“And I hate tellin’ you this, ’cuz you’re normal and you do great work for the outfit, but this wasn’t a live feed.” Vick squinted at the computer screen. “Valentine probably has the digital files.”
The enormity of the violation sunk in. Those kinds of files could live on the internet forever. She clutched the necklace, running her thumb over the smooth metal.
“Probably? You don’t know?” Byron leaned closer so his face was clearer in the camera frame.
“Nope, he bounces the video feeds to a Drop Box kind of deal, only I can’t figure out where yet. He uses a ton of proxy servers, and the IP is pingin’ all over the place.” Vick shook her head. “It’s gonna take me a while to track it down.”
“Stay on it.”
“Gotcha, boss.”
“Did you find evidence of any feeds from the other women?” Jane asked.
They needed something, anything, to tie him to a murder. She wanted Valentine strapped down on a gurney, waiting for a lethal injection instead of Jessup.
After they’d left the morgue, Jane had emailed the information to Georgia so she could dig up the court records. It was safe to involve her, since Jessup was the criminal in question, not Valentine.
“I could only see yours since I had the cameras and I could follow the feed directly, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were others.”
Neither would Jane. Most likely, he’d surveilled his victims before the attacks, so he could catch them when they were the most vulnerable. Given Valentine’s predilection for trophies, he probably taped the murders. If the videos could be found and then entered into evidence, it’d be enough to convict him, assuming he was identifiable in the film.
“How’d he get so tech savvy? Is he a hacker or something?” Byron asked Jane.
“No, but he’s got enough money to pay someone to cover his tracks.”
“Yeah, one of the black hat types.” Vick tapped away on her keyboard. “I’ll see if I can find out who helped the creeper, so I can follow the breadcrumbs.”
Jane thought it was strange Vick didn’t think of herself as a “black hat” hacker. After all, she worked for the Dixie Mafia.
“Now, I found some other stuff. While he’s got the video feeds locked down, some of his other, er, files had basic password protecting.”
“Yeah, and this guy is a weapons-grade perv.” Jasper Tan scooted up a chair and sat down beside Vick.
Byron muttered something under his breath. “You aren’t distractin’ Vick, are you?”
“Nah, boss.” The camera swirled and again it was Vick on screen. “My Vixen needed me, so I rode to her rescue.” Jasper kissed the young woman’s forehead, and she grinned.
The two of them were sort of cute.
Wait a second. Mobsters are cute? Spending time with Byron is warping me.
Byron scowled. “Oh, for the love of….”
“We found a mega-ton of porn, and it ain’t the regular kind, boss.”
“I’m almost afraid to ask.” Byron scratched his chin. “Lay it on me.”
“Sick shit, like girls bein’ tied up and beaten.” Jasper’s mouth tightened. “And then it got freaky.”
“Freakier than bondage and discipline?”
“Yeah, like some Japanese hentai nastiness. There was a girl who was a cow.”
“Nah, I think it was a cow who was a girl.” Vick stuck out her tongue and shook her head like she’d tasted something sickening. “It was girl-cow kind of hybrid. And then—”
“Speakin’ of creepy shit,” Jasper interrupted. “Did you know Hello Kitty is a girl, not a cat?”
Vick shuddered. “Ewww!”
Jane was right there with her.
“Hold it right there. You’re gonna give me nightmares.” Byron held up a hand. “We got the gist, Valentine’s a pervert. We don’t need a blow by blow account.”
Jane shut her eyes. She didn’t even want to think what Valentine was doing with those recordings of her.
“I’m gonna take a few runs at gettin’ into his other files. I’ll keep you updated on my progress.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it. And as a heads-up, the feds tried to get into his laptop, but couldn’t. When they entered the wrong password too many times, the motherboard burned up.” Jane wanted to warn her in case he’d booby-trapped the files.
“A strong cryptosystem, huh?” She cracked her knuckles. “I love a challenge. And the feds ain’t got nothing on me. I’m gonna break this code, and I’ll tell you what the sicko’s up to.” She placed two fingers on her forehead in a salute. “Vick out.” The screen went black.