Face of Death

Shelley’s face brightened with excitement, as she hurried around to look over Zoe’s shoulder at the frozen image. “That could be him, Z,” she breathed.

“I will bring up the details,” Zoe said, stopping the video playback file and opening up a program that would allow her to run the plates through the national database. Her first try, with the D, gave them nothing. The O turned up a hit.

“Jimmy Sikes,” Shelley read out loud. She returned to her own computer, where the FBI software was already waiting for input of names. “Got him. Let’s see… oh, wow, Z, he has a record. He just got released on probation a few months ago.”

“What for?” Zoe asked.

“Assault,” Shelley read, turning wide eyes to her. “Violent past. You think this could be the guy?”

Zoe raised her eyebrows, thinking about it. “Could be. He was in the area, and having a criminal record certainly makes it more likely. We need to talk to him immediately.”

“His probation address is listed as his sister’s residence. Should I call her?”

Zoe nodded her assent, watching how Shelley fumbled breathlessly for the desk phone and input the numbers before taking a calming breath. She was excited. She was still green, still exhilarated by the prospect of a solve. Zoe enjoyed closing a case as much as the next person, but she had also been in the game long enough to know that identifying a suspect was nowhere close at all to putting it to bed.

“Hello, am I speaking to Manda Sikes?” Shelley said into the receiver, her eyes darting away from Shelley and down to a blank page of her notebook in concentration. “Hello, Manda. My name is Special Agent Shelley Rose with the FBI. I’m calling in regards to your brother, Jimmy.”

There was a pause as Manda spoke. Shelley nodded, even though the other woman could not see her, opening and closing her mouth several times as she waited for a moment to cut in.

“No, I understand. This is not in regards to his assault conviction. We’re actually looking to speak with him about another case.”

Another pause. Longer, this time. Shelley glanced up at Zoe in alarm at whatever Manda was saying.

“So you haven’t seen him since then? And that was—right, five days ago. He hasn’t made contact of any kind? You’ve tried calling him? Okay. Right. Could you tell me his cell number?”

Shelley made notes on the pad, scratching out a number in quick strokes of her pen. She exchanged a few more words with Manda before hanging up, then gave Zoe a raised eyebrow.

“Jimmy Sikes has not returned home for a number of days?” Zoe asked.

“Not since before our first murder. Manda says that she’s tried calling him over and over again, but his cell is switched off. She thought we were his probation worker trying to track him down at first.”

“So, it is looking more and more likely that Jimmy may be involved with our case. I will liaise with the team back at HQ to get a trace on his cell, and search for flags for his license plate.”

Shelley nodded, putting her pen down. “I’ll finish going through the security footage we have. It might not show us anything else, but at least we’ll know for sure that that part is ticked off.”

Zoe moved quickly, placing the necessary calls and entering data into her computer, logged into the FBI’s databases. This was a high-priority case, and with a judge already on standby to sign off on search warrants, things were going to go fast for them. Still, it took a number of hours, impatient tapping of pens and jiggling of knees, before they had the information they needed.

“Here we go,” Zoe said, printing off the map and dragging it out of the machine almost before it had finished. “These are our points of interest. Every location where we have been able to track Jimmy Sikes over the last few days.”

Shelley crowded next to her, shoulder to shoulder, and they both stared down at the dropped pins across a map littered with notes on time and precise location. A cell tower ping that made its way through several areas, which the techs had narrowed down to following a particular highway from town to town. All of the points marking locations close by to where bodies had been found. A casino, a diner, a truck stop here and there with license plate recognition from the parking lot, painting a vague shape with long and large gaps between where the technology was not advanced enough.

Zoe searched the pins, willing the pattern to come into focus. She saw the lines, almost completely straight, allowing for the divergence of highways and curves around hills and water. It might as well have been drawn with a ruler if you ignored the roads and only looked at the stops. Though cell tower pings were not completely accurate, but rather gave a wider circle through which the cell must have passed, it was at least indicative of a deliberate movement across the country.

Not only that, but there were casinos at every waypoint. Zoe traced patterns and grids and curves between all of them, analyzing what the data told her until she could be absolutely sure that there was no other option.