Page 58 of Girl, Remembered

Nobody said anything. A deranged mind often talked nonsense for nonsense’s sake, and Ella could only assume Doyle was doing exactly that. During the post-punchline silence, Ella caught Dever’s stare, and only now did the thought occur to her to put him on the line. If it had worked for Tracy, it might work for Lindsey too.

‘Great, Lindsey, but I’ve got someone who you might want to talk to. Remember Terrance De-’

‘I’d love to stay and chat, but I’ve got some loose ends to tie up. You’ve got one hour, Ella Dark, or there’ll be another body by morning. Bye.’

‘No! Wait!’

The line disconnected.

‘Lindsey!’ Ella yanked her phone so hard the cable came out of Ripley’s laptop. If there had been a trace, there wasn’t anymore. She prodded the screen to see if, by some miracle, she could resurrect Doyle’s call from the virtual void.

No luck.

Doyle was gone – and Ella was ready to scream.

‘Ripley, we get anything?’ asked Vernon.

‘Of course we didn’t,’ Ella jumped in. ‘The bitch hung up about ten seconds before an accurate trace.’

‘It narrowed down to a ten mile radius, between the Beltway and Little River Turnpike. Annandale, or maybe as far out as Springfield. I couldn’t get any closer than that.’

‘So, the whole of Fairfax County,’ said Vernon. ‘And Ella, what were you about to say? About Terrance?’

Ella dismissed the question. Right now, she couldn’t bring herself to care about politics. She waved at Dever. ‘Just tell him, Terry.’

‘Uh,’ Dever said. ‘Rick, can we talk outside?’

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Ella hadn’t known what to expect from a phone call with Doyle, but she hadn’t expected that.

Because what the hell was she talking about?

Ella had paced from wall to wall in the war room while Ripley sat on the edge of the evidence table. During Ella’s frantic movements, she’d given Ripley the details regarding Dever and his history with Doyle. Her reaction had been uncharacteristically devoid of judgment, at least openly. Inwardly, she was probably plotting an opportune moment to punch the man. She’d tried to call Doyle again but the phone had been switched off.

The door opened. Dever and Vernon returned, both with the sourest of faces. Dever looked like a dog who’d been kicked, as was deserved. Vernon shut the door behind him and then straightened a phantom tie.

‘I know everything. We’ll deal with that later, but right now we need to focus on what Doyle said on the phone. The press have picked up news of all of the murders, and they’ll be milking them for the rest of the year. The Mayor’s Office wants a statement ASAP. The Deputy Attorney General’s office called me earlier too. They used the term domestic terror event. Once that phrase is out there…’

‘You’ll both be lucky to have jobs by morning,’ Ripley said.

‘Correct, but that’s tomorrow’s problem. I’ll get patrol officers covering the area of triangulation. We can get tech to dig deeper, but it won’t be quick. We’ve had MPD officers on the hunt all day with no luck, and that’s left nobody to look into the four victims from today. Families have been informed, but that’s as far as we’ve got. CCTV on Doyle’s car’s given us nothing. So…’

Ella expected as much. ‘So it comes down to unscrambling Doyle’s cryptic messages.’

‘Yes.’

‘We know she’s hiding somewhere near a pond, but there are thousands of places that could be.’

Ripley asked, ‘And what did she say on the phone? She said she was going to kill the big one. Who the hell is that? Me?’

‘She said the person I owe my career to, but that could be a bunch of people. It could be you, but it has to make sense to Doyle’s mind. She can’t possibly know things about me from years ago. She’s gotten all her info about me from my old phone.’

‘Are you sure about that? Because she knows a hell of a lot. She must have some other source.’

‘What do you want me to say, Mia? The answer is: I don’t know how this crazy bitch is getting her info, okay?’

Ella’s phone pinged. The eternal optimist in her prayed it was a message from Doyle.