Page 65 of Girl, Haunted
‘Careful's my middle name.’ Ella resumed her search, trying to ignore the way her stomach lurched at the squelch of wet denim. She found a lipstick, a half-empty pack of Virginia Slims, and finally, jackpot – a cellphone. iPhone, couple of years old, with a spiderweb crack across the screen.
With a damn fingerprint passcode.
‘One more favor, Sheriff.’
‘Shoot.’
‘Look away for a second.’
Redmond didn’t, but he gave Ella a knowing nod. Ella gently took the woman’s hand and held her finger against the phone’ssensor. The screen opened up, then Ella navigated to the settings and disabled the password.
‘That all?’ Redmond asked.
Ella rose to her feet and pocketed the device. She wasn’t proud of what she’d just done, but acquiring clearance to search the phone would take more time than she had. She needed a shortcut, and she could only hope that the results overrode her protocol violation.
‘I lied,’ she said. ‘There’s one more thing.’
‘Another?’
‘Yes. I need you to open up every haunted house in town. For tomorrow night.’
Redmond did a double take so hard Ella thought he might sprain something. 'Come again? Open them up? Are you sure that's a good idea?'
‘No, it’s a terrible idea, but we need to give this killer his hunting grounds back, because if we don’t, he could strike anywhere. If we provide a designated space where we know he’ll strike, we’ll have more chance of catching him.’
Redmond gestured to the woman’s corpse and said, ‘But we know he’ll hit the haunted houses. What does it matter whether it’s inside or out?’
‘It doesn’t, but our unsub found his first three victims inside the hauntsandkilled them there. He abducted this poor woman elsewhere and brought her here. If he does that with his next victim, he’s got ample opportunity to kill them before we have a chance to intervene.’
‘Right. So we’re narrowing down his victim pool.’
‘Yeah. He’s not going to abduct someone and bring them to an area full of other people. We’re giving him parameters, and that works in our favor.’
Redmond met her eyes, searching. Whatever he saw there must have convinced him, because he shrugged. ‘Alright, yourcall. The folks ‘round here’ll be happy, but if this goes sideways…’
‘I know. We’ll be in even more crap than if we kept them shut.’
‘Yup.’
It was the cop’s paradox. You were always in the wrong regardless of your decision.
'It's a risk we have to take. We just have to be ready because he isn't going to make this easy. He won't use his alias, and he might not even appear as a punter. Something tells me he's going to do something extreme to really drive the point home.'
‘You got it, Miss Dark. I’ll make some calls while I wait for the coroner. Take my car if you’re heading back. I’ll get a lift.’ He tossed Ella the keys.
‘Thank you. I’ll go speak with that Gary gentleman.’
Ella turned on her heel and stalked towards Redmond’s car. She had an interrogation to crash and a husband to grill.
The real work was just getting started, and if Cassius wanted a show, Ella was going to give him a Goddamn spectacle. But before she stepped in the car, Redmond called out to hear.
‘Miss Dark, one last question.’
‘Go.’
‘News of these murders is everywhere. Even if we open up, who’s crazy enough to visit a haunted house when there’s a killer on the loose?’
Fair point, Ella thought, but one with a fair answer. ‘Easy. The one person who’s safe from this killer. The killer himself.’