Page 63 of Girl, Unseen

Not like this, Ella thought. Not when they fit a pattern.

‘You know anything about hot air balloons?’ Ella asked.

‘Nothing. You?’

‘My dad took me in one when I was about five. That’s where my knowledge begins and ends.’

She examined the basket's interior. Given the faint mechanical whirs, some of the flight instruments were still functional. Two propane tanks nestled in their brackets and steel thermos had rolled against the sidewall.

Ross came over, tapped Ella on the shoulder. ‘Since you’re so insistent, take a look at this. Found it in the vet's pocket.’ Ross handed over a small notebook.

Ella opened the water-resistant booklet. Maintenance logs, flight records, student notes. She flipped through pages of routine data.

‘Flight log?’

‘Looks like it. All her appointments.’

Ella found the most recent entry. Dated yesterday at one PM.

Then her heart anchored to the pit of her stomach.

13:00 - instruction flight, pax 1 - Hermes C.

Ice walked down Ella's spine.

Hermes.

Just like the book Luca had found.Corpus Hermeticum: The Divine Pymander of Hermes Trismegistus.

'Hawkins, look.' She pushed the book under his nose, but he stared off into the distance. 'The vic’s last appointment was with someone named Hermes.’

‘Ell…’

She turned back to Ross. 'This is too much of a link to be a coincidence. Can we check out the cameras from where the balloon took off? Or the vic’s payment logs? Surely a student would have to pay in advance, so maybe we could-'

‘Ell…’ Luca tugged at her partner’s sleeve but she was too lost in thought, assembling fragments into a picture she didn't want to see. Earth. Water. Now air. This had to be their killer’s doing because one, experienced pilots didn’t just pass out mid-flight, and two, no one born after 1800 was named Hermes.

'No such things,' Ross said. 'Tessa was freelance, but she had to file all her flights with a company called Cloud Nine. They worked as her mission control, but that was all. She dealt with everything herself, apparently.'

A professor, a marine biologist, a balloon pilot. Her unsub had managed to isolate these people and kill them through different means each time – something Ella had never seen before. She couldn’t think of a single historical killer who’d employed a different M.O. for every single victim.

And the bigger question right now was: how did he manage to kill Tessa Webster while she was alone in the middle of the sky?

‘Ell!’ Luca said.

She handed the book back to Ross. ‘What?’

‘Look!’

But then she saw his face. That specific expression that meant the world was either too orderly or too chaotic. She followed his gaze past the police line, past the news vans, to where spectators pressed against the tape

And there he stood.

Head and shoulders above the tourists and locals who'd gathered to watch death's aftermath. Long blonde hair caught morning light like spun gold. Tattoos that might have been circuit boards decorated the shaved sides of his head. Six and a half feet of lean muscle.

Ella hadn’t seen him in the flesh herself, but she didn’t need Luca’s commentary to know who she was looking at.

‘Is that…?’

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