CHAPTER THIRTY

Ella hauled the cruiser into the parking lot outside Greygate Manor. The place was another grey rectangle with a few props outside, but amongst the props were two figures. Only one was moving.

Sheriff Redmond stood there, his profile washed out in the harsh glare of police lights. And there, sprawled at his feet like a broken marionette, lay a woman. A stain of crimson radiated outwards, starting at her chest and cascading down the steps, still fresh, still wet. Against the clinical white of Greygate Manor's facade, the blood looked so red it was almost black.

She was out of the car and at his side in a second. The anonymous caller hadn't been lying.

‘Christ in heaven,' Redmond said.

The body was clearly female, long blonde hair, manicured nails, maybe mid-forties. She'd been splayed on the stoop like a broken doll, but there was nothing but a gaping void where her heart should be.

That poor woman's heart just wasn't in it.

‘God damn it to hell,' Ella screamed. Suddenly, Cassius's parting comment made sense.

‘Only got here two minutes ago. No sign of the perp. Just… this.'

Luca asked, ‘Recognize her, Sheriff?'

‘No. Goddamn butcher. Ripped her heart clean out. In all my years in this game…'

She crouched beside the body. The woman's honey-blonde hair spilled out beneath her, sticky with blood. She wore the remnants of a black top, ripped down the middle to expose the gory handiwork beneath.

Ella breathed deep and fought the urge to hurl. Eight years in law enforcement, and she still wasn't used to this part. Doubted she ever would be. So she steeled herself and slipped on the emotional armor that let her function at times like these. Shoved down the creeping dread that this was just the opening salvo in a war they were already losing.

‘He's evolving,' she said, half to herself, half to Luca. ‘Getting bolder. Contacting us directly, taunting us, pulling off this... this butchery out in the open.'

Luca nodded. 'Not just on a mission anymore, is he? Got a real taste for it now. But who is this woman, and how'd he find her? Doubt she was going for a late night walk past Greygate Manor.'

'He had to have abducted her.' Ella pointed to the blood spatter. It began in a pool ten feet from the body, then made its way to the front steps. 'This is the killing ground and the dumping ground, just like the others.'

The old profiles, the classic tropes – they didn't fit this freak. He'd ripped up the serial killer playbook and scribbled his own manifesto in the margins.

‘We took his playground away,' Luca said, ‘so he improvised. This guy doesn't take no for an answer.'

Her pulse jackhammered as she stared at the body's mangled chest, hypnotized by the raw ugliness of it all. This was a whole new kind of psychopath. Ella had never met a serial killer who could go through the entire spectrum of savagery in such a short space of time.

The growl of an engine shattered her thoughts. A car – a crappy beige sedan that had seen better decades – tore into the lot and screeched to a halt a few feet away. Before Ella could yell for Luca, she was up and moving, gun out of its holster and pointed straight at the sedan's windshield. Who the hell was dumb enough to crash her crime scene?

‘Driver!' she shouted. ‘Hands where I can see 'em and step out of the vehicle! Now!'

The driver's door creaked open. A pair of hands emerged, followed by a hulking figure. He was built like a linebacker gone to seed, broad shoulders slumped under the weight of middle age. But there was still enough muscle there to do some damage.

‘Oh god,' he choked out. ‘Oh god, Amanda! What the … ' He lurched towards the body, but Ella planted herself in his path, gun still raised.

‘Sir, I need you to step back.'

The man's eyes ping-ponged between Ella, the gun, and the woman - no, the corpse - on the stoop. His mouth flapped open and closed, trawling for words that wouldn't come.

‘Sir, I won't ask again.' Ella risked a glance over her shoulder at Luca, who'd come up behind her, one hand on his own piece. ‘Don't make this worse.'

'Worse? That's my wife!' He tried to shoulder past Ella but she stood her ground. Freehand up, palm out.

‘I said step back!'

The fight drained out of the man quicker than she expected. His shoulders slumped and he stumbled backward as his legs gave out. He landed on his ass, head in his hands, blubbering like a baby.

What the hell is going on?

‘What's your name?' Ella asked, wary gaze still darting between the grieving husband and their Jane Doe. The pieces weren't clicking yet. No way this guy was their unsub – too loud, too emotional, too goddamn normal in his devastation. But what were the odds of him happening across his wife's dead body?

The man dragged a sleeve across his snot-streaked mug and sniffled. ‘Gary. Gary Krafton.'

‘Well, Gary Krafton, I'm going to need you to tell me how you wound up here.'

Gary lifted imploring eyes to Ella. In the stark light, they glittered with unshed tears. ‘I tracked her phone. With my app. When she ran out earlier, I just...' He trailed off, gaze straying back to Amanda's body. Fresh sobs wracked his frame.

When she ran out earlier? Ella caught Luca's eye and jerked her head towards Redmond. Without a word, Luca peeled off towards the sheriff.

And then something clicked. The scattered pieces shifted, formed a picture – fractured and incomplete, but there. She turned back to Gary, brain buzzing.

‘Listen up, Gary. I'm gonna need you to come with us. Down to the station.'

Gary's head snapped up, a cornered animal. ‘What? Why? I didn't–'

‘Nobody's saying you did,' Ella cut in, not unkindly. She softened her stance, let a little of the hardass cop routine slip. ‘But right now, you're our best lead on figuring out who did do this to your wife.'

The husband buried his face in his hands, then gave a jerky bob of his head.

Ella turned, caught Luca's eye. He'd been watching the whole exchange, one hand resting on the butt of his holstered gun. She jerked her chin towards Gary. ‘Get him back to the station, make him cozy in Interview One.'

Luca obliged. He maneuvered Gary Krafton into the back seat of their car, then called out to Ella. 'You staying here?'

‘Yeah.' She threw him the car keys. ‘I just need to pick something up. I'll see you back at the precinct.'

Redmond stood beside Ella, and they watched Luca drive away. She turned back to re-examine the body, but it felt hollow. More of a cop's reflex than a real action.

‘Pretty weird that the husband suddenly turns up,' Redmond said.

‘That guy's not our killer.'

‘How'd you know?'

‘Look at the body, Sheriff. She's a bloody mess. Our killer would be drenched in blood. So would the inside of his car.'

Redmond moved over to the husband's sedan and looked inside. ‘He could have showered. And have two cars.'

‘His build didn't fit. Too stocky. Plus, the voice didn't match.' Ella went back to the body, applied her gloves and began rummaging through the victim's pockets.

‘I guess. I didn't recognize that voice on the phone, either, before you ask.' Redmond worried his lower lip with his teeth. ‘Uh, Miss Dark, are you sure you should be doing that? Forensics are still ten minutes away.'

Ella paused, one hand halfway to the woman's blood-soaked jeans. ‘I know, Sheriff. But this psycho's breaking all the rules, and if we want to catch him, we need to do the same.'

Redmond glanced around like he expected the police commissioner to pop out from behind a plastic tombstone. ‘Alright. I won't tell your boss. I'm pretty much willing to do anything to catch this freak. Just be careful.'

‘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's sensor. 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 haunts and killed 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, your call. 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.'