It was. She’d been careful, and the plans she’d put into place a while ago were still working. That was good. Now she had to reinforce the groundwork she’d done earlier to make sure the police looked past her.

  She accessed the company's chat site and began typing a message. "Glad to hear this is being sorted, because it’s scary," she wrote innocently, adding to a mass of other comments. Some were negative. She could see that a lot of the employees didn't trust the police, or thought they'd bungle the case, or else just couldn't believe that the killer could be in their company.

  But she needed to leave an innocuous, supportive, positive comment that would help to make her invisible, because right now, she didn’t know who her friends were or how far the FBI’s reach went.

  That was enough.

  Drawing a deep breath, she closed the camera window and logged off. Her heart was pounding because everything was at stake now. Everything.

  Then she logged onto the other software. This was where she needed to be, right here, in her own personal kingdom, searching for the next victim.

  And she knew who it was going to be. She'd identified the target a couple of weeks ago, like the others, and she was slowly and methodically closing in. There had been no hurry, but she had to admit, with the arrival of the police, she was now starting to feel pressure as if she should act sooner.

  "What if they stop me?" she muttered. "What if I can't carry on with my payback plan? They're already in the offices! They know I work here!"

  But did they know? Or were they just ruling out the company before moving on?

  Breathing deeply and trying to calm her fears, she tried her best to talk rational sense into herself.

  "They can't know," she whispered. "They must be here because of the software, that's all. That's all it is. They know this software was used, or maybe they don't even know, maybe they're just guessing. It's just a clever guess."

  Even so, it was making her think she should bring forward her timeline. Perhaps it might be better to do that, to get one more of the women that she needed to.

  It was so tempting to think about that.

  But she had time. She reminded herself that she'd thought through her options and decided the best course of action would be to escape. As in, permanently. Go overseas and start a new life somewhere different. She'd need a new identity, a new name, and a new look. It would be a lot of work, but it was her only chance. That was what she was planning, and she had some ideas on where to start. She’d been on the dark web and found some helpful contacts, and she was sure it would be possible. One more kill and then she would disappear. Invisible, with a new name and a new start.

  She turned, catching a dark glimpse of herself in the reflection from her computer monitor, and another in the window glass where the blinds had moved aside. Quickly, she turned away from those unwanted sights.

  "No," she told herself aloud. "You don't act in haste, and you don't allow them to make you panic. If you do that, you'll be caught. Just keep your head down. There's no way they can work out who you are. They'll go chasing after the wrong person. That's a certainty."

  She took a deep breath, feeling calmer and more in control, reminding herself that she had no need to worry. She had the upper hand.

  The police would surely go after the wrong person, and meanwhile, she was getting closer and closer to her next target. The thrill of the chase was intoxicating, and she could imagine the sense of triumph if she managed to claim a new woman, right under their noses.

  The eagle smiled to herself. She was ready to take flight again.

  Her plan was in place, and she was going to move too fast, and soar too high, for them to get her.

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  Cami finished reading out the Wi-Fi password to Jack, who then kept her waiting while he checked that it worked. She was seething with impatience, and as soon as this was done, she dashed out after Connor.

  Connor had mentioned the word Liam, and it had triggered an immediate flare of anxiety inside her. What had he been talking about? She wished she'd been able to overhear the conversation. The timing had been terrible.

  But by the time Cami got outside, she found that Connor was striding toward the car. He was still talking, but in a low voice, and as she rushed up to him, he cut the call and put away his phone.

  Cami's heart was hammering.

  She wanted to ask him what that was about and who Liam was, but the problem was that it could be a totally different set of circumstances and a different Liam too. It had been no more than a snippet she’d overheard.

  If she asked, then he'd be justified in asking her why she was so interested in that name, and if that happened, then she'd have to spill what she knew.

  And that might land her in danger, not from Connor, but from whomever else he was obligated to tell. She didn't know who that might be if anyone. And Connor was now fully focused on the case again.

  "Well, that didn't pan out," he told her grimly. "It was a good idea, but it didn’t get us where we needed to be, and we're getting deadlines imposed here. There's major political pressure, and I can tell you right now that we're on a very tight time limit to get results."

  Cami felt the tight knot in her stomach that she associated with being in trouble. They were going to be in deep trouble if this case dragged on with no suspect arrested, or worse still, if the killer struck again. She needed to derail her thoughts from Ethan, Liam, and Jenna right now and refocus on the here and now because Connor’s tone told her that this political pressure was bad news for them.

  "So, what do we do now?" she asked, trying to sound calm. "Go back to Wave Management’s offices?"

  Connor nodded grimly. "We need to get back there and carry on digging. I agree that it’s by far our best lead, so we need to get back there now and do the hard work, go through the other names, check everyone’s whereabouts at the time of the crimes, and look for alibis. We can narrow the field down by looking at people’s height as well as we have parameters for that. As we know, the killer is most likely average height and not very tall, so we have that to work with. We need to make significant progress today," he added, shaking his head in frustration.

