The midnight streets had little life in them, but just enough to make Ella stop and stare whenever she passed a moving body. Kevin had given her a description of the man she was looking for, but Steen hadn’t seen him in five years so his accuracy could be off the mark. Regardless, she stopped and weighed up everyone she passed by: the lone figure at the ATM machine, the midnight drifter on the search for late night entertainment.
At the traffic lights, she grabbed her phone and dialed Byford for the third time. Again, it went to voicemail. Was he mad at her for not jumping to conclusions about Steen? She understood his frustrations better than anyone, but to be upset with someone for not immediately assuming guilt was alien to her. Innocent until proven guilty was still a fundamental principle of the legal system. She guessed Byford just wanted to get home, just like she did, but not before she’d gotten to the bottom of this.
“Nigel, call me when you get this. I know who our unsub is and I’m in town trying to find him.”
She hung up, clutched her phone in her hand as she navigated the wheel. A second later, a number flashed up her screen. She didn’t recognize it.
“Hello?” She switched it to speaker.
“Agent Dark, it’s Jessica,” the voice said. Jessica was the member of the tech team triangulating the cell’s position.
“Jessica, what have you found?”
“I couldn’t get an exact reading. The signal bounced between three telephone poles in the zone, all across a two-mile radius. West Avenue, Bayard Street and Nowland Lane.”
Ella slammed the brakes on and mounted the curb. The names didn’t mean anything to her. “Damn it, so he could be anywhere within two miles? That’s a lot of ground to cover.”
“No, not quite. It means the call came from somewhere in the middle of them. I’ve emailed you a diagram of the locations.”
“Thank you.” Ella hung up and found the email. A picture was attached inside. She opened it up to find a map of the immediate area, and three red dots indicating the cell tower locations.
How was she supposed to find him here? She zoomed in on street names, buildings, shops, not recognizing any that sprung up. What was her best hope? Call for backup, search the entire area? Every single street, building and back alleyway? Was it doable, or would it just be a waste of time? Hell, it had been nearly ten minutes since Steen made the call, so the suspect could have long fled the area by now.
She scoured the map again, feeling helplessness beginning to mount. Her suspect had been here, walked the same paths and breathed the same air. The only thing keeping them from meeting was her abilities. She zoomed in on the building names, hunting for anything that might have a link to this unsub.
The names all blurred into one to the point they meant nothing. Nothing stood out. Nothing captured her attention. Then she scanned her surroundings one last time and tried to put herself in the unsub’s head. Would Steen’s call have spooked him or would he carry on with his intentions regardless? As she pieced things together, she noticed she was staring a jewelry store nestled between two vape shops.
WE BUY GOLD, the sign said.
A surge of electricity traveled down her neck, into her spine. She jerked upright in her seat.
Something called out to her. A faraway thought that offered some kind of answer, if only she could clarify it among the accumulating thoughts.
Where’d she heard that before?
The day before. She’d seen it outside the pawn shop. She suddenly recalled her conversation with the owner who’d given her the lead on Aleister Black.
As she replayed the conversation in her head, she felt the doubts again, like it was all unrelated. Then she remembered something Ace had said before they parted ways.
I only sold to one coin collector and the old bastard died weeks ago. Heart attack, I think.
“Oh shit. You gotta be kidding me,” she called as she pulled up the map. That was it. That was the answer to all this. She pulled up the JPEG picture again and frantically zoomed across as she hunted for the street she needed.
Dragon Run Road.
Five streets away.
She texted Byford the address. Did he even have his phone with him? Had he gone back to the motel already?
The engine roared to life. She sped off into the night, not waiting for anyone or anything.
Time to finish this.
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
Ella dumped her car outside Aces & Eights and jumped out. She yanked the old store’s wooden door to the point it nearly fell off its hinges.
Locked as expected.
She stepped back into the road and analyzed the building layout. The whole row of buildings here were connected, so there were no side entrances or fire doors that she could see. She took off towards the end of the row, passing an adjoining gaming store, vet, and Thai restaurant. That’s when she saw the narrow entranceway leading to the rear of the row. She slipped down in haste, coming to a large yard that doubled as the disposal area for each establishment. Trash bags and discarded boxes lay in no particular arrangement, finding the waste from the restaurant took up most of the floorspace.
Ella moved to the section she believed would belong to Aces & Eights based on geographical guesswork and, upon seeing the dislodged fire door, knew she was in the right place.
Just like the basement door in Barry Windham’s garden, there were scuff marks on the wooden door frame. Ella turned the knob and the door fell open.
She drew her pistol, flashlight, and hurried inside. Her flashlight illuminated a rack of bikes, some old guitars, video game consoles, a glass case of jewelry. She was on the ground floor, back where she was a day ago.
Her breath came in hot, painful waves. There were two options the next few minutes would bring; either she’d find Ace’s dead body in a pool of blood or she’d come face to face with a psychopathic serial killer. She’d called for backup, but it could be ten or more minutes away. This was a venture she had to make alone.
Ella sidestepped through the store, keeping her movements silent. Her flashlight danced in orange circles across the walls, the floors, and the store counter. The only exit other than the front door was the storeroom, which Ella accessed by climbing over the counter area. She found the wooden door half-open, then by her flashlight, saw a staircase leading to the upstairs of the house. Ace had said he lived here. That must be his living quarters.
Ella pushed forward, taking each step gently, keeping her weight above her knees. One or two steps creaked loudly, suggesting intrusion to someone familiar with the store’s characteristics. The staircase spiraled around to a landing area not unlike any modest home. There was one door to her left, one to her right and one straight ahead. All were ajar, giving no declarations of recent entry.
She stopped and listened to the air, hearing nothing but the sound of her thumping heart.
If this man was in here, what could she say to him that might make him yield? She knew his mindset, but nothing about him that she could exploit to bring him down. He was a mission-oriented killer, hell-bent on vengeance for some perceived wrongdoing. Unsubs like him were the most dangerous of all. They’d already abandoned reality in favor of their murderous fantasy worlds, and therefore had no real awareness of consequences. Threatening death or imprisonment did nothing to deter them from carrying out their homicidal operations. To them, it was the most important thing in the world, the only thing that mattered.