by Alec Peche
“Do you have an age-adjusted picture of Olivia?”
“Yes,” Natalie said as she handed him a picture.
“I’m going to run this picture through facial recognition cameras in San Jose. Is there any research on kidnapped children as far as the kidnappers staying in the area with the child? I’m wondering where we should look for the child? Does law enforcement believe this was a random snatch, or was she targeted? What’s the data on child abduction?”
“Good questions Damian. There’s a briefing from the FBI in here. They have the 'Child Abduction Response Deployment’ or CARD unit that's designed to arrive on the scene within three hours of the abduction. They set up a command post, bring in behavioral analysis experts, map out all sex offenders in nearby areas. They use protocols based on past investigations, coordinate forensic resources, and use the Bureau’s computers to assist.”
Damian spared a moment's thought as to why a search team was never activated for Hermione. He supposed it was because no one declared her missing at the time which was why this poster was so weird at least a year after her disappearance.
“Most local law enforcement agencies will deal with only one abduction in a decade so the FBI’s role is to bring experience to an investigation. In Olivia’s case, they coordinated an interview of sex offenders within a five-mile radius by the next morning.”
Damian felt his skin creep over the thought of a sex offender kidnapping a young child and asked, “How many people is that?”
Natalie browsed the file and said “Forty-one within a five-mile radius.”
“I’m losing faith in my fellow man. I assume they are all men?”
Again Natalie glanced down at the file and said, “Yes.”
“Is there a profile?”
“Yes, but it’s not specific enough to narrow the field of possibilities. The FBI eliminated the possibility of a family member abduction and Olivia being a runaway. In time, they couldn’t eliminate the possibility that Olivia was in a home nearby, as they don’t have the right to search homes without probable cause and being a neighbor is not probable cause. Many abductors stay close by the child’s home.”
“Do you have any ideas of where we could use big data to locate the girl?”
“While I don’t pretend to understand your computing capabilities, I was hoping you could tap into cameras across the United States to look for her. I also wondered if you had a source of satellite camera footage from five years ago.”
“Let’s start with San Jose cameras as that will be a multi-day undertaking and then we’ll spread our search from there. As for satellite footage of five years ago, I’ll have to look into that as I’ve never tried to do that before. This will be a challenge, but a highly rewarding one if we succeed,” Damian said.
“Depending on what you do as far as a legitimate search, you might create a new protocol for law enforcement regarding abducted children and where to look.”
Damian nodded, thinking about the case. The first case Natalie brought to him had been a murder from thirty years ago, and the second was a bank heist. A child abduction case was fraught with many more emotions. Damian’s heart had been frozen in time when his wife and two girls were murdered. He’d thought about suicide at the time it happened, but something stopped him. During that deep depressive time, he’d found a new reason to go on and created a separate software system that monitored the release of inmates from California prisons to assure himself that no convicts were ever accidentally released as had happened in his family's case.
He tuned back into Natalie and noted that she’d pulled particular sections of the case file for him and was paper clipping each section, adding a sticky note for identification. She must have noticed that his brain had disappeared for a time, and quietly waited for him to return to the present while organizing the reports for him.
She was just finishing, when Damian said, “I’ll begin work on it later today and let you know if I discover anything before we meet on Friday.”
Natalie nodded and soon departed Damian’s warehouse.
Damian sat for a moment overwhelmed with his workload for perhaps the first time since his family died. He was worried about the poster for Hermione, and he needed to do office work. After hearing some of Natalie’s and the FBI facts on child abduction, he felt a sense of urgency to find Olivia, and that was a massive data manipulation, and his employees deserved his time on their various projects. Fortunately, Hermione didn’t have any soccer games for a week, so he could stay on his island and work his computers every night and video call her. He’d have to check in with Ariana to see if she needed help getting Hermione to practices. She did the lion share of caring for Hermione, but he wanted to help where he could.
Chapter 4
Damian stayed in the office just long enough to check on his employees and see if any needed his help. His employees were all independent thinkers and were used to the weird hours that he would come and go. They also knew that he gave time to Hermione’s various sports team activities. He returned to the harbor, untied his boat and was back on his island in no time.
First, he checked the runs he had going on searching for the owner of the phone number and that run was ready. The phone had been active for two months; it was put into service around Thanksgiving. The phone pinged around the San Francisco Bay Area for the past two months except for a few days in Lake Tahoe. The phone frequently pinged at the address of the Federal Court House in San Francisco, and an address in Oakland which he suspected was home for whoever possessed the phone. There were other visit sites including Pete’s bar and Hermione’s family home in Shepard Canyon. From there Damian studied the times of arrival to the building in San Francisco, and the holder of the phone was pretty regular in his or her arrival times in San Francisco. Damian thought about watching the staff come and go to the building and see if he could spot the phone carrier. He had a device that would detect cell phones in an area by their number. He studied the readout again and noted he could go over to the building on Thursday in the morning and watch for the phone number. He debated watching what he thought was the home address, but when he checked it out on Google Earth, he thought he'd be obviously out of place on the street. The person was most punctual on that day of the week. He went over to the shelves of his lab and pulled out a device that would do just that. He needed to be at the courthouse by eight-thirty that morning, so he evaluated how he would get there. BART could be unreliable during rush hour and so he decided to take his speedboat over to the St. Francis Yacht Club, and then a taxi from there. He sat back and couldn’t think of anything more he could do with the Hermione poster. It was time to move on to Olivia and see what he could do to reunite the little girl with her parents.
