Girl, Vanished (An Ella Dark FBI Suspense Thriller—Book 5) Read online

  “Yeah, same with the first victim judging by these photos too. Their house looks pretty modest. So we can rule out the possibility of debt?”

  “Well, I wouldn’t want to make any assumptions, but it looks like it.”

  “I agree,” Ella said. “This is too theatric to be about debt. If he wanted payback on these people, he wouldn’t stage them so specifically. He would just off them and be done. His message isn’t meant for the victims; it’s meant for the rest of the world.”

  “How do you mean?” Byford asked, squinting his eyes.

  Ella remembered what Edis told her about Byford’s past. He wasn’t so good at getting in the heads of these people.

  “What I mean is this unsub isn’t killing for the usual reason killers do, which is sexual gratification. If he was, there would have been more mutilation, so we can rule out the possibility of him being a sadist. These murders are warnings. They’re his way of showing off. He’s saying look what I can do, and you can’t stop me.”

  “I see. So he’s almost a domestic terrorist. Inciting fear for his own power trip.”

  Ella hadn’t thought about it that way. “I suppose. Good observation. This should be right up your street then.”

  “What did these men do for work? Maybe there’s a connection there.”

  Ella leafed through the file. “Victim one was retired. Victim two was an antiques dealer.” Not much to go on. A dead end.

  Sheriff Hunter opened their office door and peered his head in. “You guys set up okay?”

  “Fine, thank you,” Byford said. “What’s the coffee situation around here?”

  Ella laughed. She had wanted to ask the same question but didn’t want to be rude.

  “There’s a machine down the corridor but it costs a few nickels. And speaking of nickels,” Hunter placed a small plastic bag on their table. “I thought you might want to see these. Just got them back from the lab.”

  Inside the bag were two rusted old bronze coins. The faces had all but perished. “We got them cleaned up because we couldn’t make out any of the markings.”

  “The coins from the first victim,” Ella said. She could make out the number one, a small inscription of a leaf and an indecipherable symbol. Then it hit her. “Oh, wow. Is that kanji? Japanese coins?”

  “Nail on the head,” Hunter said. “One thousand yen, apparently. Now this one is worth a decent amount in the collector scene.”

  Byford picked up the bag and studied it. He held it right up close to his nose. “Am I seeing this right?” he asked. “Or are my eyes playing tricks on me in my old age?”

  “What do you mean?” Hunter asked.

  Byford ran his finger over an inscription along the edge of the coin. “The year. It’s the same as the other coins.”

  Hunter took it. “Well, bone me sideways. You’re right.”

  “It’s from 1964?” Ella asked.

  “Yup. I guess we couldn’t see it because it was rusted to all hell.”

  A connection. A year. But what did it mean? Ella’s first thought was how they could use it to draw this unsub out.

  “What do you think it means?” the sheriff asked.

  “What if it’s from the same collection? Someone who collects coins from this year?” Byford said.

  The sheriff scratched his stubble. “Gotta be careful. 1964 was a big year for coins. Must have been a million new coins that year because it was an Olympic year.”

  Still, it was something, Ella thought. “Are both bodies at the coroner’s now?” she asked.

  “Yeah, you want to go down?”

  “Please,” Ella said. “There’s something I need to see.”

  ***

  Years ago, Ella would have been nervous at the sight of seeing decomposed bodies close up, but now, she’d seen enough corpses to last a lifetime.

  The Newark Coroner’s Office was located inside the city hospital. The two agents entered the hospital via a rear fire door which led almost directly to the restricted autopsy room. Down a spiraling staircase, they waited outside the steel entranceway until access was granted.

  “What is it you want to see?” Byford asked.

  “A few things. A killer like this would want to spend considerable time with his victims, ideally while they were alive. He’d want to relish it for as long as possible. I find it hard to believe he’d be in and out within a few minutes.”

  Byford turned to her, prompting her to continue. She realized she hadn’t answered his question.

  “I want to see if there’s something we’ve missed. Like maybe a sign of a struggle, or additional wounds we might have missed. It all helps paint a picture of his personality and his motivations.”

