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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.

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