Page 62 of Girl, Bound

‘Right. Keep going.’

‘He has enough medicalknowledge to know exactly how much sedative to give them. Which means he’sfamiliar with it. He’s not just hoping for the best. He knows this stuff.’

‘Good. Any more?’

Ella wracked herbrain. ‘But he’s smart enough to keep a distance from this stuff. He knows thecops would put two and two together. He knows they’d suspect someone with aproximity to animal sedatives. So he’s on the periphery, not in the trenches.’

The clock was ticking,the sand slipping through the hourglass with every passing second. Holbrook wasout there right now, spinning his web of lies and half-truths, painting EddieShawcross as the boogeyman in the night. And if they didn't find a way to stophim, an innocent man was going to take the fall for crimes he didn't commit.

Ella's phone buzzed,the sound as jarring as a sudden gunblast.. She glanced at the screen, browfurrowing at the unknown number. Probably just another reporter, anothervulture circling the carcass of Millhaven's misery.

She let it go tovoicemail, turning back to the board.

‘Victimology is allover the place, which means victims aren’t important. He can target anyone,anywhere. But if that was the case, why kill Christian Maddox where he did? Itwas a minute away from a busy area. He could have…’

But then her phonerang again. The same unfamiliar number flashed on the screen.

‘For God’s sake,’ Ellasaid.’ She snatched the phone and answered. ‘Hello? What is it?’

‘Agent Dark?’ Thevoice on the other end was thin and reedy, like a rusty hinge in need of oil.‘This is Dr. Goodweather, from the coroner's office. You remember?’

Ella snapped back toreality. ‘Yes, of course.’

‘I have something foryou.’

Ella’s heart froze.Please be something useful. Please, God, let it give her the break she needed.

She turned the phoneto loudspeaker. ‘You’ve got Dark and Ripley, doctor. Hit us.’

There was a rustlingof papers, the sound of Goodweather clearing his throat like a car engineturning over. ‘I've been going over the toxicology reports, trying to nail downthe specific sedative used on the victims. And I think I've finally got a match.’

Ella held her breath,her knuckles turning white as she gripped the phone. ‘What is it? What's themagic bullet?’

Goodweather's voicewas almost apologetic, like he knew he was about to drop a bombshell.‘Xylazine,’ he said, the word hanging in the air like a death sentence. ‘Allthree victims had traces of it in their systems. It's a powerful animaltranquilizer, used mainly in veterinary medicine.’

Xylazine.

The name crashed intoElla's consciousness like a wrecking ball smashing through a glass house. Itwas a bolt of lightning that seared through the fog of her exhaustion andfrustration.

Suddenly, every detailshe had skimmed over, every minor inconsistency she had filed away, surgedforward, demanding to be re-examined. Jigsaw pieces fell into place with asickening clarity, the picture that had eluded her for so long finally snappinginto focus.

Xylazine. A singleword. It had flicked on the switch, revealing the chaos she'd been wadingthrough all this time.

'Doc,' Ella began,'you've helped us more than you could ever know.'

‘Just doing my job,ma’am.’

Ella had it.

Answers to everyquestion. The wall at the dead end had crumbled to dust, revealing a directpath to their killer.

‘One last question,doc,’ she said.

‘Of course.’

‘How is Xylazineusually administered?’

There was a moment ofsilence, the sound of Goodweather rifling through his notes. ‘Well, it'stypically given orally, mixed in with food or water. It's a fast-actingsedative, so it doesn't take much to put an animal down.’

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