CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

Ella blasted out of the interrogation room and began pacing the corridor. Too many angles, too many loose ends. And now Luca, tripping her up at every turn.

Speak of the devil. Luca sauntered out like he'd just aced a pop quiz. ‘Not bad, huh?'

Ella rounded on him. ‘The hell was that? You sandbagged me.'

Luca backpedaled, palms up. ‘Whoa, easy. I was just working a hunch.'

'And you didn't think to clue me in?' She advanced on him, jabbing a finger at his chest. 'We're partners, Luca. That means we're in sync, or we're sunk.'

Luca held up his hands in surrender. His puppy-dog eyes almost made Ella feel bad. ‘Alright, alright. I'm sorry. Got a little carried away back there. Won't happen again.'

The anger seeped out of her, replaced by weariness. She knew Luca meant well. He always did. But sometimes his lone wolf streak made her want to howl.

‘Sorry. I know you meant well. It's just…'

'I was just trying to speak to him on a normal personal level. That guy doesn't have your magic memory.'

Ella's anger deflated like a punctured tire. They had bigger fish to fry; no point wasting energy on this small fry. ‘Forget it. We've got more important things to worry about.'

‘That we do. Guess we need to go through every one of Carter's videos frame by frame.'

'Yeah. How many are there?'

‘Eighty. Eighty-one if he uploaded his little jaunt to the sanitorium.'

‘Sheesh.' Eighty videos. If each one was ten minutes, that meant they had over thirteen hours of footage to comb through. ‘That's gonna be an all-night job, but maybe we could…'

‘Boss!' Sheriff Redmond came barreling down the hall like he was running across hot coals. He skidded to a stop, wheezing, and thrust a sweat-damp paper at Ella. ‘Got it. List from the Crypt, like you wanted.'

Ella snatched the paper and gave it a quick once-over. The names of the punters at the Crypt of Despair from this morning, the ones present when Benjamin Clarke was murdered. She did a quick count.

‘Ten names,' she said. None of them rang any bells.

‘Which means our killer's name is on that list,' said Redmond. He mopped his brow with a handkerchief that had seen better days. ‘Mayor's breathing down my neck about reopening those haunted houses. Says we're killing the town's Halloween spirit.'

Beside her, Luca craned his neck, trying to read over her shoulder.

‘Hold up,' Luca said, ‘let me see that.'

Ella passed it to him. ‘What is it?'

Luca tapped his finger on the sheet and said, ‘Can't be sure, but think I've seen one of these names before.'

‘Well, don't keep us in suspense, Hawkins. Out with it.'

Luca scuttled back down the hallway. He called over his shoulder, ‘Like I said, we don't all have your magic memory.'

Ella and Redmond exchanged a look, then quickly stepped back to Ella's office. Luca made a beeline for the file boxes stacked against the wall, muttering to himself as he rifled through the contents. Redmond shot Ella a questioning look. She could only shrug.

‘Aha!' Luca yanked a file free and brandished it like a war trophy. He slapped it on the desk and flipped it open. ‘There. Knew it looked familiar.'

Ella leaned in. It was the guest list from the Crematorium – the night of Van Allen's murder. Dozens of names in neat, typewritten rows.

Luca grabbed a pen and circled a name on both sheets. Ella leaned in for a closer look.

‘I'll be damned,' she breathed. ‘Cassius Auctor.'

‘See? Name jumped right out at me. And look…' He laid both sheets side-by-side. ‘Cassius Auctor. Both lists. We've got it, guys. That's our unsub.'

Redmond snatched up both sheets. ‘Cassius Auctor. What kind of Renaissance Fair name is that?'

Ella's mind whirred, puzzle pieces clicking into place. Things had moved so fast she barely had time to comprehend it.

They had a name. A solid link between two of the victims. The person who killed Van Allen and Benjamin Clarke had to be part of the groups going through the mazes at their respective times. Hell, the other guests had confirmed the killer was a part of their groups. This much was confirmed.

So why did something feel off?

But despite the weird gut feeling, she was sure of one thing.

‘That's exactly what it is, Sheriff. A fake name.'

‘Too right. I'd know if someone local had this dumb name.'

‘Cassius?' Luca asked. ‘It was Muhammad Ali's real name.'

Ella thought back to that crash course in Latin she took, must have been eight years ago now. ‘Auctor isn't a real surname. It means author, creator, originator.'

‘Okay, but let's plug his name into the databases anyway, see if he's used this little moniker elsewhere.'

She was already two steps ahead, because if nothing else, this little revelation proved one thing: her unsub wasn't some two- bit dollar store serial killer. He was pompous enough to create a fake name to go along with his little spree and use that fake name twice. He wasn't hiding his actions – this was his way of signing these crime scenes as his own. A killer this smart would have known that the cops would have inspected the guest lists for each house.

‘First, we scour the databases for Cassius Auctor, then we go through Carter's footage for that mask.'

‘On it, Ell,' Luca said as he settled down to his laptop.

‘I'll get the coffee on,' offered Redmond.

‘Do. Because we've got a long night ahead.'