Chapter 7 - "3:41"

A new time carved. A cold body found. The killer's rhythm begins to break.

The file was old.

Too old to be in the active casework stack. It had no barcode, no digital backup. The pages were yellowing, corners curled, the folder brittle from being handled too many times by too many hands that gave up.

Mason didn't remember requesting it.

It had been sitting on her desk when she returned from the Anderson scene, tucked beneath her notes. No name. Just a date-August 14, 2003-and a faded evidence sticker that had long since lost its stick.

She flipped it open anyway.

Photos. Not Digital-film. Developed by hand. A girl, maybe seventeen, lying in a hospital bed, eyes open, unfocused. No bruises. No visible wounds. Just a small bandage on her wrist.

The report was sparse.

Victim: Eloise Danner

Age: 17

Status: Missing-recovered

Condition: Unresponsive / dissociative

Details: Carving noted on right wrist. Clock image. No known suspects. Victim non-verbal. Case closed as a non-criminal psychiatric episode.

Mason stared at the photo, at the look in Eloise's eyes-there was nothing there. No fear. No awareness. Just...stillness. The kind of stillness she'd only seen in corpses.

But Eloise wasn't dead.

She was marked. And no one noticed.

The paperclip slipped from her fingers as she turned the page and found a handwritten note, not part of the official record. It was scrawled in blue pen, rushed, maybe angry:

If this is what I think it is , we never closed this case. We just buried it.

No name. Just a set of initials: R.C.

Mason leaned back in her chair, pulse rising. The ticking in her head returned. Louder now.

This wasn't just a pattern anymore. It was a cycle. And it had started long before the first known victim.

She stood, grabbing the folder and her keys, heart thudding.

The radio crackled:

"Detective Cole, you've got a visitor in the lobby. Says it's urgent."

She paused.

"I didn't schedule anything," she radioed back.

"She didn't give a name. Says she has something for you."

Mason's hand hovered near her holster.

She walked out of the office anyway.

Reviews

[emmajoygreen]

Continuing is now essential. This book is fascinating: certainmly a murder mystery but am wondering if more. It has become silent but persuasive: both focus and thought are needed. Think there are clues cropping up now and again.. ..