Page 65 of Girl, Accused

‘I’ve never heard their names in my life. God’s honest truth.’

‘You didn’t email Dr. James Harper? Harper Aesthetics?’

‘No. Why would I email a plastic surgeon?’

‘To ambush him.’

‘I didn’t do that.’

‘Well, someone emailed him from your church's internet connection.'

Canton showed his palms. ‘Wait, slow down. What does that mean? How do you know that?’

‘You got Wi-Fi at your church?’

‘Yes, but it’s for me, not the church-goers.’

‘Well someone sent our last victim emails whilst connected to your Wi-Fi. Who else has access to your network?’

Canton scratched his stubble. ‘I don’t know. Just me and my staff? I can’t think of anyone else.’

‘Is your network secure? Or can anyone just log in to it if they’re within range?’

‘No. It has a password. Sorry, I’m not good with technology.’

‘Then I’m gonna need the namesof your staff. Who else works at First Light Assembly, Adam?’

His mouth opened, closed, opened again. He looked like a fish out of water. ‘Mostly volunteers, but we have two regulars. We can't afford full-time staff anymore.’

‘Names, Adam.’

‘Uhh…. Sister Mary does most of the admin. Arranges flowers. She actually lives just behind the church, in the outbuilding.’

Ella committed the name to memory. ‘Who else?’

‘There’s Tom, I guess.’

‘Tom?’

‘Father Thomas Walsh. He does confessional twice a week.’

The human brain typically processes information at forty bits per second, but in this moment, Ella's mind raced orders of magnitude faster.

How had she not seen it sooner?

The common thread that wove through every victim, every crime scene, every blood message. The act of divulging one's deepest shame and exposing the soft underbelly of the soul to the blade of judgment.

Confession.

The unsub wasn't randomly selecting sinners. He was systematically executing people who had revealed their darkest transgressions to him, thinking they were speaking to God's representative. The killer had perverted a sacred trust into an execution list.

‘Thomas Walsh,’ Ella repeated. ‘Who is he? Where is he? I need to find him.’

‘Walsh? I don’t know. I haven’t seen him all week.’

Of course, Ella thought. He’d been laying low, except when emerging to kill four people. ‘Right. Where’s he live?’

‘I don’t know. He’s not scheduled back at the church until next week.’