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"Great," Steve said. "I'll email you some more information on the company and a couple of alternative interview times. Just pick the one that suits you best and we can get face to face at our Boston offices."
“Thank you,” Cami said. Now seeing that Connor was staring at her impatiently, she politely concluded the call, hung up, and raced for the car, ignoring his inquiring look.
She couldn’t tell him what this call had been about, and that after being tempted by the FBI, she was now seriously considering an alternative career choice. She got inside without saying a thing, and he sped away.
As they drove, Cami tried to keep the excitement about the call and the opportunity – being head hunted, straight out of university – out of her mind, and made sure her thoughts were focused on the case ahead.
Rush hour was now ebbing, and since Connor was heading out of town, the drive was quicker than Cami had thought it would be. She stared at the scenery passing by – rain-swept roads, sidewalks still with traces of snow, bare trees. It was a bleak panorama.
Connor swung the car off the main road, headed up a hill, and drove down a tree lined road to where Cami saw the bright lights of police cars were flickering in the gray morning gloom.
Cami had been on the lookout for cameras, but she hadn’t seen any on the way into this secluded and upscale suburb. It might not be so easy to get visual evidence of this killer.
Connor stopped the car and got out. Now that she was at the scene, Cami found that focusing was surprisingly easy, and all her thoughts were on what happened here, and what she could discover.
Connor walked up to the police at the scene and introduced himself and Cami.
"Forensics has already finished up,” the cop explained. “They spent a few hours here last night and came back again early this morning. There’s unfortunately no obvious trace evidence picked up so far.”
“What about the entry point?” Connor asked.
The cop shook his head. “Both the front and the back doors were unlocked. There were two sets of keys on the counter near the back door – car keys and house keys – so we assume that the victim might have come in through the back. But maybe she left the other door open for some reason, and the killer got in through the front?”
Cami was staring at the flashing keypad by the front door. It looked as if it was electronically controlled, but it also seemed as if it wasn’t working correctly and was offline.
“Had she come from work?” Connor asked.
“She was wearing jeans and old trainers, and there was a pair of smarter boots in the kitchen. So she could have changed shoes when she got home, or maybe even gone for a walk. The neighbor who found the body told us that she did sometimes go for a walk in the evenings.”
Cami listened intently to what was being said. It sounded as if Lisa had had a predictable schedule – going for a regular walk late at night would have allowed the killer to dovetail with her movements.
Feeling angry with herself, she quickly stopped wishing that Lisa hadn’t been so foolish as to walk alone at night. In this safe and cloistered suburban neighborhood, a woman should be able to go for a walk locally after dark, without threat or fear. Lisa’s actions were not the problem. The killer’s actions were.
So he'd been waiting. Either inside or outside. He'd planned this. But maybe he hadn't planned it well enough, and there was a way she could pick up some evidence of him.
As Connor talked with the other cops about the placement of the body – face down – and the violence of the kill – extremely quick, powerful hands – Cami looked around to see what cameras there were on site. She could already see that this home had some smart features. There was a control keypad near the front door, but it, too, was blinking erratically in a way that made Cami think the controls might have been faulty or offline. Moving to the screen, she saw it was completely blank, as if the keypad had had a factory reset and was waiting to be reprogrammed.
However, there was a front door camera. Her hand went instinctively to her phone. Where was it linked to? Was it just there to give the homeowner a peek at who was outside? Or was it connected up to a security company?
Quickly, Cami started up her program that she hoped would give her access to the home's operating system and wifi.
She let the program run, and while it was running, she tuned back into what Connor was saying.
“So the husband is on his way back now?”
"Yes. He's on the second of his connecting flights and will be home tomorrow. He was in a remote town in western Australia, so that's the fastest he can get back here."
“Any other family?” Connor asked.
The cop nodded. Lisa has a daughter, Harriet, who’s twenty-three years old. She lives nearby. She came around earlier this morning and was in a very traumatized state. We sent her home, together with one of the officers. If she’s calmed down now, we still need to interview her.”
“That’s a job we can do. We’ll go there, from here. It can be our next stop,” Connor said.
Cami glanced down at her phone again anxiously. It sounded as if they'd be getting ready to go at any minute, and she hoped that before then, she could get a look into the wifi and see what was there.
But to her consternation, when she stared down at the screen, she saw a result that she’d never expected.
“Connor,” she said, her voice urgent. “Look here, quick. Something’s very wrong.”
