Ella turned back to her partner, whose eyes were wide open like two glowing moons. She seemed enthralled with the man’s tale.
“Did this man attack your colleague?” Ella asked.
Mr. Steele shook his head. “Negative. Once he saw us, he jumped out of a window, and I mean he jumped right out of that window. He just launched himself into it, shattering the glass and fleeing. We never found out who the kid was, or at least the police didn’t tell us.”
Ella had questions and a lot of them, but she doubted Mr. Steele would know the answers. “Did you hear what the suspect was saying to your colleague?”
“It was just bizarre exclamations. Things like I’ll kill you for what you did.”
If this was the same perpetrator, it was more proof that he had lost his grip on reality. The man was living out some morbid fantasy that only made sense to his twisted mind.
“And your colleague didn’t know who the boy was? Never seen him before?”
“No. Karl was adamant he’d never seen him in his life.”
This wasn’t great news, but it was good news. Ella’s next task was to find who this mysterious attacker at the med school was and then track him down. If he was unstable as he sounded, then chances are she’d find something she could dig into to uncover his identity. She knew what he looked like, his general age and, now that they had three victims, she could estimate whereabouts he lived. Even if he didn’t have an official criminal record, there’d still be ways to find him.
Ella passed one of her cards to Mr. Steele. “My name’s Agent Dark and I’m based out of Lancaster PD precinct for the foreseeable future. Would you be able to pass me the contact details of your colleague who was assaulted? This Karl Anderson guy?”
“Absolutely. I’ll just check with him first, then I’ll let you know. I’ll be seeing him in around an hour so I’ll have your answer shortly.”
“Thank you.”
“It sounds like you were in the right place at the right time,” Paige added. “I can’t imagine what would have happened if you hadn’t shown up.”
“Oh yes,” Mr. Steele added. “Karl would have had no chance, especially considering…”
He stopped himself mid-sentence. Ella didn’t push him. She was guessing he meant the fact his colleague was old and fragile and the attacker was young and spritely.
“It’s fine. We understand,” she said.
“Well, maybe I shouldn’t mention this, but Karl has something of a disability.”
“Physical?” asked Ella.
“Yes. Physical.”
Ella gripped the steering wheel, sweat flooding her palms. “Please say what I think you’re going to say, Mr. Steele.”
The eyewitness pushed a tuft of hair off his forehead. “What’s that?” he asked.
“That your colleague only has one leg?”
Mr. Steele’s jaw dropped open.
“How did you know?”