' 8.49 in the morning'
Mark and Chase arrived at the location a little early, they had to sit in the car for a few minutes until the library staff unlocked it for them.
"The boss said this morning that Amy and Katy are already searching the hospital for the identity of the perpetrator," Chase broke the silence.
"Hey, I heard," answered Mark, "it won't be difficult, because Stephan and Sam found out the exact date when his mother gave birth and left him there."
Then a tall woman arrived with glasses, behind which beautiful pale blue eyes were hidden. She opened the library door and invited them into her office.
They asked for the footage from the cameras and she willingly provided it, without requesting a court order.
From Amy, they had the date and approximate time when the perpetrator connected with the victims through a dating site. But the only camera was at the entrance, so they had to look at recordings from a slightly earlier time.
They asked a woman, Lenie, to assist them in the observation. If you see a familiar face who mainly or only uses the public computers in the library, let us know.
"It could be him," Mark stopped the playback as a tall man walked into the frame. His head was covered by a hood and he was looking at the ground.
They went through several recordings, but in each of them he was disguised by clothes over his head.
"This isn't going anywhere," said Mark disappointedly. Lenie confirmed that it was a man using their computers, but his face did not appear in any of the footages.
Lenie suddenly sighed loudly. "Last month we had an event here with the kids," she blurted out with considerable enthusiasm, "and I took a lot of pictures."
Without another word, she jumped out of her chair and started rummaging through the drawers. She took the camera out of her desk drawer and connected it to her laptop with a cable. She then opened a file of photos on her laptop.
"Look, I took a lot of photos at that event, it's possible that he will appear somewhere in the background," she said hopefully.
She clicked through a series of photos, but the perpetrator has not yet appeared in any of them. Until they got the photos of children playing at the computer. A tall man appeared in the background, sitting at the backmost table with a computer, he was wearing a dark blue sweatshirt but the hood was no longer on his head.
"Are you looking for him?" asked Lenie.
"It'll probably be him," Mark smiled excitedly.
The photo was a little grainy, but the main features of the face could be distinguished. The probable perpetrator took up a lot of space on the chair, whether he was fat or muscular they couldn't tell because of his sweatshirt. His dark eyes were narrowed and focused on the computer screen. He could not be disturbed by the screams of the surrounding children. He probably didn't notice that someone was pointing a camera at him.
"Could you give us the camera as evidence," Chase asked politely, "it will be returned to you after the photos are developed."
"Of course," she unplugged the cable from the computer and handed them her camera.
They took the camera with them, thanked the willing Lenie for her help. They got into the car and Mark turned it towards home.
"We just need to find out his identity," they chatted along the way. "I hope Amy finds him from the hospital."
'10.08' Criminal police building, meeting room
Chase attached a printed photo of the perpetrator to a magnetic board just below the map, next to the photos of the victims. Katy had just entered the room, followed by Amy, followed closely by Jim. Samantha and Stephan were already sitting in the room when Mark and Chase arrived.
"Is that him?" Katy pointed at the photo.
"Looks like it will be him," she got Mark's reply, "what did you find out from the hospital?"
Katy looked at Amy, letting her talk. After all, she played a major role in contact with the hospital.
"We had to get a court order first, as the hospital couldn't give us any information without it. Especially regarding the adoption of abandoned children, they are very careful with releasing information."
"After we proved ourselves to them with the order, they searched the archive for a list of children whose parents had left in the hospital after giving birth. Fortunately, it wasn't very long, and on the day that his blood mother dictated to Samantha and Stephan, the only child, a boy, was abandoned."
Amy turned to Katy, she didn't want to take credit for all the work. Katy understood and continued for her.
"They looked for adoptive parents for us, with whom we managed to get in touch. They named the boy Rene Mastik, and they raised him in the neighboring state, where they are still located."
Chase walked over to the board and wrote a name in red block letters under the photo.
Amy spoke up again, "But they don't know where their son is. He returned five years ago, eager to find his blood mother. Contact between him and his family was interrupted about a year ago, when he was employed in the territory of this state as a locksmith. They gave us the address of the company, but couldn't help any more. They don't know where he might be staying."
"Then we need to go to the company, maybe they can give us more information about the perpetrator," Jim joined in, "Samantha, Chase, you two go there. Stephan, you take Mark and go to his blood mother again, find out if the son has not looked for her, it's possible that it already happened and she's hiding him."
He waited for the appointed to leave the room and continued to divide the work: "Amy, you will go online with our probable perpetrator. Search for social pages, interactions, profiles, see if he has an e-mail. Maybe there will be a clue where we could find him."
Jim turned to Katy, it was just the two of them left in the room. "I will call the reporters, we will provide them with a photo and the name of the perpetrator. I'll declare a nationwide manhunt, and we'll also send the photo to border controls if he wants to get away from us," he gestured and without another unnecessary word raised the phone to his ear.
AUTHOR: We already have the name and appearance, but how will our investigators find the place of where the perpetrator hides?
YOU ARE READING
NIGHT STRANGLER
Mystery / ThrillerA young woman was murdered in her apartment at night. The best search team 'ALPHA' was called to investigate the case. However, without member Stacey, they can't keep up like before. Therefore, they are joined by Samantha, who also lost her entire t...
