Page 35 of Twin Threats In Austin
“That surprises you?” Camden asked.
“Yes,” Millie admitted. “It does. Very much. He is always so polite.” She shrugged after a thoughtful pause. “But I guess you don’t really know a person, do you?”
“I’m rarely surprised anymore,” Camden said. “Job hazard.”
Millie offered a thoughtful smile. Then, she turned to the keyboard. A moment later, the screen came to life. “When did this happen?”
They gave the date and then Millie’s fingers went to work.
“Let’s see,” she said as images clicked across the screen. She leaned back and folded her arms across her chest, studying the time-stamped pictures. “Hold on. He usually comes in later.”
Day turned to evening as she fast-clicked. And then she stopped. Several photos ticked by. Then, bam.
“Here he is,” Millie said.
Kage was at the Laundromat on the night in question.
Chapter Thirteen
Camden resisted the urge to curse as Millie froze the screenshot on a picture of Kage facing the window as he pulled clothes from the dryer. The camera over the glass doors snapped a photo of him. Once again, he was at the scene of a crime, caught on camera.
“You said you don’t know how often the camera takes pictures, right?” Rochelle asked.
Kage running away from them today wasn’t helping his case for innocence.
And then something caught Camden’s eye on the grainy photo. “Can you zoom in?”
“Sure,” Millie said. “Where?”
Camden pointed to a spot on the window.
“His reflection,” Millie said.
“Is it?” Camden wasn’t certain. “Could we have our experts take a look at the image?”
“Anything you need,” Millie said.
“Would you mind emailing it?” Camden asked before rattling off his email address.
“Mine too,” Rochelle said, doing the same.
“Okay,” Millie said. She minimized the screen after taking a note of the numbered picture. A few seconds later, the email showed up in his inbox. Using his cell, he forwarded it to his supervisor, and Rochelle did the same to her boss. “Two heads are better than one.”
Getting as many experts on the case as possible would only help them. With any luck, they’d find Kage before someone else in law enforcement did. Which reminded him, they should consider updating his parole officer. Would that make matters worse?
Hope that Kage would lead them to the pair of kidnapping victims died the moment he’d taken off. And yet, a growing part of Camden believed the man was innocent. How messed up was that?
Despite the evidence, Camden couldn’t wrap his thoughts around Kage being so careless as to abduct women near his own home. The old saying “dogs don’t go to the bathroom where they eat” applied. A good litigator would point out the fact Kage was merely an opportunist, taking women near where he lived. They might conclude no one else but Kage could be responsible for the kidnappings and subsequent murders because of the pictures and video footage. The evidence might be circumstantial, but it was damning.
And yet, it didn’t fit. The escalation of crimes didn’t make sense. And the baseball caps kept haunting him.
Hopefully, this image would provide clues. Because Camden’s reasons for defending Kage wouldn’t hold up in court.
“How often would you say this customer used the Laundromat?” Camden asked.
“Every Tuesday evening after dinner at seven thirty,” Millie responded. “I could set my watch to it.”
The killer was meticulous. He was thorough, not leaving behind any DNA.