  A deafening buzz announced their acceptance into the autopsy room. Ella pushed her way in, adjusting her eyes to the heavy fluorescent lights overhead.

  The masked technician peered up from his medical table, dressed head to toe in dirty white regalia. In front of him, the same dismembered bodies Ella had seen in the photos earlier lay on two steel gurneys. No longer did they portray human figures, and instead were filed next to each other in a neat line, together in death. She thought of their poor loved ones and how they’d remember these men forever like this.

  “Welcome folks,” the coroner announced, “I’m Doctor Sharp. You might want to put some surgical masks on before you head over here. They don’t smell too pretty.”

  Ella and Byford obliged, pulling two masks and two pairs of gloves from a box on the table beside them. “Can you talk us through what you’ve found?” Ella asked, hoping there’d be some recent developments.

  Doctor Sharp picked up a surgical pointer and put on a pair of glasses. He was only a young man, Ella thought, barely out of his twenties. It was rare to see someone so youthful in this profession. A young man in an old man’s game. How the world progressed.

  “Alan Yates, 59 years old,” Doctor Sharp said. He pointed the tool at the incision on the victim’s neck. “This incision was the cause of death, as you can probably guess. I found traces of mild steel along the wound, meaning it was made with a standard carbon knife. Nothing specific.”

  Ella cursed. That was one avenue they couldn’t explore.

  Doctor Sharp moved over to Jimmy Loveridge. He pointed to the same location. “This incision is almost identical. Same depth, same force applied, same weapon. It’s rare to find two wounds so similar. Usually, uncontrollable factors determine the differences, but this guy knew what he was doing.”

  “Were the victims conscious when they were killed?” Byford asked.

  “It’s difficult to say. Because it would have taken them a few seconds to pass out, they would have woken up if they were sleeping. But to get precise cuts like these, I’d say he was able to spend a few seconds finding the right spot. If I was a betting man, I’d say they were sleeping when he found them.”

  Ella inspected the bodies from top to bottom. Alan Yates’s skin had faded to a sickly yellow color and blemishes were beginning to form. His dead eyes stared up at the green-tinted ceiling above. Ella checked the wrists and feet, finding nothing but putrefied skin. That gnawing dread surged back into her veins, the same one that appeared whenever she was presented with specimens of premature ends. The fragility of life, she thought. She welcomed the sensation, because even in these grim surroundings, it made her feel human. She never wanted to reach the point where she couldn’t feel something from seeing human remains, and she wasn’t, at least not yet.

  “Were there any ligature marks?” Ella asked.

  “None at all. The only marks were these neck wounds. I’m sorry.”

  “Did you check inside the body?” Ella asked. “I know it’s an odd question.”

  Doctor Sharp laughed. “It’s fine, and yes, I did. I scanned the internal for any foreign bodies and there was nothing inside. No coins, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

  Ella felt sudden nausea. Something told her there was more to these bodies than the crime scene photos
showed, but it turns out that wasn’t the case. The disappointment came hard. Maybe she didn’t know this killer as well as she thought she did.

  “What about the eyes?” Byford asked. “Anything to note there?”

  Doctor Sharp shook his head. “I heard about the coins, but they’d been removed before the bodies got here. I found light tracings of nickel and silver around the eyes, so your killer most likely brute forced them in there.”

  Ella felt she’d reached a dead end. There was nothing here to go on. She thought about where to go next but couldn’t think of a new avenue to explore. She made some notes in her pad. “Thank you doctor. You’ve been a great help.”

  Doctor Sharp covered both bodies with sheets. “I knew him, you know?”

  She looked up from her notes. “Did you?”

  “Yeah. Alan Yates. He was a popular man around here.”

  She felt something. Like this could break new ground. “Was he? How come?”

  “Quite a philanthropist. The guy had some serious money. He donated a portion to the hospital if I remember rightly.”

  “Oh, I didn’t know. This must be doubly hard for you then.”

