Page 74 of Girl, Empty

LOCAL STUDENT WINS NATIONAL SCIENCE FAIR.

The photos showed a slight, awkward boy holding trophies almost as tall as he was.He had a mop of brown hair lumped on his skull, a gaunt face, and the build of a kid who hadn't yet discovered the joys of junk food.Pinned beside the pictures was a framed quote;Look up at the stars, not down at your feet.

This was him.Computer savant.Child prodigy.Murderer of three people.This was the room where the ghost in the machine had grown up, and at some point in the past ten years had vanished, only to surface now and extract his vengeance on a world he tried to process through computers.

But where was he?

‘Have you come to take me back?’

White hot adrenaline exploded into Ella’s system.The voice was thin and dry, like someone had trod on a pile of dead leaves.Ella spun and raised her Glock.

An old woman stood in the doorway.She was dressed in a thick brown robe and slippers, and her white hair was a tangled mess.

‘Who are you?’Ella asked.

‘I’m Susan.Are you from the home?’

‘No.I’m from the police.’

‘Don’t take me back,’ the woman cried.‘They said they’d send the police if I left again.’

Ella holstered her weapon.‘You’re Susan Roth?’

‘Yes.I just wanted to see my house.Can I just stay here for a little while?’

‘Ma’am, I’m not from the care home, and I’m not here to take you back there.I need to talk about your son, Calvin.’

‘Oh yes.Smart boy.Way smarter than I ever was.He doesn’t live here anymore.’

Susan was certainly suffering with some kind of ailment, but Ella wasn’t one for armchair diagnoses.She seemed to have one foot in the real world, one in that terrible hallucinatory realm that comes with cognitive decline.‘Do you know where your son is?’

‘I haven’t seen Calvin in a long time.He moved away.Would you like something to eat?’

‘No, thank you.Where did Calvin go?’

‘Far away.He was too sharp for this town.’Susan turned and hobbled away, seemingly unconcerned that there was a strange woman in her house.Ella needed to pull her into reality, if such a feat was possible.

‘Susan, I need to find your son.Lives are in danger, and I believe it’s Calvin’s fault.’

The mother stopped in the hallway, did a 360, and slowly came back.This time, she crossed the threshold into Calvin's room.

‘My boy is… he wouldn’t do anything like that.’

‘Like what?’

Susan was suddenly short of breath.‘Misbehave.’

‘Have you seen the news?’

‘No.’

Even dementia sufferers had tells when they lied, Ella told herself, and Susan was exhibiting more than a few.‘Really?You haven’t heard about the murders in the city?Three people.Maybe more.’

Susan held her body like she wasn't entirely sure where it ended and the world began.‘Calvin is a good boy.’

Frustration settled in Ella’s stomach.This avenue wasn’t going to get her anywhere.If Susan was somehow aware of her son’s reign of terror, she’d built a wall around that truth so high she’d never be able to look over it.

She had to try a different angle.