Page 30 of Girl, Empty

‘Mark, you smelling that?Am I going crazy?’

‘No.’He stepped back, because he too was getting overwhelmed by it.It was something chemical, straight out of a laboratory.His sinuses burned.His eyes watered.

‘Mark… that’s not….nitrogen, is it?’

That was it.That was where he knew it from.He'd attended a safety seminar two years ago about the vault's fire suppression system.In case of fire, the system would flood the space with nitrogen gas, displacing oxygen, smothering flames.

‘Y…yes it is.We need to call…’

Mark froze mid-sentence, because that’s when he saw the shoes.

‘Is that...’Gemma suddenly appeared at his side and gripped his arm.Her voice sounded like someone had replaced her vocal cords with violin strings.‘Tom Grayson?’

Mark’s mind, an abacus of rules and regulations, cycled through the impossibilities.The time-lock was absolute.The nitrogen system was a weapon of last resort.The vault was a sealed tomb between 5 PM and 8:30 AM.

They had just opened it.They were the first ones in.

So why was their head of security lying dead in there?

Maybe today wasn’t going to be one of those dull days, after all.

‘Call the police,’ Mark gasped.‘Now.’

CHAPTER TWELVE

It was 8:20 by the time Ripley had defrosted the car, and ten minutes after that they were crawling through the traffic downtown.Ella glanced out of the window as they passed the Morrison & Associates building.

‘People are going in.That’s our crime scene contaminated.’

‘Yeah.They can’t keep it locked down much longer,’ said Ripley.‘They’re probably bleeding money.’

‘Can’t they work from home?’

‘I don’t know.I’d be lying if I said I knew what a forensic accounting firm actually did.You sleep well?’

‘Not bad.The cold knocked me out.How’d you sleep?’

‘Didn’t.I had some ideas, so I spent half the night putting them together.’

Ella had to wonder if she hadn’t been shot on her last case and all this was some comatose hallucination, because the Ripley she knew would never forego sleep to burn the midnight oil.She threw her hands up in surrender.‘Alright, Mia, what’s going on?’

‘Nothing’s going on.I just had some thoughts.’

‘You don’t have thoughts.You shoot first and ask questions afterwards, but for the past two days you’ve been more pre-emptive than I’ve ever seen.’

Ripley shrugged, keeping her eyes on the road.‘It was the Christmas break.’

‘Nonsense.You hate Christmas.’

‘I used to hate Christmas, but it’s different with kids around.I went all in this year.Even had an inflatable Santa.’

Ella noticed Ripley’s hands.They were in the exact ten-to-two position on the wheel, which was Ripley’s tell that was guarding something.Usually she drove like she couldn’t care less which direction the car veered, especially in traffic.

‘I’m not buying this at all,’ Ella said.

‘Look, I’ve had six months off, then I spent the holidays with my family.Is it so wrong to think that might re-invigorate me?’

Ella felt like she was staring at a stranger wearing Ripley’s skin.There was something going on here, and it was personal enough for Ripley to lie about it.She only ever lied to cover up the mortifying secret that she was, in fact, human.