Chapter 6
Hope dropped Ali and Megan off at the Federal building. Megan headed to the FBI office, and Ali headed back to JOCT headquarters. She went immediately to the database room and found Amy, who was still pouring through data.
“A-Rod”, she said as she approached.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“I need you to run a scan on this real quick." Ali handed Amy the hair she had found on top of the bank building. "I need to know if this belongs to the same person as the hair I gave you last week.”
“Alright, can you give me thirty minutes?” Amy asked.
“Sure can. Thanks.” Ali left Amy and went down to the tape room. Heather was still there.
“HAO”, Ali called out as she approached.
“Hey, Kriegs, back to view more footage?”
“Actually, yes. I need to look at something. Pull up the west facing traffic camera on Division at the Rush Street intersection. I need all of the video for a week ago from today, from 9-11pm.”
“Okay…” Heather said, as she went to work. “Here…we…go.” She pushed a button and the feed came up on a monitor.
“Okay, scroll faster. What I’m looking for is the blonde that was in the footage from Taylor Street. I want to see if she scoped out this nightclub last week, a week ago from tonight.”
“Gotcha.” Heather went to work scrolling through footage. “This may take a bit”, she said. You want a cup of coffee?”
“Uh, sure”, Ali said. She got up out of her seat and went to a table on the other side of the room. She poured herself a cup and was taking her first sip, when Heather called her back. “Kriegs – I think I got something here”. Ali took a seat next to Heather as the latter pointed at the screen. “Take a look.” Heather let it play, and Ali watched as the three recently deceased Disciples and their entourage of fellow hoodlums entered the club. Two minutes later, an attractive blonde wearing tight black leather pants, dress boots and a white button-up shirt with a dark blue tie entered the frame, facing away from camera. Ali noticed when the blonde turned towards camera to hand the bouncer her ID, she purposely looked down and away from camera, and a chill ran down Ali’s spine. Heather looked at Ali. “Thoughts?”
“Ummm…might be her, but tough to say. Let’s keep playing. Let’s get to the point when the Disciples exit the club.” Heather nodded her head and scrolled through the footage. She came up to 10:30pm, and the three Disciples and their entourage exited the club. Two minutes later, the blonde came out.
“Freeze”, Ali said. “Back up…just a bit…stop.” Ali looked at the image on the screen. The blonde was facing camera. Not looking right at it, but close enough to get a clear shot of her face. “HAO – can you push in and enhance this image?” Ali asked. Heather did so, and Ali stared at the screen. The woman looked to be in her late twenties, maybe thirty. Her long blonde hair was parted to the left. The woman had a striking look – strong features and penetrating eyes. Ali stared at the image. She’s beautiful, Ali thought.
“Do you want a printout of this?” Heather asked. When Ali didn’t respond, Heather said, “Kriegs?”
“Huh? Oh - no, no, I’m good, thanks.” It’s not like I’m going to forget that face, Ali thought. She thanked Heather and then went back to Amy. She came in just as Amy was calibrating a match. “What do you have, A-Rod?”
“Just…one…more…moment…and…there!” Amy said. She pulled up the results and put them side by side.
Ali looked at the screen. “Are you sure?” she asked Amy.
“Yes. I’m sure”, Amy said. “Computer says we have a match. The hair you found last week and the hair you found tonight belong to the same person.”
Ali exhaled slowly. She thanked Amy, and then left the building and got into her car. She drove towards home and was about to park in her garage when she had a sudden urge to get a beer. She took a sharp right and headed to a bar she liked about half a mile from her house. She was thinking hard about what she had just been told and seen, and she was too lost in thought to notice that a black Mustang had followed her from the Federal building and had just made the same sharp right turn.