Page 59 of Girl, Unknown

Ella felt a jolt of electricity down her spine. It shot her upright. “Don’t lose him. If he walks away, follow him. What’s he doing?”

“Wait a minute, he’s going in. He’s at the door.”

Ella asked, “Can you see his face? What’s he look like?”

“Can’t see. Cap and hoodie. He’s got an envelope in his hand.”

“An envelope?”

“Yeah.”

Of the two killers, only one of them brought unnecessary items to the crime scene. The Ripper only brought what was necessary: a hunting knife. But his used a ruse to lure his victims in. She made the connection.

“It could be unsub number one. He knows his flower ruse won’t fly here, so he’s changed it up. He’s going to pretend it’s a tip. It’s an out in case he gets caught.”

Smart,she thought. If the coast was clear, he’d come through and stalk Ripley. If someone busted him, he’d say he was here to deliver a tip about the case. He’d covered himself.

“He’s in. Eyes up.”

Grant went silent. Ella was glued to the spyglass, praying that this wasn’t some misunderstanding. What if it was an innocent citizen who needed a place to stay? What if it was a genuine tipster? Her heart pounded two hundred beats a minute, her blood rushing so hot it could have scalded her organs. She wiped a layer of sweat off her forehead, listened to the screaming silence of the motel in one ear, Grant’s labored breathing in the other.

Come on,she said to herself.Get up here. Fall for the trap.

“He’s in, coming up the stairs. Are you in position?”

Ella said, “I’m waiting. Still got eyes on him?”

“No. Out of sight. You want us inside?”

“Stay put. Warn Ripley someone might be approaching.”

“On it.”

Ella rooted herself in place, not moving a muscle, barely even blinking or breathing. She kept an obsessive gaze on the long, dim corridor, begging for a shadowy figure to come into view. She could hear the faint, distant sound of Ripley’s TV traveling through the thin walls. Outside her window, an owl hooted its midnight songs. This was the grand stage, except one person didn’t know it was nothing but a hollow setup.

Then she heard it.

A creaking floor panel, around twenty feet in the distance. In such stillness, she’d entered a heightened state of awareness, able to sense moving body parts despite them being out of sight and out of reach. Creak after creak followed in its wake, vibrating along the hardwood floor until the pressure of her own feet plugged it up.

Then she whispered, “I can see him.”

He approached from the left, slowly and hesitantly down the hallway. A black smear of an outline gradually transformed into a human profile as he moved closer to his destination. Five-foot-ten, not skinny, broad shoulders, black clothing, brown baseball cap. She saw the aforementioned envelope lodged under his arm.

“What’s he doing?” Grant whispered.

Ella didn’t speak in case the figure heard. These walls were too thin to take any risks. Being so close to his target, he’d be in thepre-murderphase of his modus operandi, and by now he’d be too far gone to turn back. Once a serial killer came this far, they wouldn’t abandon ship unless an external factor intervened. Ella just had to wait a few more seconds until he was close enough to ambush.

The figure went door to door, checking each number in the darkness. He was one door left of Ella’s, then one door diagonally left.

Now he floated towards her door, barely visible in the murky corridor, blurred like a wraith in the mist.

This was it. The Rose Killer was less than a foot away, only a thin layer of wood stopping them from meeting eye to eye. He unknowingly stared at her through the distorted end of the spyglass. Ella’s vision fine-tuned to the new image in front of her, and now she finally caught a clear view of the man’s face.

The Rose Killer wasn’t someone she’d seen before.

In the few seconds she regarded him, she spotted a subtle shift in his demeanor. His pupils dilated, weight swung to one side. Ella’s feet creaked on the floorboards in her room, and then her shadowy stranger began observing the gap below the door.

Then he changed for the worse.

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