Page 70 of Girl, Empty

‘Must be.And Riggs checked Amanda’s security app.It’s real.He didn’t put a fake on there like he did with Grayson, so he’s got full access to Amanda’s cell.’

‘Has she turned it off?’

‘We’ve got it in a Faraday cage.Got two officers outside her house too, just in case our guy tries to find her again.’

‘He won’t,’ Ella said.‘If he can’t kill her in an impossible location, he won’t even try at all.’

‘Let’s hope.What about you?Find anything?’

Ella rubbed her neck and gestured towards her laptop, which was now just a black screen.‘I… umm… think I found our unsub.’

Ripley cocked an eyebrow, looking unamused.Not the reaction Ella expected.‘Excuse me?’

‘Yeah.Well, not our unsub himself, but I found his name.’

‘And you didn’t think to tell me this when I walked through the door?’

‘I was asleep, and it’s not the breakthrough it sounds like.’Ella stood up, stretched her limbs.Her scalp was dry, mouth tasted like crap and her neck seemed to be fused into one position.Maybe Ripley was right about not sleeping at her desk.

‘So, what’s the deal?’

‘I contacted Alpine Cleaning Services.Remember, I told you I’d seen their name at every scene?’

‘Yeah.’

‘I asked the woman if any of their cleaners had done jobs at all three buildings, and there were two guys.One was dead, one was this kid named Zane Corvidale.Weirdly, there was no mention of Zane on the woman’s system.Like he’d erased himself off there.’

‘What?So how did she know his name in the first place?’

‘She had a handwritten log book.Look.’Ella picked up Janice’s notes and passed them to Ripley.‘There.Zane Corvidale.Worked all three buildings in April and March last year.’

‘Yes!’Ripley slapped the book in triumph.‘This is perfect.This must be our guy.Thank God for people who don't trust computers.’

‘Hold on.It’s not as simple as that, because Zane Corvidale doesn’t exist in any system.I found two guys with that name in the world.One lives in South Africa, the other in New Zealand.Our guy’s good, but he can’t kill from five continents away.’

‘True.But if we know he’s been at the buildings, then we-’

‘Way ahead of you.I called Terrence, Mark and Amanda, and they hooked me up with CCTV footage from their buildings.I went through all of them, camera by camera, and cross-referenced the footage with the times in Janice’s log book.And guess what.’

‘You found him?’

Ella nodded.‘I found his face.The same guy.Over and over.’

‘You beautiful woman.I could kiss you.’

‘Hold it, we’re not done.Then I took all the clear photos of his face and ran it through the NGI-IPS.I was still waiting for results by the time I passed out.’

Ripley nudged Ella’s laptop.‘You have access to NGI-IPS?’

‘No, but Roadrunner does.And he was working late last night.’

‘Who’s Roadrunner?’

‘Old pal from Intelligence.The good kind of nerd.’

‘Perfect.Did anything flag up?’

‘That’s the million dollar question.’Ella hammered her space bar and kicked her laptop out of standby mode.When the screen glowed, it showed one result.