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She then sent a pin drop to Connor of the exact spot where the narrow roadway joined the bridge.
He read it.
Now, the only thing that Cami could do, holed up in this office, was watch the pin drop that represented Victor. She couldn’t see Connor at all. But she imagined him, moving purposefully toward that convergence point, moving fast, going on a course that might even be parallel to where Victor was running, and not just blindly chasing after him.
Digging her nails into her palms, she fervently hoped she was right.
What if she was wrong? What if she’d caused this chase to fail?
No, Cami told herself firmly. Don’t think that way. It’s perfectly obvious that he’s going to the bridge. What else is he going to do – scramble down a rocky slope and end up in a river? The pin drop was moving fast. It seemed to be speeding up. Now she imagined the sneakily unpleasant Victor, going for his escape route, doing his best to outfox the agent that he knew was following him.
Watching that pin drop, Cami willed him to slow down. Let him stumble and twist his ankle, let him start tiring. He couldn't run forever, and surely he wasn’t as fit as Connor? She’d seen how fit Connor was. He could outrun almost everyone. He wasn’t the fastest, but he didn’t slow down either.
The pin drop moved. Then it went out of range for a while. When it came back in range, it was much further. Much closer to the bridge.
And then, it stopped.
“Please,” Cami breathed. “Please, let him be caught!”
She waited, staring at the screen, feeling taut with tension.
And then, after what seemed like an interminable time, a message came through.
“Got him. Bringing him back here.”
Cami let out a thankful breath. She’d done it. With her predictions and Connor’s speed and skill, they’d caught the elusive Victor.
Now, to find out how far-reaching this obsession with death really was, and to what lengths he'd taken it.
***
It was half an hour before Connor returned, and Cami guessed it had been a rugged march back, especially since he’d been holding the handcuffs of his suspect all the way. Victor was shambling ahead of him, looking mutinous, as if his rights had been infringed.
Connor walked him back into the living room and waited while he sat down on the couch – somewhat clumsily thanks to the handcuffs. Then, Connor closed and locked the French door that he’d run out of earlier, and turned on his phone to record the interview.
“My arms hurt!” was the first piece of conversation that Cami guessed the recording would have picked up. Yup, Victor was seriously aggrieved.
“Just a tip for the future,” Connor advised. “If you want your arms not to hurt, it’s better not to bolt out of the door when police arrive to question you. However, since we’re too little too late on that, let’s move ahead, right?”
Narrowing his eyes, Victor gave him a poisonous stare. Connor returned it calmly.
“You were watching an illegal videos down in that basement room. Hate speech is against the law. Calling for people to be killed eradicated, and tortured is highly illegal. Do you realize that just by downloading or sharing or watching one of those, you’ve participated in something criminal?”
“I didn’t know that,” he mumbled. “I didn’t even know what the video was. A – a friend just sent it to me. I mean, I was shocked by it.”
"Then best you give me the details of your friend," Connor said. "Videos like that, we trace back to the source, and we arrest the perpetrator. So that’s something we’ll need to do when the police arrive.”
Victor paled. “The police?”
Connor nodded. “Yes. That was who I called when we were walking back. Did you think I was just speaking to a friend? They should be here any minute and they’re going to seize all the evidence down there relating to that video.”
Cami could see he wasn’t bluffing. He really had called the police. They weren’t here yet, and she wondered if that was because Connor had asked them to wait – that he wanted to question Victor first.
That turned out to be correct, because Connor then said, in confidential tones, “Look, you didn’t make those videos, I understand that. You just watched them. So I’m sure you don’t want to get into worse trouble than you deserve, do you?”
“No, no, of course I don’t!” he protested.
“Good. I might be able to put in a word for you there.” Connor emphasized the ‘might’. “But I now need you to be very truthful with me. You probably ran because you thought we wanted to arrest you for the videos and slap the maximum charge onto you. Which might still happen," he said thoughtfully. "But in the meantime, I want to speak to you about something else."
