Page 77 of Girl, Remembered

‘I’ll stop by in the morning. Actually, what time is it now?’

‘Midnight.’

‘Better make it afternoon.’

‘Done,’ Vernon said. He saluted goodbye and left the two agents alone. Ripley took a seat next to Ella on the steps. Ella ogled the liquor bottle she was holding.

‘Where did you get rum from?’

Ripley looked at her like she’d said the stupidest thing possible. ‘We’re in a bar.’

‘An empty bar.’

'There are some bottles in the back. I wanted whiskey, but all they had was this.'

‘First world problems.’

Beyond the pond, an owl hooted. Neither Ella nor Ripley said anything for a minute, and then Ripley passed her the bottle of rum.

‘I’m good, thanks,’ Ella said.

‘Fine.’ Ripley took the bottle back and drank it herself. ‘So, this is where the bitch hid out.’

‘Yup. It’s a good hiding place. Nobody comes by here. You can’t see the lot from the street. It’s an easy retreat to the woods if anyone did stop by.’

‘But how’d she know? How’d she know Edis owned this place? And how’d she know about you and Edis meeting up here? Even I didn’t know about that until you told me, which was months later.’

‘Ask Dever. Dever figured it out back at HQ, just after I called Doyle.’

‘How? Explain.’

Ella laughed. ‘You never usually inquire so deeply about these things. You tell me to just stop thinking.’

‘Call it curiosity.’

‘Like I said yesterday, if you knew the secret you’d be very disappointed.’

Ripley scrunched up her face. 'She peeked at it? Is that the right word?'

‘Yeah.’

‘How?’

‘You’ll read it all in my report.’

‘No I won’t. I never read them.’

Ella laughed again. She tried to climb to her feet, but fatigue dragged her back down. ‘Jesus. Give me a hand, will you?’

‘Unbelievable.’ Ripley managed to get herself upright. ‘I’ve got twenty-five years on you, you know?’

‘So you should be used to being the hero by now. Here, you’ll have to pull me up by my left. I’ve got no feeling in my right.’

Ripley grabbed Ella’s hand and pulled her to her feet. Ella shook off the aches, and found her injuries were shockingly minimal. No bullets or sharp edges had penetrated her tonight, and such things were a luxury in this game.

‘You got that checked out?’

‘Not yet. I insisted on being last in line.’