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Dougie
It was a few days later when Dougie finally received the information on Mandy’s background check. He glanced around as he pulled up the information. He shouldn’t be using company time or resources to look into someone who wasn’t a suspect, although he could argue that was why he was looking into her, to make sure she wasn’t one. She had seemed sincere in her story, but Holly had been through so much. He wasn’t sure she could take another hit.
Dougie scanned the screen. Mandy Meadows was indeed the only child of Amy Meadows. Father was not declared on her birth certificate, but that would make sense if Brad Bingman was trying to hide it. She’d attended college earning a business degree just as she’d said, and there was an identifiable trail of money deposited into her account every month with a little extra on her birthday and Christmas each year. Dougie sighed. While he could understand Holly’s need for a test to confirm it, he didn’t think Mandy was lying. Nor was there anything nefarious in her history to indicate she would be after something from Holly.
“Hey, Dougie, do you have a minute?”
He quickly closed the browser before turning to Officer Shelby, who thankfully hadn’t been close enough to see what he was doing. “Sure, what’s up?”
She pulled a chair over and glanced around. “It’s about Holly’s case. I’m hitting a roadblock. The father’s PR rep checked out. She has a rock solid alibi for the time of the fire. So does the woman who took her picture and the few names she gave us of people who are in her group. Frederick Dagwood appears to have disappeared off the map after he left Courage, so I am not sure where to look next. Can you think of anyone else I should look into?”
Dougie rubbed his chin as he went through the list of suspects again. Mandy was no longer a suspect, but there had to be someone. And then he froze as he remembered the one person they hadn’t mentioned. “What about the woman?”
Officer Shelby’s forehead wrinkled in confusion. “What woman?”
“When I worked at the resort, I saw Frederick with a woman. I didn’t recognize the woman, but they acted like lovers. It’s a long shot, but maybe she has something to do with it.”
Officer Shelby leaned back. “You’re right. That is a long shot. What would Frederick’s lover have to do with Holly?”
“I don’t know, but I do know that Frederick was stealing money from Holly and hoping to be listed as a partner in her restaurant. What if it was some sort of con where once he got the money, he ran with his lover?”
Officer Shelby nodded, though she didn’t look completely convinced. “Okay, but he never got on the papers, so why burn the restaurant down?”
Dougie shrugged. “Revenge? Maybe she was mad that she didn’t get what she wanted and decided to retaliate.”
“That’s pretty weak, but I don’t have any other angles to pursue. I guess it’s worth looking into, but you said you didn’t recognize the woman, so how will we find her?”
“She was the one who rented the room at the resort, so there might be a name, although chances are it’s a fake one.” He rubbed his chin as he thought back to the night he’d seen Frederick cheating on Holly, and then he remembered. “Wait, I made a video.”
Officer Shelby’s eyebrows lifted. “A video of what?”
“I knew Holly probably wouldn’t believe me when I told her Frederick was cheating on her, so I made a recording of the video cameras that caught the two of them. It’s security footage so it’s a little grainy, but maybe we could enhance it here?”
“You still have the recording over six months later?”
Dougie shrugged. “I made two copies. I left one with Colton, my replacement, in case she ever came looking and wanted to see it. The other I kept just in case. I left town shortly after and I just packed everything up. It might take me a minute to find it, but I’m sure it’s in my apartment somewhere.”
Officer Shelby nodded. “Okay, why don’t you go see if you can find it and I’ll go to the resort and see if they still have records of who rented the room?”
Dougie scribbled down the date and the room number for Shelby, surprised that he still remembered it, and then he hurried to his place. He hadn’t had a chance to unpack everything, but he had a pretty good idea where the video might be.
It didn’t take him long to find what he was looking for. He’d packed everything that reminded him of Holly into one box, and the video was nestled down at the bottom. Grabbing it, he headed back to the station to wait for Officer Shelby to return.
It was nearly an hour later when she returned. “I was able to get a name, but I haven’t had a chance to run it yet. Did you find the video?”
Dougie held it up, and she nodded. “Okay, let’s see what we can find. The name they gave me was Hilda Brightman. I don’t know about you, but it sure sounds fake to me.”
Dougie pulled up the background software again and typed in the name. “Yeah, I would say you’re right. Other than the stay at the resort, I have nothing for a Hilda Brightman.”
“Come on, let’s see who this woman is then.” Officer Shelby led the way to the officer who specialized in facial comparison and facial recognition. People commonly got the two confused, but facial recognition was used to compare two faces while facial comparison was used to give characteristics like age, gender, etc about a face. As they didn’t have a face to compare it to yet, they’d be looking at the comparison. “Miguel, we have a face we need to see if you can enhance and give us any details about.”
“Sure thing.” Miguel took the CD and popped it in his computer. The grainy image appeared on the screen and they let it play until they found the best view of the woman’s face. It took a few clicks, but then the image slowly began to clear. Unfortunately not enough to get a clear picture of the woman, but her red hair was visible. “I can’t get much. Obviously a woman, mid thirties, caucasian, red hair. It does appear like there’s a mole on her right cheek though.”
A mole? Why did that trigger something in Dougie’s mind? He leaned closer to the screen, squinting to try and bring the woman’s face into more focus, and then his heart froze. Could it be? How had he not recognized the woman before? Yes, her hair was different and the security footage had been grainy, but he should have made the connection. “Miguel, can you do facial recognition with this software too?”
“Of course, but you’ll need a face to compare it to.”
“What are you thinking, Dougie?” Officer Shelby asked.
“I’ll let you know in a minute if I’m right.” He pulled out his phone to find a picture of the woman he wanted. It took a moment as she didn’t have any social media accounts or any picture posted with her business, but he finally managed to find a picture of her attached to a story in the paper. The picture was black and white and not as clear as he’d like, but he hoped Miguel would be able to use this. “Here, pull this website up and use this picture.” He handed the phone to Miguel and waited.
Miguel’s fingers flew across the keys as he typed in the information and Dougie watched as the software pinged one, two, three, four, five, six times. “It’s not a perfect match, but that could be because of the lack of clarity on the images or the fact that the faces aren’t in the same position. However, I think this is the woman you’re looking for.”
A cold sensation flooded Dougie as he pulled out his phone. He had to tell Holly.
