Chapter 43

Archie had been sat for almost ten straight hours. The encryption on this laptop was top shelf. Better than anything he had seen before. Firewalls that could give the FBI a run for their money, certainly better than anything they had at the lab. Jimmy really knows his stuff. Everything the AV tech had tried so far just bounced right back to him. He tried disabling the firewalls. Finding a back door. Entering his own hack. Nothing had yielded any results.

He had split his time, from trying to break the encryption, to analysing the photos. Feeling more and more disgusted with himself the longer he looked at them. It's not that he hadn't seen revelling pictures before. He had once had to analyse a porno snuff film, frame by frame. You see just about everything in this job. He was used to it. Eventually, you just tune it out. Ignore the nudity. Focus only on the details, on what he was supposed to be finding. But not with this.

Not with Sara.

Every time he had to look at the next photo, he felt sick. Sara was his colleague. His friend. He respected her. Admired her. Liked her. He did not like seeing her like this. If he thought it was bad, digging through her life during the Basderic incident, it was nothing to compared to this.

Archie had even locked his door and pulled the blinds down. Locking himself away and screening anyone who wanted to enter his office. No one else needed to see this. The tech knew, if this case went to trial, these pictures would most likely be used as evidence. But until that day, Archie was determined to do everything he could to protect the dignity of one of the most respectable people he knew.

"Damn it," he cried as he was, once more, bounced out of the file. A knock sounded at the door, making him jump. Archie double check his screens before getting up. The photos were all down.

Finn was stood on the other side.

"Hey," the older woman said as she entered. "You find anything?"

"I'm still trying to break in," Archie said as he sat. "Jimmy is good, and it's really starting to piss me off."

"Why don't you take a break?" Finn asked, placing a hand on his shoulder. Archie glanced up before shaking his head.

"I can't, not until I find a way in." He put his head in his hand, sighing. Everyone was working, around the clock, trying to find this guy. No one wanted to stop. Russell had to practically drag Nick home so the CSI could get some rest. Hodges had been taking naps in the breakroom since the fire, until Morgan forced him to leave. Half carrying the sleep deprived trace tech to her car. As far as he knew, Greg had only gone home once since this all started. Russell carried boxes of files home with him, and Finn loaded her computer with any digital evidence that came through.

"How can I help?" Finn asked, pulling up a chair. She rested her arms on the desk, her hair falling over her shoulder as she looked at him.

"I don't know," Archie said, honestly. He had tried everything he could think of.

"What about the password? Maybe we could try and guess."

"I've tried, but I can't think of what it might be. I've even tried using different variations of Sara's name. Key dates that we know about. Nothing."

"Is there a way to find his most used characters?" Finn asked, brows furrowing. "Like when you try to guess the pin on a keypad. You find the numbers that had been pressed, then try to work out the combination from there."

Archie frowned. It was possible. There were a lot more combinations on a laptop keyboard, many possibilities. Too many. But he had tried everything else.

"I could try," he said. "But honestly, I don't know if it would work here." He pulled in one of his own programs and set it to run.

"What are you doing?" Finn asked as she watched the screen.

"This program searches the history, finding the most common strokes, and combines them. But it'll search the whole system. Documents, photos, wed history. Any apps. It'll take a while." He sat back as he watched the program work. Already there were too many options. Jimmy's password could contain anything from letters, to numbers, to symbols.

"Ok," Finn said, dragging out the words as she watched the screen. The sat in silence for a while, waiting for the sequence to end. "This isn't going to work, is it?"

"No," Archie replied on a sigh. He knew that, but he was fed up with staring at the screen like an idiot. Fed up with having no more ideas. Fed up with the ping of the laptop as one more trick didn't work.

"This guy Jimmy is one sick man," Hodges said as he walked through the door. Archie and Finn looked up, startled by his abrupt entrance. "I've just been going over the evidence from his house. Morgan went back and found a box hidden under the floorboards in his dark room. It was full of all kinds of sick things. Hair, panties, even a pot that I'm almost certain contains teeth." He shuddered. "I sent it to Henry, see if he could pull any DNA."

