Page 71 of Girl, Undone

This seemingly trivial detail about Derek's lifestyle ignited a flare in the dark.That was it.That was the thing she'd been missing while it sat right in front of her face.The detail that made everything else fall into place.The connections lit up and formed patterns and shapes that had been hidden in plain sight.

‘Ripley,’ she said.‘I’ve got it.’

The poison, the killer’s trap, the small gestures of deceit,manic.

‘Got what?’

Life coaching.I know, I know.What's an ex-con like me doing giving people advice, right?

‘Our unsub,’ Ella cried, ‘I know who he is.’

Ripley's expression transformed in a blink.‘What?Who?’

Saw you coming, so I made you a coffee.Dark Roast, right?

‘What?Who?’

Derek Graham hadn’t been sayingmanic.

‘The unsub.It’s Mason Arthur,’ Ella said.

CHAPTER FORTY

‘Who the hell is Mason Arthur?’Ripley asked.

Ella’s brain was firing at a thousand miles an hour, so she took a deep breath and started from the beginning.

‘I first met him when I went to the group therapy class.He came over to me, started talking, and introduced himself as Mason Arthur, but it was obviously a fake name.'

‘Right.Who was this guy?’

‘He told me he’d just moved to the area – probably another lie.He said he’d started a life coaching business and invited me to his offices.That’s because he was scoping me out as a potential victim.He’s probably not even a life coach.He was just lying so he could blend in at the group without raising any suspicions.’

Ripley’s expression became increasingly grave.She scratched her head, clearly not yet on board with the theory.‘Okay?And that’s it?’

‘No,’ Ella said and went back to her whiteboard.‘The first thing I noticed about him – he had a greyish smudge on his neck.Like, a tribal design that went from his shoulder to his chin, but he’d tried to cover it with a really tight collar.’

‘Okay?’

‘Derek’s last words to me were group, name, don’t know, man, nic.’

‘Nick?’

‘He wasn’t saying that.He was sayingman, neck, because the guy had a tattoo on his neck.Derek didn’t know his name either, just that he was a male member of the group with a weird tattoo on his neck.’

‘A greyish smudge?Are you sure it was a tattoo?’

Ella filled in the blanks without realizing.‘He’s tried laser it off because it was too noticeable.This guy is really good at staying discrete, so he must have thought about all this in advance.But there’s more.I met Mason again earlier tonight, and you know what the first thing he said to me was?’

‘What?’

Ella replayed the words like an audio file lodged front and center in her brain.Something about it had unnerved her, but at the time, she couldn’t place why.

‘Good to see you again, Miss Dark.’

Ripley looked nonplussed.‘And?’

‘Miss Dark,’ Ella said.‘When I first met him, I told him my name was Ella Darby.This guy knew my real name.’