  They climbed into the car. Cami was still a bundle of nerves. That one mention of the name Liam had jolted her far more than she wanted to admit. And her confidence felt dented after this lead hadn’t gotten them anywhere. Jack had seemed like such a strong suspect who had checked so many of the boxes she thought they were looking for.

  "We just need to continue," Connor said. "I will carry on with a bigger search of this next pool of people to see if there are any criminal records among them. I'll move forward with that. You look at who they are and let's identify the key people who might have had motive, opportunity, or means. If it ends up being that we have to go and interview every person on that list, then we do it. But if we can get lucky, or make ourselves lucky, then we’ve saved time, and we're a step ahead."

  Cami nodded. "I'll get to work on my side as fast as I can," she said, feeling determined.

  Connor was already pulling up outside Wave Management’s sleek office park. They headed around to the visitor's parking and then rushed inside, checking in with the receptionist before returning straight to the same boardroom where they'd been busy earlier.

  Cami went straight over to the computer and jiggled the mouse, refreshing the screen, taking another look at the list of names. Somewhere among these names was the killer, she was sure of it. But there were so many names that it was going to take them days to work their way through them.

  "I wonder if security camera footage could tell us anything," she said. "Someone must have gone into one of those computer rooms and logged in to use the software and track the names. Maybe, if we take a look at the footage, we can see who went in regularly, especially in the past few weeks? Someone might even have accessed it after hours or come in to use it specifically, so that they wouldn’t be noticed by anyone else. We could look at all those factors—frequency of use, and after normal working hours—and see if anything adds up."

  "That's a possibility," Connor said. "I've seen a few cameras around here. But this isn’t the time to access the footage without asking. Go and ask,” he said firmly.

  Cami stared at him innocently. Did he really think she’d go right ahead and access it without asking?

  “Of course, I will,” she insisted. She’d ask first, do things by the book. And then if they told her no, she was going to find another way to get to it.

  "You head off then. Just keep me in the loop. I'm carrying on with these checks," Connor said.

  Cami headed down the stairs again and back to the helpful, bearded man in reception who turned to her with an inquiring expression.

  "I need to access your security camera records," Cami said. “Will that be possible?”

  The man's eyebrows raised. "Why?"

  "We're trying to work out if anyone was looking at the image recognition software after hours or more than usual," Cami replied.

  "Ah, yes," he said, understanding immediately. "Just a moment, I'll just get the information you need. But I'll have to ask permission first.”

  Cami nodded, crossing her fingers metaphorically as he got on the phone and began speaking, fast, to whomever he was calling.

  "Yes, Gotz," he said. "I know.”

  Angry words were audible from the other side.

  “Yes, that’s true. I know it’s sensitive and confidential. But this is the FBI, and Marius has already given permission. So, I think you're going to have to do the same.”

  He waited. “Yes, you can impose conditions. What conditions would you like them to follow?”

  The angry words continued and then changed to a more subdued tone.

  "Okay. Good. What's the current code?"

  Cami felt cautiously optimistic that Gotz had given the go-ahead, and when the bearded man finished writing, he cut the call and looked up, nodding in satisfaction.

  "Mr. Gotz, head of security, has agreed for you to access the footage, but only on the premises and only from an official company computer. Of course, you can use the facial recognition software to work out who's who. But for privacy reasons, we cannot allow any of the footage to be copied or moved off the premises. If you want to do that, you'll need a warrant." His voice was firm.

  "Understood," Cami said, thinking that sounded fair. “Thank you so much for helping us.”

  He handed her the piece of paper. "This is the access code," he said. "You should be able to access the camera footage from everywhere in the building, and there are a few in the parking lot too. Just type the code into the website, and the cameras will start streaming the footage. Remember you can only work with it here, though. If you try and log in on a non-company machine, they will know. So, you don’t want to do that."

  “I won’t.” Considering herself thoroughly warned, Cami thanked the man again and took the piece of paper. Then she headed back upstairs, feeling slightly more hopeful. Maybe this was the clue they needed.

  "Camera footage is available from machines in any of these computer rooms, with the correct code," she said. "Now, I have the code."

  "Great," Connor said, but Cami had the sense he was only paying her a fragment of his attention. The rest was completely focused on getting through those background checks as fast as possible.

  She opened up the company's computer again, entered the code, and soon she was looking into the cameras that had been installed around the office buildings. She was able to switch between the cameras, and she spent a few moments looking at the employees coming and going from the office and then, turning back to the HR side, she checked the personnel records to see who had come in after hours on the time sheets. There were a lot of those. Hundreds, in fact, over the past few weeks. Her heart sank as she considered the enormity of the job that lay ahead.

  One by one, she'd have to make a note of everyone who went into one of the computer rooms after hours and search the footage.