He started by reading the notes that Natalie had left with him. Then he moved on to looking for satellite images. He thought it highly unlikely that anyone kept images for that length of time, but who knew? Maybe spy agencies held on to old images, or maybe there was something near this park that was worth keeping pictures of. He also looked for cameras within a two-mile radius of the park. Perhaps he could find the girl on camera going in a particular direction. Damian researched the pricing and terms of a few satellite companies, then went to work on some cameras that were operational on the day of the abduction. Some city cameras had been in place for ten years he noted from the website. He also checked redlight cameras, used by some cities to generate revenue for running red-lights, but there had never been any in San Jose.
Damian then compiled a list of where surveillance cameras were commonly located in the United States and which of those locations catered to children. He added Burger Chef restaurants, the airport, Fantasialand, and a home security doorbell camera to the list. He planned to get footage out of all of these systems to look for Olivia. Then he paused a moment and questioned his actions. It would be better if he had permission to view the video rather than silently slipping in and accessing these company camera locations. Sometimes, Natali
e couldn't use the evidence.
He went to a company directory to find the person he thought might help him. He recognized the name of someone that worked there and decided to see if he could gain his help. The contact knew him well enough that he might do him a favor and so he entered a phone number and listened to it ring.
“Hello?”
Damian was pleased he actually got through.
“Hey Mark, it's Damian Green. How are you?” Damian wasn't one for polite conversation, but he wanted to give Mark a chance to remember who he was.
“Hey Damian, it's been a while. Are you still the computer genius I worked with ten years ago?”
Damian let out a laugh, and said, “I am. I operate a small company with genius workers that are producing products to save the world.”
“Yep, that sounds like you. What's up? You're not one to call and reminisce.”
“I was hoping for a favor. I assist a retired detective with the San Jose Police Department with cold cases.”
“Hmmm, that's a new image of you – walking around with a magnifying glass like Sherlock Holmes.”
“Yeah, but that's not what I do. I just help on a technical basis with data.”
“Ah, so you want some data from my computers. What do you need?” Mark asked. “Of course with your skills, you might have already been through my computer systems.”
“My detective is working on a case from five years ago - a child abduction of a five-year-old girl. It was my idea to use facial recognition software to look for her at child-friendly locations like your amusement park. I also have a couple of fast food companies in mind that cater to children. I'm hoping she's spent the interim five years since she was abducted with a nice parent who has taken her to play rather than a sexual predator who's abused her.”
“There's an ugly thought, let me see what I can do to help. It's my job to protect our guests and our company. I need to talk with our attorneys to see if there are any legal issues with us giving access to you for a noble purpose.”
“Mark, I appreciate that and have an alternative, I'd be willing to send you the girl's age projected picture and my facial recognition software. You can run the picture yourself without giving me access to your data.”
“Were you thinking of our Anaheim location or all of our locations worldwide? There are six parks.”
“Wow, I didn't know that. I was thinking of only your California location as the FBI has a child abduction profile that says the majority of abducted kids are close-by their homes, so I wasn't going to search outside of California at the start.”
“If we do this for you, we'll have to do it for all of law enforcement. So we will either have a reputation with parents as spying on their kids, or being wonderful for re-uniting stolen kids. Is there a way we can keep this out of the press? Maybe it's easier if you hack my systems which I know you're capable of doing. That way we look uncooperative.”
“I see your point. How about if I give you the tools and you do a search. If it comes back positive then you and I can put our heads together to find another source of identification and leave your park out of it.”
“I like that idea Damian, but if I came back with positive identification, I couldn't go back and erase the search. I have a boy of ten, and I would want my company to cooperate to return him to Vanessa and me. I think I'll still pass it by our attorneys. I have a good relationship with one of them and I think they'll try to work out a solution for both of us.”
“That's all I can ask, Mark. Thank you. Would you like the picture and/or the software now?”
“That's a separate intriguing discussion. We should have that on our system for other corporate purposes. Do you sell your software?”
“I haven't, but I could. Because of the power of facial recognition, I didn't build it for enterprise-wide use. It would be something that you would want on only one or two desktops in your company, to prevent its misuse.”
