Page 13 of Girl, Empty (Ella Dark #27)

‘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.

‘You met a man.’

‘I didn’t meet a man.’

‘You met a woman.’

‘Ha.’

‘Okay, maybe not. I just feel like you’re trying to prove something. Do you want to impress the new recruits? Or the new director? Is that it?’

Ripley gave her the side-eye. ‘In a way, yes.’

‘Aha, I knew it was something. Go on then, spill.’

‘Never mind spilling. How about we focus on what’s important?’

Ella guessed she should have known better than to pester, so she officially benched the topic. Pushing Ripley when she was like this was like trying to punch a hole in a brick wall. All you got were bruises. ‘Fine. What ideas did you have last night?’

The traffic disappeared as Ripley verged into a side street.

The GPS said they were five minutes away from the precinct.

‘I found the security company behind all those bells and whistles at Morrison more flushed than anyone should be before midday. He made a circular motion with his finger.

‘Riggs, what’s going on?’

‘Get back in the car and turn around. We’ve got a second body.’

Ella’s stomach plummeted like a broken elevator. The name Michael Rankin shrank and became a data point, because if there was a second body, it meant Rankin was just number one in a sequence.

They had a serial killer.