Page 6 of Girl, Remembered

‘How’d she know about the tracker, though?’ Vernon asked.

Ella had been thinking about that since she’d seen her broken pistol and had arrived at one of two options. ‘She might not have known about it. Doyle was a prisons officer for eleven years. She held a gun every day. She’ll know if the weight of a handgun is off, even by a fraction.’ She neglected to mention the second option.

Terrance Dever – the man in charge of the Doyle investigation, although Ella had her own opinions on his title – hurried toward them. He’d been awoken from his slumber, and looked equally as disheveled as Vernon. Compared to Ripley, who was still suspiciously pristine in her black dress and boots, Vernon and Dever’s lack of field exposure was evident.

‘We’ve got the place locked down until tomorrow, but after that they want their bus loop back. I can understand why.’

‘Great,’ Ella said. ‘CCTV?’

‘The lone camera is pointed at the fare gates. I’ve requested the platform footage anyway. If Doyle walked through its edge for half a second, we’ll take the half second.’

‘It won’t make a difference. We need her license plate, not her face.’

‘Yeah, but I have to ask anyway.’

Dever had a mildness to his tone, and that mildness was salt in Ella’s wounds. Mildness was the whole man in a single word. We ask anyway, we wait anyway, we let it sort itself out anyway. As far as Ella was concerned, it had been six months of anyway, and right now she needed a little let’s tear this city inside out until this rat has nowhere to hide.

Ripley asked, ‘Dever, what about exits out of the city?’

‘MPD are helping us set up roadblocks on every exit, but we can’t cover every road.’

There was always one excuse, Ella thought. Doyle could be in Maryland or Virginia by now, and even after that, there was nothing stopping her reaching Florida by tomorrow night, providing she stayed invisible.

But Doyle wouldn’t do that, and Ella was sure of it.

‘She won’t leave D.C.,’ Ella said.

Dever huffed. ‘Ella, come on. This woman has wreaked havoc from here to Wisconsin. Let’s not kid ourselves to think she’ll-’

‘No, she’s staying here. This is the end for her, and she knows it.’

Ripley grimaced. ‘Dark, you know I hate to agree with Dever, but he’s right. If I knew the whole FBI knew my rough location, I’d do everything to get the hell out of that location, wouldn’t you?’

‘Yeah, but Doyle isn’t like us. Think about it from her perspective. She knows we know everything: that she’s in D.C., that it’s her sister in custody, that she’s got a bunch of disciples doing her bidding. She knows she can’t hide for long, because we’ll have every cop in the country hunting her down. Remember, her goal is to kill me. If earlier tonight was anything to go by, she’s done toying with me and now she’s going to finish the job, and I’m positive she wants to be present when it happens.’

‘So?’ asked Dever. ‘What do we do?’

There it was again. The head of the investigation asking the person he purposely kept away from the investigation for the next step in the plan. If she didn’t care about her pension, she’d have punched him in the crotch right there. ‘We do the only thing that works.’

‘Which is?’

‘Me and Ripley go scorched earth on this whole city until we find the bitch. Everyone else stay indoors, in their offices, like always.’

Vernon’s cell went off before Dever could answer. He checked the screen, held up one finger and walked to the far end of the room with the phone at his ear. Dever waited until the Director was out of range. He had a flush going up from his collar.

‘Stay in our offices. Do you want to say that louder?’ Dever asked.

‘I don’t want to say anything. I want you to do your job. Doyle has been in D.C. for at least a few days – probably way longer – and it’s only because of a different case that I found out. I nearly caught two serial killers last night, on my own, and your task force can’t even find someone whose face and name we know.’

Dever blinked slowly, then pursed his lips. ‘Her name. Are you sure about that?’

‘What? Yes I’m sure, just like I’m sure she was going to kill me last night before Ripley saved my ass.’

‘Ella, I ran this task force by the book. Just because Will Edis treated the Bureau like a playground doesn’t mean we all do.’

It was two years ago to the week that former director William Edis had met Ella at the Milestone Bar in Annandale and sent her off on this new life. She’d jumped at the chance, but if she could replay that night again she might not be so eager.

Ripley pushed Ella aside and got nose-to-nose with Dever. ‘Terrance, say another bad word about Edis. I dare you.’