“FBI,” Ella said. “Is everything alright, sir?”
“Is it true? Someone was killed in there last night?”
“I’m afraid it’s confidential. We can’t reveal much,” said Ella.
“Right, but what if I saw something?”
Now Ella’s interest perked up. “Did you? Please tell us everything you can Mr…”
“Steele. Gary Steele.”
“Mr. Steele. Anything you tell us with be kept confidential.” Ella grabbed her notepad. “Can you tell us who you are exactly? You live in the building I presume?”
The man retied his bathrobe. Ella glimpsed more than she wished to.
“I live at number 47. Second floor. Last night, must have been after long after midnight. I saw a car pulling in the parking lot. Old thing. Brown or black. Couldn’t really tell. I only noticed it because it didn’t exactly fit in around here.”
Ella noted it down. “It didn’t fit in? You mean it was a wreck?”
“Kind of. It was just old. It looked in okay condition, but most folks in here pride themselves on their cars. You know how it is.”
“Of course. Did you see who was driving?”
“I caught a glimpse, but it was dark. Some guy, I’m guessing early twenties, stepped out. He came straight in, like he’d been here before. Usually, newbies stop and look around. Not this fella. He was on a mission.”
Curious, Ella thought, but understandable. She had no doubt their unsub scoped out his locations beforehand.
“Can you describe what he looked like?” Ella asked, praying the man had some information she could latch onto. Even the most minor details could help narrow things down considerably.
“Messy hair. Black as a raven’s backside. Had some leather jacket, or more like pleather. He didn’t look like the moneybags type. I assumed he was a drug dealer or something. A very brazen one at that.”
It was enough. Ella felt there was something here they could use. For the first time on the case, she got that oh-so familiar rush that she’d come to live for.
“This is great, Mr. Steele. Anything else?”
“Well, here’s the weird part.”
Ella glanced at Paige to make sure she was listening closely. Weird parts were always the most important parts.
“We’re listening,” Ella said.
“I know this guy. I recognize him.”
Ella suddenly felt as light as a feather. If this eyewitness was on the ball, they could have this solved and she could be back in D.C. before the day was out.
“You do? You know his name?”
“Well, no, I don’t know his name. But I saw him once at work. I’m a lecturer at the Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences. A few months ago, we had this… incident.”
Med school, Ella thought. It made sense the killer might have medical training, although he certainly wasn’t a professional. A stint at med school definitely fit the profile.
“An incident?”
“During a break session, I and a few other lecturers were talking in my office. Suddenly, we heard screaming coming from the lecture hall across the way. We ran in, and we saw this…. bizarre scene.”
Ella had no idea where this was going. “What did you see?”
“This kid, some guy we’ve never seen before. Definitely not one of our students. He had one of the other lecturers cornered, and he was revving a chainsaw, screaming that he was going to kill the man. Karl Anderson was the lecturer’s name.”