Page 49 of Girl, Bound

The bullpen was slowlycoming to life, filling up with the usual cast of characters. Ella glanced upfrom the mess of files on her desk just in time to catch sight of Ripleyslinking in, uncharacteristically late. Her partner looked like she'd beendragged through a hedge backwards and then beat with the ugly stick for goodmeasure.

Ripley wove throughthe maze of desks, a large coffee clutched in her hand like it was the onlything keeping her vertical. Ella watched as the other officers she hadn’t seenbefore gave her the cold shoulder, parting around her like the Red Sea. Seems theirlittle escapade with Barber had won them even less friends in the department.

But Ella couldn'tworry about that now. She had bigger fish to fry, like the psycho runningaround stuffing people into body bags. She turned back to the jumble of papers,eyes burning holes in the crime scene photos. There had to be something she wasmissing, some little breadcrumb that would lead her to the psycho.

Suddenly, her officedoor flew open with a bang, nearly giving her a goddamn heart attack. Ripleystood there, looking like the cat that ate the canary, the cream, and the wholedairy farm.

‘What time do you callthis?’ Ella asked. ‘What happened to that Midwestern punctuality?’

‘Shut up. I’ve gotsomething for you.’

‘Oh?’

‘Got a call from ourfavorite coroner this morning. Toxicology report is in. Seems they foundsomething mighty interesting in Eric Saunders’ system.’

She slapped a stack ofpapers on Ella's desk. Ella snatched them up, her eyes scanning the jumble ofscientific mumbo-jumbo. It was like trying to read a foreign language, allchemical compounds and medical jargon.

But then, there itwas, jumping out at her like a neon sign in a sea of gray.

Preliminary testsconfirm that an animal sedative was used to immobilize Mr. Saunders.

Ella's head snappedup, her eyes locking with Ripley's. ‘Animal sedative?’

‘Uh huh.’

Ella speed-read thething again. ‘What kind of animal sedative? It doesn’t say.’

Ripley shook her head,looking like a kid on Christmas morning. ‘Nope. They're still working out thespecifics, but it's definitely some kind of veterinary drug. You know whatmeans.’

‘Our boy's got aconnection to animals,’ Ella finished, the gears in her head spinning like atop. ‘Vet, animal shelter, something like that.’

‘With any luck, yes,’Ripley said. ‘I mean, there’s a chance our killer got those chemicals onlinetoo. So I’ll try and get some guys to look into animal sedatives for sale. Seeif anyone has shipped to Millhaven recently.’

Ella clenched herfist. ‘Good call.’

Ripley turned andpeered out of the glass into the main area of the precinct. ‘That’s if we’vestill got any friends around here.’

‘If they won’t do it,I will,’ Ella said. Ella was on her feet in a flash, papers flying everywhere.‘We need to shake some trees, see what falls out. I’ll see if there are anyvets or shelters around here. You could try and make peace with our pals out there,see if anyone’s willing to help us.’

She felt a surge ofenergy, the exhaustion of the long night melting away. Finally, they had alead, something to sink their teeth into.

***

Within twenty minutes,Ella was up to her eyeballs in Google searches and phone calls. The coffee inher veins had gone from a gentle buzz to a full-on earthquake, legsjackhammering under the desk like she was trying to drill for oil.

But it was worth it.She'd managed to track down two joints in the area that might have what theywere looking for. The Wetlands Wildlife Habitat and some place called theExotic Zoo. Sounded like the kind of place she might find a guy in aleopard-print thong wrestling a python, but if they had the goods, Ella wasn'tgoing to judge.

She was just about todial the first number when Ripley came barging in with another shit-eating grinon her face.

‘Guess who just scoredus a new best friend?’ she crowed.

Ella raised aneyebrow. ‘I’m guessing Barber hasn’t forgiven us just yet.’

‘No. I’ve let Barbergo, but I don’t think he’ll invite me to his birthday.’

‘Sorry to hear that.Who then?’

‘Remember thatbaby-faced uniform who ratted out Barber? Turns out he's the only one in thisplace with a conscience. Managed to bribe him into doing some digging on ourmystery sedative.’

---