The Falcon (Nina Guerrera) by Isabella Maldonado

Author:Isabella Maldonado [Maldonado, Isabella]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: 2022-06-27T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 34

Nina stared at Breck. “Our unsub is an AIT cop?”

Breck grimaced. “That would explain a few things.”

“Like how he’s been getting away with it for so long,” Nina said. “He knows the campus and has full access to every building.” She put a hand on her hip. “And who wouldn’t trust a police officer to walk them back to their dorm after dark?”

“He can also mess with the security system.” Breck paused. “Or at least, he could before. He’s locked out as of now.”

“I couldn’t make out his face enough to recognize him,” Nina said. “Can you clean up the feed a bit more?”

“We’re lucky to have isolated this single image from all the static.” She shook her head. “Between the hat, the umbrella, and the rain, there’s never a clear shot of his head. If I try to use algorithms to fill in missing pieces of his facial features, I might inadvertently cause the program to misinterpret the data and create an inaccurate depiction.”

“Don’t do that,” Nina said. “For now, it’s enough to know we’re dealing with a cop.”

“What cop are we dealing with?” Wade asked, walking into the room with Kent.

Nina jerked her chin at the wall screen. “Breck was able to get a partial visual of the person who was with Melissa right before she disappeared,” she said.

“There’s no record of a campus police officer marking out on an escort that night,” Kent said. “We checked.”

“Which means he intentionally didn’t call in his whereabouts to the dispatcher because he didn’t want it on record,” Wade said.

Another thought occurred to Nina. “Or he was only posing as a cop.”

“We should start with the assumption that he was an officer with the AIT PD,” Wade said. “That will give us a limited pool of candidates to work with. If it doesn’t pan out, we start over.”

Breck dragged a hand through her hair. “How do we investigate an entire police department?”

“We use our profile to narrow the field,” Wade said. “But first, we need to know exactly who’s in that field.” He glanced at Breck. “Does that list of AIT employees and students you ran against the falconer database break the names down by position?”

She nodded. “I can isolate everyone affiliated with the campus police.”

“We’ve got a problem,” Nina said. “Hazel is with the chancellor. It won’t be long until he comes back here. Do we loop him in?”

“Hazel’s the acting chief of police right now,” Wade said. “Who better to inform us about the personnel in his department?”

“You’ve made my point for me,” Nina said. “When someone he supervises falls under suspicion, he could take it as a direct reflection on his leadership.”

“I get it,” Breck said. “Someone in charge—especially a seasoned investigator like Hazel—should know if a murderer is working for him.”

“Not necessarily,” Wade said. “Law enforcement agencies around the world have faced the same issue. It’s rare, but every so often, someone who has no business with a gun and badge manages to commit crimes without anyone noticing.

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