Page 14 of Just Tonight

She went and looked, getting a literal picture of their appearance, as well as an insight into their lives. Well, for Samuel Cotton anyway. Cami was slightly disappointed to see that he was a real exterminator. He worked for a company that did pest control in and around the Boston area.

“I’m looking up Samuel’s profile,” she said to Connor, updating him as he peered over her shoulder.

“And?”

“He’s not the exorcist, unless he does it in his free time. Also, he’s younger than what Harriet described. But I’m taking a look here,” Cami pointed, “to see if I can pick up anything about his movements on the days of the crimes. If we know his movements, we might be able to clear him?”

“What can you pick up?” Connor asked.

Cami looked, scanning the media carefully. He was a chatty, gregarious seeming man, and he was very transparent about his activities. She took a look at his check-ins his appointments, and his report backs.

“I’ve got something here,” she said, surprised. “Connor, I think we can clear him. Last night, from six p.m. to nine p.m., he was at a karaoke evening with friends. There’s actually a video of him online, singing a really bad rendition of “The Sounds of Silence.” And several photos of the evening. I’ve checked, and it’s a legit event. He was there.

“If he was there, singing badly, then he definitely was not waiting to murder Lisa Court,” Connor said. “Good work. It helps to rule suspects out at the start. What about Derek Corrigan?”

“Derek, I’m having more difficulty finding information on,” Cami said. “His profiles are less open. I can’t see where he works, but I’m still looking.”

At that point, though, she had a different lead. Lisa’s phone beeped. Cami had gotten into it, and now, at last, she could access the calls. Leaving her research on Derek Corrigan for the time being, she switched eagerly to the phone.

What could she find? A lot, it seemed.

Lisa Court had used her phone for everything, She’d used it nonstop for work, she’d messaged friends, she’d arranged dinners and meet ups, she’d kept in touch with her husband. She’d checked into various places in the last few weeks. Several restaurants, several local bars. Cami made a note of their names, mindful of needing to find a common thread.

Not all the information was accessible. For instance, Cami couldn’t see the emails. The way that this phone was set up, they were on a separate passcode that she couldn’t crack. She was lucky to have gotten into the main system so quick. And surely if you were going to get out an exorcist, you’d call or text?

Cami was hoping so as she scrolled through the list of recent calls, taking a quick check back at the timeframe that Harriet had mentioned and then looking at the numbers that were called and who called Lisa in the preceding days.

Then, she had the job of working out who those numbers belonged to. For that, Connor was ready to help.

"Pass me the list," he said. "I'll check up on the database. If there are any unknown ones, we can look for a different way."

Cami checked the calls, going back as far as the phone’s memory would allow, which was two weeks, because Lisa made a lot of calls. She didn’t want to cut off the timeframe too soon. What if she’d arranged the exorcist to arrive well in advance?

She added number after number to the list, and Connor checked number after number.

It was a tedious process, because after identifying the names, they then had to look them up and see who they were, but there were ways of making it quicker. Cami had a program that she’d written especially for research work like this, which was able to search a few basic databases and social media sites.

So, at least, it was faster than it could otherwise have been, even though to Cami, it felt endlessly slow. There were a few names she wasn't sure about, and those went into a shortlist for further research.

She took the next number. Sent it to Connor, like the others. It was a cellphone number that Lisa had dialed about four days prior to her death.

And, when Connor looked up the number, Cami heard him made a surprised sound.

Immediately, her focus sharpened and she swung around from her workstation. It meant he’d found something. She was sure of it.

"You will be interested to hear this, I'm sure," he said slowly, his eyes moving between the screens, and Cami knew that whatever it was, he was double-checking it. Triple checking, to make certain that it was correct before he told her about it.

“What?” she asked, unable to take the suspense anymore.

“At five p.m., six days before her death, Lisa made a call.”

“Who?” Cami asked. “Who did she call?”

“She called a number that’s registered in the name of Derek Corrigan,” Connor said. And I see here, on this database, that he’s listed as a spiritual consultant.”

Cami leaned back in her chair, feeling triumphant.

They’d found a man with a common connection between the two victims. And better still, he was the exorcist that they already suspected.

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