Page 54 of Girl, Sought

‘Hawkins! Get away from the…’

But Luca was already beside her with cuffs in hand. He shoved a foot into Thorne’s spine and dropped the cuffs into Ella’s hands. She looked up and saw him taking a lazy drag from Thorne’s discarded cigarette. The picture of calm, like he hadn't just prevented a potential explosion through the tactical application of face-punching.

‘Wanted to make an entrance.’ He blew a smoke ring that looked impossibly smug. ‘Besides, you had him talking.’

Under her knee, Thorne had gone unnaturally still. Not the stillness of defeat, but something that made her profiler's instincts itch in ways she couldn't quite scratch.

But if fortune was on her side, they might have just bagged themselves a serial killer.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

Gabriel Thorne sat alone in the interview room, and Ella thought he looked like a broken action figure someone had posed in all the wrong ways. His suit was crumpled and stained with dirty water. A bruise bloomed across his jaw where Luca’s fist had connected. Ella regarded him through the one-way glass with pity.

‘So he just lights up a cigarette?’ Reeves asked. ‘In a unit full of gas?’

‘Yeah. But Hawkins got there before he could barbecue himself.’ Ella kept her eyes on Thorne while she outlined the storage unit standoff. The desperate gambit with the chemicals. The masks in his office. His history of theft. Luca, who was leaning against the wall with a coffee in hand, nodded along.

‘Well, the good news is that I know this guy. I’ve seen Gabriel in here enough times. Pretty sure I dragged him in myself a few times, but he never struck me as the murderous type. I expected our killer to be more fire and brimstone, less… middle management.’

‘Evil clocks in at 9-to-5 like the rest of us.’

‘You two going to talk a confession out of him?’

‘We’re going to get some answers, put it that way.’

Reeves checked his watch. ‘Good. I'll be watching from the observation room. Try not to let him set himself on fire this time.’

‘Understood.’ Ella waited until Reeves' footsteps receded down the hall, then turned to Luca. He was leaning against the wall, an inscrutable expression on his face as he studied Thorne through the glass.

‘Quite a day,’ Luca said.

‘That’s one way to put it.’Ella couldn't quite keep the bite from her voice. The memory of those barrels, the chemical reek and Thorne's wild eyes, still rattled around her skull. They'd come too damn close to a body count today. And while part of her admired Luca's fearless takedown, the rest of her wanted to throttle him for taking such a risk. They were lucky to be breathing.

‘What's another way of putting it?’

‘Reckless. Dangerous. A couple clicks shy of suicidal,’ Ella said.

Luca's reflection tensed. She watched him watching her in the glass, mismatched mirrors reflecting tension back and forth into infinity.

‘You talking about me taking down Thorne back there? Because from where I'm standing, looked a lot like saving both our asses.’

Ella breathed out slowly through her nose, counted to five in her head like they taught in Bureau-mandated stress management. ‘Okay, yeah, it worked out. This time. But charging into a confined space filled with explosive gas? That's not tactics, that's a death wish, Hawkins. And let's not forget how you practically gift-wrapped our case for any half-decent defense attorney when you blurted out your little B&E adventure to Thorne.’

‘You know how hard it is to ignite barrels of liquid like that?’

‘And you’re the explosives expert, are you?’

‘No, I’m just saying. He had a Zippo in one hand and a lifetime of jail ahead. What did you think was gonna happen? You’d rather I just let our prime suspect kamikaze right in front of us?’

‘Of course not, but...’ Ella raked a hand through her hair. The words tangled on her tongue. How to explain the icy fear that had gripped her in that moment? The certainty that she was about to watch her partner, the man she loved, go up in flames? ‘We know all about burns, okay? Did that even cross your genius mind?’

Luca flinched like she'd slapped him, and for a second, Ella wished she could snatch the words back.

‘Are you serious?’

‘Luca, sorry, I didn’t mean-,’

‘No, let me get this straight. I just caught us a possible serial killer - from inside a deathtrap rigged to blow us both to hell. And instead of a 'good job' or even a 'thanks for saving our asses', you're giving me shit for doing my job?’

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