Page 16 of Girl, Deceived

‘Mark who?’ asked Ella.

‘No idea. I don’t know much about him. Just saw him a few times.’

Ella pressed on. ‘Saw him where?’

‘Outside our place.’ Clara motioned to the pathway that led to our front door. ‘Here. Hanging around. Jessica said he was, I dunno, too intense. He didn’t take it well, sent her some angry texts, but she blocked him.’

Ella committed the information to memory. ‘That’s good to know, Clara. Anything else out of the ordinary?

Clara hesitated, biting her lower lip.

Ella gave Clara what she termed the encouragement stare. Eyebrows raised, eyes a little wider than usual.

‘There was a package about a week ago,' Clara said. ‘Jess thought it was a prank.’

Ripley asked, ‘A package?’

‘Yeah. It was a DVD. We laughed it off, thinking it was delivered to the wrong address or something. We don’t even have a DVD player. But now...’

Ella waited a second, then asked. ‘The DVD was Halloween, wasn’t it?’

Clara nodded.

Ella took a deep breath. The link was clear. The killer had sent a message before committing the crime.

‘The DVD, one of Jessica’s favorites?’ Ella questioned.

‘God no.’ Clara said. ‘Jessica hated those kinds of films. We could barely manage rom-coms.’ Her look grew distant, lost in happier memories.

Mia scribbled down some notes. ‘This Mark, can you describe him? Anything you remember will be useful.’

‘Mark? I don’t know. He had a sort of...restless energy about him. Always fidgeting, never really making eye contact. Around 5’10’, dark hair, usually had stubble. That’s all I remember.’

‘Did he ever mention where he worked or what he did for a living?’

‘Not to me, no. He was just... there. Until he wasn’t.’

Ella placed a gentle hand on Clara's arm, ensuring she had the young woman's attention. ‘Clara, I promise we're going to do everything we can to find who did this. Every bit of information you provide helps.’

Clara managed a weak smile. ‘Thank you.’

‘If you remember anything else, anything at all, please let us know.’

‘I will.’

Ella mused, her mind piecing together the psychological outline of her unsub. This wasn’t about the victim's relationship to the movie. It was about the killer's.

Mia took a deep breath, ‘Thank you, Clara. This information is crucial. We’ll follow up on all leads.’

As the agents moved away from the cruiser, Ella muttered to Mia, ‘We need to find out if these victims have any connections. Are they random targets, or purposely-targeted surrogates for something or someone?’

‘Let’s take a closer look at the bodies,’ Ripley said.

Daybreak was on the horizon. The sun peered out from behind Maywood’s high-rise buildings in the distance. ‘I love the smell of autopsies in the morning,’ Ella said.

‘We need to know when our other victim was killed. If we can establish a killing pattern, we might be able to predict when he’ll strike again.’

Ella climbed into their car, but she didn’t need any further information to know that this killer’s horror-inspired mission had only just begun.

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