Chapter 37
THIRTY-SEVEN
It was midafternoon Thursday, and instead of an arrest, they had a second murder to add to the investigation.
Amanda was frustrated by the lack of progress thus far, but at least there were a lot of threads to tug.
It was just hanging in until the law of averages kicked in and their efforts paid off.
Amanda had ended up calling Judge Anderson about the electronics warrant to cover Dominique’s phone and laptop.
She just wanted to ensure he would sign off on the request before they compiled all the paperwork.
He did better and gave them a verbal go-ahead.
They’d still need to compile the paperwork, but this allowed things to get moving.
A phone call was made to Officer McRoy at the safehouse to collect Dominique’s PIN for her phone and password for her laptop, and to have the latter brought to them at Central. Amanda didn’t envy him that job. Time would tell if Dominique let him keep his head.
While they waited, Amanda and Trent each attacked a folder.
She rubbed her forehead. The dull pain of an impending headache was lingering behind her eyes.
Is it too much to ask for a break in this case?
Her cell phone rang. No way. Had calling out to the universe worked?
She took out her phone and a rush went through her at the sight of the name on the screen. “Trent, it’s Nadia Webber.”
He left his cubicle and joined her, and she answered on speaker.
“Well, I’ve got some news for you,” Nadia began. “ViCAP returned five similar cases within the last two years.”
“You can add one more to her tally,” Amanda said.
“Don’t tell me Blackburn died.”
“He did.”
“Jeez, how horrible.”
They faced so much death on this job it could desensitize a person. Amanda refused to ever lose sight of the fact victims were once living people with dreams and goals. “You said five similar cases. What can you tell us about them?”
“The FBI has flagged these cases as being linked to a serial killer investigation that tied back to the dark web and a site that posted ads for contract killers.”
The fact such a thing existed didn’t surprise her. Amanda just never expected to encounter one in her work. “What do we know about this woman? Anything?”
“Not a lot, but given how she wraps up her victims tightly in a tarp, agents on the case think she goes by the moniker the Anaconda Killer.”
“Don’t anacondas suffocate their prey by wrapping around them and squeezing?” Trent asked.
“They do. But you can see the parallel, yes? You said the word yourself, wrapping,” Nadia reiterated.
“Is her profile on this site still active?” Amanda was hungry for more specifics, having seen her work up close.
“That site was taken down by the FBI, but there are active ones still out there. Our tech branch is always taking them down. For every one, there’s five more that pop up.”
“Has she turned up on any of them recently?” Amanda asked.
“Not with that username anyhow. So you know, though, I have already made a note in this file, but I would like to add your case to ViCAP. Of course, I’ll need you to provide all the information in writing. I can provide you with the form.”
“Not a problem,” Trent said, beating Amanda to responding.
“I’ll send it to you, then, Trent. Just the fact she seems to have resurfaced should be enough to move the file up the pile.”
“Just up, not all the way to the top?” People needed to be focused on catching the Anaconda Killer even if that involved scouring the dark web twenty-four hours a day.
“You must understand there are a lot of unsolved cases, and agents can’t be assigned to work every single one all the time.”
Amanda hoped the FBI didn’t have plans of sweeping in and taking over the case. She was all for collaborating with them though. “Tell us more about the cases on file. Are they identical to ours? And did you ever catch the people posting the ads?”
“Not to date. We can hope our luck changes. In all five cases, the victims were found wrapped in tarps, as was Christine Lane. Not always under beds, but they were killed in their homes or hotel rooms.”
Amanda perked up at that last tidbit. “Hotels have cameras. Did any capture her?”
“Yes, and I was getting around to telling you that. Some homes had doorbell cams, but none of them caught anything. We got lucky at the hotel. We have two brief videos of her and derived a still shot from that. It’s rather pixelated, but it gives you the general ID.
It was run through facial recognition databases without success. ”
“We’ll want to see all of that,” Amanda told her. Trent saw this woman when it was pitch dark, but the potential eyewitness had seen her outside of Sharp’s residence during twilight. They could show the picture to her and see if they could get confirmation.
“I’ll get them over to you.”
“I might have an explanation for the lack of footage from the doorbell cams. It seems she’s using a jammer that affects both Wi-Fi and cell phone signals,” Amanda said.
“Clever. Leaving the victim with no way of calling for help. Though, with that said, there is nothing to suggest the victims fought back either. Did they have time, or is this woman stealthy just like an anaconda?”
If it took Amanda’s last ounce of strength, she’d find a way to slow this killer down. “Lane didn’t have any defensive marks on her either to suggest a struggle.”
“And the crime scene was pristine,” Trent added.
“Same for the five on file,” Nadia confirmed. “There is something I am compelled to say. The BAU is ready to take over from here if you’d like. All you have to do is say the word.”
Amanda had read between the lines correctly.
The FBI was ready to move in. There was no way she was handing the case off to the Behavioral Analysis Unit.
She felt a responsibility toward the victims’ families to get them justice.
Spencer, too. And if she arrested his girlfriend’s killer, it might go toward making amends for what she put him through.
“No, absolutely not. But I assume we have the FBI’s cooperation? ”
“I can confirm you do. I will give you the direct phone number for an agent at the Science and Technology Branch. Her name’s Lakisha Hester.”
Amanda wrote the number down as Nadia rattled it off.
“Do I have your permission to pass along your number to her?”
“Absolutely, and thank you.”
“Don’t mention it, and good luck.”
Nadia was gone, and Amanda turned to Trent. “Five other victims besides our two,” she said, shaking her head. An email filtered into her inbox from Nadia. “No one can say she works slow.”
“Never. Nadia is a bullet train. It’s just how her mind works.”
Amanda clicked on the message and found it had three attachments. She hit play on the first video and wheeled her chair back so Trent could see her screen.
A woman walked down the hall of a hotel, head down, until something behind her had her turning around.
Nadia was right about the footage being short. Less than thirty seconds.
“They couldn’t have gotten a still photo from that.”
“Nope. It must be from the second video.” Amanda opened it up and let it play.
It seemed to take over from the last. This one showed her face, taken from a camera at the opposite end of the hall.
“And there she is.” Amanda hit pause, freezing her face on the screen. “She look familiar to you?”
Trent leaned in toward the screen, and he shook his head. “It’s rather grainy. Nadia said there was a still shot. Even pixelated, it would be better than this.”
“Let’s see.” Amanda opened the JPEG.
“It’s clearer, but still not great.”
“Is it her?”
Trent angled his head left, then right, then left again. “It’s a little hard for me to say. This woman’s the right size anyway. I was fooling myself to think I’d recognize a face when I didn’t get a solid look at her.”
“I get it.” And she did. If only positive thinking magically manifested things into reality. “We can go talk to Sharp’s neighbor, see if she did.”
“I’d just be happy if she was more certain about what she saw. But, wow, I’m still reeling from Nadia’s update. A contract killer site on the dark web. There’s nothing too depraved for some people.”
Though should this really surprise them? Trafficking children and people was right up there, and she and Trent were given a front-row seat to that horror show a few years ago. “Nope. Time to update Malone.”