Page 18 of Girl, Empty (Ella Dark #27)

Ella found Detective Riggs in the kitchen. He was hunched over the coffee machine, staring blankly into the steam, then spun around in near-embarrassment as he clocked Ella’s presence in the doorway.

‘Agent Dark. Found anything?’

‘Yup. Me and Ripley are going to see a magic show.’

‘Come again?’

‘We found a guy who worked on the security installations for both buildings, and he’s also a magician. If that isn’t a perfect suspect, I don’t know what is.’

The revelation brought some color back to Riggs’s cheeks. ‘Really? I should call backup. We can surround the place, make sure he-,’

‘No,’ Ella butted in. ‘We need to talk to him first. If we suspect he’s our man, we’ll call you in.

The worst thing we can do is storm the place because if he’s not our guy, your department’s reputation will take a hit, especially once the press get word that you sent a hundred cops to bag an amateur wizard. ’

‘Alright. You’re the boss.’

‘While we’re on the topic, I need you to work some magic of your own.’

‘Oh?’

Ella pulled out a plastic bag with a cell phone inside. ‘You can probably guess what this is. I need you to put that computer science degree to use.’

Riggs stared at the object, then back at Ella like she’d just produced a headless animal from her jacket pocket. ‘That’s… the victim’s phone?’

‘Yes it is.’

‘Tell me you didn’t steal that from the crime scene this morning.’

‘I didn’t steal that from the crime scene this morning.’

‘You didn’t?’

‘No. Ripley did.’

‘Sheesh.’ Riggs’s cheeks returned to the pale shade they’d been a minute ago. ‘How illegal is that?’

Ella set the bag on the kitchen table. ‘Nothing’s illegal if it gets results. Do you know how long it would take to get access to the contents on here?’

‘Months. The DA would kick to the judge, then the judge would need warrants, chain of custody docs, family approval.’

‘Exactly. We’d need to work with the bank’s legal team too, since Grayson died on their property. By the time we got access, we could be looking at a pile of bodies, and imagine how long it would take to go through all of their cell phones.’

Riggs pinched the bag and inspected the cell like it might explode any second. ‘I get it, Agent, but I don’t know about this. I do things by the book. Always have. What if there’s nothing useful on here?’

‘It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, and I’ll be the one apologizing, not you. You just followed my instruction.’

‘I see. And what exactly are you hoping to find?’

‘Thomas Grayson’s last message was cell backdoor . Not help me or tell my kids I love them or any of the things normal people say when they're dying. He used his final seconds to scratch two very specific words into a bank vault door.'

'And you think he was talking about his phone.'

'I think he was trying to tell us how the killer got in. Grayson was head of security. He knew systems. If someone found a way to bypass them, he'd know better than anyone how it was done.'

Riggs set the phone down and rubbed his temples. 'So you want me to hack into a dead man's phone, violate a couple of laws, and hope we find something that justifies this career suicide.'

‘Ideally.’

‘What about this magic man? Maybe I should wait until you’ve spoken to him before I do anything crazy?’

‘Sounds reasonable. If he’s guilty, there’ll be no need to hack into this cell, so for our sakes let’s hope he’s guilty.’

‘We can dream.’

‘Are you okay with that? I know it’s risky, but…’

Riggs pocketed the cell quickly as a uniform passed by the door. He took his coffee from the machine and stared blankly into the liquid. ‘I haven’t been a detective long, but I already know what the worst thing about this job is.’

‘The pay?’

‘That too, but I was going to say how the right thing and the legal thing aren’t always the same. I didn’t know Thomas Grayson, but I don’t think he deserved to suffocate in a bank vault.’

‘Absolutely not.’

‘So if a little rogue activity can stop the next Thomas Grayson from dying the same way, then I’m in.’

Ella felt a new appreciation for the man in front of her. He had the two things cops needed to deliver justice; a spine and a good moral compass. He believed it, and she found she believed him. It was a rare enough thing to find.

‘Thank you, detective.’

‘And by the way, cell phones have nothing to do with computer science, so my degree is useless here.’

‘Oh. Really?’

‘Yeah, but luckily for you I spent my college years jailbreaking these things for fun. Let me know how the magic show goes. Try not to get sawn in half.’