Page 20 of Girl, Unmasked
‘Of course.Looks like our time’s up,’ said Ripley.‘How d’you want to play this?’
Ella dropped the manuscripts back on the table.‘I’ll head to the precinct and see what I can dig up on Sophie Draper.I’ll comb through her emails, credit card statements, anything that might give us a lead on who might want her dead.’
Ripley pulled a face like she'd just bitten into a lemon and found half a worm.‘Alright.I’ll brief the forensic guys.Try and speed this thing up.Take the car.I’ll get a lift back.’
‘You really are too good to me.’
‘Sing my praises later.Let’s get this ball rolling, because I doubt our killer’s going to stop at one.’
She wasn’t wrong.This case had serial written all over it, and they hadn’t even gotten elbow-deep in the entrails yet.‘You’re on,’ she said.
Ripley sketched a salute and turned towards the new arrivals.Ella took her leave out of the apartment and breathed in the corridor air.
Sophie Draper.A stranger in life, but Ella's new celestial best friend in death.Now Ella needed to dig through every scrap of the woman's existence, turn over every rock and rattle every skeleton until she had a clear picture of this woman’s life.
And then she'd use that picture to paint a target on this killer's back.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Ella had made a solo trip to the Norwalk PD precinct, and inside she’d been given a meeting room to double as her office.There was a giant table running down the middle of the room, and a window that overlooked a demolition site.As far as offices went, she couldn’t ask for more.
She’d now spent two hours devouring the digital dregs of Sophie Draper’s life.Birthdates, employment history, credit scores, but the cursor just blinked at her, taunting her with its refusal to divulge anything resembling noteworthy information.
Sophie Draper was thirty-nine, unattached, and childless.The kind of woman who'd be eulogized with a lot of 'I didn't know her well, but she seemed nice' from people who lived on the periphery of her life.No record, not even an overdue library book to her name.The only useful nugget Ella discovered was that books and publishing made up her entire career, from junior editing jobs at independent publishers to commissioning editor the fairly sizable Eagle Eye Publishing.It certainly explained the manuscripts cluttering up her kitchen table.
Ella sat back in her chair and took inventory.Sophie’s social world was depressingly minimal too, all work and no play by the looks of things.It was hard to determine a motive for mutilation with such slim pickings in the personal department.
She closed her eyes and tried to think of a new angle, but all she saw behind her eyelids were the images from the crime scene.
Sophie Draper, flayed like some lunatic’s idea of high art.And here Ella was, chasing her tail like a dog dumb enough to think this time, maybe the tail would let her catch it.
A knock at the door dragged Ella out of her spiraling pity party.She turned to see a Ripley-shaped profile filling the doorway.
‘Knock knock.Set up already, have you?’
‘I’ve been here hours.Where’ve you been?’
'At the scene.Forensics just finished up,' she said.'Body's on its way to the mortician now, express shipped for their pleasure.'
‘Please say forensics found something at our scene.’
‘Nothing in the prelims.No prints, no fibers, no stray hairs.But they’re going to take a deeper look at some things, analyze the blood to make sure it all belongs to the vic.Maybe Sophie got a nail in his face before she went down.’
Ella knew it was a long shot, but every so often, a long shot hit the back of the net.
‘Terrific.’Ella blew out a gusty sigh and thunked her head back against the headrest, contemplating the water-stained drop ceiling like it might hold the secrets of the universe.
Ripley asked, ‘How does someone disfigure a body like that and leave no trace behind?Maybe this guy’s more organized than we thought.’
‘Because he had all the time in the world.He was in a private space.Means he could clean up after himself.’
Ripley made a noise that might have been a laugh in a past life.She sauntered over and parked her butt on the edge of her desk.‘You find anything on the vic?’
Ella tipped her chin at the screen.‘Sophie Draper, thirty-nine, perpetually single.Commissioning editor for Eagle Eye Publishers.So, no.Nothing we didn’t already know.’
‘Maybe we ought to pay Eagle Eye a visit, see if anyone knows something about Sophie that social media doesn’t.’
‘Thought you’d never ask,’ said Ella.If Sophie's murder was in any way connected to her day job, then Eagle Eye was ground zero for this minefield.
