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“Among a lot ofother things,” Amber replied, but Simon had a point. The word “street” madesense in the context of describing a location, and guessing the letters for itmight give them letters elsewhere in the phrase.
Amber typed in theletters “S-T-R” one by one, and they all filled in correctly.
“Good job,”Francesca praised her. “What’s next?”
Amber studied thephrase again, scanning for any clues, any sense of what the words might be.
_I _ _ _ E I _ T _ E S T R E E T _ _ E R E T _ I S _ E _ A _
It seemed like a descriptionof a location rather than a simple address, but without more context, it couldbe anywhere.
Amber paused,staring at it. In spite of the time pressure, she knew she couldn’t afford torush. There was no time for wrong guesses. Mentally, without touching thekeyboard, she tried fitting different words into the spaces.
“You’re nottyping, Amber,” Simon said.
“You know whathappens if I make too many guesses,” Amber said. “And we don’t have enough timefor incorrect guesses. I think there’s almost enough there to work this out.Just… let me think a moment.”
This time, shedidn’t leave. She sat there, staring at the screen, letting her mind workthrough the possibilities. She thought about the killer, what they had done sofar, and how he had phrased the last clue she’d worked on.
“Some of the wordsare obvious,” Amber said. “The word two from the end is obviously ‘this,’ and Ican also see ‘the’ and ‘where’ without a problem. The rest… it’s about findinga phrase that fits.”
She still didn’twant to guess, knowing that any guess might take them too far, yet she knewthat without more letters, she wasn’t going to get this.
Simon seemed torealize the same thing, reaching out and tentatively pressing the letter “N.”Amber froze as he did it, knowing that she shouldn’t put him in a positionwhere he had to do it, while silently hoping that it proved to be a correctletter.
It did, giving herthe word “in” for free, but also appearing in the first word and the last.
Her mind raced,trying to find the hidden meaning in the phrase.
Suddenly,something clicked.
“I think I got it!”Amber exclaimed. She held up a hand to make sure that no one could type anymore letters, knowing all too well the price of each one.
Amber lined up theletters in her mind, then spoke the phrase aloud.
“Find me in thestreet where this began. There, that’s what the puzzle says.”
“Now we just needto work out what it means,” Simon said.
That was thesecond layer of the game. It wasn’t enough to just decode the phrase, they hadto work out a location from it and get there too.
Francesca leanedin, her eyes narrowed in concentration. “Okay, let’s think logically. Thekiller wants us to find the victim in the place where this all started. Thathas to be the first murder scene.”
“But he couldn’tjust access the first murder scene, could he?” Amber asked.
“All of my guysare out looking for him, and the scene has already been swept by forensics,”Francesca pointed out.
“But it says ‘inthe street where this began’ not just ‘where this began,’” Amber said.
Francesca frownedfor a moment, then nodded to herself, looking as though something had suddenlycome to her.
“There’s anabandoned apartment building just down the street from the first scene. Thebasements are flooded and it has been condemned. He must have spotted it whilehe was killing Thomas Jackson.”
Amber could feelexcitement running through her in that moment. They had an answer. One thatmight save a victim’s life.
Simon grabbed hiscoat, already moving toward the door. “I’ll drive this time. Let’s go, we don’thave much time.”
As they hurriedout of the station, Amber couldn’t help but feel a sense of déjà vu. She’d beenin this position before, rushing to save a victim from the killer’s deadlygame. But this time was different. This time, she had a chance to make thingsright.
