Page 23

In the bowels of the 23rd Precinct, a clock ticked off the seconds between truth and lie. Ella sat across from Felix Blackwood and wondered which one would win.

Ella's legs throbbed where the burns lived. The morning's gymnastics had woken up every nerve ending from knee to ankle, but pain had its uses. It kept you sharp. Meanwhile, Luca leaned against the door behind her. It was a little psychological technique that added to the suspect’s claustrophobia.

The kid in front of her didn't look like much anymore. His black ensemble had lost its edge, dusted with barn debris and stained with his own blood. Under the interrogation room's light, Felix had the lost look of someone who'd wandered into the wrong story. His nose mapped interesting geographies of purple and blue.

‘Let's start simple.’ Ella opened her notebook but didn't look at it. ‘Tell me about yourself, Felix.’

He shrugged. The gesture made his oversized hoodie swim around his shoulders. ‘Not much to tell.’

‘Try me.’

‘Twenty-one. Live in Bedford Hills.’

‘You’re a student, right?’

‘Former,’ said Felix.

‘Must be quite a change. Going from university life to farm work.’

Another shrug. Felix picked at a hangnail. Classic avoidance, but something about it felt wrong. Most killers loved to talk about themselves, couldn't wait to explain their grand theories. Felix acted more like a kid caught stealing candy than someone who'd murdered two people.

‘Tell me about Dr. Thornton.’

That got his attention. His head came up half an inch. ‘What about him?’

‘I understand you two had some issues.’

‘If you want to call it that.’ Felix's fingers moved to a loose thread on his sleeve. ‘He caught me trying to access some books. Got me expelled. ’

He got me expelled. It was funny how some people could convince themselves that their own criminal behavior was someone else’s fault.

‘No, you got yourself expelled. Dr. Thornton was just the one who caught you.’

‘Yup. You’re absolutely right.’

Accountability. A rare sight in interrogation rooms. ‘How’d that make you feel?’

‘How do you think? It depressed me, but I understood his decision. Rules are rules.’

Ella watched his body language. No spike in breathing, no muscle tension, none of the tells that usually came with lying. She didn’t like it. Either Felix was a good actor or he genuinely didn't harbor any grudge against Marcus.

‘These restricted materials. What exactly were you looking for?’

‘Nothing specific. I was just curious.’

‘Curious?’

‘I guess. All that old knowledge gathering dust. It seems a waste.’

‘Though it's probably for the best. Most of that stuff is nonsense anyway. Medieval pseudo-science.’

The hook was baited. If Felix was their alchemist killer, he'd bite. No true believer could resist defending their faith.

But Felix just nodded. ‘Yeah, probably.’

Ella shot Luca a look. He raised an eyebrow a fraction of an inch. He was clearly thinking the same thing as her. Either Felix was playing them, or something wasn't adding up.

New approach.

‘Have you seen Dr. Thornton recently?’

‘No one has. He’s dead.’

The words came out with noticeable indifference. Apart from trying to kill her back at the farm, it was the first sign of potential psychopathy Ella had seen.

‘You don’t seem too torn up about your old professor being murdered.’

‘News says he fell down a hole.’ A muscle jumped in Felix's jaw. ‘Doesn't sound like murder to me.’

‘Did you send Dr. Thornton any emails recently? Maybe with some interesting photographs?’

‘No.’ His nose had started bleeding again. He wiped it with his sleeve, leaving another rust-colored smear. ‘I stay away from the internet. ’

‘Because it's poison.’ For the first time, real emotion crept into his voice. ‘Everyone connected but nobody talking. Just bots and propaganda. It doesn’t reflect the real world.’

It was the longest string of words he'd offered yet. Ella filed that away – Felix had strong opinions about modern communication.

‘Well, if you did check the news, you might have heard about the murder of Sarah Chen.’

Felix's forehead creased. No flash of recognition, no quickened breath, nothing that suggested he was hiding knowledge of the second victim. ‘Who?’

‘Marine biologist. Found dead yesterday.’

‘Am I supposed to know who she is?’ Felix asked.

Ella watched him closely. The human face was a terrible liar - micro-expressions, muscle twitches, involuntary tells that broadcast deception like a radio tower. But Felix's face remained genuinely uncomprehending.

