanda told her. Trent saw this woman when it was pitch dark, but the potential eyewitness had seen her outside of Sharp’s residence during twilight. Theycould show the picture to her and see if they could get confirmation.
“I’ll get them over to you.”
“I might have an explanation for the lack of footage from the doorbell cams. It seems she’s using a jammer that affects both Wi-Fi and cell phone signals,” Amanda said.
“Clever. Leaving the victim with no way of calling for help. Though, with that said, there is nothing to suggest the victims fought back either. Did they have time, or is this woman stealthy just like an anaconda?”
If it took Amanda’s last ounce of strength, she’d find a way to slow this killer down. “Lane didn’t have any defensive marks on her either to suggest a struggle.”
“And the crime scene was pristine,” Trent added.
“Same for the five on file,” Nadia confirmed. “There is something I am compelled to say. The BAU is ready to take over from here if you’d like. All you have to do is say the word.”
Amanda had read between the lines correctly. The FBI was ready to move in. There was no way she was handing the case off to the Behavioral Analysis Unit. She felt a responsibility toward the victims’ families to get them justice. Spencer, too. And if she arrested his girlfriend’s killer, it might go toward making amends for what she put him through. “No, absolutely not. But I assume we have the FBI’s cooperation?”
“I can confirm you do. I will give you the direct phone number for an agent at the Science and Technology Branch. Her name’s Lakisha Hester.”
Amanda wrote the number down as Nadia rattled it off.
“Do I have your permission to pass along your number to her?”
“Absolutely, and thank you.”
“Don’t mention it, and good luck.”
Nadia was gone, and Amanda turned to Trent. “Five other victims besides our two,” she said, shaking her head. An emailfiltered into her inbox from Nadia. “No one can say she works slow.”
“Never. Nadia is a bullet train. It’s just how her mind works.”
Amanda clicked on the message and found it had three attachments. She hit play on the first video and wheeled her chair back so Trent could see her screen.
A woman walked down the hall of a hotel, head down, until something behind her had her turning around.
Nadia was right about the footage being short. Less than thirty seconds.
“They couldn’t have gotten a still photo from that.”
“Nope. It must be from the second video.” Amanda opened it up and let it play.
It seemed to take over from the last. This one showed her face, taken from a camera at the opposite end of the hall.
“And there she is.” Amanda hit pause, freezing her face on the screen. “She look familiar to you?”
