Chapter 17 Chapter Sixteen

Something went wrong. It should be said that I underestimated those guys from the robbery and homicide team—they saw through the scheme to remove the corpse and found some traces left by me. I must be more careful in the future—those The police aren't as smart as I am, but they're pretty good. The house is safe and quiet, a great place to sit down and think, or to do something private.Now I need to rekindle the fire in the fireplace, warm up the room, and pour myself a glass of single malt whiskey.I need to relax, don't have to go to bed, just sit on the sofa, I need to reflect on what happened these days-

I was wearing a full Tyvek suit when I moved the body, so I was pretty sure there was no fiber evidence left; the suit was strong, and I took extra care not to let branches catch the suit during the move; I put on Three pairs of cotton socks, and then ordinary waterproof galoshes one size too big, so the police were wrong about my size, and the socks were burned to ashes, and the galoshes were thrown in the depths of the Ohio River forty miles away , they will never find it. Traces of the more troublesome cars - tire marks, and paint scratched by bushes, it's unavoidable, but I chose to buy this Toyota Land Cruiser in Cleveland to deal with that - buy this A used car with a fake name, of course.The wheelbase difference between the Toyota Land Cruiser and the JEEP Grand Cherokee/Commander is only ten millimeters, and after changing to the same all-terrain tires, the tire marks of the two cars are almost indistinguishable - just paint the car with JEEP ink Green, everyone will think that this trace belongs to a JEEP.Those cops and criminal forensic team guys' familiarity with the Big Three's top-selling models will limit their imaginations—come on, tires, wheelbase, paint, all in line with JEEP data, who's going to check if it's A Toyota?

And avoiding Highway 92 is a good idea—the traffic flow of Highway 92 on the other side of the stream is more than half that of Highway 139 here, and it is easy to be watched by surveillance cameras. I chose to take Highway 139 Well, there's a shoal thirty miles to the west of the dump site, and it's easy to walk across with a Land Cruiser, then drive up a slope, turn around - and in half an hour I'll be on the opposite side of the dump site .That way, not a single shot is left for the traffic surveillance cameras. No problem, the plan is still perfect, they don't have any evidence pointing to me.

Alright, relax, time to check out your next game plan - want me to stop?Don't think about it!do not you know?Once the devil is out of the box, it's impossible to put it back in!The investigation can't slow down my progress, maybe I should advance the plan a little bit and give them a "surprise". This time, the "prey" is more interesting than before. Thinking of this, he became excited. He unzipped his pants and put his hands into his crotch... Surveillance cameras on suburban highways were not included in the last round of hardware upgrades due to budget constraints, and they still capture low-resolution black-and-white images.Jason and his colleagues at the Crime Lab's Image Processing Center spent about six hours going through all the images and identified five Jeep Grand Cherokees and Commanders—four local and one with Ohio plates, of which Four returned the same way - but annoyingly, none of the five vehicles were dark green when the final investigation revealed.

Damn, isn't dark green the classic color of JEEP?Isn't it popular now? When Jason told McCarthy the results of the investigation on the phone, the detective immediately realized that the killer hadn't taken the highway at all. He had either taken a detour or played some other trick. And Frank was still trapped in the vehicle management office. For a novice like him, the investigation tasks of these 303 car owners seemed endless.There are too many suspicious guys, and he can't rule out the suspicion of any one of them. After a whole day, the suspicious list still exceeds a hundred people. If one investigates one by one, it will take more than two months, and worse Unfortunately, the real culprit may not necessarily be among them.

In the evening, after listening to the reports of the two, McCarthy put down the phone wearily. He realized that another day of investigation with no results was about to slip through his fingers. He hesitated whether to grab the last straw— ——The last bit of memory related to the case brought from the "future", the name of the third, that is, the "victim" who has not been killed——If it is not a last resort, he is unwilling to do so.Unlike checking the National Criminal Fingerprint Database and CODIS, checking civilian files on the new police database will leave a record. Although the possibility is small, once someone notices this file query, he will have to ask those who love the Department of the Interior. Fault-finding assholes explain why he checked the victim's file "just in time" before the crime happened - a "coincidence" answer can't be fooled, and a "time shock" story can make things worse , the worst possibility is that he will lose this job completely-is it worth it to save a woman he has never met?

McCarthy decided to try his luck first. He opened his web browser and typed "Kako Hamada" and "Pittsburgh" into the search bar of the Google search engine - he was able to remember the spelling of the Japanese name thanks to His Japanese girlfriend in college, for whom McCarthy has suffered a lot from katakana and hiragana - as he expected, the search was only some irrelevant content, and he added the keyword "medical device company" , this is already all the clues he can remember, but there is still nothing on the screen that he wants to inquire about—obviously, the position of the "third victim" Ms. Hezi Hamada who will be listed on the death list Not high enough to appear in the "management profile" on the company website, or, like many Japanese-Americans, another English name that she uses on a day-to-day basis.

