“I did. We had hoped to finally get an identification on our captured special agent,” Hinton said. “But his face is swollen from a beating. There’s nothing identifying about him in this video.”
Gabriel watched as the criminals forced the victim at gunpoint to undress all the way to naked. Were they looking for something? Or was this some kind of dehumanization technique?
A fourth figure went through his clothes.
“They’re looking for a wire,” Finley said.
Then they had the victim kneel. And they shaved his head bald.
Interesting.
“We think they’re looking for tiny audio wires or cameras,” Rowan said. “We can make them look like hair and super glue them to people’s heads.”
Gabriel nodded. Huh, he had no idea that technology existed.
They gave the victim another set of clothes. The same type of clothes that Gabriel had seen in the first video with the man walking across the street with the gun pointed to his head. The collar of his FBI jacket had been up, and Gabriel couldn’t see anything of that man’s face.
“They’re forcing him to put on the FBI jacket,” Hinton said. “This person who’s watching him and taking these videos, they’re risking their life.”
“Where do you think they were standing to shoot this video?” Gabriel asked. “There’s no audio, but this isn’t a super camera with a lens that can read a page from a mile away. I mean, they’re in a garage.”
“They’re in a garage that has windows along this side,” Hinton said. “They’re eye height. They’re not filtering much light into the interior. It’s an alleyway.”
“You think the person is standing in the alleyway taking videos of a crime family?” Gabriel asked.
“The computer mapped where the lens would be,” Hinton said. “We have the exact spot.”
“Okay.” Gabriel tapped the video to restart it at the beginning. “But if you know that, you know the location of this garage.”
“It’s right across the street and down three doors from the place where he stumbled out in the first video,” Hinton said.
“If you know that,” Gabriel tapped the screen to pause the video, “then why am I here?”
“I wanted to see if you had anything to add,” Hilton said.
“I’m a geolocator.” Something about Hinton made Gabriel’s teeth itch. He hoped that the Joint Task Force was taking this over and that’s what this meeting was all about. Gabriel turned to Finley. “I’m sure you already tried to turn Igor. Do you think he’d be interested in talking to you about these videos?”
“For now he’s keeping his mouth shut,” Finley said.
“Do you blame him?” Rowan asked. “We had another individual. He was offered a plea deal that required cooperation. After his arraignment, we drove them back to jail, and even though the guy turned us down, he ended up—”
“According to the coroner,” Finley said.
“--committing suicide,” Rowan finished.
“Suicide, how?” Gabriel asked, since the sarcasm in Finley’s voice was thick enough to cut with a knife.
“He swallowed a plastic trash bag,” Rowan said.
“Oh wow.”
“That’s the story.” Rowan turned his hands palms up.
“Wow.” Gabriel shook his head in disbelief.
Finley spun his pen. “A few years back, there was a group called El Primo, and a gang member who died from a bar of soap getting stuck in his throat. Somehow that seems worse to me.”
Gabriel dropped his head. The things that humans could and did do to each other were mind-bending. He looked up to catch Rowan’s gaze. “But you’ve safeguarded Igor, right? I’m still needed on Tuesday?”
