AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And how easy are they to hack into?” Connor said, with a glance at Cami.
"Not the easiest," Boyd said. Now that the topic was work, he was talking with enthusiasm. "We make the codes very hard to crack. You could hack them, but unless you had seriously top-grade software, it would take a very long time. Security is something we're really concerned about."
There must be something she was missing, Cami thought. The codes were individually allocated and securely kept, and they required an on-site visit to change.
Connor, meanwhile, was pressing forward.
“Tell me,” he said, “can you account for your movements yesterday evening?”
Boyd grimaced in an apologetic way.
“I can’t,” he admitted. “I was with a client until about four p.m., and then I went home. To plan my pizza revenge," he added, now looking shamefaced.
Cami felt sorry for him, an emotion she’d never expected to feel. And she also had no idea how Connor was going to handle the lack of an alibi. That was serious. People couldn’t help being alone if they were innocent, but right now, there were no other suspects.
And then, Connor’s phone started buzzing.
He picked up and made for the door. Cami glanced at him, suspicions surging, triggered all over again by that sound, and by him then leaving the room. It might be just a routine call that he didn’t want to take in front of the suspect. But if it was something more serious – well, this time, she wasn’t going to let it go.
She got up too, and went outside, following him.
He was speaking in serious tones, and as soon as the interview room door closed behind them, Cami realized with a clench of her stomach that this was something different from what she’d expected. Something worse.
“Where is it?” Connor asked, his voice tense. He hung up and turned to Cami.
"There's been another murder just a couple of hours ago. Same MO. It's on the other side of town. We need to get there – fast."
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
Cami felt her stomach twisting as Connor sped across town to the scene. Crossing a bridge, she saw the lights of Boston spread out before her, the city twinkling and vast. It was intimidating to think that somewhere in this massive network of suburbs and streets, this killer was hiding away. Lurking, planning, and now- striking again.
Regret filled her that they had been too slow.
The drive had been silent. After issuing quick, sharp instructions at the police station that Boyd Langdon could be released and taken home, Connor had been quiet. He seemed more stressed than usual. Connor was normally calm. And he still was, but Cami sensed an edge to it. As if, right now, there was way more on his plate than he wanted to be there.
Cami tried to breathe deeply and to prepare herself for what she would find at the scene, but it was difficult. She felt a sense of desperation that they were too many steps behind this killer and might never catch up. It was not helpful to feel that way, but right now, she couldn’t counteract the sense of discouragement.
“Cami.” Connor’s voice was stern, and her head jerked around.
They were stopped at a traffic light heading into the suburb where the new victim, whose name she didn’t even know yet, lived. And he was staring at her with an expression as serious as his voice had been.
“Yes? What is it?” she asked.
“Don’t let negative thoughts get the better of you.”
“I – I wasn’t –” she protested, but feebly, because she knew he was right. She had been mired in a feeling of hopelessness.
“I know it seems like this guy’s going to get away with this. I know that going to this scene, at this time, when we feel we’ve exhausted all options, feels difficult. But there will be answers. We will find something at this scene. Trust me.”
It was difficult not to trust what he said, because she could hear the determination and assurance, firmly in his voice.
“I just don’t see what angle we can use now,” she explained, sharing the helplessness she felt, but Connor shook his head.
“Maybe we’ve been looking at it from the wrong angle all along. The smart homes might be coincidences, and we might need to look for more links between the victims themselves.That’s likely, isn’t it? It’s a possibility we might need to look into more deeply?”
“Yes,” Cami admitted. The delay in opening Debbie’s smartphone had meant they hadn’t yet explored that angle. Now, with a third victim and hopefully a whole new set of information, they could explore it. It could be that somebody had targeted the victims and also happened to have the set of hacking skills that made it possible to bypass the smart home system. That would create a new angle for them to explore.
Connor’s words reminded Cami that it was sometimes important to dig deeper. Look harder, and find what was hidden.
