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“Thank you, Elsje.”
“What does this have to do withKatrina’s death?” Elsje asked.
“I’m still trying to work that partout,” Amber said. She got out her phone, looking for more information on theshow. She found a list of episodes and scrolled through it, looking for names.
There, she saw two things. Thefirst was the names Katrina van Nuit, Alice Chan, Rosalind Elm and Loretta Kanein among those of the other guests. The second was that the show had recentlybeen canceled.
“Elsje,” Amber said. “Katrina had apendant in the shape of the Gemini symbol. Did she get that around the time shewent on the TV show?”
Elsje frowned again as she thought.“I think so. The guy running it gave it to her. The astrologer guy. I think itwas meant to be some kind of souvenir. Why?”
"Because I think I know what'shappening here and who might be responsible."
Amber could feel the excitement ofthat thought running through her. She knew who the killer was. Now, she justhad to prove it.
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
Amber called Simon as she drove,hoping that he would pick up. Instead, the call went to voicemail after a fewrings. Amber guessed that he was still busy trying to interrogate Mich Howarth.
Amber left a message instead."Simon, listen to me. The killer is a TV astrologer called Peter D.Russel. All of the victims were on his show, and he was the one to give Katrinavan Nuit the pendant. My guess is that he gave them all pendants and that Michis just the guy who sold them to him. I'm heading over to his place now."
Amber pushed the car faster. It wasgetting darker by the moment, and Amber didn’t know how long she had beforeRussel killed Loretta. She cut in front of an SUV, shot through a set oflights, then took a corner as fast as she dared.
She had an address for Russel, butshe wasn’t sure what she would do if he wasn’t home. What if he’d taken Lorettasomewhere else? What if he was already on the move to the spot where he wouldkill her?
His house was ahead: a large housejust outside the town with land set around it. The house looked as if it hadbeen deliberately built to look older than it was, like some country housecommanding the landscape around it.
Amber drove up to it, skidding to ahalt outside the gates. They were shut, and Amber couldn't see any lights frominside the house, but she could see an expensive-looking Lexus parked in frontof the building. Russel was obviously a man who liked to show off the moneyhe'd made in the course of his TV career.
Amber wasn’t sure what to do next,though. If Russel wasn’t here, where would he have gone? Where would he betaking Loretta, now that he was ready to kill her?
Amber thought instantly of the bullstatue that Loretta had made. It seemed obvious that was the piece of her workthat Russel intended to kill Loretta with. Amber needed to locate that.
She went looking online for PeterRussel’s social media presence, trying to catch a glimpse of the statue. Therewere daily horoscopes and inspirational quotes, old pictures of him at whatlooked like important events, and occasional clips from his show.
There were also a few more personalpictures. Amber saw one of Russel at a party in the garden of his house, downnear a fountain at the far end. The Taurus bull was there in the photograph.
Assuming it hadn’t been movedsince, it was here, in the gardens of Russel’s house. That was an obvious riskon Russel’s part. Why would he bring the police and the FBI to his property?
Amber thought about the notes, thetaunting that had been there behind the clues. This was a man who wanted theattention, who didn't think anyone was clever enough to catch him. Of course,he would take this risk. He would relish the thought of the police being rightthere on his property, not knowing that he was the one who had killed Loretta.
Amber wasn’t going to allow that,though. She was going to save the sculptor. She was going to stop Russel, andshe was going to make him pay for his crimes.
First, though, she had to get tohim. Amber briefly thought about waiting for backup, about calling in theKeystone PD and going into the house’s grounds with every man Detective Arquetcould spare.
Two things stopped her. The firstwas a sense that if Peter Russel saw her or the police coming, he might killLoretta before they got to her. Amber had a better chance of getting in therequietly than a whole department's worth of police did; however Ambe,r mighthave appreciated the backup.
The second thing that stopped herwas how dark it was getting. Stars were starting to come out overhead,pinpricks of light in the blackness of the night sky. Amber was running out oftime. She simply couldn’t afford to wait for the police to get there.
No, she had to get in there, findthe statue, and stop Peter Russel before he could kill again.
Amber’s first challenge was to finda way inside. The gates were tall and imposing, locked solidly, with a wallrunning around the perimeter of the property. Amber moved around thatperimeter, searching for a spot where she could get a run up at the wall.
Amber ran hard, scrambled up thewall and got a grip at the top. She was grateful in that moment for the timeshe’d spent running obstacle courses in her training to be an agent. She pulledherself up, managing to hook a leg on the top of the wall and hauling herselfover to drop to the grass on the other side. Amber had to roll to absorb thefall, but came up quickly, looking around her by the light of the stars, tryingto get a sense of where she was.
Amber could see the house ahead andstarted to move around it. She hoped that Peter Russel didn’t have dogsguarding the grounds, or a security system running. She suspected that hewouldn’t, not if he wanted to kill Loretta Kane out in the open. If he hadsecurity systems, they would be turned off, because he wouldn’t want themrecording what he’d done, and he would presumably want to be able to persuadethe police that an intruder had made it onto the property to commit the crimewithout him noticing.
That gave Amber confidence as shemoved to the rear of the house. There wasn’t any sign of Peter Russel orLoretta yet, and that was worrying, making Amber glance back in the directionof the gate, wondering if she should be trying to find the killer and his nextvictim somewhere else.
