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"Explain to me, clearly, what you've found," he challenged.
"We need to go!" Cami pleaded. "Every second might count here!"
“Where and why? Explain to me. Calmly," he added, seeing that Cami was now frantically hopping from foot to foot.
Taking a deep breath, she did her best with the explanation, starting from the very beginning, so Connor would have the whole picture.
"This killer has been using the community group as his hunting ground, because people have felt safe talking to their community about where they will be and when. It's allowed him to track a lot of their details. But because of that, it’s allowed me to see which threads he’s been looking at, via the site logs."
"Okay. I get that," Connor said.
"His IP address is protected via a VPN, which makes it untraceable. That’s a virtual private network. But this VPN had some flaws, and I was able to see a whole series of sites that this person has recently visited."
"And those are?"
Cami counted on her fingers. "Airline. He's booked a flight, I think. Social media. He's been on the local group again. And he's also been on the work page of one of the group members, a kindergarten teacher. He’s been following her on the site, and he’s read the threads where she said she was traveling recently."
"So, you think he's targeting her?"
"I do. I think she's going to be his next victim. She lives in the area, a few blocks away from Caroline. She was away recently. I am sure if we called her now, she'd say she found some things out of place when she got back. She's probably found her things disorganized, or moved, same as the other victims. And we need to call her now!" Cami felt almost suffocated by the urgency and panic of this situation. "She's in terrible danger. I'm telling you, Connor, he's waiting for her at home!"
Connor stepped forward and grasped Cami by the shoulder, his grip calm and firm, forcing her to stand still. That contact helped to steady her, and she caught her breath. "You've done good work here, Cami. This is a definite lead. If you're right, we could be in time to catch him. If you're wrong, we still have a strong suspect in custody."
"Thank you," Cami said, feeling calmer now. If she'd helped to save one more life, it would be worth all the angst, worry, and brain-frying, speed research she'd done.
"Now, we’re going to get moving on this," Connor said, quickly. "What's this woman's address? Do you have it?"
"I do, but I haven't been able to find a phone number. Yet," Cami said.
"We can get Ethan onto that," Connor said. "And I'll ask someone to take Mario down to the holding cells for now. We can keep him there until we've seen where this new lead goes."
Cami still felt taut with tension as Connor headed out. First of all, he went to the front office to bark out a quick request for the suspect to be moved. The cop rushed to the interview room to get that process under way.
"Right. We can get on the road now," Connor decided.
They left the police department and hurried to the car. Even though she'd been filled with panic, she now realized that he was right. Approaching the situation calmly had allowed him to understand it clearly and make the best decision in the circumstances. She felt surprised by how clearly she'd been able to think, and how effective her communication had ended up being. Now, they were both on the same page and heading to the potential victim’s house in an organized way. There were no messy loose ends, nothing had been neglected, and Cami had to admit that being in a calm mind frame did help with logical thought.
As soon as he got into the car, Connor was on the phone again.
"Ethan?"
"Yes, boss," Ethan responded, and Cami felt another surge of affection for him as she heard his voice.
"Can you get us a phone number?"
"Sure, I can. I'll need to log into the system, so it'll take a couple of minutes. Who are we looking for?"
"The name is Maisie Abson, a teacher at Little Lives. We're looking for a personal cell number. Message me when you have it."
"Will do," Ethan said. He was also calm, Cami realized. She was starting to understand how much experience counted in these situations. Panicking didn't help. She needed to stop doing it, even though it was easier said than done.
"In the meantime, let's call Little Lives," Connor advised.
Cami looked up the number while Connor drove. She dialed it on his phone and switched it to speaker.
"Hello. Little Lives kindergarten and daycare," a sweet-voiced woman answered. Her voice was positive and upbeat, and Cami felt agonized inside that both this woman, and Maisie, thought they were having nice, normal working days. Right up until this brutal killer proved otherwise and shattered all their lives irreparably.
"Is Maisie Abson there, please?" Connor asked.
