Lutz rose from my guest chair and paced the bullpen. “Get Todd up here.”
I reached across my desk, grabbed the receiver off the base, and dialed our tech department. “Todd, it’s Jesse. We need you in the bullpen right away.” I hung up and stared into the face of the man who had killed Callie, Brad, Manny, and Diana. And for all we knew, many of the unsolved murder cases over the last year or more could have been at his hands.
“Take a picture of his face and get it to everyone’s phone immediately. Frank, Henry, and Shawn need to know who to watch out for.”
I texted the killer’s face to the phones of every detective in our department as well as to the officers who hung back at Frank’s house. A minute later, a call came in from Henry.
“Hey, Jesse. We got the picture and just boarded the train at the Indiana station. Frank said he’s sitting on the platform at Forty-Seventh Street and keeping an eye out for the perp.”
“Okay, great. Todd is on his way up, and he’ll let us know if the image is good enough to enter into the database.” I gave Lutz a thumbs-up. All we needed was the man’s name and an address. As soon as we had that, the killer wouldn’t have any power over us by using Gina as a bargaining chip. We’d pick him up and throw him in jail, and he’d never see the light of day again.
Todd entered the bullpen five minutes later with his laptop tucked under his arm. I pushed aside the files on my desk and made space for it. With him at my side, we’d tweak the footage until it was good enough to upload into the facial recognition database.
“Let’s see what you have.” Todd rolled Frank’s desk chair next to mine and opened his laptop then peered at the man’s face on my screen. He pointed. “Advance it slowly, just a hair. I need his face squared up better on the screen.”
I stood. “Switch places with me. I’d rather have you do it.”
“Sure.” Todd took over my spot and inched the footage ahead. “Damn it, too much.” He backed it up and tried again. “There, that ought to do it. Now, I’ll email it to my in-box and then upload it into the database. The system uses biometrics to map out dozens of facial features, so I need to have the best image of him possible in order to get a hit.” He frowned at us. “That’s if he’s in the criminal database at all.”
We waited as Todd worked his magic. With the perp’s face in the system and the points indicated, we watched as the software got to work.
Lutz checked the time. “How long will it take?”
Todd shrugged. “If he’s in the system, it’ll hit pretty quickly. Otherwise, it’ll keep scanning while it tries to locate him. Should be less than ten minutes if his face is in the database.”
“What are our options?” I asked. Although we knew the database was a useful asset, none of us had ever asked about it or watched how it worked.
“We can check criminal, military, government, and institutional databases.”
It sounded overwhelming, but we had no choice but to wait. I stepped to the back of the room and called Frank’s cell.
“What have we got, partner?”
“Waiting for the train. Henry said they’re in the fourth car from the front. I hear it heading my way, and the digital board shows it’s arriving.”
“No sign of the killer yet?”
“All clear so far.”
“Okay, good. We’re trying to find him in the facial recognition database, and I’ll keep you posted.”
“Gotta go.”
Frank hung up in my ear before I had the chance to tell him to stay safe. I returned to my desk and watched Todd’s computer screen with the rest of the guys.
Fifteen minutes later, Todd paused the search. “He’s not in the criminal database.”
“Shit.” I mentally went over the other options he’d told us about earlier. “It’s doubtful he was a government agent in any capacity, or in the military, although some people do suffer from PTSD if they were exposed to horrific combat situations.”
“Let’s check in order of most probable,” Lutz said. “Go with people who’ve been institutionalized first, then military, and finally government employees.”
“Okay, I’ll change the search parameters and get it rolling.”
Worried, I paced the bullpen. I was sure Frank, Henry, and Shawn would be fine even if they spotted the perp, but time was of the essence. If they apprehended him without us knowing who he was or where he lived, the chance of finding Gina was slim to none. Timing was everything, but for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why he chose to target Frank.
“We’ve got him!” Todd yelled as the screen flashed with a green match alert.
I spun and ran to his side. “Who is he? Where does he live?”
Todd began reading the details aloud. “His name is Richard Hill, and he spent two years at the Chester Mental Health Center in Chester, Illinois, but this is strange.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“There’s an attachment in his records about his father.”
“Why his father?”
Lutz interrupted. “Find Richard’s address, Kip, and do it now.”
“On it, Boss.”
“Sorry, go ahead, Todd,” Lutz said.
“Evidently, his father, Ronald Hill, was a convicted murderer who died in prison years ago.” Todd typed the name into the search bar, and a slew of information came up. “Okay, here’s the father’s story. When Richard was sixteen, Ronald enlisted his help in the murderous crimes he committed. He actually made Richard go along to the scenes. They’d break into single women’s homes at night, kill them, and then steal everything of value. The article says the father told Richard it was a genetic disorder and that Richard was predisposed to kill. He wouldn’t be able to stop himself, so he should accept his fate and lend a hand. When they were finally apprehended, Ronald went to prison, and Richard was sent to Chester. He was released back into society at age eighteen but with conditions. He needed to have quarterly psychiatric evaluations and be on antipsychotic medications for life.”
I raked my hair. “Well, something set him off again, and now his MO is far different than before. He isn’t murdering women in their homes just to rob them. It seems like he’s killing for the pure pleasure of killing.”
“Listen to this,” Todd said. “Richard was married, and then his wife up and disappeared just over seven years ago. There was a police investigation into her disappearance but no conviction. She was never found dead or alive.”
“Yeah, and I’m sure Richard had plenty to do with that.”
Lutz nodded. “Who knows? She could have done something to set him off, and she may have been his first solo murder victim.”
Kip called out that he had Richard’s DMV information pulled up. “Richard Hill is thirty-nine years old with dark-brown hair and blue eyes. He’s five foot ten and weighs two hundred pounds.”
Lutz cut in. “His address? What’s his address?”
“He lives on Thirty-First and South Wells.”
Lutz jerked his chin at the door. “Let’s go. I’ll have Patrol put eyes on the residence until we get there. Suit up, boys. We’re going in vested, and remember to silence your sirens and lights ten blocks out.”
We were off within minutes. As Lutz barreled out of the parking lot, I called Frank and told him we’d learned the killer’s name. We were en route to Richard Hill’s house and hoped to find Gina there alive and unharmed.
“Any sighting of him?” I asked again.
“Nothing yet. We’re each sitting in a different subway car, and we’re getting close to the end at Ashland.”
“We need him as far away from his house as possible. If any of you get eyes on him, text me, and stay safe.”
“You, too, partner.”
Richard’s home was twenty blocks north of our precinct and only an eight-minute drive. We made it in six.