Page 58 of Girl, Sought

‘I got that,’ Luca said, ‘but stolen from who?’

‘Anyone. Mostly people I appraise for. You think some rich old guy is going to notice a watch missing from his collection? No. So I just used to take it.’

‘Why?’

‘I couldn’t help it. Even now, there’s something about these people that… infuriates me.’

Ella snagged on that comment. The chances of Gabriel Thorne being her killer had halved during the interrogation, but he seemed to harbor a love-hate relationship with the collectors he worked with, and he had that in common with the person who killed Eleanor and Alfred.

‘Infuriates you how?’ she asked.

But before Thorne could answer, the door crashed open hard enough to rattle dust from the ceiling tiles. A flushed and breathless Detective Reeves stood in the doorway.

‘Agents. A word. Now.’

Luca shot Ella a confused look that doubled as a silent question. Ella shook her head minutely.No clue.But judging from the seasick pallor of Reeves' complexion, it wasn't good news.

‘Be back in one minute, Gabe,’ he said. The agents left the interrogation room and locked the door behind them. Out in the corridor, Reeves gestured for them to follow him downstairs.

‘I don’t want to ruin your day, but we’ve got something downstairs,’ he said.

Ella hurried to keep up. ‘What is it?’

Reeves paused halfway down. ‘A guy just dropped off a mask.’

Ella’s spine snapped straight. ‘What guy? What kind of mask?’

'Mask? You'll see. And the guy? Well, let's just say we're in luck because we've got him in holding right now.'

CHAPTER THIRTY

As Ella followed Detective Reeves down the stairs and past the reception desk, she was dimly aware that this new development had distracted her from the painful realization that Gabriel Thorne was probably not her killer.

But while she might be staring at a brick wall, it seemed that fortune had given her a ladder.

Detective Reeves led her and Luca into a hallway behind the reception area at ground level. He paused outside a door.

‘You’re the first ones to interview him, so go wild.’

‘Interview who? What the hell’s going on?’

Reeves pushed the door open to reveal a tiny office. Just beyond the threshold was a uniformed officer, and leaning against the far wall was a kid who couldn’t have been older than nineteen. He was swimming in a Red Sox hoodie that was three sizes too big, and he had messy brown hair that covered fifty percent of his face.

But it was the object on the table beside him that made Ella's training kick in.

She absorbed the scene in fragments. Suspect first - male, Caucasian, early twenties at most. Nervous but not terrified. No visible signs of coercion or injury. The way his knee bounced suggested either guilty conscience or chemical enhancement.

Then the object.

Luca moved over to it and plucked it with two fingers. It hung down in a shapeless heap, but Ella couldn’t deny the recognizable features. Hell, it might have been the most identifiable face on earth.

‘Jesus Christ,’ said Luca.

He was right, because hanging from his fingertips was the face of the Lord and Savior himself.

Ella scrambled for a quick explanation, but none was forthcoming. Was this a taunt? A confession? An omen of things to come – or a breadcrumb to a crime scene that was already waiting for them?

‘Talk,’ Ella said to the kid. ‘Everything. From the beginning. What’s your name?’

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