Page 8 of Girl, Unseen

Ella's laptop hummed on Thornton's desk, which was the only surface not covered in geological specimens. She'd cleared a space between a chunk of rose quartz and what looked like a fossilized snail shell. ‘Don’t pretend like you know what any of those words mean.’

‘Maybe not, but I know what Jurassic and Cretaceous are. You know there could be dinosaur DNA on these things?’

Ella checked her new message. It was from the Surveillance team back at HQ. They’d attached the last sighting of Marcus Thornton’s vehicle. Ella clicked the attachment and waited the annoyingly-long time for it to load.

‘DNA? On a rock?’

'Yeah, that's how they clone dinosaurs. I watched this documentary called Jurassic Park once, and-'

‘Here, Hawkins, look.’ The picture popped up. It was a grainy CCTV shot of a black Mustang – the kind that would make Edis weep – cruisingnorth on I-684, timestamped 12:17 PM on Saturday just gone. Luca leaned in for a closer look.

‘Nice ‘Stang,’ he said. ‘So Marcus was heading north. Then where?’

‘He could have gone anywhere after this. There's a dozen exits between there and Connecticut.’

‘Not necessarily.’ Luca tapped the screen. ‘The 684’s got cameras every ten miles or so. If we didn't get another hit, he must have exited before the next one picked him up.’

‘So there’s what, five exits he could have taken?’

‘Well, no. Look at the positioning.’

‘What about it?’

‘He's in the right lane. Empty stretch of highway, clear day, muscle car that probably purrs like a tiger. What kind of person drives a restored Mustang in the slow lane?’

Ella studied the image again. The Mustang hugged the right lane like it was magnetized there. No drift, no swagger, no muscle-car attitude. ‘He was getting ready to exit.’

‘Exactly.’ Luca reached for his own laptop. ‘Let me pull up a map.’

Ella bit back a smile. She hated how easily Luca did this – slipped inside people's heads, saw the world through their eyes. Well, perhaps not hate. More like professional jealousy with a side of admiration. She'd spent years honing her profiling skills; Luca just seemed to absorb other people's perspectives like some kind of psychological sponge.

But sometimes, that innate ability led him down paths she couldn't follow. Paths that left marks, both seen and unseen.

‘Okay, smart guy. Let's say you're right. Where'd he go after?’

‘Here.’ Luca turned his screen. ‘This is where the camera caught him, just past the Croton Falls exit. If he was planning to get off at the next exit, that would put him...’

‘Around Brewster.’ Ella leaned in. ‘What's out there?’

‘Industrial park, couple of warehouses, some office complexes.’ Luca's fingers flew across the keys. ‘But chances are at least one of their cameras is maintained by the same company as the highway’s cams, meaning Surveillance would have got a hit.’

Ella followed his train of thought. His irritatingly-sound train of thought. ‘But they didn’t.’

‘But they didn’t. Which means he didn’t go past them.’

‘Let's work this methodically.’ Ella pulled her chair closer. ‘If he got off at Brewster, where can he go from there?’

‘Route 6 splits east and west.’ Luca zoomed in. ‘West takes you toward Mahopac. East goes to Danbury.’

'And he'd have been caught on camera if he took any highways in those directions. Same as if he circled back southbound. So it's like he drove into a black hole.'

They studied the map in silence. The area spread out like a spider web of smaller roads branching off the main arteries. Old farm roads, service routes, private drives. A hundred places to disappear.

‘Wait.’ Ella pointed at a tangle of thin blue lines. ‘What are these?’

‘Local roads. Mostly residential.’ Luca zoomed in closer. ‘Though this one... Barrett Road. Looks like it used to be a major throughway before they built the highway.’

‘Used to be?’

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