‘Are you telling me you don’t?’

‘Nope.’

Luca shifted in his corner. They'd developed a language over their short partnership – a lift of an eyebrow here, a slight head tilt there. Right now, he was telling her the same thing her gut already knew: Felix wasn't lying about Sarah Chen.

Which made no sense.

‘Interesting coincidence though.’ Ella leaned forward. ‘Two deaths in three days. Both involving the elements.’

‘Elements?’ The word caught in Felix's throat. Finally, something had punctured his studied indifference. ‘What do you mean?’

‘You're the geology student. You tell me.’

His fingers returned to that loose thread, worrying it like a rosary bead. ‘I don't understand.’

‘No?’ Ella reached for her case file. ‘Maybe this will help you understand.’

Time to play her trump card. Ella reached into her case file and pulled out the leather-bound book. It made a soft sound as it hit the table. Like something ancient taking its first breath in years.

Felix went still. The kind of stillness that came before earthquakes. His face drained of color until he matched the institutional walls.

Hermetic Order of the Quinta Essentia.

‘Want to explain what this is?’ Ella asked .

Felix's mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. He looked like someone had just walked over his grave while he was still in it.

‘Clock’s ticking,’ Ella said. ‘Care to fill us in?’

‘That’s… private. Why do you have it?’

Luca spoke up. ‘Found it between your romance books and your shirtless cowboys.’

‘Yeah… but… what’s it got to do with anything?’

‘Because,’ Ella said, ‘you’re our best suspect for two murders. We've got circumstantial evidence, we've got motive, and we've got this very interesting book that talks about elements and transformation. Start talking.’

‘It's not what you think.’ Felix's voice had gone thin as paper.

‘No? Because what I think is that somebody killed Marcus Thornton. Somebody who knew enough about geology to lure him to that quarry. Somebody who carved symbols into stone that look an awful lot like the ones in this book.’

Felix tried to protest by waving his hands but the cuffs put a stop to that. ‘Symbols? What the hell are you talking about?’

Ella sat back and folded her arms. She looked him up and down, dissected every inch of him for signs of deceit. Eye movements, posture, leg positioning.

But all she saw was a man who couldn’t quite understand what was happening, and she didn’t like that thought one bit. She kept quiet. Awkward silences were an interrogator’s best friend. People usually did anything they could to fill the silence.

‘You don’t understand.’

'So help me understand. From where I'm sitting, you got kicked out of NYU, then decided to get revenge on Marcus Thornton by using his geology knowledge against him. Sounds like a pretty airtight case to me.'

‘No.’ Felix's voice cracked. ‘That's not-’

‘Two people are dead, Felix. Both killed in ways that correspond to elemental forces. Earth and water.’ She leaned forward. ‘And this book talks a lot about earth and water.’

Felix’s hands had started shaking. ‘I didn't kill anyone. I didn't even write that thing. I admit, it’s mine, but we all had one.’

Ella bit her lip. ‘ We? ’

‘I can't-’ He squeezed his eyes shut. ‘Some questions shouldn't be answered.’

‘People are dying, Felix. ’

‘And more will if you keep pushing.’ His eyes snapped open. Something wild lived in them now, something that hadn't been there before. ‘You think you're solving a crime? You're not. You're opening a door that needs to stay closed.’

‘What door?’

‘I want a lawyer.’

'It's too late for that. You're already talking.' Not exactly true, but New York laws allowed Ella to stretch the truth. She just hoped Felix knew less about arrest protocol than he did about alchemy.

‘No. Lawyer. Now.’

Ella snapped her case file open again and threw out a barrage of glossy photographs one by one. The graffiti around the city, the animals with symbols painted on their carcasses, the desecrated graves, the bodies of Marcus Thornton and Sarah Chen. ‘Any of these look familiar, Felix? You want to spend your life in prison, because from where I’m sitting…’

Felix shielded his eyes with his forearm and shouted, ‘Alright, stop.’

Ella sat back and willed Felix to continue. He lowered his arm, did a quick scan of the pictures, and placed his palms down on the table.

‘Look, I’ll tell you, but…’

‘But?’

‘What I’m about to say is going to sound really weird, but you have to believe me, okay?’