The crying, sounding even more eerie because of the voice modulator, came through just a split second before the video did. The video was exactly the same as all the others. Nothing could be seen but the coffin-sized box containing the woman from the neck down. She was struggling against the metal cuffs that attached her wrists and ankles to the sides.
Everyone’s attention was riveted to the screens in front of them, except Bree.
Even when the woman was sobbing and begging to be freed—this was obviously not one of her good moments—Bree didn’t look up from what she was doing. Besides the crying, Bree’s fingers on the keyboard were the only thing that could be heard.
Tanner understood Bree well enough to know what was going on. She knew the victim was not the key to finding the location to where she was being kept. The key was in figuring out the details of the transmission.
But to everybody else it looked like Bree didn’t care at all about the suffering of this poor woman. Like Bree couldn’t be bothered to stop typing for the seconds the transmission would last and at least acknowledge the woman’s misery.
The transmission ended as suddenly as it began. Bree’s hands never stopped moving on the keyboard. Nearly everyone in the room was staring at her, the noise from her fingers soundingthroughout the room. Tanner was glad Bree was caught in her own world and had no comprehension of what was going on around her.
“Do you mind if we play it again, Bree?” Penelope finally asked.
“Would hate to disrupt you in any way,” Jeremy muttered.
Bree didn’t even look up. “That’s fine. The victim is irrelevant.”
Even Tanner had to wince a little at that one. Jeremy rolled his eyes and walked over to one of the computers and set the footage to play again.
“Okay, people, what do we see?” Penelope asked when it was done.
“She was already crying before the camera turned on. It was one of the times when she seemed not to be aware of the transmission at all,” Whitaker said.
“All right, so it’s one of her bad hours. Maybe she’s tired. Maybe he hurt her.” Penelope had them play the footage again.
There were so many things that could be happening to the poor woman to make her hysterical.
Hearing the modulated crying caused Tanner to look more closely at the screen. He walked over and stood next to Whitaker. “Your friend Shelby and the other victim.”
“Kelly Quinn,” Whitaker filled in for him.
“You didn’t find any links between them?”
“Nothing of any significance.”
“Did you check where they shop for clothes? They were both similar build, right? I know we don’t have great perspective from this footage, but looking at this new woman, she could possibly be about the same size also. Relatively petite. Slender.”
“Definitely worth a try.” Whitaker called Penelope over and she agreed it was worth redoubling their efforts to see if it led anywhere, and immediately got someone on it.
They played the footage again and Tanner stepped closer to the screens. The crying was so much more jarring with a voice regulator distorting it.
The killer wasn’t letting them see her face and wasn’t letting them hear her real voice.
Why?
Tanner looked over at Whitaker and Penelope. “You guys got any local celebrities missing or anything?”
Penelope raised an eyebrow. “Not that I’ve heard. Why?”
Tanner shrugged. “Just seems like an awful lot of work to use a voice modulator when we can’t see the victim’s face anyway. Leads me to think there might be something about her voice that’s unique. Something we’d recognize right off if we could see or hear her clearly.”
Whitaker muttered a curse. “You’re right. I can’t believe we didn’t think of that.”
Tanner slapped him on the shoulder. “Trying to figure out who framed me for murder gave me a better perspective on thinking outside the box.”
Whitaker had the good grace to look sheepish, since he’d been the person most convinced Tanner was guilty. “I’m glad something good came out of that.”
Penelope played the clip again. “Damn it. I think you’re right, Tanner. I haven’t heard anything about a well-known missing person, but we’ll put some feelers out immediately. But knowing the victim still isn’t going to help us get to her. We need the location.”
