Page 62 of Girl, Haunted

‘Ah, but where's the fun in that?’ He sounded like a snake in the grass – polite and lethal. ‘I'll make you a deal. You share what you've gleaned from the tea leaves, and I'll fill in the rest.’

Ella clenched her teeth. Two could play the enigmatic artist game. ‘Okay, Cassius. You want to play? Let’s play. Yes, we know your name. Or your alias, anyway. And we’ve even seen you on CCTV footage. Tall gentleman, aren’t you?’

‘My, my. You have been doing your homework.’

‘So, Cassius. That’s your name, correct?’

‘It’s one of my names.’

Ella's pulse kicked. It felt like an eternity, but they'd barely been on the phone for thirty seconds. Not nearly long enough for a trace, even if he was ringing from inside the state. She caught Luca's eye as he mouthed ‘keep him on.’

Right. Time to bust out the small talk.

‘Let me guess. You're the chatty type. Want the world to know what you’ve done?’

‘Ha! Trying to profile me, Detective? Hoping I'll reveal some tragic backstory that sent me skipping down the road to ruin?’ His laugh curdled her blood. ‘Tempting, but I'm a sucker for the slow burn. I'd much rather savor the present.’

The hairs on Ella's nape prickled to attention. The best way to keep someone talking was to ask them open-ended questions. People, even serial murderers – especially serial murderers – couldn’t resist talking about themselves. ‘What kind of possibilities we talking here?’

‘The fatal kind. The kind that ends with a chalk outline and a closed casket.’

Ella's stomach plummeted to her shoes as the implications sank fang-deep. ‘What did you do?’

‘Ah ah. That would be telling.’ He clicked his tongue, a schoolmarm tsk-ing a misbehaving student. ‘But I will say this: Greygate Manor is lovely this time of year.’

Ella spun to Redmond. She nodded to him and Redmond disappeared out of the office.Greygate Manor.Another local haunted house.

‘Is that the only reason you called us? Isn’t there anything else you want to say?’

Keep him talking. Don’t spook him.

‘Yes. I didn’t want you fine folks to think I’d given up the ghost. So to speak.’

White-hot rage sizzled up Ella's spine. She wanted to reach through the phone and throttle him until his eyes popped. If I was telling the truth – then the man had killed two people in a single day. The famous, ultra-rare double-event as it was known in profiler terms.

‘Two victims in one day?’ Ella asked.

'I know, impressive, isn't it? Just call me a modern-day Jack the Ripper.'

‘Jack the Ripper, huh? Something tells me you and him won’t have a lot in common.’

‘We'll see about that. You know, they say the ghosts of Jack’s victims still walk the streets of Whitechapel, screaming Jack’s true identity into the void. Maybe that’ll happen here, too.’

Ella caught Luca’s eye. He mouthed ‘one more minute.’

‘And how long will this go on for?’ Ella asked. ‘They say Jack the Ripper’s final victim was the one he was looking for all along. Is that the case for you? Why are you killing innocent people?’

‘This ends soon,’ Cassius said. ‘Any good storyteller knows that you always begin with the ending, and this one will end in the most important haunted house of all.’

Storyteller. Most important haunted house.‘Is that what this is about? You want to be remembered?’

‘No. This isn’t about me. But anyway, I must bid you adieu before I’m on long enough to trace…’

‘Wait,’ Ella interrupted, ‘tell me what this is about. The bear, the mirrors, the mask. I need to know.’

‘You might want to hurry to Greygate Manor. That poor woman's heart just wasn't in it.’

Click.

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