Lutz jammed his thick fingers into his pocket and jangled his keys—a habit he often displayed when agitated. “All of you go back to Bixler and dig deeper. Expand the search to a ten-block perimeter around the park. Look for every building-mounted camera you can find. There has to be a camera somewhere that caught those two people with the wagon. I’ll get the okay from Adams to have Patrol canvass the entire peninsula, the road leading out, and to look for cameras along the streets that enter the park.” He flung his hands into the air. “Now go!”
We turned back the way we’d come in and walked to our cruisers.
“Jesus, he’s got his boxers in a bind,” Shawn said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this uptight.”
I had to agree. As soon as the media caught wind of a second murder, they would push the serial-killer theory and say whatever they could to drum up higher ratings for their network. We had to stay tight-lipped about the brutality of both murders.
I called Tech as Frank drove to Bixler Park. “Hey, Todd, it’s Jesse. I need a ten-block perimeter around Bixler Park mapped out and sent to my phone. Yep, appreciate it.” I clicked off the call. “We’ll divide up and plan our route as soon as I get the street borders from Todd.”
Frank gave me a side-eyed glance. “What’s your take? Is it the same killer, or are you of the mind-set that the detective from North Carolina is?”
“Depends. Which mind-set are you referring to?”
“Where he said that cutting off fingers and removing identifiable features from the victims could be a new trend with murderers.”
I blew out a puff of air while I thought about Frank’s question. “I really don’t know. If it’s what they’re all doing, then there’s a good chance that the two killings aren’t related, but short of removing somebody’s head, the victim could still be identified from his description and a facial photograph.”
“Be careful what you say, partner. Anything is possible.”
We reached the park at two thirty. Todd sent over the names of streets that encompassed a ten-block perimeter around Bixler Park. If the two people with the wagon were spotted on camera, we could backtrack their route and find out where they came from. Since it was the only lead we had involving a middle-of-the-night sighting, especially with a potentially suspicious wagon involved, we had to follow up on it and see where the trail led. Besides, Lutz was on the warpath to find the killer or killers before they struck again.
We gathered at the park entrance, and I went over the route with the detectives.
“All you need to do is look for cameras. If you see one, write down the address and continue on. We’ll go back to each location when we’re finished canvassing the neighborhood and see what we have. Don’t bother chatting it up with the home or store owners who have cameras. There’s time for that later when we’re done. Everyone have paper and a pen?” Sometimes the most obvious assumptions were what stalled our investigations.
With everything we needed in our pockets, we headed in different directions. We would reconvene at the cars at four o’clock and compare notes. I yelled out before turning the corner. “Call me if something important comes up.”
I took off going south and would continue that way on South Kimbark Avenue, just like the others were doing in their own directions. Looking over my shoulder, I saw Frank follow the path through the greenspace to South Kenwood Avenue, where he would head north. Henry turned onto East Fifty-Sixth Street and went west, and Shawn turned on East Fifty-Seventh Street and headed east. With an hour and a half to locate as many sidewalk and street-facing cameras as possible, we needed to come up with something. We had a commander to report to later.
Starting out I was hopeful, since there were plenty of apartment buildings in the immediate area to check out. I planned to cover a four-block grid east to west and then from the south back north on a street parallel to the park. I noticed cameras along several apartment buildings, wrote down the addresses, and continued on. If the rest of the team had similar results, we’d need extra help from our officers to view all of the camera footage.
As I walked, I noticed dozens of sidewalks and alleys that zigged one way and zagged another. If the two individuals with the wagon were trying to stay hidden until they reached the park, my chances of catching them on camera might have just diminished substantially. By the time I got to our cruisers, I had spotted fourteen cameras on numerous buildings throughout the grid, but none of the alleys that I’d seen had cameras at all. Pushing back my sleeve, I checked the time—3:56. I saw Henry first then Frank. Shawn took up the rear and returned to our group a few minutes after four. We placed the slips on the trunk of our cruiser and counted our results. Between the four of us, we had written down the addresses of fifty-three cameras. With that many, there had to be a camera somewhere that caught the people walking by. And if they were also seen in the vicinity of Washington Park, we would have them dead to rights.