The boy was surfing to his favorite site, JanCam. His friend had told him to check it out Jan had brought home a friend and it was so rare to see this stuff live as it was happening. He click on the enter site button and typed in his password. The cam loaded and he saw the now familiar interior of Jan's bedroom. She did indeed have someone over today. They looked about halfway undressed and getting farther. The boy clicked his record program. He had designed it himself for just such occasions. It would record the images of the cam on the screen for later playback. It beat clicking every picture to save in a file. The JanCam was fairly slow with one picture every fifteen seconds. With the recording program he could speed it up a little. It was jerky but you didn't have to wait for each picture to load later. Now, however he had patience because this was live, each new picture a surprise as to what was happening next.
The next picture certainly was a surprise. The guy, whose shirt was off and pants down looked like he was holding a knife. Jan was sitting on the bed in front of his standing figure.
The next picture loaded. He had Jan's head by the hair. The knife was blocked by his body, but it looked to be at her throat.
The next picture loaded. There was blood everywhere. Jan was caught in the act of falling off the side of the bed.
The next picture loaded. The guy was moving towards the camera. Jan was in a heap by the bed.
The next picture loaded it was a shot of the guys face, blurry, and chest, which had a tattoo, also blurry.
The next picture loaded. The camera was black.
The boy called the police.
"The hard part is going to be tracking her down, sir." The computer tech was playing the recording the boy had made for Detectives Goren and Eames. Jan has killed repeatedly on the screen in the space of about five seconds.
"What about the server she rents space from? Surely they have information of who owns that site?" Eames frowned at the screen.
"They're pretty tight on privacy especially from cops. The porn sites have their rights you know. But it's possible too this could all trace back to a fake name."
"Get a picture of her face, the boy who made this can probably help you out. And work on enhancing his face and that tattoo." Goren said roughly. He walked out of the room grumpily. No true victim yet they still were trying to pawn this off on major case.
"Goren," Deakins was heading towards him. "Homicide has a victim in an apartment uptown, the roommate found her. Throat slashed, probably your girl."
"Right on it. Eames!" He bellowed.
They reached the apartment in record time yet there still was a small cluster of cameras outside the building. Goren and Eames were escorted up to a small two bedroom apartment. The roommate was in the living room wrapped in a blanket and shakily answering questions from a uniformed cop. The place was crawling with CSU. They were led to the back bedroom. The blood splatter was amazing. Jan still lay where she had fallen on screen. There were man sized bloody shoe prints but no hand prints. And no sign of the knife.
The homicide detective called them over. "Her name is Alice Whitten. She's a student at NYU. There doesn't seem too much else to say until the lab gets back with some results. We might find some DNA, but we might not. No sign of the murder weapon and no obvious prints. We'll be dusting everywhere, but I'm not hopeful I think this guy would have wiped after himself."
"Well we have one thing," Goren muttered.
"What's that?"
"Millions of witnesses."
"Millions of suspects." Eames added.
The roommate's name was Angela. Goren insisted on taking her downstairs to the Starbucks for questioning. He wanted her in a place where she could distance herself from the crime in order to talk to him about it. He bought her a decaf out of his own pocket. She hadn't brought her purse and forgot to thank him. He didn't mind.
"You're a student too?"
"Yes, we both were." Her lips trembled a bit but she took a deep breath.
"We're interested in this website." Eames began. "This doesn't seem like something that two students would involve themselves with."
"It's for survival. Money only stretches so far in New York and the cam is the easiest way to get money."
"How does that work?" Goren had his head propped on his fist. He sat directly opposite her, leaning over the table almost invading her personal space. Eames was to the side her hands folded in her lap letting Bobby work his magic.
"You set up the site. I did most of it. Saves money if you don't hire out. Then you set it to where only those with a password can access the site. A customer pays for the password for six months or a year. Like a subscription. Alice liked the idea when she had read about it. She was the one who wanted to do it in the first place. I mean all you have to do is forget the camera is there at all. She said it wasn't too hard. And it helped on the rent."
"Do you have a list of your... you called them customers, right?"
"Subscribers would be better but yes I have a list of those in my computer. That is, if it's still there. I haven't even checked my room. I just came home and found her there..." She trailed off and teared up a bit. Goren sat back a little to give her room. "I have another list too. We get a lot of hate mail. A lot of people saying we deserve to die for doing this. Alice didn't want to keep them but I did."
"That's smart of you." Goren grinned and ran a hand through his hair. "What about boyfriends? I know if my...girlfriend was letting thousands watch I would be pretty upset. Pretty jealous too."
