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Hello, this message is for Detective Lauren Gilbert. I don't want to get into how I got your contact info and why without verifying that this is the detective’s proper email address. My name is Marina Ellison, and I would like to discuss an important matter with you. If you receive this message, please get back to me at your earliest convenience. Detective Gilbert sat back after reading the message on her laptop. Her detective radar went up immediately. Something smelled off about this message. She sensed that if Janelle Stone wasn't behind it, then someone connected to her might be. She knew she had to be wary of walking into any traps. There was no saying if she would escape with her life a second time. Despite her suspicions, she decided to play dumb to see if she could fish out who the sender actually was and what they wanted. Janelle Stone may have learned a few tricks over the years, but she was still pretty idiotic compared to most people. Hello, she wrote. This is Detective Gilbert. How may I help you? A reply came an hour later. Hello, Detective! It is a pleasure to meet you in this email. I'm writing in hopes of putting together a book about the horrifying ordeal you and others suffered at the hands of Janelle Stone. This person is still at large, and I think that the more people who are aware of this vicious killer, the better. I know you have done some television interviews, but the thing I've learned about interviews is that people watch them and then that's it. A book is much more tangible and lasting. We can do a physical version as well as a digital version. I think that way it would reach more people. I know it is a very painful experience for you to have to recount, so if you're up for it, I'd like to start with whatever you can tell me. Not just about what you went through, but what your life is like now and if there is any word on Stone’s whereabouts? I have heard that she’s gotten lost in Montenegro somewhere. Have you ever thought of a way to flush her out by enticing her to a nearby country on some ruse that has an extradition treaty with the US? The detective read the second message and immediately sensed it was Stone fishing for information. Deciding there was no point in continuing to play dumb, she wrote: I'm doing fine, Miss Stone, and looking forward to reuniting with you very soon. I assure you the reunion won’t be anything like the last two times I've had the misfortune of being in your company, but that's all I can tell you at this point. She pressed send and waited a minute. Not long afterward, the anticipated denial came. I assure you, this isn’t the infamous Janelle Stone. If you are in fact interested in thebook deal, I will give you more contact info so you can verify my credentials. Sure, go ahead and give me your contact info,replied the detective. Once I have that, I will consider your offer and then get back to you one way or the other. She pressed send and waited. About five minutes later, her suspicions were confirmed. I wasn’t kidding when I said I wasn’t the infamous Janelle Stone. No, I am thefamous and victoriousJanelle Stone. I am a survivor. I am a survivor of cults. I am a survivor of lying little law enforcement officials who have absolutely zero empathy for what some people have been through, any more than some killers have any empathy for those they kill just for the fun of it. Are you one of those people, Detective? Would you like to kill me for getting you back and teaching you that sometimes our actions really do come back to haunt us, and that it’s important that we be honest and forward and treat people well? OK. That’s it, thought the detective after reading the lunatic’s message. No need to engage anymore now that she’d confirmed who it was. Instead, she picked up her cellphone and made a call. The person she talked to confirmed that Boris Brownly got emails at the same time. “Well, of course he did,” she told the fellow detective she was talking to. “This bitch just won't give up no matter what. No matter how much money and protection from extradition she gets, she just doesn't know when to stop.” “That could be a good thing in the end,” said the other detective. “The more they get away with, the bolder and cockier they get, and they fuck up. We're gonna get this nut sooner or later. I love that she asked if you were gonna try to lure her out of another country.” “Yeah, but that means she might not fall for any attempts to do so. How the hell do we get around the extradition issue?” “We don’t,” said the other detective. “We bypass it.” “What do you mean?” “Well, she accuses us of lying and doing the things civilians aren’t allowed to do. So maybe we need to do that a little more.” Detective Gilbert thought a moment and then said, “If it were any other person and any other case, I wouldn’t hear of any such thing. So what do you want me to do?” “You do nothing for now. You leave it to Boris and me.”