Page 7 of Just Hide

“I hope they find a match,” Cami said.

Connor nodded. “Me too.”

Then his phone beeped, and he checked it. She saw his eyes narrow and his demeanor change, and she guessed that a new work message had come through.

The food arrived while he read it, and Cami stirred sugar into her coffee and dug into her cake. She hadn't realized how hungry she was. She guessed that the past week, she hadn't had much of an appetite.

"How are your studies going?" Turning back to her, obviously wanting to change the subject away from Ethan, Connor closed his phone.

"I'm up to date," she said. "I never thought I would be. I'm quite surprised. I'm ready for final exams, I hope."

What would come after, she had no idea. She'd thought she knew. She'd had big ideas about going to work for tech startups, and a couple of them had even approached her with offers. Cami couldn't understand why she wasn't as keen about this as she had been.

Perhaps it was that her year's contract with the FBI would still be operational, and no startup would be happy about their young employee taking random time off to solve crimes.

Or perhaps it was some other reason. Maybe her priorities about what she wanted from a career were changing. Cami wasn't sure.

"What cases are you busy with?" she asked. "Nothing tech related?"

He shook his head, forking up his last piece of cake as she did the same.

She knew she should feel relieved about that, with her exams so close, but in fact, she found herself feeling disappointed. How weird was that?

"I don’t think so,” he then explained. “There’s a new one that just came in while we were sitting here. I’ve just read the briefing, and now I'm waiting for more details on it, so it’ll be a working day for me today,” he said.

“What’s the case?” she asked.

“It's a suspected serial. Two victims so far, from different areas of Boston, seemingly unrelated, apart from that their faces, their looks, are eerily similar. It seems this killer’s picking a certain type. If there's a tech angle to that, I'll call you as soon as I’ve seen the file."

"Their faces are similar?"

"Correct." There was a note of question in his voice.

"Connor, have you considered that the killer’s using facial recognition software?”

He frowned. “It was mentioned as a possibility, but we haven’t looked into it yet. Tell me more? Why do you think he’s doing that?”

“It's the easiest way to pick similar looking people, especially if they seem to be unrelated so far. And there are a few apps and programs that can mine social media, or look through random pics online, and identify similar faces. I’ve been researching that recently—what it takes, and the accuracy levels that are possible."

Cami felt enthusiasm surge. This was such a hot topic. The legalities and privacy issues surrounding it were a minefield that they'd devoted many classes to navigating. What couldn't be argued was that it was an extremely effective law enforcement tool.

But now, her hunch was that it was being used in the opposite way. That someone was misusing this software to pick out victims.

“You think it’s that?” he asked.

Cami was pleased that he was taking her opinion seriously. They were a lot more like equals than they had been at the start of their working relationship. He’d even come by to take her for coffee, and that was strangely touching to her.

“It’s extremely difficult to find such similar people randomly,” she said thoughtfully. “And if this person, this killer, is doing it using technology, then it won’t take him or her long to find another one. Much quicker than doing it in real life. So, we need to get up to the same speed.” She spoke with authority on that. Only once she’d said the word did she realize she’d automatically said “we.”

Connor stared at her, his eyes narrowed thoughtfully.

"What’s your calendar like? Any tests coming up?"

"No. There’s a test on Friday, but I’m ready for it. I've been burying myself in work. For … for the reasons we know about," she explained.

"Well, then. You've got your bag with you. Want to come in and hear the details? The police are sending everything through from the two cases, and it should be ready by the time we get there."

She hesitated only a moment, before nodding. "I'd like to do that," she said.

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