‘You did fine.’Ella looked at Fields.‘Can you get a trace running from your end?’
Fields pulled out his cell phone but stayed in the room.‘I’ll get dispatch on it.Extension?’
‘Two-one-three,’ Mabel said.
‘Ripley, got the software open?’
‘It’s open.Ready when you are.’
‘Our trace is go too,’ Fields said.
Two traces.Ella barely had time to register the fact that in a few seconds, she could have a direct line to her unsub.Part of her prayed this was some prankster, another part of her craved it to be the real deal.
Ella took a deep breath and held it.She looked between Fields and Ripley.‘Listen to everything he says.Remember every word.’
‘Yeah.Go.’
‘Mabel, hit it.’
The receptionist jabbed a few buttons on her receiver, then all eyes in the room turned to the blinking red light on Ella’s phone.Mabel disappeared out of the room and down the corridor in a flurry of footsteps.
Then Ella hovered one finger over the answer button, exhaled and pressed.Showtime.
‘Agent Dark speaking.Talk to me.’
First silence, then static.
But then: ‘Don’t bother trying to trace me.I won’t be on long enough.’
The bottom dropped out of Ella’s stomach.She took in everything she could about the voice.Thirties or forties.His pitch sat in the lower register but there was a tightness to it.He was trying to sound calm and mostly succeeding, but Ella caught the faintest tremor on the wordtrace, like a pianist hitting a key a fraction too hard.This wasn’t a man who’d done this before.He’d rehearsed this call.She asked, ‘Okay, and who might this be?’
‘Don’t play games.You know who this is.’
If she acted like he wasn’t the mastermind he thought he was, there was a chance she could rile him up.Anger meant mistakes.‘You’ll have to remind me.I get a lot of calls.’
‘I’m the one who’s been leaving you presents,’ he said.‘The little wooden ones.You’ve been carrying them around, haven’t you?Trying to figure out what they mean.’
Ella caught Fields and Ripley’s stares.She had about two minutes and twenty seconds left before they got an accurate trace.‘I’m not sure what you mean.What’s your name?’
‘I told you, but you didn’t listen.’
‘Must have forgotten.What are you calling for?Because I’m very busy.’
‘Stop with the act, detective.I’m calling because there’s another body.’
Ella clenched her teeth.She wasn’t sure how much longer she could maintain the illusion of calm.
‘There’sa body?That’s very passive.’
‘Fine,’ the voice laughed.‘Ikilled another one.Number four.Just one more to go.’
Ella breathed deeply, killed a few more seconds.Her heart was a few beats per minute away from breaking through her ribs.
One more to go.
‘Where?’
‘That’s why I’m calling.You wouldn’t find it otherwise.’