"Alice didn't have many boyfriends as in a steady relationship. And she told me she always let them know first. At least that's what she told me. I never heard anything bad from them. They really were just interested in a little fun. Alice never asked for much."
"Not like you?"
"No not like me. I kind of like to know who I'm getting into bed with." She smiled a little at him and then it faded and she started to cry again.
"Well if you can think of anyone, let us know. And here," he handed her his card. "Get us those lists and we'll see if we can get a picture of the guy to you."
"What guy?"
"Didn't someone tell you?" Eames asked. "One of your customers recorded the whole murder from his monitor. He called the police. We've been working on the video for the past four hours."
Goren was reviewing his notes at headquarters when Eames slapped some 8x10's of the killer's face and tattoo in front of him.
"That's as good as it's going to get." She said and settled in her desk opposite him.
He slid the pictures closer and grimaced. "Caucasian with dark hair. And it that a nose ring?"
"Yeah. The tattoo enhancement is a little better."
He pulled that out and looked. It was medallion shaped, possibly a Celtic knot over his heart. "Shit. Everybody and their mother has one of those. It's not even clear enough to tell if it's custom."
"Still we'd want to check the tattoo parlors, and the student body. I'm thinking this is revenge. I think Alice may not have told this one they were being watched."
"Possible. Couldn't be your average whacko off the street, he went right for the camera like he knew it was recording. And he either got off on it being broadcast or he was making a statement about the whole thing to murder her before turning it off. What did the lab come up with on her computer?"
"The files were erased completely, but the lab's trying to recover some of it. I don't think he realized that Angela was the brains behind the camera. Her computer is fine and she says the subscriber's information was sent to that one. In order to make room on Alice's for the pictures."
Goren nodded and started making some more notes. Eames watched until he began to draw loops in the margin. A sign he was thinking but not coming up with anything new just yet.
"What do you think about Angela? Think she's in any way involved in this."
"Not really a time to rule anybody out, but I don't think she is." He paused. "She's kind of cute, don't you think?"
"A little young for you." Bobby looked at Eames as if didn't quite catch her meaning.
The tattoo parlors turned up little to nothing. They all had medallion shaped tattoos, but couldn't identify the one in the picture or its owner.
"We got a hundred guys a week who look just like that. And they all got tattoos of something or want something like that on their chest. Maybe if you had more to go on."
One of them however did go so far as to speculate about the artwork. "It looks kind of like the one this one kid wanted me to do on his chest. It ain't that guy though. This kid was blond and cleancut. And he had drawn this thing himself, had a name and a sword entwined in it."
"What was the name?"
"Don't remember. Could've been Mom for all I know. It was a girl's name though. Had to be. Don't really like to work on men who want men's names tattooed on them."
This parlor was the closest to NYU. Bobby mentioned that and frowned.
"Think we should check their art department?" Eames asked.
"Read my mind. But let's not do that just yet. I think we might find something more useful with Angela."
Angela had given her temporary address as a friend's dorm room. She hadn't felt safe in her apartment. When Eames and Goren showed up she already had a condensed alphabetical list of names and card numbers to give them.
"That was quick." Goren said tucking the thick list into his notebook.
"I worked on it all last night and this morning. I wasn't sleeping anyway. And I heard that if a killer isn't found within something like forty-eight hours, you don't find him at all." She pulled out another sheet from her printer. "This is a list of the guys I know Alice slept with in front of the camera. I think there could have been more, but she didn't let me know about everyone."
"Thank you. Here's the enhanced picture of the suspect. Does he look familiar?" Goren cocked his head to the side and watched her reaction carefully. She bit her lower lip and looked hard at the picture.
"No I can't say I know him."
"Here's a picture of his tattoo. Did you see Alice with someone who had a tattoo like that?" Again he watched her reaction carefully. She traced the outline with her finger, but still shook her head.
"There were some with tattoos, but nothing that I can specifically remember. If he hadn't erased all the images stored on her computer I could have provided some more pictures of those that she had been with but.... Did your technicians find anything on her hard drive?"
"They're still looking but it's doubtful they'll find more than a shred of an image or two." Eames took the pictures back from Angela. Goren was still looking at Angela thoughtfully.
"What about you? Are you... involved with anybody?" Eames made as if to elbow him hard in the ribs. He glanced at her quickly, enough to stop her and turned back to Angela. "I mean is there anybody you've been seeing who might not have agreed with Alice's role, or even your role in this thing?"
"There was this one guy who I started seeing, but he turned out to be a jerk. But no, he didn't care about that. He thought it was pretty cool. As long as I never put on a show." She didn't smile at that, which Goren thought was a bit strange.
"Why didn't it work out? If you don't mind me asking?"