It was a difficult step for anyone, and McCarthy hesitated until he finally realized that he couldn't make a second choice between a life and something else.He started the information query program with the shield as the icon.Insert his identity authentication card into the smart card reader connected to the computer. In the "login" dialog box, he enters his police station, police rank, name and 16-digit identification code in sequence. After a few seconds, connection, his computer has been connected to the huge special database of the police station, and a welcome word pops up on the screen:

"Welcome, Inspector Ian McCarthy, please enter what you are looking for: name/address/social security number/a phone number/other keywords—one or more of them." McCarthy entered the name "Hamada Kako" in the dialog box below, clicked the "Local Search" check box, and then pressed the "Enter" key heavily.It took the machine less than a tenth of a second to display the person he was looking for—in Pittsburgh, there was only one woman named "Kako Hamada", and McCarthy clicked on her name with the mouse to get all the information about this woman Instantly unfolded on his screen.

It was an unbelievably long information form, which was only available to law enforcement officers and related persons with A-12 or higher authority. It could not be stored, printed, or screen shot; In addition to conventional information such as race, physical characteristics, kinship, place of residence, former residence, social security number, driver's license, violation records, education and work resumes, contact information, fingerprints, etc., the information sheet also provides detailed information in the form of hyperlinks and charts. Listed Hamada Kako's work records, financial status, cities visited within three years, recordable GPS tracks, mobile phone and landline communication lists, vehicle and weapon registrations under his name, medical history, bank and credit card account numbers, Party affiliation, religious affiliation, social relations, frequently used e-mail addresses, instant messaging software accounts, eBay accounts, BLOG homepages, FACEBOOK homepages, TWITTER homepages, online photo album homepages, common network names, frequent discussion groups... God, he did After working as a police officer for fifteen years, he never knew that there was such a frighteningly detailed data in the police database - did he himself have such a data record?He tried typing in his social security number, and a warning message popped up on the screen, stating that access to information on the number owner required a higher level of authorization, A-18 and above, which he did not have access to.

