Page 51 of The Sinner's Son
Cory hummed noncommittally and followed Sawyer, who hurried into the conference room so he wouldn’t get caught. Marina looked up from her task and raised a brow.
“We’ve asked Cory to come down from forensics to see if he can enhance the photographs Monica’s cousin sent us,” Sawyer said.
Marina and Ricky exchanged a knowing glance before turning their rapt attention to the door behind him. Sawyer didn’t know how much Alec had told them, but they at least knew about Cory.
“Make yourself comfortable,” Sawyer told him, gesturing to the long table. He introduced Marina and Ricky to Cory andexplained their roles in the project. “Ricky is going to record this for the podcast, right?”
“Yes!” Ricky snapped his fingers. “I got my equipment right here.” He hoisted a small video camera, made a few corrections, and gestured for them to resume their conversation.
Cory took a seat at the far end of the table and opened his laptop. “Did I hear you say that I’m enhancing emailed photos?”
“That’s correct,” Sawyer said. “She scanned the images and emailed them to me.”
“Not ideal,” Cory said as he typed furiously on his keyboard. “Scanning often makes the resolution worse because people don’t realize they can change their settings.” He looked up and offered Sawyer his first genuine smile. “But I am very good at what I do.”
“Talia is overnighting the originals from Jacksonville,” Alec interjected as he sat opposite Cory. “You can work with those when we get them.”
Sawyer noted the slight tensing in Cory’s shoulders, but he otherwise treated Alec as the invisible man, keeping his gaze locked on Sawyer.
“Send me what you have.” Cory rattled off his email address, and Sawyer started typing.
“We’ll need to cut that part out,” Alec said. “He won’t want a bunch of randos spamming him with email.”
Cory jerked his head up and acknowledged Alec for the first time. “Worried they’ll accept my invitation to go out and then blow me off too?”
Oh boy.“Images sent,” Sawyer said, hoping to steer the conversation back on track.
“Got them,” Cory replied. “Hmmmm. These aren’t half-bad. What are you looking for?”
“We would like a clearer image of the choker the petite blonde is wearing in all these photos,” Sawyer said. “There arecharacteristics on the cameo that we are hoping to match to the choker in the FBI evidence photographs.”
Cory looked at Alec again, but the derision from earlier had vanished. “You think this cameo is part of your father’s unmatched souvenirs?” Clearly, Alec had discussed the case with Cory last week, and Sawyer was concerned about what else he knew.
“I’m almost positive,” Alec replied. “Can you help us?”
Cory studied the photos and clicked around on his keyboard. “You’re talking about two different applications to clear up the images and get a closer look at the cameo, but I’ll give it my all.”
“Do you mind if Ricky stands behind you to get a better look at what you’re doing?” Alec asked.
“Not at all.”
Sawyer moved over so Ricky could have a good view. Cody explained the process of cleaning up the images and then showed each new version in a split screen to compare it to the original. Sawyer tuned out the conversation and just watched the image become clearer in stages. Cody saved his progress when he was happy with the results and switched to zooming in on the choker. The process seemed to take forever but was quite fascinating. Alec remained seated across the table and let Ricky handle the interview until Cory sat back in his chair and announced he’d done as much as he could with the scanned photos.
Sawyer stared at the image on the screen in complete awe. “That’s amazing. Can you send all the final images to me?”
“Of course.” Cody’s fingers flew across the keyboard. “Done.”
Alec stood up, rounded the table, and then froze when he saw the image displayed on the screen. He stared at it for a long time before turning to meet Sawyer’s gaze. “Seems like a conversation with the FBI is in order.”
“Absolutely,” Sawyer said. “Thank you so much, Cory. I think you’ve helped us blow the case wide open.”
The forensic tech closed his laptop and stood up. Excitement sparkled in his eyes again as he looked from Sawyer to Alec. “Really?”
“You’ve absolutely proved to me that my dad killed Monica Horton,” Alec said. “Now I just need to convince the FBI.”
“Cory, we need you to keep this quiet,” Sawyer cautioned. “We don’t want a media frenzy to descend on us before we’re ready to go public with our findings.”
The warning seemed to snuff the joy right out of Cory, and the life in his eyes switched off again. “I know my professional responsibilities,” he replied dryly. “I never discuss my work.” Cory closed his laptop and faced them. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to head back upstairs to work on other things before lunch.”