Chapter 23
CHAPTER
TWENTY-THREE
“Here goes nothing,” she said under her breath as she wrapped her blue hair into a ponytail and placed her hands on the keyboard.
“Why are you whispering, babe?” Wolf’s voice boomed in the open room.
Jazz jumped with a cry. “Yah! Don’t do that!”
He laughed and came behind her to check out the windows she had open on the screens. “No one’s here but you, me, and Freya.” He nuzzled her neck. “You need to take a break?”
Don’t start something you can’t finish. Stop messing with me right now. “Don’t stop messing.” Argh! “I mean finish me now.” She rolled her eyes at her mixed-up words and took a breath to center herself. “This is important, right? Show some respect for the process.”
He chuckled and pulled up a chair. “Mind if I watch?”
“As long as you stay silent and just observe. Otherwise, go away.”
“I’ll be quiet.”
The construction workers completed their house last week, and they’d moved into the new digs as soon as the paint dried.
The new design had an open floor plan with big windows and an extended deck to watch the Allegheny River flow by.
Right now, Jazz wasn’t looking at anything other than the wall of computer power in front of her.
She took a sip of herbal tea from her unicorn mug and placed her fingers on the keyboard.
They flew over the tiny squares in rapid motion, never stopping or faltering.
Images came up on the triple screens—angles from different security cameras belonging to neighboring businesses, CCTV, and even some car dashcams. She zoomed in and out with dizzying speed, looking at reflections and shadows, license plates on cars parked on the surrounding streets where each incident took place, and even hacked into the cell videos taken during the rally.
Many had been posted on social media, but nothing got the viral hits like the one showing Cam’s rescue of the child.
Jazz enhanced that video until she could see the blood splatter from where Cam was shot.
Then she noticed a person in the corner of the screen, filming the incident from the front angle.
“Look at that.” She pointed to the figure and zoomed in, enhancing and filling in pixels for clarity. “That woman took a video from the other side. Maybe she got a piece of the back part, where the shooter was on top of that building.”
Wolf perked up at that. “Can you find that video?”
Jazz continued to type as she searched. “I have to identify her first. I have a facial recognition program that should find—there. She’s employed by Marty’s Sweets over in Cannonsburg. Ooh, lookie! She entered the Date Knight contest with a hundred tickets. Looks like she won Melter.”
“The video, babe. Can you find the video?”
“I’m getting into her phone to see. This one has a tough firewall, but I’ll find the chink in the armor.”
Wolf raised an eyebrow at the contents of the computer screens. “I’m impressed and a little scared of you right now.”
Jazz grinned and took another sip of tea as the woman’s phone information loaded. “As long as I never have a reason to do a deep dive on you, you’re safe.”
He pulled her attention away from the monitors by cupping her chin and turning her head to his for a quick kiss. “That, I can guarantee. By the way, your brother came by earlier today.”
Her face lit up with delight as she turned back to her work. “What did Hugo have to say about the new digs?”
“He wanted to know when his room would be ready.”
“Ha! Like he would ever leave his place at the group home. He’s surrounded by other adults with Down syndrome and loves working at the dog treat company. What more could he ask for?”
“I still want him to remember that he always has a place with us if he ever needs or wants it. I told him he could pick out what he wants to decorate a room here with so he’s always move-in ready.”
“Oooh, you’re makin’ me all gooey inside,” she gushed. “I can’t concentrate when you do that!”
Wolf laughed, then went quiet again as Jazz rummaged through pictures and videos on the woman’s phone. Scene after scene flashed by for several minutes. “Oh! Here we go!”
There were multiple pictures of Cam in addition to a video of him getting shot.
The angle wasn’t the best, but the storage building the shooter used was in the background and partially visible.
Jazz zoomed in and enhanced, filling in what was her best guess to tighten and clarify the image.
This was tedious work and took time, but she could see the progress on the screen.
Wolf got up to go get snacks from the newly installed fridge. “Want a warm-up?”
“Sure,” she muttered as her eyes darted around the screens.
He snagged her cup and topped it off with fresh tea from the R2-D2 pot on the counter.
She sipped at it while he handed her a Tastykake Butterscotch Krimpet.
She ate it while still typing with one hand.
He kept his eyes on the figure as more was brought into focus each time she zoomed in and added more pixels.
“I don’t recognize that guy at all. Can you do a search for his face on other sites? ”
“I’m way ahead of you, sweetheart. Once he’s recognizable enough, I’ll ping him everywhere I can, starting with local places. Where were the other businesses that got vandalized?”
He told her the addresses, and she was off to the races, looking for other video sources. Several new ones came up.
“That one’s different,” he noted.
“Security camera from the back of Smitherman’s across from Clauson’s,” Jazz said absently. “It’s pointed to the front window and catches a small view of the street. See? There.”
The grainy image showed Edna Clauson locking up and not noticing the two figures behind her.
One quickly broke out the glass at the door, then lit and lobbed a Molotov cocktail through the opening.
The other followed Edna. When she fell to the ground, he pulled down the scarf around his face and spat on her.
“OMG! Did you see that? Disgusting!” Jazz’s voice rose. “How can anyone be so nasty and mean?”
Anger was not the word to describe Wolf’s gut reaction.
Enraged was the closest he could find for the callous disrespect shown to an old woman who, for decades, did nothing more than sell candy and a few staples to the people of this neighborhood.
“We got him now. Can you isolate that shot of his face? That asshole is going to pay for what he’s done. How’s the shooter’s image coming?”
“Almost there. Got him as best as he’s gonna get. Let’s see what turns up regarding his ugly mug.” She started the program to zoom and add pixels to the second picture before pinging the restored one.
The computer hummed as it searched. Jazz picked up another Krimpet, then dropped it as she took in the results. “Wolf, do you see this?” She pointed to an image among many she’d pulled from the corners of the web.
His face grew stormy when he saw what she had found. “Fuck.”
The second image came more into focus, and before the perpetrator’s face became completely clear, Wolf was already on the phone, calling Quillon. “We got a big problem, brother.”