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“Black Dahlia copycat,” Ella said.
“Strange. But that first murder is odd. It looks like a random, frenzied attack to me. Certainly doesn’t look like the same perpetrator.”
“It is,” Ella said. “The same person killed both of these women.”
The director interrupted, “Miss Dark, would I be okay sending Agent Ellis to investigate this alone? She’s the only agent I’ve got available. You said she did stellar work on your last outing.”
Paige. Ella’s new trainee. She and Ella just got back from Pennsylvania where they’d taken down a killer the press were now calling the Amputator. Paige held her own out in the field, even saving Ella from certain death during their final battle, but sending Paige out on a brand new case so quickly might be a bad move.
“It’s a bit too soon for her to go solo,” Ella said. “Plus it looks like we’re dealing with a copycat, so we’d need someone familiar with the original murders.”
Edis coughed. “Ahem.”
Of course, Ella realized. Who else?
Ripley grabbed the casefile out of Ella’s hands. “Absolutely not. Dark, don’t even consider this.”
Two copycat murders. One infamous, one obscure. How could she refuse? This was like a puzzle straight out of her dreams. It felt like the killer was taunting her personally, like his murders were issuing a challenge directly to her.
“We can’t send Ellis out alone. She doesn’t know the source material. It’s gotta be me. How urgent is this, director?”
“The second body cropped up this morning and if I hadn’t turned my phone off, I’d be flooded with calls about it. Once the press get ahold of this, you know it’s going to be a media frenzy.”
Ella couldn’t deny that. Even the layman would recognize this as a copycat crime, and the press loved copycat crimes because they made for easy headlines. Small town murders already captured the public imagination more than big city affairs did. Throw in a few Black Dahlia keywords and the press had a perfect recipe for exploitation.
But there was too much going on in D.C. for her to travel to Maryland.
That said, it was only an hour’s drive away.
“Well, you know what Ripley?”
“What?” Her partner looked unimpressed.
“This is what, fifty miles away? I could dig into this and make some headway without straying too far from D.C. But it would be quicker if two of us did it. What do you think?”
Mia leaned against the wall and rubbed her temples. She sighed so heavily that if there was gasoline in her mouth she’d have breathed fire.
“Would you be up for that, Mia?” asked Edis. “As long as we’ve got some eyes out there and make a little progress, that’ll satisfy the suits for the time being.”
Ella suppressed a laugh. It never worked out quite like that.
Mia rubbed her spine, cracked her neck, inspected the cuts on her ribs. Ella felt a little bad for asking Mia to join her, but Ella had an ulterior motive. She didn’t want Mia to be alone in D.C. while Tobias was on the run. She wanted to put a little distance between Mia and this manhunt. If Mia was in close proximity she wouldn’t be able to resist joining in.
“I’m all battered up,” Ripley said. “I told the doctor I was fine, but I’m really not. Will, this is it for me. Once this is all over, once Tobias is in the ground, I’m done.”
Ella did a doubletake. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Was it the painkillers talking? Or was Ripley being serious?
The director froze. He tensed his shoulders up. “Done?” he asked in surprise.
“Done. I’m out. I’ve been thinking about it for a while. This ain’t no game for a 55-year-old.” She turned to her partner. “Dark, sorry to spring it on you like this. You understand, right?”
Ella understood very well, but that didn’t make it any less difficult to hear. “Of course. I guessed you weren’t going to be in the game much longer.” She refrained from speaking her mind just yet, but if this was how Ripley wanted to go out, so be it. She’d earned the right to call it quits whenever she felt like.
“Very well,” the director said. “I’m very sad to hear it. We’ll talk more when you’re back.”
Mia nodded in agreement. “Ready to go, Dark? One last time?”
Things were getting more surreal by the minute. Ella knew she and Ripley wouldn’t be partners forever, but it seemed like only yesterday they’d met for the first time. Time flies when you’re having fun and all that, she thought.
