“Even with the pictures,” said Heather, “an ID is challenging because everyone is wearing a mask. Add a baseball hat and sunglasses and you literally can’t tell what someone looks like. That’s the reality we’re dealing with these days.”

The crowd of reporters nodded and murmured in agreement. “That’s about all we’ve got,” said Daryl wrapping things up. “The police commissioner has asked that we do regular briefings with the press whenever there is new information. We’re waiting on DNA test results on Karina Kubiak. Hopefully, that will give us the lead we’ve been waiting for.”

When the press conference was over, the detectives returned to their precinct uptown. When Daryl got to his desk in the bullpen, a large envelope was there waiting for him. It contained the personnel records for all of Thayer and Co’s New York metro stores. An electronic version had also been sent by email.

Waiting for the DNA results from the Central Park murder, Daryl opened the Thayer and Co files despite his partner’s objections. “Are we really going to jerk around with Zoe Brandt’s mystery woman when we’ve got an active serial killer?” said Heather.

The older detective pursed his lips. “Humor me. We won’t spend a lot of time on it. Something about her story… I can’t get Zoe Brandt out of my head.”

Daryl opened a file containing detailed lists of employees at thirty-nine Thayer and Co stores in the New York area. Looking for female employees with Italian last names because of the Italian flag connection, he and Heather cross-matched those names with addresses of employees living around 14th Street. When they finished, they had a list of nearly seventy women. Separately, they created a second list of all female employees with first and last names beginning with G. When they compared the two lists, they were left with twenty-two names.

From Zoe Brandt’s description, the masked woman was likely in her twenties or thirties. Checking birthdates, they ruled out those who were too old or too young. That left fourteen. Overlaying marital status, ten of the fourteen were single, now they were left with four. After a few phone calls they learned that one of the four women broke her leg in May and two of the others had left New York City in April when the pandemic got really bad.

That left one name—Gina Garicelli. For a few minutes Daryl thought they had hit the jackpot. After a phone call to her employer, he learned Garicelli had been in the hospital for the past four weeks with the virus. She couldn’t be the masked woman. Frustrated, he pushed the files to the far corner of his desk and sighed.