  “It’s a tough one, I won’t lie. It’s quite ironic as well. The coins.”

  Ella and Byford exchanged a glance. “How do you mean?” Ella asked.

  Doctor Sharp had a sudden look of hesitation, like he shouldn’t have opened his mouth. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. Not ironic. Just… weird.”

  “What’s strange about it? Because he had money?” asked Byford.

  “No. Well, sort of. I mean because of his old job.”

  “Job?” asked Ella. She suddenly realized the casefile didn’t mention what Alan Yates did before he retired.

  “Yeah, he retired real early because he didn’t need to work, but before that he was a big-time banker.”

  There was the connection, the link she desperately needed. “Oh my God, really? His notes didn’t mention that.” She caught Byford’s eye. “A banker and an antiques dealer, left with old coins in their eyes. That can’t be a coincidence.”

  The first real adrenaline rush kicked in. This was why she loved being out here. She was breaking down the walls and getting into this killer’s head. Byford didn’t seem as excited as her.

  “You’ve been a great help, doctor. If you think of anything else, please let us know.”

  On the way out, Ella explained her thoughts to her new partner.

  “You see the link?” she asked. “That’s huge.”

  Byford shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s tenuous, not to mention it means our last theory was wrong.”

  They needed to speak to someone close to the victims, Ella thought. Alan didn’t have any close family in the area so that only left one person on their radar: Jimmy Loveridge’s wife. If they could dig into Jimmy’s life and find someone linked to both Jimmy and Alan, they had a shot of finding their unsub.

  “Yeah, it does, but that’s what happens. These weren’t random attacks. They were targeted. I think our killer is sacrificing these men. Come on, we need to talk to Jimmy’s wife.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  If these victims were targeted, Ella needed to know more about them. Byford did the driving with Ella in the passenger seat. They went straight from the Medical Examiner’s office to Pike Creek about twelve miles away.

  The address was a single-story home just off Cherry Street, a plaque on the wall identifying it as Orchard House. Next to it, it said entrance to 109 round the back. This was the home of Tessa’s sister, where she was staying for the time being.

  The agents followed the stone pathway round to the back and opened the gate. Ella searched for a buzzer but didn’t find one. She knocked and waited. From behind the frosted glass, a blurry figure emerged.

  “Who is it?” the blur asked.

  “Good day, we’re with the FBI. Could we please speak with Tessa Loveridge?”

  Ella saw the figure’s reluctance through the fuzzy barrier. The door unbolted and they came face to face with a middle-aged woman, gray hair around a plain face.

  “Hi, are you Tessa?” Byford asked.

  “No. I’m her sister. Should you really be around here so soon?”

  “We need to talk to her. It’s a matter of urgency,” Byford said. The comment caught Ella by surprise. Very abrupt, she thought.

  “We’re sorry we have to be here,” Ella jumped in, “but our best chances of catching whoever did this lie with Tessa. We mean no disrespect being here so soon.”

  The woman sighed and moved out of the way. She called the agents through into her home. They entered into a carpeted hallway with a lounge to their right.

  “Tessa, you’ve got visitors,” the woman said. She pointed towards the front room and the agents followed her cue. Ella walked in to find a woman curled up on a brown sofa. Stale tears clung to her cheeks and washed her makeup down her face. A cup of coffee sat on the table beside her, but it was stone cold judging by the look of it.

  “Tessa, I’m Agent Dark and this is Agent Byford. We’re with the FBI. Would you be willing to talk to us for five minutes? We promise we won’t keep you long.”

  Tessa had shoulder-length brown hair and a figure that had seen plenty of gym time. She looked in peak physical condition, but emotional was a different story. She nodded her head without even looking at the agents.

  “Okay,” she said.

  Ella and Byford lowered themselves onto a two-seater couch on the other side of the room. Tessa slowly sat up, turned off the TV and tied back her hair. “Sorry. I look like shit.”

  “Please don’t apologize. You look fine.”

  “Yeah, right.” Tessa sniveled and wiped her nose. The undersides of her eyes were red raw. “What do you want to know?”

