Page 32 of Girl, Undone
'Thanks for the heart attack.You’re allowed to walk quietly, you know?'
'Listen to me.'Ella was breathless.She'd rehearsed this on the drive back, but now the words were coming out faster than she could organize them.'We've been looking at this wrong.It's not about torture methods.It's not historical.'
Ripley closed her laptop.'What are you talking about?'
'Remember what Sanchez said about Julia Dawson?How she died?'Ella dropped Tom Barker's sketchbook on the desk, grabbed a marker, and started writing on the whiteboard.'Cardiac arrest.Extreme stress.Her system was flooded with adrenaline.Epinephrine and cortisol.'
Ripley looked nonplussed.‘You’re throwing a lot of words at me here, Dark.Break it down.’
‘Julia died before any mutilation took place.Epinephrine and cortisol are bodily responses to adrenaline, to terror.’
‘Of course,’ Ripley said.‘The poor woman was bound to a table in the middle of the woods.She’s gonna be scared.’
‘No, there’s more.Remember what Julia’s roommate said in her kitchen?She put garlic and peppermint by the doors and windows tokeep the vermin away.It’s got nothing to do with alcoholism.’
‘And?’
‘Julia also stopped talking to Ken Myers as soon as she found out he worked with creatures.’
‘We know this.’
‘But now we know why – Julia Dawson had a crippling phobia of rats.’
Ripley looked between Ella’s scribblings and her frantic movements.‘Okay.And you think our killer exploited that?’
'Yes,' Ella said confidently.'It wasn't just him and Julia in that cabin.It was him, Julia, and a bunch of rats.That's what shocked her.He made the rats burrow into her, and that's why her heart stopped beating before any mutilation took place.That's why there were no strangulation marks or cuts.He literally scared her to death.'
‘Okay,’ Ripley said, clearly not yet of the same belief.‘And Thomas Barker?Did you visit his wife?’
‘Yes I did, and I found this in his office.’Ella pushed her new acquisition – she sketchbook – into Ripley’s orbit.
‘What’s this?’
‘This is a look into our victim’s head.’Ella presented each drawing one by one, each of them a manifestation of Tom Barker’s subconscious.
‘Shit me.’
The drawings were rough but detailed.Pits, coffins, tight spaces.Figures trapped, clawing at walls.Some of the sketches were frantic, lines overlapping like Tom's hand had been shaking when he drew them.Depictions of alive burial, claustrophobia.Old and young alike were represented, capturing a universal fear that transcended demographics - the fear of being trapped.
'Every single one of these is about being trapped,' Ella said.'Buried alive.Suffocating.Tom Barker had severe claustrophobia.These drawings were his way of trying to process it.Exposure therapy, basically.People with chronic phobias do this.They visualize the fear and then confront it on paper.'
Ripley turned another page.A coffin with scratch marks on the inside of the lid.‘I can’t deny these drawings are crazy.’
‘See?’Ella said.‘These sketches became the blueprint for Tom’s murder.’
Ripley, usually unflappable, adjusted uncomfortably.‘Let’s say you’re right.How can we use this?’
'It narrows the field.'Ella capped the marker and set it down.'You don't learn someone's deepest fear from casual contact.Julia's phobia wasn't something she advertised.Tom's claustrophobia was private.Even his wife didn’t know about it.The killer has intimate knowledge of both victims.He knows what keeps them up at night.'
'So we're looking for someone close to them.Friend, therapist, family.'
'Right.Someone both victims trusted enough to confide in.'Ella walked back to the whiteboard.Drew two circles, labeled themJuliaandTom.'We need to find the overlap.Who knew both of them?Who had access to their private lives?'
Ripley stood.'I'll get patrol units out to the woods by tonight.If this guy's hunting for a third victim, he'll use another isolated location.'
'Good.And have them check abandoned buildings, cabins, anything off the main roads.'
'On it.'Ripley grabbed her jacket.'What are you doing?'
