Page 52 of Killer Clone

Stella didn’t always appreciate Mac’s idea of fun and neither did Stacy, judging by the sour expression on her face.

Mac tried again. She held her hand above the Enter key and gave it a punch. She grinned. “I can’t believe it. We’re in. Julius Caesar was his man.”

Stella was impressed. “It was his birthday? How’d you guess that?”

“The lock screen image is his bust. Let’s see what we got.”

She lowered her head and typed quickly. Clicked, typed, and clicked again. Stella wondered whether she should just leave Mac alone.

She nudged Stacy and pushed herself out of her chair. Mac raised her finger. Stella dropped back and waited.

After a few minutes, Mac sucked in one cheek and pushed the computer to the side.

“Okay, so a quick look suggests…there’s nothing here. Browser history is all Netflix, history factoids, and homework. The kid didn’t even watch porn. No encrypted files and nothing secure. His email account is mostly spam and messages from college. At least he read them. I’ll take a deeper dive later, but if the contents of this machine represent his personality, I can see why he had no friends.”

“That’s low, Mac.” Stacy pushed the phone across the table. “What about this?”

Mac took the device. It was an Android, not the latest model and not the most expensive version in the year it came out. The case was plain, the screen protector cracked and bubbled. Mac turned it on.

The lock screen displayed a bust of a Roman emperor, though Stella couldn’t tell whether she was looking at Julius Caesar or Nero without his fiddle. Mac bit her lower lip.

“I’ll put in a call to Marrion’s family to see if they knew his password. But if not, we’ll need a court order to hack it. I can see there’s a notification from Dispatch…which is interesting. Especially as your last case hung on a Dispatch group. But if I start plugging passwords in and get them wrong, it could wipe everything. I’ll need to be careful.”

“So there’s nothing you can do with it?”

“I didn’t say that. The good news is that it’s an old model. If he hasn’t kept up with his security updates, there should be some vulnerabilities I can exploit.” Mac opened a drawer and picked out a cable. “I’ll let you know when I’ve got something.”

That was their cue to leave. Mac had her own office because, when she got her teeth into something, she didn’t like to be disturbed. All they could do now was wait for her shout of triumph from down the corridor.

They returned to the bullpen. Anja was staring at her monitor while Hagen was watching Ander pace with a phone to his ear.

Hagen pointed at Ander and mouthed to Stella,Alessandra.

Stella took her seat and tried to ignore the conversation taking place in front of her. The office was a strange place for Ander to talk to his partner. If he wanted privacy, the break room was empty. And Alessandra’s workspace was in the same building.

Ander hung up. “That was Alessandra.”

Stella feigned surprise. “Really? That’s nice. How is she?”

“She…” He stopped and eyed Stella. “She’s fine. Oh, the lab called with preliminary DNA results from that beer can you picked up. The one from the homeless guy in the alley.”

“What did the results say?”

“There’s a name. Delafayette Gerwen.”

Stacy dragged her keyboard closer and typed quickly. “Fett. Got him. Oh, yeah, it’s him all right. Hasn’t changed much. And he’s got a record.”

Stella rolled her chair to Stacy’s desk. The face in the mug shot was that of the white male she’d seen emerge from under filthy blankets in the alley. He was younger and much paler with the crust of dirt gone. His beard was thin and black without the white tinges. No lines on his face yet. And his hair was short, not clumped and unwashed. But it was him. Same eyes, same nose, same square face and wide cheekbones.

His record showed his conviction. Second-degree murder, for which he’d received a sentence of twenty years. He’d been released three years ago.

Stella blinked. She’d hoped when she’d picked up the bottle that they’d get lucky. Finding a convicted killer at a crime scene was about as much luck as any investigator could hope for.

“A murderer. That’s handy. I think we’d better have a talk with Delafayette.” Stacy scrolled down the screen.

“No fixed abode. No Wi-Fi would make it hard to make friends online,” Stella pointed out.

“There are libraries.” Stacy didn’t seem perturbed by the long shot odds. “Last picked up in the town of Lebanon three weeks ago. I’ll put out a BOLO, but let’s face it, a guy like that could be hard to track down. He’ll probably turn up at one of the shelters or homeless camps at some point, but until then, he could be anywhere.”

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