Page 71 of Girl, Unseen

‘You think we planted evidence on you? Don’t be ridiculous. If it was that easy, we’d have arrested you last night. And don’t act all innocent here. We know you sent threatening letters to Felix.’

‘Where are you getting this rubbish?’ Ezra’s knuckles turned white around the bars. ‘I never threatened Felix. People are free to leave the Order whenever they wish. We don’t hold people hostage.’

Ella held his gaze, searching for the lie, searching for the monster behind the man. But all she could see was a blurry image that could have sharpened into a hundred different things.

‘If all of this is true, then you need to help us. Give us something. Names, locations, anything that might point us in the right direction.’

Todd looked up. ‘You mean...’

‘A list. Of every member in your little club. So we can rule them out.’

And just like that, the shutters came down.

‘No. Absolutely not.’

‘Ezra, you can help us or we can track your followers down the hard way. The choice is yours.’

‘You think I’m going to throw my people to the wolves? I won’t do it.’

Ella felt her patience fraying. ‘The less you cooperate, the worse this looks for you. You get that, right?’

‘I don't care how it looks.’ He drew himself up. ‘They trust me. They put their faith in me. I won't repay that by serving them up on a platter.’

She heard Luca mutter a curse ten feet away. She was inclined to agree.

But she had one more card to play. One more piece of the puzzle that might shake something loose.

‘Corpus Hermeticum,’ she said, hoping she was pronouncing the Latin right. ‘Wanna tell me about that?’

Ezra cocked a blonde eyebrow. ‘The Corpus Hermeticum? What about it?’

‘You tell me.’

‘I’ve never read it. I doubt many people alive have read it.’

Ella wasn’t sure what game Ezra was playing now. Luca had found a copy of this exact book in his possession. ‘Guess I’m one of the lucky few, because I’ve read it. Can’t say I understood much.’

‘Yeah, right. Copies of the Corpus Hermeticum sell for about ten grand. No offense, detective, but I don’t think you-,’

‘Oh, I couldn’t afford one, no. But clearly you could, because we found a copy in your meeting place.’

Ezra shook his head, like he’d just heard that everything he ever knew was a lie. ‘I own a lot of alchemy books. Believe me, I’d know if I owned if the Hermeticum, and I don’t.’

Ella went through her phone, found a photo of the book’s front cover. She held it up to the cell bars. ‘This look familiar?’

Ezra leaned closer, squinted. ‘That’s not mine.’

‘Then why was it on your table?’

He huffed a laugh. ‘I must say, I’m flattered. You really bought a copy of the Corpus Hermeticum just to frame me for murder. Quite an expensive effort.’

‘Well, maybe you could tell me why the exact symbols in this book were found at our crime scenes? And on your note? And why Tessa Webster’s last client was someone named Hermes, aka the author of that little book.’

Ezra pierced her with a stare. ‘Detective, do you know what the Corpus Hermeticum is?’

‘Absolutely no idea. I couldn’t find anything on it online, nor anything about the author.’

‘Well, you wouldn’t. The book was banned a century ago.’

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