‘Look again. We must have missed something.’
Gabrielle’s voice was harsh, insistent.
‘I’ve run it three times,’ Albright protested. ‘Nobody at the Phone Shack has a criminal record.’
She and Suarez had returned to CPD headquarters, clutching armfuls of personnel files. Immediately the team had set about investigating the male members of staff. They prioritized those who matched the description given by Kassie Wojcek after the Calumet inferno, but that placed over a dozen people in the frame, including Jason Schiffer himself. The cavernous Phone Shack seemed to be a haven for middle-aged white men with bad facial hair who couldn’t find jobs elsewhere. When they had drawn a blank running criminal-record checks on those names, they ran them for the rest of the male members of staff, but had no more success. In desperation, they had run the female names, but the result was the same.
‘What about freelancers or short-contract guys?’ Gabrielle replied, more in hope than expectation.
‘They don’t do that,’ Suarez piped up. ‘They contract staff up, do everything in house. It’s cheaper that way, more reliable.’
‘So, do we think we’re wrong, then? That we’ve got this all sideways?’
‘Well, on paper it looks a good fit,’ Suarez answered. ‘Someone who’s tech savvy stalking these people, targeting them … but if we’re not getting any hits …’
‘Let’s stay with it,’ Gabrielle said defiantly. ‘Odds on, this guy was a stalker or a housebreaker first. He’s too good to be an amateur. So he’s probably got form for that and possibly violence or indecent exposure. He’s gonna have a rap sheet, we just need to find it.’
‘What do you suggest?’ Montgomery asked.
‘Well, he obviously gained employment at the Phone Shack under a false name. So, we’re going to have to do detailed background and ID checks on every Caucasian male who works there, checking for aliases, known –’
‘Talk about a needle in a haystack. That’ll take days,’ Albright moaned.
‘So, let’s stop talking and get on with it, shall we?’
Shrugging, Albright hurried off to do her bidding, gathering the team around him. Despite her frustration, Gabrielle felt a small spike of satisfaction as her officers snapped into action. Her back was against the wall and she was running out of time.
But she wasn’t beaten yet.