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I smiled at her, preparing to say it wasn’t a lie, but my phone buzzed. Giving Ivy an apologetic look, I walked toward the hallway and answered. “This is Ella.”
Ally’s voice was on the other line.
“Hey, Ella,” she said. Her matter-of-fact, no-bullshit tone was in full swing.
“What did you find?” I said, deciding against small talk. She was silent for a minute.
“Well, we’re still trying to ID the victims. We know two-hundred and thirty-four people were killed. This is going back years. Some of the decomposition levels are well within the five to six-year range. We’re analyzing the brain matter and retinal fluids as best—”
I cringed. I knew about all that stuff…blood and guts, but it didn’t mean I loved hearing about it. I had washed my hair about forty-five times, but still, the pale blonde strands were tinted a permanent red.
“And so there was another discovery at the scene that really needs attention.”
I stopped, honing into whatever she was about to say.
“Did you find Cassie?” I said both, hoping for a ‘Yes we did’ and ‘No we didn’t.’
Ally sighed. “No, your sister and her DNA have not matched any of the victims. The ones we’re still sorting through have a decomposition level of much older than when she went missing. It’s likely she is not in that warehouse.”
I audibly sighed, my heart squeezing with that dreaded hope. A bubble I couldn’t pop, my own sanity held in the small containment.
“But we did find something interesting,” she continued. “There was fresh blood at the scene,” she corrected. I pondered that. Worried we missed a girl. “It was male.”
Now, I was confused.
Looking over to Ivy, I said, “Were males also being held prisoner at that place?”
Ivy shook her dark brown head. “No. Males were monsters.”
I frowned.
“The survivor from there says no males were kept. That they were the abusers.” Ally clicked her tongue. “Interesting,” she said, and her fingers went clicking away on a computer.
“Do you think it could be one of the attackers?” I said, the continued clacking of her keyboard overpowering my voice.
“You said the survivor? What is the name of the person?”
“I’m not sure she just goes by Ivy,” I whispered, turning my back away from her.
“I’m downloading her files now,” she informed me.
Clack, clack, clack, clip, clack.
Ugh…
“Okay, so it doesn’t say much as far as any information, but—” She stopped, the silence stretching. “Oh…that is interesting.”
Annoyed, I blew a strand of hair from my face.
“Ally? What’s interesting?”
She continued to type. Her “Hmm” and “Oh, I see” responses drummed in my ear.
“Ally!” I barked.
The clacking stopped. “Ella, are you with the patient now?”
Confused, I looked over to Ivy and nodded. ”Yes, why?”
