Chapter 14
Betty was asleep when he got home. She had fallen asleep on the bed with her clothes on. Ed got a blanket and covered her, left the room and pulled the bedroom door shut. The laptop was on and the screen saver was moving through its gyrations. The fact that the laptop had not gone into the sleep mode told Ed that Betty had only recently gone to bed. He moved his finger over the touch pad and the screen jumped to life and one of the pictures on the disk materialized.
Ed poured himself a glass of iced tea and sat at the laptop. He slowly went through each picture that was captured on the disk. He studied each picture, searching for any item that he had missed before. He took care to scrutinize every item in the picture. The last picture on the disk came up and Ed started studying each detail as he had on the other pictures. He still had no clue who the woman with the butterfly tattoo was. Ed started examining every item in the picture.
Ed finished examining the picture and pushed away from the table. Something in the back of his mind told him that he had missed something. Ed's suspicious detective mind questioned everything. He started scanning the picture again. He again checked every item in the picture. Nothing! All of a sudden Ed saw it! He had been looking at the picture without really looking at the faces of the men in this picture because all of the other pictures showed the same faces, picture after picture. One man in this picture was not on any of the other pictures. The man had the side of his face to the camera. The photo was taken from about 20 feet away and the resolution of the photo was grainy. The man looked familiar, but Ed could not place the man's face. Ed picked up the magnifying glass and studied the picture. The picture was so grainy that he could not make out the man's face.
Ed pushed him self away from the table and went to the phone. He dialed Hy Symington's number and left a message for him on his answering machine. Hy called back about 25 minutes later.
"Hy, I need some help," Ed said, "We missed something on the last picture on the disk. One of the men on the last photo is not on any of the other photos. The photo is so grainy that I can't make out who the guy is. He looks familiar though. Is there any way that your people can clear up the photo?"
"Sure," Hy replied, "We do it all of the time. We can computer enhance a photo to make it clearer. It will take me 24 to 48 hours to get the results though. I have to have a copy of the disk. If you'll make me a copy I'll swing by your apartment in about an hour and pick it up."
Ed agreed and sat back down at the laptop. He pulled up the last photo. Ed went into the bedroom he used as an office and got a blank disk. He inserted the disk into the computer and copied the photo to the disk. He pulled up the photo showing the man's hand and the ring and, using the photo software, copied the man's hand and the ring to the disk. Ed didn't copy the other photos. He was not ready to have any of the other photos in anyone else's hands just yet. The photo that he had just copied for Hy didn't show the woman's face and he knew that Hy couldn't do anything with the photo until he had the identity of the woman.
Hy Symington knocked on the apartment door and Ed let him in, Ed had him sit in front of the computer and showed him the picture. Hy studied the picture and asked Ed for the magnifying glass. Ed handed him the glass and Hy looked intently at the man in the picture. After several minutes he sat up and looked at Ed.
"He does look familiar," Hy said, "I can't make out his face well enough to recognize him."
"Hy, I can't let you have all of the photos just yet," Ed said, "I have to contact the other men and find out what they know about the murder. If you go public with this now, we'll never solve this case. I copied the last photo for you. You'll just have to trust me with this for now. I also copied the hand and the ring for you. If your people could enhance the ring, we might find out who the owner of the ring is."
Hy objected but finally agreed when he saw that Ed was not going to budge. Hy knew that Ed would keep the photo and try to go it alone if he insisted on having all of the pictures now. Hy felt that he knew who the man on the picture was and this was big. Hy was not about to tell Ed of his suspicions just yet. He had to have the picture enhanced first.
Ed handed Hy the disk that he had copied and Hy went to the door.
"Ed, I have to have a copy of all of the pictures," Hy said, "You're going to have to trust me on this one. I can't go with just partial information. If you hold back on me, I'm going to have to go it alone and you'll just have to live with what I decide to do."
Ed looked at him, "Hy, give me 48 hours and I'll give you everything I have including all of the pictures. I only ask that you don't use them unless you have to. Betty has been hurt enough."
Hy turned and left without a comment. Ed knew that Hy was angry about not being given all of the pictures. Hy was a newsman and had printing ink in his veins instead of blood. Hy was not used to playing second fiddle on a story. Ed knew that he had to start making some headway on the case before Hy got ahead of him. Ed knew that when Hy had enough to print, he would go for the juggler.
Ed straightened up the kitchen, turned off the computer and lay down on the couch. As he tried to sleep the image of the man in the last picture keep appearing to him, preventing him from drifting off to sleep. Ed felt sure that knew who the man was, but he couldn't clear up the face in his mind's eye. Ed tossed on the couch angry with himself for not being able to figure out who the face belonged to. Sleep was hours in coming and when he finally did sleep it was not restful.