Ludwig knew that his lack of a negative response followed by his hyperfocus on the computer would tip Gilbert off to the appropriate answer. So instead of answering he immersed his attention in what information had been uncovered. He read through it thoroughly and then scanned over it again as he processed the implications.

"So?" Gilbert leaned on the back of the chair as he tried to gauge his brother's stern expression.

"It's not in the police database," Ludwig informed as printed the email's contents and shut down the computer. Though his mind was racing to figure out where to go from there and what steps to take in-between.

"Well, that sucks," Gilbert slumped over, leaning heavily on Ludwig. "So what are we doing now?"

"Picking up what I printed. We'll discuss once we get to the lab," he pushed his brother off him as he stood and hustled Gilbert out of the room and down the hall.

He slipped into the front office and shut the door before Gilbert could follow. He withheld an amused smirk as he heard Gilbert hit the door with his shoulder in an attempt to push it open. He intended to be quick as he had work pressing on his mind, the same might not apply to Gilbert if he felt chatty. Natalya didn't look up from the computer, obviously tipped off early about his visit by the printer. Having nothing that needed to be discussed, he simply collected the papers and quickly slipped back out without disturbing her.

Though considering his brother's rhythmic tapping on the door, his efforts had been in vain.

Gilbert snatched the papers from him as they made their way to the lab and hurriedly read the contents, squinting and scrutinising each line. No doubt Gilbert forgot his contacts in favour of getting to work. Ludwig didn't comment on how the paper was likely to now be crinkled, instead revising the email to catch Gilbert up to date.

"Since there wasn't a match in the police index, they used the DNA to extract basic information about the suspect's appearance to try and help us find him. This is just a rough prediction of what the suspect may look like then and now."

"Right, so we gotta find them based on this?" Gilbert held up the sheets that had the attachment to the email. One had a detailed block of text about the suspect's likely personal details whereas the other had two faces, an old and young one that looked like poorly rendered video game avatars.

"I'm not sure," Ludwig shrugged, becoming more annoyed as the path forward became hazy. It wasn't often he didn't know what to do next. "We'll work through our options in a moment."

Gilbert swung the lab door open and flicked the light on.

"We have more options than this though, right? 'Cus how are we going to find this guy now when we don't even know if he's still around here or even alive?"

Ludwig dropped the previous detective's work on the counter with the rest of the evidence and sighed. Of course, he'd thought of that already. He was expecting to not have much to go on by but being here faced with it, suddenly his confidence was wavering. He stared at the cool coloured bench as he pondered where to go next.

"It states he was mid-twenties at the time of the crime. It's probable that being mid-sixties now he's still alive," Ludwig mumbled in response to his brother's other point. Gilbert didn't verbally respond and Ludwig continued to pick at threads in his mind as he wove together an idea.

They could watch the other tape - the one with the community members to see if maybe one of the members may have been overlooked and could be the suspect. But Ludwig realised that the tape was on the USB which Gilbert likely watched. Ludwig decided to not watch it but didn't say anything to Gilbert about not watching both. Assuming Gilbert watched both - if one of the community members had looked similar to the rendered image of the suspect Gilbert would've pointed it out. Still, there was the small possibility Gilbert didn't watch the tape for the same reason he did and he shouldn't make assumptions.

"Did you watch both tapes?" He had to eliminate the possibility.

"Yes?" Gilbert sounded confused because of course he watched everything.

"No one interviewed looked similar to that computer prediction?"

"No..." Gilbert's eyes darted to the side as he hastily thought about it. He whipped the printed pages close to his face and examined them for a brief moment.

"Yeah, no."

Ludwig nodded and sat his hand on his chin, leaning on the counter as his unseeing eyes glazed over the suitcase. The previous detective would've stated the names of those questioned in the video, which he could use to track them down now and ask them questions. Though of course, that might not do any good as the family members and police agreed the attack was random so the community members might have never come across Feliciano's attacker before the incident and wouldn't be able to name him.

So then what? Who would know their suspect? He thought back to the attack. It wasn't originally ruled as robbery due to the violent nature of the murder. The obvious conclusion is the perpetrator is sick. Most seasoned police officers know that sick crimes are barely a one-time thing. Considering how the suspect hardly hesitated to go as far as he did, Ludwig wouldn't be surprised if they had committed other crimes since. Only they were never caught or never so extreme that their DNA had been sampled before and put into the system.

So if the suspect had committed other crimes since, maybe other criminals would recognise them. Maybe they could show the predicted image and a photo of Vargas to inmates at nearby prisons. They could offer reduced sentences in return for leads, but Ludwig didn't have much hope for that option either. Maybe their biggest option would be contacting the local news studio and having them broadcast it and hope someone calls in with information. But even then he didn't know if that was more realistic or desperate.

The anxiousness from yesterday proved justified when Ludwig had to admit he didn't know what the right path to go from here was.

"I don't think we can use the rendered image, I don't know how we can have it identified. I'm not sure how helpful the extracted statistics are either," he admitted, running a hand down his face in defeat. Whatever plan he went with had no guarantee that they would identify the suspect. Really it would just be a process of elimination of what doesn't work until they run out of options.

Gilbert, who had been reading through the printed email as Ludwig thought, stepped forward to lean on the counter and spread the sheets between them.

"Have you thought about how other cold cases have been solved?"

"No..." That was an idea. Ludwig felt a bit stupid for brushing his worries about the results yesterday. He could've used that time last night to look into how other cases have been solved to use as a template for his detective work.

"Maybe I should have a look first and see if there are any similarities with other solved cases." It seemed that would be a good idea considering he was going to be working with cold cases for some time. It would give him the confidence and a frame of reference to work through the other cases with less uncertainty.

"We might have another option though," Gilbert added, a keen look in his eye suggesting he was leading up to something. "So last night I found some show about a serial killer in America and I thought I should watch it cus we're working on a cold case so it's relevant. Anyway, it was about a serial killer in the 90s and they used genetic genealogy like last year or something to find out who it was and it was pretty awesome. Maybe we could do that?"

"Explain what happened," the gears started to turn in his mind as he prepared to compare the possibility of this working with the current case.

"They had no leads but some DNA so the detectives put the DNA into a public ancestry website and found who the guy was related to and how and stalked him from there. They secretly got some of his DNA and compared it to the DNA they had and it matched! And then they arrested him."

Ludwig pushed his hand against the counter and glanced at the papers as he thought about it. He had heard of genetic genealogy before, it had evolved over the years just like DNA technology and was being used more commonly to solve older cases like this one. Yet he felt stupid for not even thinking of it.

"So whaddoya think?" Gilbert asked when he didn't react.

Well, it was probably worth a shot. They had no other leads but the DNA. If they didn't get any results they'd just be back here. If they did get results, they'd be able to quickly pinpoint one member of a family, compare DNA and find out if they have the suspect. Either way, they had nothing to lose.

"I think it's a good idea, Gilbert. I'll look into it now."

"See, your awesome brother is a genius!"