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Ella was lost in her head, spinning thoughts like a cyclone.
‘We need to back to the coroner, quickly,’ Ella said. ‘Because we might have this all wrong.’
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Ella dragged Ripley into the coroner’s building, into the place where death became a science. Despite the midnight hour, nothing in Los Angeles slept – even the dead.
‘Dark, you’re going to have to start explaining. I’m too tired to read your mind.’ Ripley followed closely behind, reluctant but clearly willing to hear Ella’s possibly-outrageous theory.
The morgue was a scene of surreal serenity. Steel gurneys, polished instruments, and the hum of machinery keeping the room at the precise temperature necessary for its function. Fluorescent lights cast their cold glow upon everything, illuminating the lifeless forms that called this place home before being committed to the ground.
Doctor Weller was already at the door, holding it open for the agents’ arrival. He yawned as they arrived, and the bags under his eyes suggested he’d just stepped off one of these gurneys himself.
‘What was it that couldn’t wait?’ he asked.
Ella slid past him. ‘I’m really sorry to drag you here like this, but I needed to check something. Pictures just wouldn’t do. I needed to be certain.’
‘Very well,’ Doctor Weller said as he shut the airtight door behind him. ‘What do you need?’
‘I need to see Jessica Owen’s body. More importantly, her face.’
The doctor applied his gloves and moved over to one of the metal drawers embedded in the wall. Pulling it open with a slight creak, he carefully slid out the tray holding Jessica Owen's remains. ‘Make it quick, because her features will begin to degrade soon.’
Ripley stared at the lifeless form, then turned her attention to Ella. ‘What are we looking for, Dark?’
Ella approached the body cautiously, closely examining at Jessica's face. She gently brushed away a stray strand of hair from Jessica's forehead.
‘Look closely,’ Ella said. ‘Blue eyes, blonde hair cut at the shoulder, sharp jaw. Student. Doesn’t she remind you of someone?’
Ripley squinted, trying to make a connection. ‘I mean, she looks like any other young woman you'd find on a college campus. What are you getting at?’
‘Looks a little bit like Jamie Lee Curtis from the seventies, don’t you think?’
Ripley breathed a heavy sigh, loud enough to get her point across. ‘Rookie, you’ve gone insane.’
Ella waved her hands about, prepping her long explanation. ‘No. Remember how Jessica Owen was killed? A shotgun through the chest, just like one of the victims in the fourth Halloween film.’
‘And?’
‘Jamie Lee Curtis is the one Michael Myers was after all along. She was his sister.’
Doctor Weller took his glasses off and peered a little closer. ‘You know, I can see it, actually.’
‘But that’s not all,’ Ella said. She turned to the doctor, ‘Could we see Kathleen Carter’s body?’
Doctor Weller complied, wheeling out the next victim’s remains. He uncurled the white sheet down to Kathleen’s shoulder. The body was a little more decomposed than the first, but the facial features were still intact.
‘And Kathleen. Long brown curls, thick jaw, deep brown eyes. See where I’m going with this?’
Doctor Weller adjusted his gloves and said, ‘The girl from Hellraiser.’
Ella slapped her palm against the steel cabinets with a resounding clang. ‘See. I’m glad you watch films, doc.’
Ripley adjusted her jaw and exhaled like she was smoking an invisible cigarette. 'No, I still don't get it. These women resemble the heroines from the films he's reenacting?'
Before Ella could carry on with her explanation, there was a knock at the door. Doctor Weller sauntered over and let the new arrivals inside.
Two medical workers, lugging a new victim on a gurney. Doctor Weller accepted the body and, with the help of the medical staff, placed Ginny Mathers on a steel table.
