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“Anything else to note? Or was it stab wounds only?” Ella asked.
“Nothing else as far as I can see. She was clothed when we found her, and there was a little square section missing out of her top. That’s the only other anomaly.”
“Could it have been a byproduct of the attack?”
Dr. Frost shook her head. “Doubtful. It was too precise.”
“Interesting. He might have taken it as a souvenir.” She ran her finger across the victim’s cuts. She took a few steps back and stared at the body with that distant gaze she had whenever she was over-thinking things.
“Does it fit, Dark?”
“Uh huh. Perfectly. The placement is scarily accurate, and I have no idea how that’s possible. Surely this woman must have been moving, fighting, trying to escape? It would be hard enough do this on a stationary target let alone a moving one.”
“He could have waited until she’d passed away to perform the other cuts.”
Dr. Frost jumped in. “Unlikely. There was too much blood present for these cuts to have been made postmortem.”
Then this killer just got a lot more dangerous, Mia thought. He must have found a way to subdue this woman and keep her still while she was in the throes of death. She couldn’t recall any serial killer she’d caught before having that much control of over their victims.
Except for one. She shook the thought away and focused on the here and now. That was another battle for another time. Ripley could see the rookie was itching to get out of there and put her research head on, and that was a good enough reason as any to grab some caffeine en route to their next location.
“So, Almond Street you say? That’s where Eliza lived?”
“Yep. Follow the path out of here towards the lake then take a left at the end. It sounds short but it’s about two miles long.”
“Thank you for your help. Are you ready to get going, Dark?”
Ella snapped herself out of her haze. She pulled off her gloves and violently scratched the side of her head. Ripley noticed a few gray hairs sprouting among the rookie’s raven locks. Maybe some motor oil would do the trick, she thought to herself.
“Yeah. You’ve been a great help, doctor. We’re going to catch the son of a bitch who did this.”
“Please do. Word has already got around so be on your guard. The folks round here can be… tricky.”
The agents said their goodbyes and headed back out into the corridor. Mia flushed her sinuses of that bleachy medicinal smell with a few deep exhales. “Let’s check in with Eliza’s family. See if we can learn a thing or two about her.”
Ella nodded, unusually silent. In an hour or so, Ella’s big theory would come, but this time, Ripley was positive she’d be on the right track. They headed outside to their car, but before they left, Ripley gave a hearty nod to the old building behind her, dead certain that she’d just visited the second-to-last morgue of her life.
CHAPTER SIX
Ella snapped back to life when the yappy terrier at her feet started licking her hand. She suddenly found herself in a spacious and modern living room, decorated with traditional furniture, a giant fish tank built into the wall. Beside that was a statue of a crucifixion complete with a crown of thorns, bloodstained hands, and a look of complete hopelessness on Jesus’s face. The mother and father of Eliza Matthews sat on the chair opposite the agents, clutching each other in silent despair.
Their misery had sent Ella into a whirlwind of her own thoughts and traumas. She’d learned the hard way that extreme exhaustion had a way of creeping up on you. One minute you were ready to go another eight hours, the next you were consigned to lethargy. Seeing these two middle-aged lovelies like this brought on a crushing wave of despair as their absolute grief burst from their souls and consumed anyone in its path. The two parents, Tad and Rhonda according to Ella’s quick search on the way here, knew exactly what she and Ripley were going to tell them the moment they opened the door. Since they’d all sat down in the living room, the parents hadn’t uttered a word.
Rhonda wiped her eyes and coughed so violently she could have pulled up a lung. “We knew it. When she didn’t come home last night, we knew she wasn’t coming back.”
“Can you talk us through what Eliza did last night?” asked Ripley.
Rhonda clutched a tissue and wiped the residue from her nose. “She got back from work around six o’ clock like she always does. A couple of hours later, she went out again, apparently for a run along the lake. She usually gets back about ten or eleven, but last night… nothing.”
“Where did Eliza work?” Ella asked.
“The gym down the way. Hercules Gym. She’s a trainer there,” said Tad. “Horrible place. Full of scum.”
“This town has some undesirables?” asked Ella. “It doesn’t seem the place.”
Ronda said, “Oh, it’s got some wretches alright. This part might seem nice and cozy, but the other side of the lake is a different story. Young families. Troublemakers. I told Liza to stay away but…” Ronda stopped and broke down again.
“You think someone in this town could have done this?” Ripley asked. “Is there anyone around that might want to hurt Eliza? Did she have any enemies?”
