Page 42 of Just Hide

"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."

Cami nodded. Connor was right. They’d lost focus on that angle in their hunt through the company’s systems. But now, with so many people at work at that time, the only way to get closer was to look at why.

If they could determine more about the motive, then maybe the missing pieces would fall into place.

“How do we do it?” Connor asked thoughtfully.

As she considered that challenge, Cami had an idea. "I'm going to do another image search," she said. "This time, I'm going to see if there's anyone else on this database who's similar in looks. There’s footage of faces here going back a couple of years. Perhaps this killer had a problem with somebody who looked like the victims, and that’s why he or she is looking for replicas to murder. And if so, maybe this software will allow us to find the original person. The original doppelganger if you want to call it that.”

"I like that idea. Go for it," Connor encouraged.

The strands were coming together in Cami's mind. She thought she could see how she could do this.

Using this powerful software, she could search for faces similar to the victims. Once she’d done that, she could look for any links between them and people who worked at Wave Management.

It was not going to be an easy project. Not at all. It was going to take a long time.

How could she shorten it? Cami was already gathering her resources, opening tabs on her own laptop, getting her phone ready, and logging into the facial recognition program on Wave Management’s computer.

She could run all the searches simultaneously if she set them up right. Her laptop had the capacity for that. It was a top spec, programming and gaming machine, lightning fast. And she could make sure she narrowed the search parameters as closely as she dared. Boston, for a start. She guessed that their doppelganger would have had to have been in Boston and had some contact or interaction with the killer.

"I'm going ahead with it," she said. "For the next few minutes, I'm going to need to focus."

Understanding what this meant, Connor said nothing in reply. He just moved to the door.

Cami worked like lightning, racing through the parameters, moving from group to group, searching for the right faces, looking for the close similarities that might bring them to the truth.

And then the results started streaming in.

“I’ve got something here,” she said, feeling triumphant.

"What's that?" he asked, turning away from the door and back to her.

"This Wave Management software has found four other women in the Boston area with almost identical looks.”

It was fascinating. All of them could be sisters. She stared from one to the other, feeling amazed that strangers could have such similar bone structure and coloring.

“Even if we don’t find the original person among them, I’m going to get the police to go round to these women and warn them,” Connor said. “Who are they?”

“I’m finding out now,” Cami said.

“Okay, I can’t get a current ID on the fourth face. I’m not getting any names that match up to it,” she said. It seemed to have disappeared totally. Perhaps the person had moved away before the software had been able to allocate names.

But she had more luck with the others. “I’ve got an ID for the first and second face here,” she said, hope flaring. “And for the third one.”

“Any link to Wave Management for any of them?”

“I’m looking to see if I can find one. I’ll start with the first.”

Cami went into Paula Dewald’s social media, scanning friends and the connections between friends, looking for any link to anyone who worked at Wave Management.

As Cami delved into the research, she felt a cold shiver trickle down her spine.

“I’ve got something here,” she said. “There is a link! Connor, come and look at this!”

In a moment, Connor was next to Cami, leaning over her shoulder and looking at what she’d found. She could see he was as enthused as she felt.

“Paula Dewald dated Mikey Becker. They were engaged, but then it didn’t go well. It looks like they had a massive, messy breakup, and I see here that he had some kind of a breakdown afterward.”

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