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“He pulled my hair.” Piper frowned and held out her hand for Emily to check her nails.
Wolfe examined her head and found significant bruising. “I’ll need to take a few pictures of your scalp. Em, if you’ve finished, come here and hold open the hair for me please.” He took a camera from his bag and took some close-up shots.
“There’s a scratch on her neck, Dad.” Emily lifted Piper’s hair. “Get a shot of that as well. I’ll swab it for DNA traces.”
Wolfe looked Piper over again. “You fell onto the blacktop. Did you hurt any part of you? Do you have any bruises?”
“My hands are grazed but that’s all.” Piper looked at him, her eyes pleading. “I just want to go home.”
He nodded. “Okay, I’ll take some shots of them as well.” He took the shots. “We’re nearly done, but before you go home I want you to go to the showers and remove all your outer clothing, place everything in an evidence bag. Emily has a sweatshirt and pants you can wear home. I want Emily to check you don’t have any other injuries. We need all the evidence we can find to put your attacker in jail.”
“Why all the forensics?” Rio stood staring at him. “She wasn’t raped. This is going a little too far. She’s exhausted and in shock.”
Swinging his attention to Rio, Wolfe smiled. “It’s better to have more than less evidence to present in court. So far Piper is the only woman to have survived an attack by this man. I mean to make sure her testimony will be backed by the best forensic evidence available.” He indicated toward the passageway. “I’m going down to the cells to take swabs from the accused. In cases with law enforcement as witnesses, it’s better to have solid evidence a crime occurred than offer any chance for a lawyer to put doubt into a jury’s mind. Everything I’m doing here backs up the witnesses’ reports.”
He patted Piper on the arm. “We’ll see you at Thanksgiving. If you have any headaches or problems, come and see me and I’ll run a few tests, but I believe the bruising on your scalp is superficial.”
“Okay, thanks.” Piper stood and followed Emily to the showers.
Waiting until Piper was out of earshot, Wolfe turned to Rio. “When she’s done, take her home and stay with her. She’s very calm and the shock of what happened might hit her suddenly. Watch her closely and call me if you need any advice.”
“Copy that.” Rio nodded his expression serious.
Wolfe headed down to the cells. If Piper’s skin was under Strauss’ nails and her DNA was present in the scratches on his face, the evidence would be solid. He nodded to himself. Up to now, he’d found nothing to tie Strauss to the killings. Now he had his stun gun and he would bet a dollar to a dime that Strauss never cleaned it between victims.
FIFTY-TWO
After calling Sam Cross, the local defense attorney for Strauss, Jenna went into the interview room with Kane and Carter to discuss their questions for the suspect. Through the open door, she heard footsteps and looked up to see Jo Wells, with a laptop tucked under one arm. “Jo, great to see you.”
“I have crucial evidence in the case, exonerating Carter.” Jo glanced at Carter. “Oh, I’m glad to see you’re on this side of the desk. I figured when Maggie said you were all down here that you were being questioned in relation to the murders.”
“No, we caught a guy who looks just like me.” Carter smiled around a toothpick, stood, and pulled out a chair for her. “We’re just discussing tactics while we’re waiting for his lawyer.”
“Oh, Sam Cross is here.” Jo indicated behind her. “Rowley took him down to the cells.”
Jenna leaned back in her chair and looked at Jo. “What evidence do you have?”
“Oh it’s incredible and thanks to the fast work of Kalo and Agent Katz—they worked on these media files together—we have the original and altered footage. Here, I’ll show you.”
Excited, but wary, Jenna held up a hand. “Before we see this footage give me more information. This is putting the cart before the horse.”
“Right.” Jo pulled out a notebook. “I have the basics. Agent Katz is writing a full report and has emailed a request to the judge here in town for a search warrant for all computer equipment at the Diamond Bar Ranch. She traced the IP address and found it in seconds.” She scanned her notes. “As Kalo believed, deepfake technology was used to alter the footage. The government has many programs to detect deepfakes and he used one to prove Carter’s innocence. The person who altered the footage is very proficient. He was able to download the footage and replace it without leaving hardly a trace. As Agent Katz is incredible at cybercrime and so is Kalo, between them they managed to backtrack the files to the perpetrator’s hard drive, extract it, and compare it.” She grinned. “They hacked the hacker. All this is how Kalo explained it, but a full report will be ready ASAP.”
Astonished, Jenna nodded. “I don’t quite understand the mechanics of deepfakes, but I have seen the results. It’s incredible, but when this type of thing happens, it’s terrifying as well.”
“Yeah, being falsely accused of murder sure takes some getting used to.” Carter removed his hat and ran his fingers around the rim. He winked at Jo. “I knew you and Kalo would come through for me.”
“Can we look at the footage?” Kane drummed his fingers on the table. “We’ll need to interview Strauss soon. It’s getting late and I’d like him out of our hair and cooling his heels in County so we can collect Tauri. He’s had a bad week and us being late only makes things worse for him.”
Understanding his concern, Jenna squeezed his arm. “I called him before we came down here. I told him we were just next door and would be by after dinner to collect him. He’s fine. He gets to watch TV and eat hot dogs.”
“Here you go, watch this. You won’t believe it.” Jo turned her laptop toward them and started a video file.
Two video files ran side by side, one original and one using deepfake. It was without doubt Strauss in the original footage. The altered files showed Carter, and no matter how many times Jenna replayed the files would she have ever believed they were fake. “Oh, that is incredible.”
“The problem I see is if Strauss can do this so easily”—Kane’s face was like stone—“how long before more criminals learn how to do it? From my understanding it’s available software and more and more programs are coming onto the market daily. Unless local law enforcement agencies have access to this new fake-media-detecting technology real fast, video evidence won’t be admissible in court before too long.”
“Kalo told me there are a ton of detectors available now.” Jo looked at Kane. “But you’re correct, many small towns won’t be aware of the massive step forward in technology.” She shook her head. “AI is amazing but I can see many problems ahead. It’s moving so fast no one knows what the future will bring. Let’s hope it’s beneficial.”
