Page 71 of Girl, Sought

‘The pure ones,’ Luca said. ‘The real deals. Which means-’

Ella took the paper off Luca and scanned it. Here it was. Everything about Joseph Carpenter’s collection, from its location to the security system codes keeping it safe. ‘Anyone whohasn’tdonated any of their collectibles is a potential target.’

‘You’re looking at the security information, aren’t you?’

Ella nodded. ‘That’s how our killer got past Joseph’s basement door. The God damn passcode is written right here.’

‘Which means our killer has seen that paper, or a copy of it.’

Something electric crackled through Ella's veins, burning away the last threads of her Austin Creed nightmare. This was what she lived for - that moment when chaos crystallized into pattern.

‘Did you check the employees of CVG?’

‘Yeah, but there are only three. Vanessa Blackburn, Gabriel Thorne, Sarah Walker. We know our killer’s a man, so Gabriel is the only contender in that list.’

‘What about the receptionist?’

‘Temp worker. Not an employee.’

‘Did you go through every single client?’

‘No,’ Luca said. ‘Still got about forty names to go.’

‘Pass me twenty and let’s get this party started.’

‘Maybe you ought to caffeinate yourself before we get going.’

‘I'm fine.’ The lie came as naturally as breathing after all these years. ‘What I'm not is patient. Let’s find this guy.’

Luca slid a box across the table. ‘If you say so.’

They needed to talk about last night - about her jealousy, her control issues, all the ugly things she'd spat at him in that basement. But right now, there were collectors out there who didn't know they had targets painted on their backs.

The dead could wait. The living couldn't.

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

Nineteen names down, and Ella's eyes felt like someone had rubbed them with sandpaper. The FALCON database's numbers and names had begun to blur together into an incomprehensible mess. Ella had no idea how Luca went through 80 names on his own, all before she even woke up.

She was midway through searching through the nineteenth name in her stack: Gary Whitmore. His collection of Civil War memorabilia had been valued at $850,000 last year. Like clockwork, three months after the appraisal, he'd donated a Confederate officer's sword to the Virginia Military Institute. Claimed value: $125,000.

Another collector playing the system like a finely-tuned violin.

She threw the paperwork onto theNOT A POTENTIAL VICTIMpile.Nineteen down, one to go. Every single collector she'd checked had followed the same pattern - get the appraisal, donate a piece, write off the taxes. Regular as sunrise, predictable as death.

Her fingers hovered over the keyboard as she pulled up the final name: Sally McDermid, collector of antique medical instruments. According to the CVG records, McDermid had amassed over three hundred pieces dating from the 1800s to early 1900s, including bone saws, trepanation drills, and something called a ‘tobacco smoke enema’ that Ella didn't want to know the specifics of. Total value: $2.1 million.

And there it was - right on schedule. Six months after appraisal, she'd donated a complete set of 19th-century surgical tools to Johns Hopkins Medical Museum. Claimed value: $275,000 off her tax records for the following year.

‘Damn it.’ Ella threw the paperwork across the desk. ‘That's my whole stack. Every single one of them donated.’

Across the table, Luca looked up from his own stack of misery. ‘Hate to say it, but same here. We’re in the most generous city on earth, apparently.’

'No wonder there are potholes everywhere. The city doesn't have enough taxes to pay for repairs.'

‘What if...’ Luca hesitated, choosing his words carefully. ‘What if our guy's done? What if Joseph was his grand finale and now he's rode off into the sunset?’

She pushed back from the table. It wasn’t an impossibility, but it went against everything she knew about this type of offender. ‘He wouldn’t. He’s got a taste for it now, and there’s no way he’d go from flaying kin to completely disappearing. Addicts never want to quit, and the thrill he gets from killing is more intense than any drug.’

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