"He was too possessive. He's an art student here. I think he thought that entitled him to be self-centered. I couldn't eat lunch without him knowing exactly who was there and what I ate. It didn't take me long to drop him."
Goren nodded and turned to go. Eames followed him out to the street.
"I thought you were going to put the moves on her." She expected him to smile at the joke, but he didn't. Instead he looked back up at the dorm windows.
"Let's check on those art students."
The next picture certainly was a surprise. The guy, whose shirt was off and pants down looked like he was holding a knife. Jan was sitting on the bed in front of his standing figure.
The next picture loaded. He had Jan's head by the hair. The knife was blocked by his body, but it looked to be at her throat.
The next picture loaded. There was blood everywhere. Jan was caught in the act of falling off the side of the bed.
The next picture loaded. The guy was moving towards the camera. Jan was in a heap by the bed.
The next picture loaded it was a shot of the guys face, blurry, and chest, which had a tattoo, also blurry.
The next picture loaded. The camera was black.
The boy called the police.
"The hard part is going to be tracking her down, sir." The computer tech was playing the recording the boy had made for Detectives Goren and Eames. Jan has killed repeatedly on the screen in the space of about five seconds.
"What about the server she rents space from? Surely they have information of who owns that site?" Eames frowned at the screen.
"They're pretty tight on privacy especially from cops. The porn sites have their rights you know. But it's possible too this could all trace back to a fake name."
"Get a picture of her face, the boy who made this can probably help you out. And work on enhancing his face and that tattoo." Goren said roughly. He walked out of the room grumpily. No true victim yet they still were trying to pawn this off on major case.
"Goren," Deakins was heading towards him. "Homicide has a victim in an apartment uptown, the roommate found her. Throat slashed, probably your girl."
"Right on it. Eames!" He bellowed.
They reached the apartment in record time yet there still was a small cluster of cameras outside the building. Goren and Eames were escorted up to a small two bedroom apartment. The roommate was in the living room wrapped in a blanket and shakily answering questions from a uniformed cop. The place was crawling with CSU. They were led to the back bedroom. The blood splatter was amazing. Jan still lay where she had fallen on screen. There were man sized bloody shoe prints but no hand prints. And no sign of the knife.
The homicide detective called them over. "Her name is Alice Whitten. She's a student at NYU. There doesn't seem too much else to say until the lab gets back with some results. We might find some DNA, but we might not. No sign of the murder weapon and no obvious prints. We'll be dusting everywhere, but I'm not hopeful I think this guy would have wiped after himself."
"Well we have one thing," Goren muttered.
"What's that?"
"Millions of witnesses."
"Millions of suspects." Eames added.
The roommate's name was Angela. Goren insisted on taking her downstairs to the Starbucks for questioning. He wanted her in a place where she could distance herself from the crime in order to talk to him about it. He bought her a decaf out of his own pocket. She hadn't brought her purse and forgot to thank him. He didn't mind.
"You're a student too?"
"Yes, we both were." Her lips trembled a bit but she took a deep breath.
"We're interested in this website." Eames began. "This doesn't seem like something that two students would involve themselves with."
"It's for survival. Money only stretches so far in New York and the cam is the easiest way to get money."
"How does that work?" Goren had his head propped on his fist. He sat directly opposite her, leaning over the table almost invading her personal space. Eames was to the side her hands folded in her lap letting Bobby work his magic.
"You set up the site. I did most of it. Saves money if you don't hire out. Then you set it to where only those with a password can access the site. A customer pays for the password for six months or a year. Like a subscription. Alice liked the idea when she had read about it. She was the one who wanted to do it in the first place. I mean all you have to do is forget the camera is there at all. She said it wasn't too hard. And it helped on the rent."
"Do you have a list of your... you called them customers, right?"
"Subscribers would be better but yes I have a list of those in my computer. That is, if it's still there. I haven't even checked my room. I just came home and found her there..." She trailed off and teared up a bit. Goren sat back a little to give her room. "I have another list too. We get a lot of hate mail. A lot of people saying we deserve to die for doing this. Alice didn't want to keep them but I did."
"That's smart of you." Goren grinned and ran a hand through his hair. "What about boyfriends? I know if my...girlfriend was letting thousands watch I would be pretty upset. Pretty jealous too."
"Alice didn't have many boyfriends as in a steady relationship. And she told me she always let them know first. At least that's what she told me. I never heard anything bad from them. They really were just interested in a little fun. Alice never asked for much."
"Not like you?"
"No not like me. I kind of like to know who I'm getting into bed with." She smiled a little at him and then it faded and she started to cry again.
"Well if you can think of anyone, let us know. And here," he handed her his card. "Get us those lists and we'll see if we can get a picture of the guy to you."
