It was just after nine the next morning when Millar walked into Penner’s office at the precinct with a cardboard box under his arm and sat down in her chair. He opened the box and took out a donut. There was no sign of Grant.
‘So, what’s our plan of attack today?’ Penner asked, her back to Millar as she stood in front of a flip chart. Millar made a sound as he tried to catch a chunk of icing that had fallen on his shirt.
‘Try not to make a mess of my chair, would ya?’ Penner said, turning around. ‘You need a bib!’
‘Sorry,’ Millar said, spraying some crumbs as he did. ‘Wasn’t Constable Sparky supposed to be here by now?’
‘Is that what you’re calling me today?’ Grant said, walking into the office. ‘Sorry I’m late.’
‘Again,’ Penner said.
‘This time I have a good excuse,’ he said, putting a memory stick on her desk.
‘And this is?’ Penner asked, picking it up.
‘Security footage.’ Grant grabbed a donut from the box on Millar’s lap. ‘Thanks,’ he said to Millar, taking a bite.
‘Help yourself, I guess.’ Millar shot Penner a look.
‘So, security footage from where?’ Penner asked, turning on her lap-top and inserting the memory stick.
‘The first is from the building on Laurier where we found the drops of blood,’ Grant said. ‘I stopped by this morning and talked to the security guard. They have quite the system there, keep stuff for months.’
‘The first?’ Millar asked.
‘Yeah. After you guys left last night, I followed the drag marks out of the woods while I was waiting for uniform to show up to guard the scene. When I got to the street, I lost the trail, but there’s a convenience store there. And guess what? They have a security camera on the outside.’ As Grant reached for another donut, Millar moved the box off his lap and onto Penner’s desk. ‘Got in touch with the boss there and he was able to make me a copy of the tape from the evening in question. Pretty lucky—they only keep their recordings for a couple of days, and we would have lost it later today.’ He finished his donut and wiped his hands on his pants.
‘Well, good work, Grant,’ said Penner, looking over at Millar. ‘Way to show some initiative. Have you watched the videos yet?’
‘Just the first one,’ Grant said. ‘The convenience store guy wasn’t in the mood to watch it while I was there. He just dumped the file for the night. Guess he didn’t like being woken up at three in the morning.’
Penner brought up the first video file on her computer as they all crowded around the screen. The image was in black and white, but it was surprisingly clear.
‘Fast forward to 12:35,’ Grant said, checking his notes.
Penner advanced the video to 12:34 and let it play. After a minute of nothing, a figure came into the shot. He was wearing dark pants, boots and a hooded sweater which was blocking his face. He had a woman slung over his shoulder. Mrs. Jackson.
‘Damn. With that hood on, we can’t make out any facial features,’ said Millar leaning forward and staring at the screen. The figure walked out of view. ‘Can you rewind it and freeze when they’re mid-screen? I want to see if there are any identifiable markings on his clothes.’
Penner rewound the video and started it again, pausing when the figure was fully in view. The image stayed crisp. They all looked intently at the screen, trying to see anything that would help identify the person in the video.
‘Is it possible to enlarge the video?’ asked Penner. She wasn’t a very tech-y person.
‘Don’t think so, not with the software you’d have on that lap-top,’ Grant said. ‘Possibly someone in FIS or cyber crimes would have something we could use, but I’m not sure.’
‘Doesn’t really look like there are any logos or anything visible on his clothes, just a generic dark hoody,’ Millar said with disappointment. ‘Got to be hundreds, thousands of those in the city. Even I have one.’
‘Me, too,’ Penner said. ‘Let’s check out the other video.’ She closed the original video file and opened up the second one. The picture quality was much worse than the first. There was a time stamp in the bottom left hand corner.
‘Okay, so we know our guy was seen a couple of blocks from here at 12:35,’ Millar said. ‘We have no idea how long he would have taken in the woods, so let’s just start at the beginning of the recording I guess.’ He grabbed another donut.
They watched the video for an hour at one and a half times normal speed, looking for anyone wearing a dark hooded sweater or for Mrs. Jackson. Finally, at 11:22, they saw what they were looking for, although it was very poor quality. They watched Mrs. Jackson run from behind the convenience store towards the woods, looking over her shoulder as the hooded figure chased her and gained on her. When he was a couple of feet behind her, he raised his right arm and she fell to the ground, stiff as a board. ‘Must be where he tased her,’ Penner said. They watched in silence as the hooded figure grabbed her by the arms and dragged her out of frame, into the woods.
‘Well that’s a bit chilling to watch,’ Grant said, swallowing loudly. ‘At least we know what direction she came from, but I’m not sure what’s over that way. Ideas?’
‘I think there’s a couple of restaurants, maybe a pub or two,’ Millar said. ‘Man, I wish the quality was better in this video. When they first run into the shot you can almost see his face, but its just way too fuzzy.’ He slammed his hand down in frustration. ‘We’ve got to try and get these cleaned up.’
‘Agreed,’ said Penner, ‘But let’s work with what we’ve got. The killer had to meet Mrs. Jackson somewhere, and at least now we have a better idea of where. Her husband did say it was her dart night, but that was over on Daly Avenue. Bit of a hike from the convenience store, isn’t it?’ Penner asked.
‘Maybe four blocks or so, not too bad,’ said Millar.
‘So, what now?’ Grant asked. ‘Do we release a description of who we’re looking for?’
‘It’s too early. Without any identifying characteristics, if we say we’re looking for a big guy wearing dark clothes and a hooded sweater we’ll get more leads than we can possibly handle. We need something else to go on.’ Millar said.
‘Well, before we forget about what else happened last night, someone still needs to go notify the next of kin of Mrs. Brenner, our latest victim,’ Penner said. Both she and Millar looked at Grant.
‘What, me?’ Grant asked. Silence followed. ‘Fine, I’ll do it.’
‘Excellent. Thanks for volunteering,’ Millar said.
‘I think I was kinda voluntold,’ Grant muttered.
‘Millar, if you want, you can go see Faye when she does the autopsy. Find out whether or not she’ll confirm that the cause of death and weapon are the same. And see if our killer left a clue this time,’ Penner said. Millar looked thrilled.
‘And what are you going to do?’ asked Millar, already knowing the answer.
‘Well, someone should probably go to the pub where Mrs. Jackson was playing darts. See if anyone remembers seeing a guy in a dark hoody lurking around,’ Penner said. ‘I may need to hang out for a while. You know, if there’s a shift change or something.’
‘Switching from coffee to beer now?’ asked Millar.
‘Always a good balance of liquids, my friend.’ Penner patted Millar on the shoulder.