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“You didn’t know there were professional photographers?”
“Well, yeah, but I didn’t know there were people who took photographs the way other artists paint and sculpt and stuff.”
“You’ve never heard of Ansel Adams?”
“Who?”
“Look him up,” Faith said. “But right now, tell me about Klaus Polczieski.”
Michael turned his laptop screen so Faith could see. A picture of a classically handsome man in his early forties with a square jaw and kind brown eyes lit up the screen. He held a camera that probably cost about three months’ worth of Faith’s rent. The top of the screen read Klaus Polczieski: Art in Image.
“This is his website?”
“Yep.” Michael clicked a button, and the screen was replaced with an About the Artist page tastefully interspersed with photographs of Klaus taking photographs.
“Well, he’s full of himself, that’s for sure,” Faith said.
“Most artists are,” Michael replied. “More pertinently to the case, he’s been traveling looking for haunted buildings to photograph. He’s spent the past six weeks in Western Iowa, and he has been busy. It looks like two hundred thirty buildings so far.”
“Jesus,” Faith replied. “He doesn’t take much time lining up his shots.”
“I think he just takes a bunch of pictures and then edits them to look… well, what he considers artistic.”
“But does he kill people and stash them inside of these buildings?” Faith replied.
“That is what we will find out.”
“So where is he now?”
"It says Sioux City, but it doesn't give me an address," Michael said. He clicked on a link and opened a list of structures photographed. About thirty of them were storm shelters, and another twenty-two were grain silos, including the three buildings where the murders were committed. Michael clicked on each image and saw that the dates they were uploaded to the website were the dates the murders were committed.
"Well, that's not good," Michael deadpanned. "I can't imagine he would have any good reason to be at a crime scene on the day of the crime. Unless, of course, he was the one committing the crime."
“That seems logical,” Faith agreed.
“And now he has another victim,” Michael added. “If he indeed is our guy.”
“So where would he take Shirley?” Faith asked.
“I think the best way to find that out is to ask him,” Michael suggested.
“But we don’t know where he is,” Faith reminded him.
“I have an idea,” Michael replied.
“What is it?”
“Check this out.” He scrolled down the list and found several buildings listed with thumbnails that read, “coming soon.”
“So he already knows where he’s going,” Faith said. “He’s not just randomly looking around, he’s planning his visits ahead.”
“Probably a wise thing to do if you want to avoid homeowners with shotguns,” Michael said.
“Or if you want to hide bodies,” Faith added. “Does it say when he plans to take these photographs?”
Michael clicked on the empty thumbnail directly underneath the last photo taken. It opened a larger thumbnail and a short description. At the moment, it held only two pieces of information: GPS coordinates and the date the file was uploaded.
Tomorrow.
