She picked it up. “Hi director. Me and Nigel are back. Case closed.”
“Miss Dark, are you sitting down?”
Damn it, he wants me in his office already. “Yes I am. I’m at my desk. Do you want me upstairs? I can run you through the…”
“No, please,” Edis interrupted. “This isn’t about the case. This is something else.”
“Oh, certainly. I’m all yours.”
“I’ll warn you in advance. You won’t like what you’re about to hear.”
Ella’s felt a sense of vertigo, like she was at the top of an impossibly high skyscraper looking over the edge. “Okay. What is it?”
“Miss Dark, Tobias Campbell escaped from prison tonight.”
In her vision, she fell from the skyscraper and hurtled towards concrete at terminal velocity. Her last thoughts were a barrage of questions, the loudest of which was how the hell is that possible? Ella found herself unable to utter a reply. She tried to speak but some invisible force prevented her from doing so.
You didn’t think I’d forgotten about you, did you?
“Ella, are you okay?”
“No.”
“If you like, we can put you somewhere safe for the time being. Is that an option for you?”
I’ll see you soon.
The notes were from him. They weren’t some pranks or some relationship test from Mark. Tobias Campbell had eyes on her in Delaware. Her sense of vulnerability reached an all-time high. The thought of this psychopath knowing her exact whereabouts made her entire body itch.
“Miss Dark?
Ella lost herself in the white light of her computer screen. She remembered her moment with Byford in her motel room. She was calm and capable. She had weapons, fighting skills, allies. Other serial killers had fallen at her feet, and Tobias was flesh and blood just like them. If that son of a bitch wanted to fight, he was going to get one.
“No, director. I’m perfectly fine thank you.”
She hung up, overflowing with questions but not quite ready to learn the answers just yet. She grabbed her bag and headed home.
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
Ella didn’t go straight home. She drove around for a while, collecting her thoughts. She’d once read that the best place to reflect was either in the car or on the toilet, and she believed it to be absolutely true. She pulled into her apartment complex around ten pm. Before exiting the car, she checked her phone for messages. Nothing from Mark; he must have given up, thank God.
But she didn’t care about him anymore. There was someone else she needed to talk to. Someone who knew her problem like no one else.
Ella entered the complex and took the stairs to her apartment. She trod lightly, taking every corner and every door slowly. Tobias knew where she lived, and if she was smart, she knew she couldn’t live here for the foreseeable future. If she did, she’d be constantly on edge, wondering if the noisy pipes were actually an intruder sneaking through her windows. She couldn’t live like that, so she needed a new place to go. Maybe she could rent somewhere or take the director up on his offer. She’d make her decision once she’d thought it through.
Her hallway was clear. No signs of intrusion. No dead animals on her doorstep. She put her key into the door, pushed it open but remained in the hallway.
This wasn’t normal.
The lights were all turned off. Jenna never turned the lights off before she left. She always blamed her forgetfulness, but the truth was she was scared of the dark. There was no way Jenna hadn’t been back here in three days.
Ella instinctively reached for her pistol, knowing full well it wasn’t there. She switched the hallway light on and listened for any signs of life from inside.
“Hello? Jenna?”
Then something from inside the lounge. She knew that sound. It was the sound of the boards below the sofa creaking.
Should she turn and run? Call the police? It wasn’t like anyone inside could escape from a top floor apartment without her noticing.
No. These colors don’t run from cold bloody war.
“You’re not going anywhere,” a voice called from inside.
Her insides knotted up. She knew the voice. She’d done everything she could to escape it.
She opened the door to another layer of darkness, but she saw a figure sitting on her sofa, black on black.
“Mark,” she said. “What the hell?”
“Exactly. What the hell,” he said, rising to his feet. He flipped the light switch beside him. The sudden light blinded Ella.
“Why are you here? How did you get in my home?”
“Your roommate is careless,” he said. “So, you’re in Delaware, huh?”
Ella took her bags to the adjoining kitchen and dumped them on the worktop. She couldn’t believe the nerve of this guy. Watching her, keeping tabs on her. She already had one stalker to worry about, she didn’t need another.
“No, I was in Delaware. Now I’m in Washington, D.C., okay?”
Mark stood dead center in the middle of the lounge. “You didn’t think to tell me you were coming back?”
“I didn’t know I was coming home until this morning.”
Mark checked his watch. “Right. And it’s ten pm now, so what have you been doing for twelve hours?”
“Clearing up. Talking to police. Filling out reports. Talking to the director. You know how it works. You’ve done it long enough.”
“Yeah, I have, and not a single time did I completely ignore my partner all day. And after the conversation we had the other night? I’m suspicious,” Mark slammed his palm against the wall. “I’m suspicious as hell.”
The noise made her take a step back from him. “Suspicious? How many times do I have to tell you? You can’t be this jealous; it’s not normal. You have nothing to worry about.”
Mark moved in front of the door, blocking the only exit. “Ella, I’m looking at the facts here. My girlfriend flies out to another state all on her own, with a new man by her side. And she texts her boyfriend, what, a few times over 48 hours? I’m not an idiot.”
She’d had enough. This was wasted energy. She thought maybe when she saw Mark in the flesh, her feelings for him might surge back.
They didn’t. She disliked him as much as she did yesterday. Ella moved over to the sofa and sat down. “Come here,” she said sternly.
“I’m not coming anywhere. You need to start explaining yourself. Admit it, have you been sleeping with this new guy?”
Ella dropped her head back in her seat and sighed. “Mark, sorry, but I’m all out of shits to give.” She got out of her chair and stood in front of him. “This isn’t working for me. I don’t want to be with you…”
Smack.
Her cheek burned red hot. The sting traveled through her jaw, up her cheek and into her eye. One side of her face went numb with pain. In the past two days, she’d seen sights no human being should ever see, but being slapped in the face by the man supposed to be her boyfriend was an even greater shock.
Mark lowered his trembling hand. His mouth fell open in a look of horror. “Oh my God. Ella, I’m sorry,” he cried. “I didn’t mean to do that. I didn’t.”