“How did you make the connection?” he asks.

For obvious reasons, I don’t go into my complicated personal life. I’ll tell Ailes later on about Damian. For now it’s best to focus on jumping on this lead.

“Watch.” I show Knoll the website and once again upload the Navy’s image of Kelsford. Swanson’s face comes up as the closest match.

“Well grab me by the balls,” replies Knoll. His thick fingers scratch into his bald scalp as he watches the website load. He snaps his fingers and waves several people over. “You see this?” he calls out to the computer forensic team.

An older agent in a light blue polo speaks up. “We tried something similar using our database. No luck.”

There are thousands of ways a computer can try to match a face. The crudest way is to try to match images and not the actual structures of the face. The more advanced systems measure distances in multiple dimensions and look for really distinct traits like ear patterns.

Knoll shakes his head. “Our perp isn’t using the FBI database. This is probably a totally different algorithm and image pool. Ours is filled with mug shots and missing people.” He mutters under his breath, “Probably more modern too. Can we try it with a photo of Chloe McDonald?”

I’ve been waiting to try it with her image since I left the airport. I use the last photograph taken of her provided by her parents. The website kicks back several hundred images. Makeup and hairstyles make it much harder to find a match.

Knoll groans. “Damn. I was hoping it was going to be easier. We probably already called half the girls here anyway.”

“Yes, but did you speak to them or people who said they were fine? Do we even know it was them?” I’m getting more paranoid about the way the Warlock might have electronically impersonated Swanson. “To get a better match we can also add more Chloe photos. I’m betting the Warlock probably used several to find her double. Maybe we try just the images from the media if he didn’t kill the original girl. That might be where this started for him.”

“Good point.” Knoll points to a young woman with red hair. “Morgan. Go double-check these. Mark down the girls we actually talked to.”

I shake my head. “We need to send someone by in person to talk to them.”

“Why is that?” asks Knoll.

“If this is really true, the Warlock’s got Swanson’s phone and is pretending to be him to his wife. If I’d called that number instead of the home phone, maybe the Warlock would have answered and pretended he was Swanson to me. If he wants to keep us off the track of the fake Chloe, I’d route the calls to some girl I found on Craigslist and paid to pretend she was her. We can’t know until we make face contact with the girl.”

Knoll doesn’t like this. “That’s a lot of girls. Could be thousands if we change the hair parameters. Maybe we could video conference some of them? Just getting phone numbers is going to be a challenge.”