"What guy?"
"Didn't someone tell you?" Eames asked. "One of your customers recorded the whole murder from his monitor. He called the police. We've been working on the video for the past four hours."
Goren was reviewing his notes at headquarters when Eames slapped some 8x10's of the killer's face and tattoo in front of him.
"That's as good as it's going to get." She said and settled in her desk opposite him.
He slid the pictures closer and grimaced. "Caucasian with dark hair. And it that a nose ring?"
"Yeah. The tattoo enhancement is a little better."
He pulled that out and looked. It was medallion shaped, possibly a Celtic knot over his heart. "Shit. Everybody and their mother has one of those. It's not even clear enough to tell if it's custom."
"Still we'd want to check the tattoo parlors, and the student body. I'm thinking this is revenge. I think Alice may not have told this one they were being watched."
"Possible. Couldn't be your average whacko off the street, he went right for the camera like he knew it was recording. And he either got off on it being broadcast or he was making a statement about the whole thing to murder her before turning it off. What did the lab come up with on her computer?"
"The files were erased completely, but the lab's trying to recover some of it. I don't think he realized that Angela was the brains behind the camera. Her computer is fine and she says the subscriber's information was sent to that one. In order to make room on Alice's for the pictures."
Goren nodded and started making some more notes. Eames watched until he began to draw loops in the margin. A sign he was thinking but not coming up with anything new just yet.
"What do you think about Angela? Think she's in any way involved in this."
"Not really a time to rule anybody out, but I don't think she is." He paused. "She's kind of cute, don't you think?"
"A little young for you." Bobby looked at Eames as if didn't quite catch her meaning.
The tattoo parlors turned up little to nothing. They all had medallion shaped tattoos, but couldn't identify the one in the picture or its owner.
"We got a hundred guys a week who look just like that. And they all got tattoos of something or want something like that on their chest. Maybe if you had more to go on."
One of them however did go so far as to speculate about the artwork. "It looks kind of like the one this one kid wanted me to do on his chest. It ain't that guy though. This kid was blond and cleancut. And he had drawn this thing himself, had a name and a sword entwined in it."
"What was the name?"
"Don't remember. Could've been Mom for all I know. It was a girl's name though. Had to be. Don't really like to work on men who want men's names tattooed on them."
This parlor was the closest to NYU. Bobby mentioned that and frowned.
"Think we should check their art department?" Eames asked.
"Read my mind. But let's not do that just yet. I think we might find something more useful with Angela."
Angela had given her temporary address as a friend's dorm room. She hadn't felt safe in her apartment. When Eames and Goren showed up she already had a condensed alphabetical list of names and card numbers to give them.
"That was quick." Goren said tucking the thick list into his notebook.
"I worked on it all last night and this morning. I wasn't sleeping anyway. And I heard that if a killer isn't found within something like forty-eight hours, you don't find him at all." She pulled out another sheet from her printer. "This is a list of the guys I know Alice slept with in front of the camera. I think there could have been more, but she didn't let me know about everyone."
"Thank you. Here's the enhanced picture of the suspect. Does he look familiar?" Goren cocked his head to the side and watched her reaction carefully. She bit her lower lip and looked hard at the picture.
"No I can't say I know him."
"Here's a picture of his tattoo. Did you see Alice with someone who had a tattoo like that?" Again he watched her reaction carefully. She traced the outline with her finger, but still shook her head.
"There were some with tattoos, but nothing that I can specifically remember. If he hadn't erased all the images stored on her computer I could have provided some more pictures of those that she had been with but.... Did your technicians find anything on her hard drive?"
"They're still looking but it's doubtful they'll find more than a shred of an image or two." Eames took the pictures back from Angela. Goren was still looking at Angela thoughtfully.
"What about you? Are you... involved with anybody?" Eames made as if to elbow him hard in the ribs. He glanced at her quickly, enough to stop her and turned back to Angela. "I mean is there anybody you've been seeing who might not have agreed with Alice's role, or even your role in this thing?"
"There was this one guy who I started seeing, but he turned out to be a jerk. But no, he didn't care about that. He thought it was pretty cool. As long as I never put on a show." She didn't smile at that, which Goren thought was a bit strange.
"Why didn't it work out? If you don't mind me asking?"
"He was too possessive. He's an art student here. I think he thought that entitled him to be self-centered. I couldn't eat lunch without him knowing exactly who was there and what I ate. It didn't take me long to drop him."
Goren nodded and turned to go. Eames followed him out to the street.
"I thought you were going to put the moves on her." She expected him to smile at the joke, but he didn't. Instead he looked back up at the dorm windows.
"Let's check on those art students."