"Any chance any of it belongs to Sara?" Finn asked, sounding as if she truly dreaded the answer.

"I don't think so," Hodges said, and handed her a file. "The teeth look like baby teeth. The underwear, I honestly didn't look at, but Morgan says no." He handed the file to Finn and the blond examined the papers. Her brows furrowing as she read. "The hair had no skin tag, so no DNA, but I did take a look down the scope. The follicles of the strands were straight. Which suggest, whoever they belonged to had naturally straight hair."

"Sara's hair is curly," Finn said.

"Yes, which would mean the follicle would be curved. The hair doesn't belong to Sara," Hodges replied.

"Then who does it belong too?"

"I don't know, but this was written on the top of the box." Archie could see him point to something the file.

"Lottie. July 3rd, 1975. Who's Lottie?"

"No idea." Hodges shrugged, crossing his arms over his chest. Finger tapping at his top lip. His eyes landed on the USB stick Archie had downloaded Sara's pictures on. Skin turning grey as he frowned at it. There was anger lining Hodges' mouth.

"Hey, Archie," Finn said, laying the file on the desk. "Why don't you try this?" Archie looked at the picture. It was the lid to a cardboard shoe box. Faded, probably decades old. The writing done in a neat hand, by black marker. He typed in the name and date.

Incorrect password. One attempt left.

"Try Charlotte," Finn said.

"Are you sure, Finn?" Archie asked. "One more wrong guess could wipe the entire system."

"Just try it, I've got a feeling." Archie looked over to Hodges, who just shrugged. Here goes nothing, he thought as he turned back to the screen. Praying they would get lucky. It was what they needed, a stroke of luck. Something to give them a break.

He typed once more, pausing for a fraction of a second before clicking enter. His brows shot to his hairline as the folder opened and he saw what was inside.

"Oh my God," Finn said, softly. Archie picked up his phone.

"Nick? I've got in." He paused. "You need to see this."

CSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSI

Nick ran into the AV lab, his heart pounding in his chest. Still not entirely believing what Archie had told him. Greg wasn't far behind and both men were slightly out of breath as they pushed the door open. Finn and Hodges were crowded around the AV tech, bending over the screens. The tension in the room was palpable. Like a grey haze flowing through them.

"Show me," Nick said as he walked up to the desk. Hodges and Finn moved to the side as the two CSIs rushed forward. "Jeeze," he whistled. The pit in his stomach boiled. "Have you called Russell?"

"Yeah, he's on his way to PD to talk to Brass and Vartann" Archie replied.

"Good."

"We should call Sara," Greg said, eyes still glued to the screen.

"You do that, tell her to meet me at the station," Nick said as he straightened. "Send all of this over to me. Vartann might be able to dig something up."

"Already sent," Archie said. "There are still a couple of folders I haven't had a chance to look at yet."

"Keep looking, we need a location," Nick said. "Good work Arch." He turned to the other occupants of the room. "Greg, once you've called Sara, stay here, and wait for a location. Once you have it, let me know and I'll meet you there. Finn, see if you can find this Lottie. We need to speak to her." Finn nodded and instantly left.

"I'll help her," Hodges said and without further ado, ran after the blond.

Nick's mind was running a thousand miles an hour as he rushed to his car. Who the hell is this guy? He thought as he peeled out of the car park. Everything that had learned over that last few days have cemented the fact that he had no idea who his former friend actually was.

Nick ran down the corridors of PD and spotted his supervisor talking to Brass.

"Russell," he called as he rushed over to them.

"Archie called me," the older man said as Nick drew level. "Did you see it?"

"Yeah, what is going on man? Jimmy's not Jimmy." He looked between the cop and the CSI, hoping one of them might have some explanation.

"What do you mean? Jimmy's not Jimmy?" Brass asked, his injured face looking more confused than ever.

"Archie managed to break into that encrypted file on Jimmy's laptop," Russell said. "Jimmy Thomson isn't Jimmy's real name."

"Then what is it?"

"Brian Colston."