Page 16 of Girl, Sought

‘Reference librarian. General assistant. Nothing fancy.’

‘Did she have any problems with anyone? Any arguments or confrontations?’

‘Ellie?’ Dolores made a sound halfway between a snort and a cough. ‘She barely spoke to anyone. Always had her nose in those dusty periodicals. I swear, that girl spent more time with dead authors than living people.’

‘What about outside of work?’ Ella pressed. ‘Did she ever mention any friends, any hobbies?’

‘If she did, she didn’t mention them.’ Dolores scrubbed her face again. Her breathing had picked up the pace. ‘She had a husband, Thomas, but he died some years back. Medical condition, I think.’

‘Did Eleanor ever move on? See anyone new?’

‘No. Not that I know of, anyway. She spent most of her time with those creepy dolls.’ A shudder rippled through Dolores like a wave through a waterbed.

‘Those dolls,’ Ella said. ‘What do you know about them?’

‘She was always going on about them. Antique this, porcelain that. Like I said, more interested in things than people. I just know she spent a fortune on those things. Always going to estate sales, auctions, things like that.’

Ella exchanged a glance with Luca. So even Eleanor's coworkers had been privy to her collection. How many others had she let into that sanctum? Their killer could be anyone.

‘Did she ever have visitors?’ Luca asked. ‘Anyone drop by to see her, even if they didn't stay long?’

Dolores leaned back, and the chair groaned a warning. 'Uh, I don't know. People visit here all the time. The library's a community place.'

Ella could see the gears turning in Dolores’ head. There was something there.

‘Please, miss. It doesn’t matter how small a detail it is. if you remember anything, any suspicious faces, we need to know.’

‘There was a man,’ Dolores spat. ‘Maybe a month ago. Never seen him before. He waited for Ellie to get off work, walked out with her. Didn't like the look of him, to be honest. Too smooth, if you know what I mean.’

Ella’s heart rate picked up speed. ‘Can you describe him?’

'Average height, brown hair. Expensive suit, cheap shoes. The kind of fella who thinks he's too clever by half.' Dolores narrowed her eyes like she could see the mystery man through sheer force of disdain. 'Watched him get into a blue sedan. One of those Japanese numbers. Took off like a cat with its tail on fire.'

Luca asked, ‘Did you catch the plate by any chance?’

‘Do I look like I spend my time catching plates?’ Dolores snapped.

‘Of course not,’ Ella soothed. ‘Just trying to cover all our bases.’

‘Anything else you can tell us about him?’ Luca jumped in before Dolores could wind up for another salvo. ‘Any identifying marks, tattoos, scars?’

‘Hands.’ The word cracked like a whip. ‘He had weird hands. Smooth on the palms but flakey on the fingertips. Like he’d been picking his skin.’ She shook her head, setting her hair helmet wobbling. ‘I remember thinking, 'what's a guy like that want with a mousy thing like Ellie?’

Ella's blood chilled in her veins, cold as the porcelain gaze of the dolls in Eleanor's dead room. A man with flakey hands. Showing up out of the blue, wearing a veneer of sophistication as thin as his cheap shoes.

It didn't take a profiler to guess where this was headed. Or rather, where it had already been.

‘Anything else you can tell us about her? Doesn’t matter how insignificant.’

‘I… can’t really think of anything. You know, how you think you know someone. Guess I didn’t know Ellie half as well as I thought I did.’

The woman was right. You could see someone every day and still not remember what color their eyes were.

‘Thank you, Dolores. You've been very helpful. We’ll need to send someone over to check your CCTV, see if we can see this mysterious man that Eleanor met up with.’

‘You do that.’

‘Anyone else here we could speak to?’

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