Page 42 of Girl, Fractured

Her boots sank into the earth as she neared the edge.She peered inside and beneath the miniature waves she caught the familiar outline of a human body.

But where the neck met the shoulders, there was only absence.

Diana Jewell had paid the Ferryman’s toll – with her head.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Decapitation was more than just murder, Ella realized.It was erasure.Identity lived in the face.Without a head, Diana had become an anonymous form.This unsub had not only taken her life, but he’d taken her personhood too.

She stood in Diana Jewell’s basement while the crime scene machine worked its magic.Yellow markers dotted the floor.One technician inspected the blood stains on the stairs while another photographed the loose bulkhead door.The team had fished Diana’s body from the koi pond thirty minutes ago.Two sheriff’s deputies had waded in with a body bag and emerged with something that weighed about eight percent less than it should have.

And at Ella’s feet was that silver cufflink.The anomaly that brought this whole grim picture into focus.

The Ferryman case.Ella had studied it years ago, back when she was consuming every serial case she could get her hands on.Jacksonville, 2001.Three female victims in the space of four months.All decapitated in their homes.All found in water features on their properties.Two in ponds, one in a swimming pool.

Ella tried to impose order on the chaos in her mind.The case had shifted beneath her feet.What seemed like an isolated vendetta against Frank Sullivan now revealed itself as something more elaborate.This wasn’t a grudge coming to a head in the most horrific way possible.There was something much more to this.

Two members of the White Whale Club – a group dedicated to researching unsolved cases – had been killed in perfect recreations of the cold cases they’d obsessed over

She pressed herself flat against the wall as two more CSIs descended into the basement carrying equipment cases.The space grew smaller with each new body, and even the regular rhythm of the rain hitting the bulkhead door couldn’t mask the growing tension.Everyone in this house – and the garden – were working under the assumption that they might just stumble upon a severed head.

But police never found the heads of the original Ferryman’s victims, and if Ella’s new working theory was anything close to accurate, they’d never find Diana Jewell’s head either.

‘Agent Dark.’

Ella turned to find a soaking wet Sheriff Bauer heading in her direction.Rain dripped from the brim of his hat like miniature waterfalls.

‘Sheriff.Any luck with the canvas?’

‘Nothing yet.This neighborhood’s spread out.Houses set back from the road.Storm didn’t help matters.Most people were battened down inside.’He removed his hat and shook water from the brim.‘We’ve got officers circling a five-mile perimeter, but with this weather and the darkness, it’s a losing game.’

She knew what he meant.This wasn’t like canvassing apartment buildings or downtown streets.This was Florida wilderness with houses dropped into it.‘Our killer couldn’t have been gone long by the time we got here.I was on the phone to the victim twelve minutes before I arrived here.Doing what he did takes time.’

‘I’ve got guys searching the perimeter for anyone suspicious.’

‘Thanks.Any signs of forced entry on the front or back doors?’

‘Negative.The back door was locked too.The only entry point was-’

‘The bulkhead door.It’s loose as hell.’

‘Yup.There’s some damage to the lock area on the exterior, but we’re not sure if that was already there.’

‘Got it.’Ella gestured to the cufflink at her feet.‘Do me a favor, Sheriff?Get that cufflink bagged and sent for inspection ASAP.If there’s one thing in here that our killer definitely touched, it’s that.’

Bauer squinted at it.‘How do you know?’

‘Trust me.’

Bauer didn’t argue.‘Very well.Leave it with me.’

‘Appreciated.Do you know where Ripley is?’

‘In the garden.She doesn’t look well.’

‘I’ll go check on her.’

‘Avoid the stairs.’Bauer gestured behind them.‘Don’t need footprints in the blood.’

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