Page 78 of Girl, Unmasked
‘Shut up and look.’Ella thrust the phone through the bars, screen lit up with that damning photo.‘This scene.Whothe hell is this?’
LaChance jumped back like she’d slapped him and shook his head like a child trying to will away a nightmare.‘No.I don’t want to see.It’ll just… confirm what I did.’
‘No, you idiot.This isn't you.Look!’
‘It has to be me, I did it.’
Ella felt her patience fraying like a rope about to snap.She needed answers, and she needed them five minutes ago.Time to change tactics.
With her free hand, Ella fumbled the pill bottle out of her pocket and threw it to LaChance.
‘Borgman,’ she barked.‘Who the hell is Borgman and why have you got his pills?’
That got his attention.LaChance's head snapped up, and his expression dissolved to embarrassment.'They're...not mine.'
‘No kidding they’re not.So whose are they?’
LaChance swallowed hard.‘My caregiver's.’
Ella blinked, certain she'd misheard.‘Your what now?’
‘My caregiver.His name’s Ezra.He takes care of me sometimes.’
Ella's mind reeled.A caregiver?This was a whole new wrinkle she hadn't seen coming.‘What do you mean, takes care of you?’
LaChance shrugged in a liquid motion that made him look like he was trying to melt into the bench.‘He comes by every few days.Brings me food.Makes sure I haven’t overdosed.’
Ella took a mental step back.This either didn’t make sense or made too much sense.‘But you’re not disabled or sick or geriatric.Is this Ezra guy a licensed careworker?’
‘I don’t know.He just showed up at my place one day and started taking care of me.I needed all the help I could get, so I welcomed it.’
‘And you didn’t check his employer?Or his credentials?’
‘No.I figured someone had reported me unwell.Wouldn’t be the first time.’
Ella felt like Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole, each new revelation sending her spinning further into the abyss.‘So someone else has access to your place?Your phone?’
‘I don't know,’ LaChance said.‘I black out a lot.Sometimes I wake up and things are...different.Ezra does have a key to my place.’
The gears in Ella's head kicked into overdrive.This Ezra person was starting to look less like a Good Samaritan and more like the missing piece of her puzzle.
‘He live with you?’
‘No.Somewhere else.Don’t know where.I don't know much about him, really.’
‘Ezra Borgman,’ Ella breathed.She needed to find this guy, and fast.Her hand was already reaching for her cell to dial Ripley when another thought stopped her cold.
If Ezra was her unsub – and her gut was screaming that he was – how the hell had he gotten his hands on the original manuscript?
She turned back to LaChance, who was watching her with the wary eyes of a beaten dog.‘LaChance.When you sent your manuscript to the publisher, did you remove any pages?The murder scenes, specifically.’
‘What?No, of course not.It was all there, every page.’
Of course,Ella thought.She'd been going about this all wrong, trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole.Trying to make LaChance fit a profile he was never meant to.
‘And this Ezra, your careworker.What's he do when he's not… taking care of you?’
‘He's a janitor,’ LaChance said.He sounded detached, like he was reciting from a script he'd memorized long ago.‘Works for a bunch of different places, I think.Office buildings, mostly.’
