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Thanks for watching, my friends. Sorry it’s been a short video, but I’ve got a date tonight with this trad chick who’s basically been begging for it. Young, divorced, putty in my hands. We’ll be back Wednesday afternoon. See you all then.
The video ended. “Thank God for that,” Ella said.
Ripley came back in, looking ten times worse than when she left. She rubbed her temples and said, “Bad news. No prints on the rose petal. CCTV outside Abigail’s apartment is a dead end. And the neighbor in the apartment below has taken credit for the anonymous call. He said he was just wary, so he did it anonymously.”
Ella dug her knuckles into the table. “Goddammit. We should check him out though.”
“No point,” Ripley said. “He’s eighty-four. Our guy has strength, speed, and guile. But there’s good news too. Now we’ve got confirmed serial status, Grant has fast-tracked access to the victims’ phones. We’ll get the drive links pretty soon.”
Ella drooped in her chair. “So now we wait.”
“We wait,” Ripley said. “Did you hear back from Clarissa?”
“Yeah. She called last night.”
“And?”
“Long story,” Ella said.
“Then shorten it.”
Ripley had been instrumental in helping Ella bring down the two Diamond members so far, but Ella didn’t want her partner too close to the next step in the game. It could very well be a death sentence to take down the Diamonds” secret weapon in Logan Nash, and Ella refused to drag Ripley down with her. The woman was four months from retirement. She’d finally reached the finish line after thirty-odd years of risking her life weekly.
“She went to my apartment and saw someone outside my door. It might have been… him.”
Ripley’s stare intensified, her eyes growing into two fiery suns. “Someone was trying to get into your place? What the hell?”
“It’s fine. I’m not there. No one is. Ben is safe at his parents’ place. My old roommate has moved out. I’ve told them both to stay the hell away.”
“But what about when you get back? You can’t stay in Iowa forever.”
Ella clenched her teeth. “I don’t know. I’m going to have to be smart. I need to find this guy, take him down before he gets to me.”
“My place is available to hide out,” Ripley said. “Did Clarissa send you Robert’s old files?”
“No. She couldn’t, but she mentioned a few things. According to Robert, Logan Nash hides in plain sight. Works a job, has a family, keeps up appearances.”
Ripley leaned across the table. “Call him what you want, Dark. Hitman, assassin, contract killer, whatever. You’re familiar with their psychological profiles, right?”
Ella was indeed. She’d picked up the basics over the years, but she’d burrowed deep into their psychological complexions over the past few days. “Yes. They’re organized, level-headed, emotionless, vigilantly paranoid. Their victims are nothing more than moving targets.”
“You missed the most important parts,” Ripley said. “Contract killers don’t have any emotional investment. They don’t suffer from delusions. They’re not out to impress or incite terror. They don’t care about theatricality. All the serial killer traits that cause them to make mistakes are not present. That’s why we’ve only ever caught a handful of master assassins in history.”
Ella wasn’t sure what Ripley’s point was, and she certainly wasn’t helping matters. “So, you’re saying I shouldn’t do this?”
“No, I’m just saying that if this guy knows where you live, you might wanna find a new place because the odds are stacked against you.”
“What good would that do? He’d just find me on the street instead. I’m in too deep now. The only option I’ve got is to find him before he finds me.”
“And then what?”
Ella remembered Clarissa’s bold statement. “She said I should kill him right there and then.”
Ripley sat back in her chair and sighed heavily through her nose. “Dark, you know you can’t do that. You’re not in the line of duty.”
“I’m aware of that.”
Their laptops suddenly pinged in harmony. Ella saw the name Jessica Harmon appear in the bottom right of her screen – a name she associated with technological wizardry. Ella jumped in, followed the links, and found the contents of the three victims” cell phones at her mercy.
