Page 4 of Girl, Unmasked (Ella Dark #28)

The first week of February and D.C. had frozen over. Glacial temperatures had plagued the city for weeks now, which was why Ella was still under the bed covers despite her needing to be at the office in an hour. She never ran this late, and the cold usually didn’t bother her.

‘You know what I’ll never understand?’ said Luca. ‘Ties.’

‘What about them?’

‘What’s the point of them?’

Luca Hawkins was dressing himself in the mirror, and the new dress code around the office demanded all rookie agents wear suits and ties at all times. Luca, a man who lived in shorts, hadn’t taken the news well.

‘They hide the buttons. Or just add color.’

Luca huffed. ‘God, this is awful. Edis didn’t make us dress like this.’

‘Yes he did. It’s pretty normal to have to wear smart clothes around HQ. I don’t know where you got the idea from that it isn’t.’

It had been two weeks since Ella had visited Austin Creed in prison. Two weeks since he'd looked her in the eye and said, 'We're everywhere, and there'll be more of us tomorrow.'

Ella had recognized the quote right there and then. They were Ted Bundy’s words; one of the last sentences he’d ever spoke. The full line was; We serial killers are your sons, we are your husbands, we are everywhere. And there’ll be more of your children dead tomorrow.

Creed had paraphrased it, but the meaning was there. The words had burrowed into her brain and kept her up at night. Who was we? Was Creed just being dramatic, or was he hinting at something bigger?

There’d been no new developments in the case since then, and thankfully, no one else had wound up dead.

The investigation was now in the hands of other agents in the Bureau, and Ella had no choice but to live with that.

She’d had her one shot at killing him and she hadn’t taken it.

Whether she regretted that fact or not was a thought she didn’t want to acknowledge.

‘Well, he’s gone now, and today’s the day we meet the new guy. Hooray.’

Two weeks was a long time in politics, and in that time, the old head of the FBI had been severed and a new one had sprouted in its place.

Director William Edis had officially retired after ten years in service, and now there was going to be a new name on the plaque. Who exactly that was, Ella didn’t know.

‘Could be anyone. It could be some guy we’ve never heard of, like someone from the MOD.’

Luca finished dressing himself. Ella’s aunt had once told her to never trust a man who put his shirt on before his pants, but by the time Ella had noticed this particular quirk about Luca, she was already in too deep.

‘We already know who it is. It’s Richard Vernon,’ Luca said.

Ella’s stomach dropped. She knew that name, but she hadn’t heard it mentioned in any hallway gossip. The rumor mill at HQ usually churned out a dozen theories before settling on the truth. ‘Slick Rick? Are you kidding me?’

‘No I’m not. He’s going to be the man in charge, so you better hope he likes you.’

From what Ella knew, Richard Vernon had been a prosecuting attorney in D.C. for most of his life, but as with anything in the Bureau hierarchy, it was about who you knew. ‘I’ve never met him. I just heard he was a sleaze. How’d he get in the running for Director?’

Luca ambled over and sat on the bed. He filled out that charcoal grey suit well, but he hadn’t styled his hair yet and that made him look more like the Luca she knew rather than the FBI agent he was supposed to be.

‘Same way anyone gets the job. He does favors for the President. I wouldn’t be surprised if he went full Monica Lewinsky. ’

‘Listen to you. Talking like you’ve been in the Bureau all your life.’

‘It feels like it. Are you going to get ready?’

‘Do I have to?’

Luca slapped her thigh. ‘Yup, unless you want to ride in separate cars, because I’m leaving in ten minutes. New recruits are meeting the mysterious new director at midday.’

‘We’re meeting him at nine. How do you know it’s Rick Vernon, anyway?’

‘The rookies have got our finger on the pulse.’ Luca shot up aimed for his deodorant cabinet. ‘You grizzled vets don’t pay as much attention as you used to. Did you realize that?’

Ella rolled out of bed. Jesus, it was freezing out here. ‘Yeah, I have heard that. Why isn’t the heating on?’

‘Quit complaining and get ready, because you vets should be setting the example. Don’t want the rookies overtaking you, do you?’

***

Ella rounded the corner of the FBI headquarters building and found Mia Ripley leaning against the brick wall like she was trying to disappear into it.

Ripley always chose this spot over the main entrance, over the coffee cart on Fifth Street, over any of the dozen other places normal people gathered before work.

‘You know, in all these years, I've never understood why you hang out back here,’ Ella said.

‘Better view of the parking lot. You’re early.’

‘I’m on time.’

‘Which is early. I thought you might skip this dog and pony show,’ Ripley said.

‘I’d love to. You didn’t want to miss the fun, either?’

‘Can’t. I retired eight months ago, came back two months ago. If the new guy’s looking to cut, I’d be first on the chopping block.’

‘And that concerns you?’

Ripley shrugged. ‘A little bit. Where’s Hawkins?’

‘Gone in the front entrance, like a normal person. The newbies have their speeches in a few hours. We get to meet the new big man first, so I guess that makes us the lucky ones.’

‘Yeah,’ Ripley said. ‘Lucky us.’

‘You know who it is?’

‘Rick Vernon, attorney, White House regular. Never met the man myself, but I’ve heard things.’

Ella was only a touch concerned that she seemed to be the only person in the Bureau who didn’t know the identity of the new director before it was announced. Was there some gossip club she wasn’t part of? ‘How long have you known?’

‘About a week. Had a friend at DOJ give me a heads up.’

‘And you didn't think to mention it?’

Ripley shook her head. ‘What would it change? Vernon was always going to get it. Men like him always do.’

‘Men like him?’

‘Dick-hoppers. Men who’d sell their own mothers a time-share in Aspen.’ Ripley kicked a piece of ice on the ground. ‘Sorry, I’m being a bitch. Change is good. I’ll keep telling myself that.’

Ella grabbed the door handle and opened it for Ripley. ‘Missing Edis already, huh?’

Ripley had been the only person besides Edis who knew about the Glock in her jacket, about the unspoken permission to put Austin Creed in the ground. They hadn’t talked about it since.

‘Like you wouldn’t believe.’

They walked through the corridor that led into the front lobby, but Ella noticed Ripley’s pace was slower than usual, like she was en route to the gallows pole. ‘Something’s wrong with you. What aren’t you telling me?’

‘What makes you think I'm not telling you something?’

‘Because you look like someone shot your dog, and I just found you in a parking lot in what most people would consider freezing temperatures. Even for you, that’s excessive.’ They approached the security door and Ella flashed her card. It bleeped green and let them through.

‘I like hanging out near the back door. Too many people out front. Too many people coming and going. Where are we supposed to be headed?’

‘Hall C on the third floor. The one with all the flags.’

Ella had known two directors in her time here, and active duty had been different under both of them. She was no expert on office politics, but she had a gut feeling that a new boss meant new ways of working, and much like Ripley, she wasn’t a fan of that.