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He gave no response.
Ella remembered what some of her interviewees had said – the boy might have been a mute.
‘Can you talk?’ Ella asked.
His response was a mere tilt of his head, a slight movement that seemed to carry a weight of unspoken words. Ella could sense his internal struggle, the battle between the desire for vengeance and the remnants of his humanity.
‘I know what they did to you,’ she said softly, her words echoing in the quiet. ‘But this has to end. You don't have to be trapped by your past...’
‘What am I, that combines three in one unity?’ the figure asked, cutting her off.
Ella paused, recognizing the cryptic nature of his comment.
He’s talking in riddles, she told herself.
The answer came to her from a quick blend of logic and intuition.
Trinity.
'I'm not Trinity. My name's Ella Dark, and I work for the FBI.'
To subdue a killer, you had to present them with the truth. Ruses only went so far. When the truth surfaced, the delusions struggled to keep up.
"Where is the beginning without an end?" The man’s voice was raspy, as if merely speaking tore up his vocal cords.His gaze finally lifted to meet Ella’s, revealing the eyes of someone who had been pushed beyond the brink of despair, yet still clung to a shred of hope. Ella took a cautious step closer. ‘A circle,’ Ella said, ‘but this doesn’t have to be a circle. I understand why you did what you did, but there's a way out.’
‘In the realm of faith, I stand as three, A unity of forms, yet one entity.’
Trinity again.
Ella pulled out her badge, praying the gold would be visible in the moonlight. ‘Trinity Davies is with police. I sent her there. I’m an FBI agent sent to investigate your murders. What’s your name?’
‘A crown on my head, Exalibur’s master. King of the past, will this one get passed her?’
Ella latched onto the term Exalibur and summoned the answer immediately.
‘Arthur,’ she said. She wasn’t sure if she’d convinced him or not. Persuading a deranged mind of the truth was often a coin flip. ‘Well, Arthur, if you come with me, we can get you the help you need.’
The man let out a hollow laugh, a sound devoid of humor.The man tapped his skull. 'There is an unseen, unforgiving pain creeping silently inside my brain.'
Ella clocked the gesture, and she suddenly pieced something together.
‘You’re dying,’ she said. ‘That’s why you started killing now.’
Just when Ella thought she’d witnessed the absolute depths of human suffering, the ground fell through again. This man had been set on a path of trauma twenty years ago, never recovered, and now had to deal with what she assumed was a terminal illness. A quick theory popped into her head – perhaps the brain scans had renewed his sense of claustrophobia and brought all those memories surging back.
The man looked away, his gaze lost in the distant piles of rusted metal. ‘I am the shadow of presence lost, A hollow feeling that comes at great cost.’
‘Abandonment,’ Ella said. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the note the man had left at the playground for Lauren Phillips. ‘You just wanted them to be your friend, but I don’t understand why. Why would you want the friendship of people like Mark, Miles, Demi, James, Lauren?’
The man eyed the note in Ella’s hand.
‘This is what brought me to Trinity’s house. It was right here in front of me. The last in line, your final friend. Tonight, she meets her untimely end. I tried every combination until I found the key to your cipher, which was three. Trinity means three. She had to be your final target.’
Ella looked down at the cipher below the riddle.
IULHQGV?
‘And your cipher,’ she continued, ‘says friends?’
