Page 21 of Girl, Unmasked
Because the thing about death was that it had a way of opening mouths and loosening lips that would've been zipped tight before the body went cold.Amazing how mortality rearranged a person's priorities and made them spill all their secrets before they had to confront them at the pearly gates.
All it would take was a few well-placed questions, So Ella pushed to her feet and grabbed her jacket and gun.
Ripley said, ‘Maybe you can pitch your memoirs while you’re there.’
Ella glared at her partner and briefly contemplated justifiable homicide.‘Very funny.’
‘Right.As if anything could make you give up this job.’
Ella huffed.There were plenty of things that could make her give up this job.Or at least she hoped.Ripley’s comment reminded her to text Luca when she had chance.
Next stop: Eagle Eye Publishers.
CHAPTER NINE
Ella and Ripley had spent the last hour playing the world's worst game of Telephone.They’d moved from one shell-shocked employee to the next as she and Ripley tried to piece together a picture of who Sophie Draper was in life.
So far, it was the same song, different verse.Sophie was a peach and a real straight shooter.She never missed a deadline and always had a kind word and a cup of coffee for the newbies.Sophie had the kind of golden personality that made Ella want to hurl.Not that she doubted the sincerity, it was just the sheer uselessness that came with knowing that all the posthumous praise in the world wouldn't do jack to catch Sophie's killer.
Ella could feel the pall she’d cast over this place.She'd lost count of how many hands she'd shaken and how many times she'd flashed her badge and watched the color drain from yet another face as she broke the news of Sophie’s death.Seeing a dead body was one thing, but delivering the news that a loved one was never coming back was the part of this job that stuck with you the most.Ella had the decency to spare the gory details, because no one on this earth needed to know that their friend and colleague had been mutilated and enucleated, although she suspected it would hit the news any hour now.
Ripley nudged Ella and jerked her chin towards the last door on the left.‘Last stop.’
Ella readied herself for another awful conversation and knocked on the door that read; Sienna Graves – Senior Editor.
But before Ella could make contact, the door swung open to reveal a woman already halfway to a full-tilt ugly cry.Her mascara had made a break for the border and left charcoal smears in its wake, and her nose was rapidly approaching blinding levels of shininess.
However, it was the deadness behind her eyes that twisted Ella’s guts the most.
Ella's throat closed up and for a moment, she was five years old again, coming to terms with her dad’s death.She could feel Ripley's gaze boring into the side of her skull but she waved her off, instead focusing on the shell of a woman huddled in the doorway.
‘Sienna Graves?’Ella asked.
The woman just nodded.
‘Detectives Dark and Ripley with Norwalk Homicide Division.Some of your colleagues told us you were close to Sophie Draper?’
At the mention of her friend's name, Sienna crumpled like paper.Tears welled and spilled over as Sienna wiped them away with a forearm.
Hell, Ella could never stand to see a woman cry.Before she quite knew what she was doing, she had an arm around Sienna’s quaking shoulders and guided her back into her sanctuary.Ripley followed in and closed the door behind them.
‘I know this is difficult,’ Ella said as she eased Sienna into a chair.She’d said those same words a thousand times but they never got any easier.‘You and Sophie were close?’
Sienna made a tiny gesture that made her look all of five years old.‘She was...my friend.We just got each other, you know?’
Ella did know.‘Can you tell us about her?We’re trying to understand how something like this could happen to someone like her.’
Sienna found a tissue in her drawer and wiped away a collection of fluids.‘Sophie was a rock star.This industry is pretty… cut throat.But Sophie always had a smile.’
‘When did you last see her?’
‘About six PM last night.She was still here.’
‘Is that normal for Sophie?’
‘Yes.The woman works her ass off.First one to arrive, last to leave.I swear, this company would have folded years ago if it wasn’t for Soph.She could make crap salad out of crap.’
Ella glanced at Ripley but she just shrugged, clearly as baffled by this peek behind the publishing curtain as she was.Ella had always penned publishing as a woman’s paradise.