  Cami sighed. It was an immense job, but the only way to get it finished was to start it. First step, she needed to identify the computer rooms on each floor. The killer could have used different rooms, switched things around, so she’d need all the footage from each floor.

  Moving between the camera angles, she got what she needed. Here was one of the rooms, here was another. Here was the footage closest to the room on the third floor, and here was the one for the first floor. But how about the one on the second floor, where they were now?

  Cami switched back and forth between the footage, frowning in puzzlement as she looked from screen to screen.

  "Look here, Connor," she said finally.

  He glanced up from his work.

  "I'm trying to get all three sets of footage, but I can't," she explained. "There's something very wrong with this set, and now, I'm wondering if it's been done deliberately."

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

  "Look here," Cami said to Connor, scrolling through the security images. "Look at these sets of footage from the three computer rooms on the three different floors." She pointed.

  “I’m looking?” Connor sounded curious.

  Flicking from vantage point to vantage point, she showed him what she’d noticed. "This one is totally clear. The angle’s right. You can see the faces, and you can see people passing by. It's working as it's intended to. That’s the third-floor computer room door just there, visible from this camera."

  "Yup. That's all good."

  "Now this one on the first floor, the same. Working as it should." To prove it, Cami scrolled back through the footage, going past the images of people walking to and fro, speeding them up as she went weeks back. It was all correct.

  "But this one? On the second floor? It’s not working at all."

  Connor leaned forward. "You’re right. It’s not. It seems like it was knocked sideways. Or maybe pushed out of line," he added thoughtfully.

  The camera outside the second-floor computer room was tilted at an angle where people couldn’t be clearly seen. Only their legs could be seen. And a whole lot of anonymous legs passing by were impossible to match up to their owners, Cami realized. Everyone in this company wore jeans or chinos or cargo pants. You couldn't tell whether it was the MD or a cleaner passing by.

  And that was the camera that recorded who was accessing the second-floor computer room. So, this camera angle meant that nobody entering that room could be seen properly.

  "Do you think it's a mistake?"

  "I don't know. But there's a way we can find out if it was a genuine mistake or else if the camera was moved."

  Connor nodded, seeing Cami's point instantly. "Scroll back through the footage?"

  "Exactly. If we do that, we'll see if it was always that way or if it was turned or moved at some stage, and if so, when."

  Now feeling intent on this new theory, Cami scrolled back through the footage, looking at the time prints. If the camera had always been that way, it wasn't as suspicious as if it had been turned that way. If it had been turned that way, especially in recent weeks, it gave them a clue. They might be able to work out who'd been on the premises at the time.

  She scrolled back one week, then another. Then two more weeks, checking the angles carefully, because it wasn't always possible to see at a glance where people were walking, until they were either cut off halfway or not.

  "Three weeks ago, and it's still this way," she said. "Four weeks ago, still the same."

  And then, she caught her breath. "Look here, Connor! This is it. Look. The cameras were fine this day—it was a Sunday. And now, look. Monday morning, and the view is different."

  From the Sunday to the Monday, just over a month ago, the camera angle had been changed—subtly, but enough to prevent anyone from being clearly seen. No faces visible. Only legs.

  "Someone did this! Can we see who?"

  She homed in on the moment, but it was impossible to see it, to her frustration. It seemed that the cameras had been offline for a few minutes because there was a gap in the footage of every camera. Someone must have known that would happen, and that there was a reset scheduled. They’d been waiting to do it and had gone in during the down time.

  They were looking at the window of time when this killer had been here, and at least Cami could now see when it was. It was at six a.m. on that Monday morning, give or take a few minutes.

  "Would it have been done remotely?" Connor asked.

  "I think it was done manually," Cami said. "All it would have taken was a ladder or maybe even a chair.”

  “And why has nobody noticed?”

  “I don't think these cameras are checked very often. The footage would only be used if there was a break in or some serious incident. I doubt anyone even noticed that the camera angle was different."

  "Can we see who logged in for work that morning?" Connor asked.

  "We can."

  Cami went back and checked the logins. She made a face. She’d thought this would be easy, but it seemed that Monday morning had included a big software upgrade as well. A lot of IT staff had been at work early, as well as a couple of reception staff, and the usual night staff, the watchmen and cleaners, were still on duty.

  "This hasn’t helped me as much as I thought,” she admitted. “That day was definitely chosen for a reason. This was all so well planned," she said. She felt like they'd been outwitted here. Someone had had this in mind and had probably been planning it for a while, choosing the day with care, knowing the cameras would be down, a lot of staff would be on site, and nobody would know they’d done it.

  "That’s a shame. But maybe, looking at who did it is only one question," Connor said. “Maybe we haven’t placed enough focus on why they did it.”

  Cami nodded. Why those suspects? Why these women?

  "I think we need to look at motive," Connor said. "There has to be a reason why this particular appearance is being chosen. It means something to the killer. It must be significant."