Page 16 of Girl, Fractured

‘According to the police report, those things he left in Frank’s eye sockets were alabaster stones.You know the types?’

‘Unfortunately, yes.I’ve got some in my planters at home.’

‘Yeah.You can get them at garden stores, craft shops, anywhere that-’

‘I know where you get alabaster stones from, Dark,’ interrupted Ripley.‘I’m more concerned with the psychopathology of a man who can cut out someone’s eyeballs.’

‘Actually,’ Ella said, then paused, gauging whether to continue.‘No, it doesn’t matter.’

‘Go on.You were probably going to tell me that removing eyeballs isn’t that difficult.’

‘It’s not, but Frank was your friend.Some details don’t need to be said.’

‘If it helps us figure out what kind of person our unsub is, then I’m all for it.Besides, it’s what Frank would have wanted.’

Ella figured that going into the grisly details was a bad idea, but when Ripley was in moods like this, it was best not to oppose her.And sometimes, the grim specifics helped with the healing process.

‘Enucleation isn’t that technically difficult.The eyeball is suspended in the socket by six extraocular muscles and the optic nerve.Once you sever those connections, it comes out pretty easily.’She traced the path with her finger on the photo.‘You’d need a curved blade, something like a melon baller or a grapefruit spoon would work.Start with the conjunctival tissue, then work your way around, snipping the muscles one by one.The optic nerve is the toughest part, but it’s just one clean cut at the back.You don’t need any surgical knowledge.Anyone could brute force their way through, provided they had the stomach for it.The worst part would be the sound.’

‘The sound?’

‘Yeah.Snipping those muscles makes this wetclicksound.Like scissors cutting through rubber bands underwater.’

Ripley’s face drained of what little color remained.The clinical analysis had pushed her past some invisible threshold.She looked like she was going to vomit, and Ripley never vomited.

‘For God’s sake.’Ripley turned back to the window.This wasn’t the Ripley that once told Ella that death was sometimes just a puzzle to solve.This was raw Ripley, bleeding Ripley.Ella immediately regretted the detour into surgical technique.

‘Sorry.’

‘Don’t be.This is what I trained you for.’

Ella spun the scenario on its head.If this was thirty years in the future and Ripley was found in her recliner with her eyeballs missing, would Ella scold her hypothetical protégée for divulging the inner workings of enucleation?No, probably not.Ella suddenly became aware that the businessman across the aisle was no longer pretending not to listen.

‘Frank used to say the eyes were God’s surveillance cameras,’ Ripley muttered.‘Said they recorded everything, even stuff the brain didn’t consciously process.’

‘Frank was right.’

‘And he figured it out years before textbooks laid it all out for you.Pure trial and error.Human insight.’

‘Maybe that’s why the killer took them.’

‘And replaced them with blanks.Like wiping the tape.’

‘Jealousy is a hell of a motivator.’

Ella studied the photos one last time before tucking them away.In the field of human monstrosity, she’d seen worse, but this felt like a message written in a language she almost understood, like finding hieroglyphics in her mailbox.The stones weren’t just macabre decoration; they were syntax in some grammar of violence.And Frank Sullivan had been both the message and the medium.

This was punctuation.The period at the end of a sentence no one knew they were reading.

‘837429,’ Ripley said suddenly.

‘What’s that?’Ella looked up.

‘Frank’s badge number.I always remembered it.’Ripley’s voice held the flat certainty of someone reciting their childhood address.‘Eight-three-seven-four-two-nine.He had it tattooed on his shoulder right before he retired.Said if he ever got dementia, if he ever forgot who he was, that number might trigger something.Might remind him of his better days.’’

‘Well,’ Ella said, ‘let’s hope Frank never got there.’

‘He didn’t.Frank was as sharp as a knife right ‘til the end.I know it.Sharp enough to see his killer coming.Just not sharp enough to stop them.’

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