Page 82 of Girl, Remembered

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Two hours later, Ella had written it all up into an official report. Ella was three pages into rereading it when a knock rattled the door. Vernon, still apparently employed, came in.

‘Afternoon sir. How are things?’

‘Not sure yet. My meeting’s in an hour, but listen, I’ll make this quick. Those people who flew the drones outside the jails this morning – police have them. All three of them.’

‘Have they?’

‘Yeah, apparently they’re not too bright, because CCTV caught them all. But here’s the best part: they’re all nobodies.’

Such information was unexpected. Ella felt ambushed.

‘Nobodies. How do they know?’

‘They’re all small time criminals. Doyle found them all on the dark web. Doyle even paid them two-hundred dollars each. We’ve got the transaction confirmations and the chat logs.’

‘So… not disciples.’

‘Not disciples.’

‘A couple hundred dollars to fly some drones. That’s all it took.’

‘That’s all it took,’ Vernon agreed. ‘Neither one of them had any idea what it meant. Thought it was some kind of prank, or a stalking thing gone weird. One of them said the money was too good to ask questions.’

‘Thank God.’

‘And those three guys we arrested last night? Their names are Colin Wray, Keith Brace and Nathaniel Pruett. They are disciples, and they all confessed to their respective killings. They knew details we never made public. We got them.’

Ella breathed a sigh of relief. She was almost in the clear. The only question that remained was whether there were any more followers out there or whether these three men were the last ones.

‘Anyway,’ Vernon continued, ‘Come with me. You’ve got a phone call.’

‘A phone call? If it’s the press, tell them I’m tied up with this report.’

Vernon produced a cell phone from his pocket. Not his own. A departmental one. ‘No. Trust me. You’re going to want to take this call.’

EPILOGUE

Ella was alone again in the office. The screen on the phone said: CALL WAITING.

She hit the green button.

‘Hello?’

‘Patching you through now, Ella.’

The voice of Marianne, the receptionist.

Then a click, followed by nothing.

‘Hello?’ she asked.

It wasn’t quite dead air, because Ella could make out ambient sounds in the background. Voices, layered on top of each other. She heard something scrape.

Then breathing.

‘Hello, Ella Dark.’