  “Could you talk us through what happened last night?” asked Ella

  Tessa took a moment to compose herself. She kept her gaze on the floor as she spoke. “I got home from work about two-thirty in the morning. Night shift. I’m a nurse at the hospital. When I walked in, I walked past Jim in his chair. The lights were off, so I guessed he’d fallen asleep in front of the TV.”

  “Alright. Then what?” Byford asked. Ella was getting a little annoyed with his hasty tone.

  “I went upstairs to get changed and I found an insect in the bathroom. I went to get Jim to kill it, and that’s when I realized he was… gone.” Tessa wiped her eyes as new tears came.

  “I can’t imagine what that must have been like. We’re so sorry,” said Ella, showing sympathy before Byford blurted out something abrupt.

  “It was hell. I can’t believe it. I think I went into shock. I called the police and ran out into the street.”

  Ella knew that Tessa’s first thought at the time was that the killer might still be in the house. A lot of people didn’t want to admit it, but it was human nature to worry that you were next in line. “What can you tell us about your husband? He seems like a good man.”

  “The best,” Tessa nodded. “When I got home, he hadn’t put the trash out and I remember getting mad at him. God, I feel like such a fool. Now, I’ll never get to be mad at him ever again.” Tessa’s words were punctuated with sobs. She cupped her hands around her face. Ella jumped out of her seat and sat next to her. It was an expected reaction on her part and Tessa needed to know it was okay to let it all out.

  “Jimmy seemed like a great guy, and you had many happy years together. Trust me, when you’re better you’ll remember nothing but the good times. I’ve been there myself.” Ella rubbed Tessa’s arm.

  “Have you?” Tessa asked into her hand-mask.

  “Yes. When I was a little girl, I found my dad dead in his bed. I won’t lie, it was the worst night of my life, but now I’m just thankful I got to spend a few years with him before he passed. Pretty soon, you’ll think the same.”

  Tessa came around. She wiped away the residue on her face with her dressing gown sleeve. “That’s horrible. But you know how I feel.”


  Ella looked over at Byford. He looked incredibly uncomfortable. She guessed empathy wasn’t his strong suit.

  “It’s gonna be hard for a while but you’ve got people around you. You’ll still struggle with it, probably for the rest of your life, but it gets easier. And if someone tells you to be strong, tell them to get lost because you can cry all you want, whenever you want, okay?” Ella thought Tessa smiled but it was hard to tell.

  “Thanks. Nice to know I’m not alone.”

  Ella stayed put. “You’re not. And if you tell us everything we need to know, we’ll catch the son of a bitch who did this to Jimmy. We promise.”

  Tessa reached out and drank from her cold coffee. It seemed to perk her up. “Not much to tell. He’s a simple man. He’s been an antiques dealer since he was a teenager. If it’s old and rusty, he’ll sell it,” she smiled.

  “A true carny,” Ella said, praying Tessa wouldn’t take offense.

  “Oh yes. Carny to the bone.”

  “How was his business doing?” Byford asked from across the room. Tessa caught his eye.

  “It was fine. The thing about antiques is that you only need to sell a few to make good money. Some of that junk went for thousands of dollars.”

  “Did Jimmy have any enemies in his trade? Maybe competitors?”

  Tessa thought about it for a second. The head shaking began. “Not really. Antique dealers are few and far between. He had some trouble with a few pawn shops, and had he had a few crazy customers, but nobody that would kill him. Jim was a respected man.”

  “What was his trouble with the pawn shops?” Ella asked.

  “It was only really one pawn shop. Aces & Eights on the high street. Sometimes Jimmy and the owner would have fallings out, but it was minor stuff. They were friends, really.”

  It didn’t seem likely, but it was worth keeping it in mind, Ella thought. Plus, there was the money link. Ella got out her phone and pulled up a few pictures.

  “Please don’t think of this as insensitive, but did your husband ever trade these kinds of coins?” Ella showed Tessa the coins pulled from Alan and Jimmy’s eyes.