Page 5 of Girl, Unknown

And she couldn’t rest or retire or give up until she’d seen him, looked him dead in his eyes, breathed the same air one more time. What did he look like? Did he feel remorse for what he’d done? How many bodies had he racked up over his long criminal career? In her imagination, her father’s killer had assumed many different masks over the years. Sometimes he was a hulking brute with bad skin and filthy hair. Sometimes he was a dainty guy with high cheekbones and thin-rimmed glasses. He was tall, short, black, white, reluctant, confident, repentant, merciless. She didn’t know; all she knew was that she needed to meet him.

Ella began scrolling the page, down to the partial matches section at the bottom. Other people withLoganorNashin their names, but not stringed together. She perused each one, if only to keep her brain busy while she fought past the exhaustion until her body clock ticked over to wakefulness. Once it started to get light out, she’d come alive again.

Then Ella saw something at the very bottom of the page.

She blinked herself back to full attention, ensuring that she wasn’t simply projecting her thoughts onto the screen in front of her in some mad hallucination. She hovered over the entry, checking, re-checking.

No. There it was.

UNSUB M411296, SUSPECTED ASSASSIN, CRIMINAL GROUP AFFILIATION, LOGAN, NASH.

Ella hurried into the file but was thwarted at the first hurdle.

Access Denied. You Do Not Have Permission To View This Case Entry.

‘Dammit.’ She smashed her palm against the table, bit her lip to the point that it hurt. She tried again. Same error.

Ella washed her cursor over the text, back and forth, then right clicked and checked the upload information.

Upload Date: 05-05-2012. Last updated 12-11-2018.

Author: R. Reed.

She gawped at both. A decade’s worth of information, uploaded by none other than Special Agent Robert Reed. Reed was on the same level as Mia Ripley in terms of prestige, a lifelong field worker who Ella believed had retired because she hadn’t heard his name or seen him at HQ in a long time.

If he knew where to find this man, she needed to talk to him.

Ella opened her email, found Robert Reed’s address and began typing. She went to make her case, but then stopped and erased everything. If she told Reed of her intentions, this could evolve into an active FBI case.

Involving the strong arm of the law would come with its advantages, but might also push her aside as more experienced, less personally involved agents stepped in to take over. She wasn’t going to let anyone else take this man down. If this was any other killer, she wouldn’t care as long as he was behind bars. But this was a story twenty-five years in the making and she was going to write the ending her own way.

Ella pulled up Reed’s cell number, saved it to her phone. She’d need to find a way of extracting the information from Reed’s file through more clandestine methods, which meant she might even have to keep this little venture from Ripley too. Ella had already dragged Ripley too far into this as it was, and she didn’t want her partner to end her legendary FBI tenure with a privacy violation charge.

From here on out, this had to be a solo mission.

Ella closed her computer and headed for bed, if only to catch a few hours before sunrise. Tomorrow, actually today, she had a training session and she wanted to make a good impression. She’d be no good for anything if she’d been up all night.

But in bed, her thoughts were a whirlwind. She had much to do, much to accomplish, and she decided that if she did retire tomorrow, then no, she wouldn’t be happy. The story couldn’t end until a man who may or may not be named Logan Nash was either behind bars or six feet underground.

She didn’t know which one she’d choose until she had her Glock pressed to his forehead.

Ella shut her eyes, only to be interrupted by her cellphone. It began buzzing on her bedside table as the screen flashed to life. She glanced over, clocked the name.

Then panicked.

It was three in the morning, but Robert Reed – the man who’d collected the classified information on Logan Nash – was calling her.

CHAPTER THREE

Ella had been in some grimy gyms before, but the Brick House in downtown Arlington was as rough and ready as they came. Brick walls, ancient equipment, tires as weights. She liked the vibe, and what made it all the more unique was the wrestling ring nestled snugly in the corner.

The environment made a good distraction from the events of the night before. She hadn’t answered Robert Reed’s call, because she was sure that he was returning a call she’d made through some technological mishap after she’d saved his number to her phone. Besides, what was she going to say to him? That she was snooping in his file? That she wanted to extract all his research for herself? It was an avenue best left untouched until she’d had time to think things through.

”Well, this is it,” said Ben as he pulled on his gym shoes. ”Our promised land. We’ve got it to ourselves for another hour. Where do you want to start?”

After a few months of hardships, Ben was back in Ella’s life, and hopefully for good this time. Ella had let her imagination get the better of her, and for a short while she had pegged Ben as a murderer. According to an FBI file, Ben had been a suspect in his ex-girlfriend’s death – something that he’d neglected to mention during their many nights together. Ella overthought things and assumed the worst, only to realize it was her trust issues doing the deliberating, not her rational mind. A week ago, she’d apologized and heard Ben’s full side of the story. She arrived at the obvious conclusion that this handsome, chiseled, somewhat-shy 28-year-old was the polar opposite of a vengeful murderer.

Granted, Ben’s job as a professional wrestler was quite bizarre, but she’d grown to appreciate its eccentricities and theatricality. She’d only ever seen Ben’s flips and fist strikes from afar, but now he was going to give her an up-close crash course. Plus, it was good for their relationship, because a few nights ago Ben had asked Ella to move in with her. She was still ruminating on the idea, and she didn’t want Ben to think it was going to be a hard no. You couldn’t rush something that needed time to grow.

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