Girl Nine: Gone by Molly Black

Author:Molly Black [Black, Molly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-04-17T16:00:00+00:00

*

Maya sat in the car outside Jacob Corinth’s house, feeling relieved to see that the lights were on there. That suggested that he was home. If he was the killer, that meant that he wasn’t out there targeting another victim.

The house was mid-sized, with a relatively expensive-looking car in the driveway. Yet that car was several years old and slightly battered looking, as if Jacob hadn’t had the money recently to replace it. Was that a side effect of losing his prestigious position? Was it a sign of how far he’d fallen as a result of the accusations leveled against him by his students?

If so, wouldn’t it be reasonable to assume that he would be angry about all of that? In turn, that potentially gave him a strong motive to lash out at other young women, potentially ones who reminded him of the students he’d harassed before.

Maya strode up to the door with Marco, knocking on it sharply. She thought she could hear classical music coming from inside, quickly shut off. Maya knocked again.

“Professor Corinth, this is the FBI. We need to talk to you.”

“One minute!” a man’s voice called from inside.

Maya looked over to Marco. “Get ready for any sign that he’s running.”

Marco nodded, moving back from the door to a position where he could get a better view of the side of the house.

Even as he did so, however, the front door opened, revealing a man in his forties, with features that could have been called handsome if the lighting were poor enough, his blond hair still wet, presumably from a shower. He was wearing a white terry cloth robe, while his expression was anything but welcoming.

“What is it?” he demanded. “What is the FBI doing calling on me at this time of the night?”

“We’re sorry to disturb you, Professor,” Maya said. “But it’s urgent. We need to ask you some questions in relation to a case and it couldn’t wait. Can we do this inside?”

Professor Corinth looked as though he might shut the door in their faces, but after a few seconds he stepped back to let Maya and Marco pass.

“What’s this about?” he demanded, as he showed them through to a living room that was decorated with pictures of the planets. Professor Corinth took a seat on a battered-looking leather armchair.

For now, at least, Maya stayed standing. “We needed to ask you about moondials.”

“Moondials?” The annoyance in the professor’s voice was obvious. “You dragged me out of the shower to talk about moondials? Honestly, I wish I’d never written that book! I was a serious researcher, doing important research that could have pushed forward our understanding of Hawking radiation and the boundaries of black holes by a decade or more. But no, all anyone wants to talk about is moondials. Do you know the number of weirdos and freaks I have to put up with because of that?”

“It’s relevant to a case,” Maya said. “Tell me, do the names Helene Gretting, Lola Marques, and Aisling Byrne

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