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Alex pressed his palms to his eyes, although it required some contortion. ‘Okay, okay. There’s more to it.’
Ella sat back and waited for him to tie himself in knots. The more a suspect talked, the more chance they had of incriminating themselves.
‘Go on,’ Ripley said.
Alex swallowed hard. ‘My store has a... private area in the back. We host adult film viewings at weekends. It's a niche clientele, and it brings in good money. It’s the only way my store can stay afloat.’
Ella grimaced at the thought. She assumed there might be some kind of money laundering operation going on, but porn parties were something else. She wasn’t sure which was worse.
'Sex parties?' asked Ripley. She, too, sounded unconvinced.
‘No, we just watch films. I thought that’s why you were there. To bust me.’
Ella caught her partner's side-eye. Ella had a lot of questions, not all of which related to the case.
‘Your amateur porn cinema doesn’t concern us,’ said Ella. ‘Hell, it’s not even illegal. We only care when dead people show up in our laps.’
Alex’s face flushed white. He tried to spread his hands apart again. He couldn’t, but he kept trying regardless. Ella saw the anxiety pick up speed.
‘Dead people? You don’t mean… the horror murders?’
Both agents sat back in unison. Ella let the silence do the talking.
‘Whoa, hold up,’ Alex cried. ‘I heard about them. Everyone has, but please tell me you don’t suspectme?’
‘Horror buff. Lives in the area. You even contacted our latest victim minutes before her death. If the shoe fits, Alex,’ Ella's voice was ice-cold.
Ripley leaned in. ‘See, here's the problem, Alex. You've got a lot of suspicious circumstantial evidence against you. The phone, your connection to the area, and now this... side business of yours. And what kind of person doesn’t cancel their service when their phone gets stolen?’
‘I hadnothingto do with those murders! I don’t know anyone named Ginny. Those films, those parties, it's all just business! Entertainment! I wouldn't hurt anyone! And my phone? I thought I just… misplaced it.’
Alex's panic seemed genuine, but Ella had seen enough suspects to know that looks were merely the surface.
Ella said, ‘Well, you’re going to have to help us out here, Alex. You don’t have any alibis for the past three nights?’
Alex shielded his face with both palms as he gently rocked to and fro in his chair. He grabbed his beard with a firm grip and said, ‘Two nights ago. I had one of my parties. People will have seen me. You can ask anyone!’
Two nights ago. The night of Jessica Owen's murder. Ella had to play it coy because if Alex was lying, there was a chance she could slip him up.
‘Right. And your phone. It went missing last night?’ She phrased it as a statement rather than a question.
‘No, no,’ Alex violently shook his head. ‘I lost it last Saturday night. Over a week ago.’
Ella silently cursed, holding back a sigh she desperately wanted to gush. Jessica Owen’s death had most likely been filmed on Alex’s phone too.
She felt her airtight case becoming undone. The finish line was dissolving into the distance, along with the possibility of any conviction. Ella still wasn’t convinced Alex Morton was innocent, but she’d used nearly all of her ammunition in eliciting a confession.
All except one.
She gauged her partner’s body language, still rigid and focused, but intuition told her that Ripley was struggling for interrogation topics too.
Time to shoot the final bullet.
Without warning, she reached into her folder and pulled out a picture of the mask she’d found in the vent at the babysitter scene. The nameless mask, the personal mask. She flung it across the table and glued her stare to the man in front of her.
Alex squinted at the picture, not touching it. ‘What’s this?’
‘You tell us,’ Ella said.
