Page 37 of Girl, Empty
Ripley stared at the names on her board like they’d insulted her mother.‘So either we're dealing with two killers working together, or one killer who had access to information from both teams.'
‘Or someone higher up the food chain who would oversee multiple projects.'
‘Like management?’
Ella was reminded of what Ripley had said yesterday, about how gossip around HQ just found its way to her.‘Yeah.Or a consultant.’
Ripley paused with her marker halfway to the whiteboard.'Hang on...I've got a consultant mentioned in one of mine.'She scanned the names on her board and tapped one with her finger.'David Lorraine.It says he was a consultant for designing some of the security at First National.'
Ella ran her finger down her spreadsheet.'I don't have a David Lorraine.'
'Check again.'
Ella went back to the beginning of her Morrison & Associates file and speed-read through the entire document.Technical specifications, installation schedules, personnel assignments, quality control checkpoints.Nothing jumped out until she reached the final page of the vulnerability assessment report.
'Wait.'She stopped at a line of text near the bottom.'I've got something.Design based on initial vulnerability report by D.L.and then a signature next to it.'
'I've got a signature too.Right here next to David Lorraine's name.’Ripley found the document she needed and pushed it over to Ella’s side of the desk.She compared the two squiggly lines.
And they matched perfectly.
‘Holy hell.We got a hit.This guy – David Lorraine – consulted on both installations.’
‘Check him, Dark.’
Ella’s brain overclocked as a jolt of pure voltage hit her.She opened a browser tab and smashed in David Lorraine’s name.Six million results came back, so she narrowed it by addingSentinel Tech.
Bingo.
‘Got him.David Lorraine, let’s see who you are.’
The first result was a professional website, the next was a corporate social media page, third was a personal social media account.She went through them one by one, and discovered that David Lorraine was a 56-year-old gentleman with a shaved head, silver beard and an inability to smile naturally.His professional bio read like two different people had written it; half corporate consultant speak, half carnival barker.
With decades of unparalleled experience on the world stage, David Lorraine understands that what you see is never the full story.Witness how David can transform your risk profile with a proactive, holistic approach to penetration testing that will simply astound you.Don't just secure your assets.Let David show you the secrets that turn every lock into a mere suggestion.The impossible is his specialty!
‘What the hell is he talking about?’Ripley asked over Ella’s shoulder.‘This is nonsense.’
‘It’s typical corporate jargon.Let me check his social media.’
Over on David Lorraine’s personal profile, a different picture emerged.The banner at the top of the screen showed David Lorraine – the same silver-bearded consultant from the professional page – holding a playing card that was on fire.Ella checked his most recent pictures, and all of them showed him leaning over various tables with playing cards in his hands.
‘Hey, he’s a magician,’ Ripley said.‘Maybe we should hire him.’
The termmagichad been rolling around in Ella’s head since this case began, but she’d avoided going too deep down that route because it simply felt foolish.But then she thought of Mark Miller’s words from earlier that day.It’s like some kind of… illusion.And now, looking at the words plastered below David Lorraine’s pompous gesturing on the banner in front of her –Nothing Is Impossible –she figured it was time to entertain this train of thought.
She scrolled past David’s most recent photos, down to his newest posts.The top one had been posted three hours ago: Magic Afternoon at Murphy's Pub on Walker Boulevard.3 PM Today!Come And See Close-Up Miracles and Mind-Bending Illusions!
‘We don’t need to hire him.He’s doing a show in…’ – Ella checked the time – ‘one hour.’
‘Ugh.I hope he’s good.’
‘I hope he’s a murderer.Should we take backup?’
Ripley was already grabbing her coat.‘To arrest some wizard-looking guy in a bar?No chance.We do this ourselves.’
Ella idly wondered whether a professional magician would be able to slip the handcuffs should she have to slap them on him, or whether that was a myth.Then she burned David Lorraine’s face into her mind’s eye and asked herself whether or not this man could be the phantom that drifted through these corporate buildings unseen and left two people for dead.
She wasn’t sure.
