Page 38 of Night Prey
A smile slid across Nick’s face. “I wrote an algorithm to scrape the internet for any mention of Junior. Found a couple of pictures with him attending street parties thrown by Olivo’s import company. Then a couple of photos with him and several low-level dealers on social media.” Nick rolled his eyes and shook his head. “When are these creeps going to learn that you don’t brag about criminal activities on Facebook?”
“I hope never,” Ian said. “Helps us catch them. I ran Junior’s name through our system, and he doesn’t have a record. But now that I know about the Olivo connection, I’ll get with our drug squad to see what they have on him.”
“I’m guessing he’s known to them too,” Erik said.
Malone could hardly believe what she was hearing. “But what does any of this have to do with my parents’ accident? Did they have something to do with this Olivo guy? Was he even in the drug business back then?”
“Yes to being in the drug business at the time of their accident,” Nick said. “As to a relationship to your parents, I didn’t find any connection. Doesn’t mean there isn’t one. I just haven’t located it. Maybe they’re connected through work. I’ve got a search running for any link between Ground Floor Builders and Flagg Contracting. Not that they are even in the same realm. Flagg does home remodels and Ground Floor is all about commercial buildings. I’ll keep after it for you.”
Malone smiled at him. “I don’t know how to thank you for putting all of your time into this.”
“You and Reed are family,” Nick said forcefully. “We take care of our own. You need anything else, just let me know.”
Malone’s heart bloomed under his kindness, and she had to look away before sobbing like a baby over something that most people wouldn’t even react to. But she had no family other than Reed. Zero. So it meant the world to her that the Veritas partners had adopted them.
“Did you have any luck enhancing the picture I sent?” Ian asked.
“I have a buddy who’s much better at improving video quality,” Nick said. “He’s working on it, but you should know that we really can’t do a whole lot to improve the image. That could be a problem with facial recognition software since it identifies facial landmarks and maps the geometry of the face. Certain items need to be present for it to work well, like the distance between a person’s eyes and the distance from forehead to chin. I think we have what we need, but we won’t know until we run it against the database.”
“Reed’s also got someone at the FBI working on it,” Malone said.
“Good move. Not that I’d usually respond that way if a client brought in the FBI for something I can handle with the help of a buddy. Not so with facial recognition. The feds are still the pros in this arena, and we need all the help we can get. Let me know if he gets a match before I do.”
“Will do,” Malone said. “And please let us know the minute you have anything.”
Nick nodded. “Keep me updated on your interviews with Junior’s parents. If it turns anything up, we can add the details to our search.”
“Thanks,” Ian said. “If only we had guys as skilled as you working for our agency.”
“Yeah,” Nick said. “We all flock to the private sector.”
“We can’t compete with the money you make there,” Ian said.
“Hey, it’s not the money.” Nick grinned. “It’s the equipment, baby.”
Erik and Nick looked at each other and laughed, but Malone knew they were serious. Not only couldn’t public agencies provide anywhere near the salary IT professionals made in the private sector, but budgets didn’t stretch to include the state-of-the-art and frequently updated equipment that Malone had seen in Nick’s lab.
Nick and Erik said goodbye, and their pictures disappeared from the screen.
“I really am blessed to have such support,” she said, closing her laptop. “I don’t suppose I could come with you on that interview.”
She expected a quick no, but he tilted his head and honestly seemed to be considering it.
“Never mind,” she said. “I know you could get in a lot of trouble for bringing me along.”
“It’s not that,” he said. “You came within inches of a killer the other night. If Junior was one of Olivo’s men, he could have someone watching Junior’s parents, and the fewer people who know you’re connected to this investigation, the better.”
Ian straddled a chair at Detective Jason Nix’s desk. As lead detective in the drug squad, Nix was the person on the squad most likely to know about Junior’s involvement in any drug dealings. Ian wasn’t surprised at the detective’s wrinkled denim shirt with the cuffs rolled up, or the gray-and-silver hair, worn a little too long and scruffy. Both fit with being a member of a squad who at times had to go undercover and fly incognito as they interacted with suspects on the street.
Nix leaned back in his squeaky chair and linked his hands over the beginning of a middle-age paunch. “So you want to know about Junior Flagg.”
Ian nodded. “He was murdered at his class reunion.”
“You don’t say.” Nix’s eyebrows rose. “He’s been on our radar for a while but the guy managed to stay just the right side of the law at all times, and we were never able to nab him.”
“He works for Olivo?”
Nix nodded. “Pretty high up in the organization. We’ve been watching him for some time, but Olivo taught him well, and he’d kept under the radar. We don’t have a single thing that we were able to charge him with.”
