“Just a minute!” they heard coming from the employee-only section of the store, followed by hurried footsteps and then the emergence of a middle-aged man. “Sorry about that,” he said. “We just opened up, I was checking the inventory.” He placed his reading glasses onto the counter and then looked up, realizing for the first time who they might be. “How can I help you?”

“Are you Tom Baker?” Warren asked.

“Yes, that’s me.”

Warren flashed his badge. “We’re with the FBI, we just wanted to ask you a couple questions.”

“Ask away, but I already told the police all I know.” He sighed as he took a seat behind the counter and started counting money in the register.

“It won’t take long,” Warren said as he placed pictures of the three victims onto the counter. “Do any of these people look familiar to you?”

The man looked down, his eyes moving from one image to the next, before back and forth between two of them. “I already told police this,” he said, agitated. “They came in here, the couple, but it was brief.”

“And her?” Warren slid the image of the third victim closer to him.

The man shook his head. “I already told police I’ve never seen her before.” He held his gaze on the image for a moment longer before lifting his head. “I’m sorry, I wish I could be more help.”

A silence fell around them and Tara took the moment to scan the walls, searching for any sign of a surveillance camera. In the corner of the ceiling, her eyes fell upon one.

“Do you sell compasses here?” Warren continued his questioning as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a plastic bag containing one of the compasses. The man nodded skeptically as Warren placed it down on the counter in front of him. “Do you sell ones that look like this?”

The man glanced at it briefly before shaking his head. “Not ones made of brass,” the man replied.

“Do you know where someone could’ve bought this?”

The man shrugged before putting on his reading glasses. He sighed once again as he bent down closer to the object. “It’s hard to say, you can really buy these anywhere online nowadays.”

The edge of Warren’s mouth curled in disappointment as he reached for the compass on the counter and put it away. Tara nudged his arm. He looked startled, but then she pointed at the camera and he saw it too.

“You mind if we take a look?” he finally said.

***

Tara peered at the monitor, with Warren next to her side, carefully dissecting the moving images on the screen. After spending some time rewinding through the video footage, they were finally able to lock down the first two victims. But, just as the shop owner explained, there was nothing eventful from their visit. They came in together, early morning, purchased a few unordinary objects, and left. There were no suspicious customers at the time, no unusual behavior. It was just as anyone would expect.