Page 67 of Girl, Remembered

‘Both.’

‘Garden?’

‘Top to bottom.’

‘The electrical cupboard?’

‘Dark, I’ve tried everywhere.’

‘Behind the shower curtain?’

‘For God’s sake. It’s not the Bates Motel. It’s a normal house, and I’ve scoured it. We’re in the wrong places.’

Ripley’s words caught her right between the eyes.

Ella went still on the landing. A synapse fired, then another, quick, one after the other, machine-gun fast.

Goosebumps rose along both arms.

Her pulse had ascended into her throat. A theory began to assemble itself in the depths of her brain. Piece locked into piece faster than she could name any of it.

Things had been said today that Ella hadn’t given a second thought to.

Things had happened today that Ella hadn’t given a second thought to.

Jokes had been told today that Ella hadn’t given a second thought to.

Isolated, they meant nothing.

But together – they revealed everything.

Darrell Saunders’s blood-soaked floor had had a speck of cyan in it.

Cyan.

Or as some people called it – electric blue.

I guarantee you he’ll paint the place electric blue.

Lindsey Doyle had given her two clues, right from the horse’s mouth.

I was behind you in the cake shop.

It seems we’ve finally arrived at the last milestone.

‘Dark. You there?’

‘Yeah, it’s just…’

‘Just what?’

‘This morning. You said Edis bought a bar.’

‘Yeah, but I don’t know which one. His wife doesn’t know. It’s a surprise.’

Ella’s whole body lit up at once. Every nerve ending ignited like a struck match.

She was moving before she’d finished the thought, down the stairs three at once, through the hallway, out of the door, gun back in its holster, phone crushed against her ear.