Chapter 27
Twenty-Seven
Gina
‘What is it, Garth?’ Gina was intrigued to know what he’d discovered.
She spotted PC Ahmed coming into the incident room.
‘Can you organise a small team to search a location in five minutes?’ Getting over to Spencer’s mother’s house was their priority and she wanted to be there.
If Mindy was in that house, she was going to be there for her.
A lump gathered in her throat as the blood on the windscreen intruded on her thoughts.
PC Ahmed turned to go back the way he came, already on the case. They had five minutes tops, so Garth had to convey his findings fast.
Wyre and O’Connor hurried into seats, chairs scraping around the table.
Briggs entered and leaned against the dusty blinds that covered the window to another dark, gloomy evening.
‘Mindy’s face is out there now and we’ve had a lot of calls, but none that have led to any useful leads.
We need a proper break in the case.’ He looked to the side and exhaled.
‘Great.’ Gina buttoned her overcoat up as Garth spoke. Jacob joined them, quietly sitting at the back of the room.
‘The team have managed to find OpenMeSmiler on the dark web. It was quite straightforward actually. By using DuckDuckGo through the Tor browser, you simply hit the Onionise toggle switch in the search box, and then you can find the dark web links. The problem is, we need to be allowed in so I’ve used a sock puppet – sorry – a fake me, that they will hopefully be able to trust. I already have this identity set up so there is some history there.
It’s the one we use for monitoring and it has no heat on it whatsoever.
Given the nature of the video that I analysed, I’ve also created a new AI image and I’ve started the process of creating an account with OpenMeSmiler.
I used Proton Mail to hide my email address and provided encrypted emails, so by sending them that info, together with my fake persona, the perp should hopefully take the bait. ’
Gina was lost but continued listening, knowing that Garth knew what he was on about.
‘Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, it’s practically impossible for us to find out who the operator is, and where they are, due to the very nature of what the dark web is.’
Gina sighed, knowing that Garth was a genius but even geniuses had their limits and couldn’t magic answers out of thin air at breakneck speed. It might take him weeks to get admitted onto OpenMeSmiler. ‘Is there anything else that might help us because Mindy is hurt and we need to find her now.’
He raised his brows and smiled. ‘Yep. I’ve been trawling social media and I’ve checked through a few manosphere groups, some of the very radical ones that we monitor – there are a few mentions of OpenMeSmiler.
My fake profile is trusted in most of them.
’ He smiled again and cleared his throat.
‘It appears that the groups users get poached and I’m certain that some grooming would come after but this would then be conducted through private chat.
I’ve looked at the profiles inviting these men and each time a different identity is used.
The profiles are AI created. I’ve tried to reverse image search for them, and all details are only used once and we can’t trace them.
The only reference we have is the person pulling the strings talks with another man about being a football supporter so I believe our perp slipped up that time and is a local because only local teams are mentioned.
A local would make sense – someone had to have taken Mindy.
But then again, the perp might be pretending to like whichever football teams the targets like to gain their trust.’ He paused. ‘There is another thing to consider.’
‘That is?’ Gina’s attention went to the clock behind Garth. This was all interesting but she had one more minute and she and O’Connor needed to leave. It was as if O’Connor could sense what she was thinking as he did the zip on his coat up.
‘Doxxing. The perp could be anywhere and might not have been the one to take her. If her address has been leaked and she’s been targeted, it could have been any site user that took her.’
Gina almost gasped out loud. Mindy’s nosey neighbour mentioned seeing men peering over the fence and she also told them about the damaged back window.
Was it some random person caught up in this whole dark web, misogyny rabbit hole, or was it her dumped lover who was the last person to contact her before she went missing?
‘You’re doing a great job, Garth. Stay with Wyre and Jacob and keep working through the tech and let me know straight away if you find anything else. O’Connor?’
‘Yep, I’m ready to go, guv.’
‘Great. I’m sorry to cut this short, everyone, but the team is ready.
We have an address to check out and I’m hoping that we find Mindy.
If we don’t and what you’re saying is true, Garth, she was targeted and the culprit could be anyone.
’ Gina wanted to scream with frustration.
If Mindy had been doxxed it might be impossible to narrow down their suspects.
She feared it was game over and she didn’t want their kidnap case to turn into a murder case.