“Okay, I'll keep that in mind. I'll contact the attorney and we should be able to get an answer soon for you. I know you're wanting to ask how soon, but I have no guarantees and I'll keep you updated on a timeline.”
“Thanks, Mark and here's my number,” Damian added just before ending the call.
Damian spent a moment thinking about Mark's question of searching every amusement park or just the location in California. If they got no leads from this initial search for places in Northern California, then you would have to think about all of the state and all of America. Searching the world for Olivia Roth was a data nightmare he didn't want to think about. There was also the other problem of everyone having a genetic twin somewhere in the world. How many false-positives would his system find as they were using a computer-generated age-adjusted picture? Or there was the worst scenario, the child was dead and his search would never bear fruit.
Damian's perimeter alarms went off and he was dragged back into the present by the sound. Changing screens, he switched to his security system to see what had triggered the alarm. He'd had no unexpected human visitors in over a year. Whales and dolphins were programmed not to set off the alarms. He had water cannons in the cliffs of his island and in addition to that, he could use a high-powered water gun that dispensed pepper juice, and he had a drone that could drop purple smoke bombs and green-staining water balloons on an intruder. Usually, people obeyed his private property signs and stayed off the island, but he observed a single man coasting a small boat to his island, a larger boat anchored a safe distance away.
It didn't look like his boat was in any kind of distress, so what was the man's intention? He was Caucasian, 25-45, average height and build, wearing jeans, sneakers, and a jacket. He saw no weapons, although the man could have a knife or small gun sheathed around his ankle. The man was touching the screen on his phone, likely wondering what happened to his cellular reception. Damian kept a jamming system on to block cell phone usage within fifty yards or so of the island. Damian waited for the man to look up so he could capture his image on one of the island cameras. He watched and snapped a few shots at the perfect time. He then ran it through his facial recognition software and he soon heard a sound signifying a match.
The man's name was John O'Ryan and was a resident of New York. Damian's first thought was that his visitor got lost in the bay and then some alarming information popped up on his search screen and he picked up his cell phone to call Ariana.
Chapter 5
“Ariana, it's me Damian, but of course you know that.”
“What's wrong, you're usually not flustered on the phone. Did something happen with the people looking for Hermione?”
“No... no.. it's you Ariana. I just had a man land on my island by the name of John O'Ryan. When I looked him up, I saw that you had a temporary restraining order issued against him a decade ago.”
“What's he doing on your island? Did you blast him with your water cannons?”
“No, I am waiting to see what he is up to. Tell me why you got a TRO against this man while I watch his progress on my cameras.”
“Before I met my husband, I went on a variety of dull dates and he was one of them. I had a habit of meeting people in a coffee shop for coffee or tea to get to know them. I knew within three minutes of meeting John that I was not interested in dating him. He was weird and had an intense focus on me. As soon as I could, I left the coffee shop and returned home. Fortunately, at the time I had a roommate as he followed me about thirty minutes later. He tried to force his way into the apartment and he professed his love for me. My roommate was on the phone to the police the moment she heard the knock and she stayed on the line with the dispatcher while I held John off with a kitchen knife.”
“I was granted a TRO as soon as I requested it. When he threatened me, the police arrived and arrested him. What's he up to now?”
“He's hiking the cliff. I think I'll let him approach the house. The cats are inside and safe. I want to see what he does. I've loaded a water balloon with my green dye, and so I'll st
ain him as he leaves walking down the cliff. There's no reason to make a mess on my front doorstep, and his eyes will be focused on his footing.”
“John O'Ryan is a bad man. Be careful. After the TRO was issued by the court, he threatened my roommate, sent me flowers, and unbeknownst to me, dropped a GPS tracker in my purse during our first and only meeting. So he knew where I worked, where I did grocery shopping, he joined my gym. It was awful.”
“The nerve of the man! He knocked on my front door and when I didn't answer, he pulled out a lock pick kit.”
“Be careful Damian, he's a really evil man.”
“Don't worry about me. He'll shortly realize that there is no lock in the door.”
“There isn't?”
“No, I use an electronic pass key. Okay, now the man is downright rude; he gave up on my door and is sitting down on one of my patio chairs to check his email.”
“He won't get far doing that as you have his signal blocked, right?”
“Right, I'm tempted to blast him with the water cannons and drop green dye on him. It'll be a cold ride back to where ever he came from. I like the idea that I'll spot him sooner with that dye if I should see him in Richmond or Belvedere.”
“I wonder how he found your island?” Ariana asked.
“I don't know, but as soon as I leave, I'm going to search my boats for trackers. I'm also going to find out where's he's been for the past decade and what he's doing in our neck of the woods. Ah, I think he's giving up and he's starting down the cliff. I've got my drone locked and loaded to dump on him after the water cannons finish.”
There was silence on the phone and then she heard him say, “Take that you scumbag!”