What is the level of A-18? McCarthy himself is not very clear, but it can be inferred from the secret level of "A-12--Third Police Detective", that A-18 requires at least the authorization of the district chief prosecutor. —even requiring authorization at the federal level—McCarthy was slightly relieved to think that only a few of the highest-ranking law enforcement officers could see his details. To be able to collect such detailed personal information, what a powerful tentacles must be needed—however, the detective has never heard of such a specialist in the Pittsburgh branch of the FBI or the Pittsburgh Police Department, which treats one person as two. A department that collects personal information. Although it had nothing to do with the case, McCarthy knew that he had to solve this question in his heart, and the feeling of being watched was disturbing.He took out the police department's internal directory and found the cell phone number of George Sheppard, the head of intelligence and resources. "Hello, who is it?" "Hi, George, I'm McCarthy from the Robbers." "Hi Ian, how are you?" "Well... To be honest, it's not very good. I have a tricky case in my hand, and I encountered some problems during the investigation. I need to ask you for advice." "Tell me and see if I can help you." "Do you know the file inquiry system in the police station's computer? The shield icon." "Of course, law enforcement officers use the multi-direction interactive query information system, referred to as CIRIS (Constabulary Inter-Reference Information System). The software terminals in the entire bureau are installed by our group. What's wrong?" "That's right, I'm looking for information about a person involved in this... CIRIS. The information is very detailed, which is great, but if I want to check a piece of information, who should I go to?" "You mean, you doubt the authenticity of a piece of information and you need to confirm it with the person who collected it. Is that what you mean?" "Yes, that's it. I don't know which department to go to. I've never heard of a policeman in charge of something similar." "Hey man, it's impossible. You know, 99% of the information in this database is collected by machines on the Internet. Have you ever heard of data mining?" "I heard it a little bit." "That's best, otherwise I have to explain the basic concepts to you. In short, this database is not made by the police. There are companies that do this. They collect all kinds of information from the Internet day and night, classify them, and then do They are sold as databases to those who need them. Our police department just spends money to buy the right to use them. Of course, CIRIS is a little different. It has a lot of sensitive information, so the security level is also very high. For this reason, the city of Pittsburgh pays a year Give our information provider Aximo 60 million dollars, and the service fee of the FBI branch will be calculated separately—the contract with us is the second largest information mining company in the United States, and they have 300 people in their Pittsburgh office alone. In the basement of the government office building, there is a two-story computer room for rent, which stores an unimaginably powerful matrix server system—otherwise, you think that just a few soldiers and crabs in our department plus a few computers and servers will be able to Create such a powerful database? There is no way!" "Then maybe I can go to Aximo and verify it with them face to face." "Dude, I urge you to stop thinking about it. You don't understand the intricacies of information mining. God only knows where the source of the information you want is—you have to choose to believe it or not. Also, don't type Aximo's idea, that place is more heavily guarded than the FBI branch." "Well, thank you, George, and I'm sorry to bother you at mealtime." "It's okay, Ian." McCarthy hung up the phone and stared at the computer screen in front of him for thirty seconds, until the information on the screen dazzled his eyes before he came back to his senses - he realized that this is not what the police school textbook said That police world has changed. Once upon a time, investigating cases changed from relying on the experience and mind of detectives to a matter relying on high technology, but now, they have turned it into a business. He rubbed his cheeks, and drove those delusions out of his mind - the query record for Hezi Hamada has been written into the server, this is something that cannot be changed, let's make it more meaningful. McCarthy wrote down the information he needed on the pad - Hamada Hezi's work address, office phone number and mobile phone number - when he grabbed the phone on the table again, he realized that today was Sunday, and the detective was helpless Putting the receiver back in its place, he realized it was yet another weekend ruined by a case.He hadn't been home all weekend, and his wife and kids, who had gotten used to spending two days off without him, didn't call him.McCarthy dialed the home phone with guilt, and his wife Laura's voice came from the other end of the phone. "The McCarthy family, who is it?" "Honey, it's me." "Hey, Ianni." Although his wife's voice was tired, McCarthy still felt a sense of intimacy when someone called him this uncommon nickname—only his family could call him "Ian." Ni". "How are the children? Didn't you get into any trouble?" "The little ones are fine. I took them to my grandparents' house. My parents miss their grandson and granddaughter very much. In the past two days, I have driven almost 400 miles, and I am exhausted." "I'm sorry honey, you know, this damn case, but I promise you, it will be over soon, this is an important case for me, it is related to my promotion. As soon as the case is over, we will go to What do you think of the idea of ​​a Hawaiian vacation?" There was silence on the phone for a while, and then Laura's voice rang again. Although she was still angry, she seemed to be in a better mood: "Let's focus on the matter in front of us first, whether you will come back for dinner or not." "Of course, of course..." McCarthy responded, browsing the open windows on the computer screen for the last time, his wife's words on the phone came to his ears, vibrating his eardrums: "If you come back, I will order Chinese food online .” The detective was stunned suddenly, as if struck by lightning—order online, my God, how could I let such an important clue slip away from my nose like this?He quickly scrolled through the information list of Hezi Hamada, and quickly found the information he was looking for - a very active eBay account. It seems that this beautiful girl is also busy with a side job in addition to her main job. "Hey Laura darling, will you have dinner when I get back? I'll be back but I've got to hang up now, I'll be back soon, love you!" McCarthy hung up the call home and called Jason's cell phone again: "Hi, Jason." "Hey, Ian, sorry, I still haven't found anything here, what's going on with you?" Jason's voice was as tired as he'd imagined, but McCarthy was sure he'd be excited again soon. "Man, remember the second victim? She had a little store on eBay that sold cosmetics and fishing tackle." "Yes, of course." "I feel like I already know how a killer approaches his victims, and that way he can gain their trust quickly. What do you think of that idea? I bought your stuff online, and we both happen to be in Pittsburgh, So I proposed face-to-face delivery, for a buyer I met on eBay, although he is still a stranger, has your vigilance been greatly reduced?" "My God, you're so right, we missed that." "You look up the first victim, I bet she's also selling on ebay, cross-checking the buyers of the two accounts might be helpful." "Okay, I'll go now." On the way home, McCarthy was still a little confused about the way the "coin killer" selected victims-he already knew two things: the murderer selected victims based on physical characteristics; However, how did he connect the woman he chose with an eBay account in the first place—in order to dispose of the iMac computer that his daughter eliminated, he himself had registered an eBay account, which was very convenient. All you need is a credit card, no photos, not even a small headshot like on a driver's license - well, maybe Google, maybe those online communities... For these trendy Internet applications, the detective can't Don't admit it, I have passed the best age for fashion. Driving into the neighborhood where he lived, McCarthy decided not to worry about it for a while--ask Frank's young people sometime tomorrow.Waiting for him, there are more important dates - with his family, and with "Hamada Kako".