Killer Unknown

Chapter 19: The Lead

After a few weeks went by, Officer Carmichael finally received the data from the recording taken from the restaurant. The techs told him that someone hacked into the camera system remotely and altered the footage. They knew that there was a way to reverse it, but couldn't figure out how to do it. What they did discover was that the person who altered the footage did it from a cell phone that pinged off the tower near the restaurant. The signal was coming from someone very close to the building at the time of the shooting. 

Now, they knew that the restaurant footage wasn't going to give them much more information unless they could obtain more clues as to exactly what device was being used. The techs decided to gather all video recordings for all of the businesses and street poles near the restaurant. One restaurant in particular about a block down from Nina's caught King leaving the area in a bit of a hurry. It also caught him looking at the officers as they were traveling down the other street, opposite to where he turned. Officer Carmichael and Officer Barrett smiled at each other when the two discussed the tech's findings.

"Can we bring this guy in now, Spence?" Officer Barrett asked.

"Are you insane? If we bring him in right now, we will lose the only lead we have. All we have is circumstantial evidence and judging by his governor mom or whoever she was, we would be fired before we enter the courtroom," Officer Carmichael replied.

"Alright, what do you propose we do then? We can't just let him be out here killing people and I would sure love to throw it in that mother of his face or whoever she was to him like you said," Officer Barrett said.

"Slow down dumb dog! If we move too fast, the misses gets him a lawyer and the whole case crumbles. Not to mention that we are probably stepping on the detectives toes by investigating this. Chill! This is what we do; we meet up this weekend and gather video footage on all the other crime scenes to see if he was present at all of them," Officer Carmichael stated.

"Whoa! I didn't think about the other crime scenes, Sherlock! Do you think that he is linked to the other killings?" Officer Barrett asked.

"Now you're using your noggin. I think that somehow, he is connected to everything and we are going to figure it out," Officer Carmichael said.

"I'll check to see if he is a registered gun owner," Officer Barrett stated.

"Nope, already checked. He isn't." Officer Carmichael replied.

"What? When did you do that?" Officer Barrett asked, wide eyed.

"Right after the last encounter with him. I started getting this weird feeling about him and you being right. He is squeaky clean, but yet he is present to both local shootings. Don't forget that he was missing and then showed up dressed for Hawaii," Officer Carmichael stated.

"We need to check his travel logs to see if he was in the area with the other shootings," Officer Barrett suggested.

"Nope, did that too! He didn't travel by regular air craft if he traveled at all. Remember, innocent until proven guilty. I couldn't check the private logs without a warrant, so I have a friend searching illegally to see if his name was entered privately at any time," Officer Carmichael explained.

"Man, is there anything that you didn't think of?" Officer Barrett asked.

"Probably not, this is what years of college looks like. Maybe you should try it!" Officer Carmichael teased.

"Who, me? Nah, I'm straight! I simply don't have any time and I don't want anyone telling me how to think," Officer Barrett replied.

"Barrett, school doesn't teach you how to think, it trains you to think. You know what, never mind! You keep up that bottom of the barrel mentality; I hope you have a backup plan," Officer Carmichael snarled.