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Ella let the moment breathe, checking her partner’s reaction. Ripley had that look of unwavering doubt. Ella was in a quandary, unsure of which path to take.
She took a deep breath, steeled her nerves, and then decided to deliver the bombshell. The few words that, if Jasper was guilty, would register a sudden and perceptible change in his demeanor. If there was one thing she’d learned during her time in this game, it was that even the most hardened psychopaths couldn’t hide absolutely everything. When you reflected their own innermost thoughts back at them, you could sense a shift in their nonverbal language.
“The Book of Job,” Ella said.
The comment washed over him like an invisible gas, inducing nothing but a frown and a look of vacancy. Her verbal bullet had fired and dispersed into the empty void behind Jasper’s eardrums. She wasn’t sure if he’d even heard her.
“The Book of Job,” she repeated, this time with more venom.
Jasper gaze swept from Ella to Ripley to the crying woman watching from afar. “My job? I work at the Old Brick Store.”
“Okay. Are you blameless and upright?”
More confusion. Narrowed eyes, like Jasper was trying to visualize something small and obscure. “No I’m not.”
Fury and frustration burned from her core to her fingertips. Ella slammed the door on the man, that crippling sense of disappointment injecting her like an unwelcome drug. She had her answer. The answer she didn’t want. Her partner was looking up to the heavens, smirking, a maniacal laugh only one prompt away.
“You see what I mean?” Ella asked.
Ripley sighed and slammed her fist on the hood. “Yup.”
Not only did Jasper show no response to Ella’s comments about the Book of Job, but his Boston accent was thick and undisguisable. He looked similar to the figure on the CCTV footage, but his voice and intonation were worlds apart from the audio sample.
“Massachusetts,” Ripley finished. “I used to like that place, too.”
“He could have hid the accent, maybe,” Ella said.
Ripley gave her the once over, eyeing her like she was an extraterrestrial. “Don’t be stupid.”
“You’re right.”
“So, what now?” Ripley asked. “We definitely have to take this guy in. I don’t expect much to come from it, but we still need to check out alibis.”
“The other targets are safe, right?” Ella asked.
“That’s what the sheriff told me.”
Ella gazed up to the heavens, stars twinkling like tiny diamonds. The low-hanging moon cast a stunning light across the distant mountains. Ella lost herself for a moment, playing out possible scenarios in her head like overlapping movie reels. Potential victims were safe. The real killer was still out there, hunting his next target. One of the other police officers might already have him in their sights right this second.
Or the killer’s next target could be someone completely different.
“Ripley, I’ve got an idea.”
“Good. We need ideas right now.”
“I’ll take Jasper back to the precinct and keep him safe. You should stay here with Patricia just in case the unsub shows up.”
“Yeah. Poor woman can’t exactly be alone. We can arrange protective custody for them tomorrow.”
“Right.”
Ripley asked, “What are you going to do?”
It was a long shot, but Ella had to give it a try. So far, they’d had four suspects and not a single killer between them. She’d reached the point where she was willing to try anything. “Patricia said something earlier. Something that got me thinking. I’m worried we’ve missed something.”
“What?” Ripley asked.
“No time to explain. Just... trust me.”
