CHAPTER THREE
Sure enough, and much to Ella’s relief, Mia Ripley was loitering on the top floor, although she was keeping a notable distance from Vernon’s door. When Edis was here, she used to enter without knocking.
‘Mia, please say you’re waiting for me and not just that you didn’t want to talk to Vernon on your own. I’ve never seen you loiter up here, ever.’
‘What? I wanted to hang around Millionaire’s Row. Is that alright with you?’
‘You’re richer than half the people up here.’
‘Not true. Being rich isn’t about money.’
Ella sighed. People were being weird today. Maybe the winter blues had rewired everyone. ‘Well I wouldn’t know because I’m not one of you. Vernon wants to see us, so are you coming?’
‘Sure, why not.’
‘Mia, he’s fine. If he wanted to fire you, he would have. Not everyone is trying to kill you.’
‘So na?ve, Dark. Go on then. Lead the way.’
Ella went up to Vernon's door, knocked, and waited. The invitation came a second later. Ella whispered to her partner, 'See? Easy as that.'
Ripley pushed past her and went inside. Ella and Ripley had both been on mandatory recovery for a week, and Vernon had clearly been busy in that time.
The office was now very much made in his image, and all references to the old director had perished.
There were even new seats, and Ella liked it, because the pretense was finally over.
Reporting to Vernon while Edis’s stuff remained sort of felt like wearing a dead man’s coat while it was still warm.
The man himself was in position behind his desk.
‘I see you’ve made yourself at home,’ Ripley said.
‘Yes I have. Speaking of making yourself at home, please take a seat.’
‘I’d rather stand.’
Vernon threw his pen down. ‘Ripley, if you don’t like it here, you’re free to leave, again. We’ll survive without you, but we’d rather survive with you. What do you say?’
Ella risked a glance at her partner, who was oddly stoic in the face of Vernon’s rebuke. If there was an Olympic sport for pissing people off in record time, Ripley would take the gold every time.
‘Very well,’ Ripley said. She sat down. ‘You’re the boss.’
‘Thank you. And listen, you two closed the new UVCU’s first case, so the momentum is flowing. Twenty new cases have come in since its birth, and we’re one down already. It’s going well, and it’s mostly thanks to my star team.’
Ripley said, ‘Great, so rather than a one-hundred percent close rate for the BAU, we’ve got a five-point-five percent close rate for this new division of yours.’
Ella tried not to laugh, because Ripley barely bothered with maths at the best of times, but when it came to proving a point she suddenly became Rain Man. She thought it best to get off this track before tempers flared. ‘Sir, what did you need to talk to us about?’
‘I need to talk to you about a dead woman up in Wisconsin.’
‘Oh? What are the details?’
‘Well, this is strange, but I don’t have much to give you. The mayor of Cedarburg contacted us an hour ago, because local police were called to a site that very much fit the ultra-violent sphere. What do you say?’
What to say when someone made such a vague request, Ella thought. It made her think of the question; Can I ask you a question? It was a futile gesture. ‘Um, I mean, sure, but we don’t have anything to work with? Nothing we can start building a profile with?’
‘Female victim, found in a cabin out in the woods. And she was butchered.’
'Butchered how?' Ripley asked. 'Butchering comes in many forms, and they all mean something different.'
‘I don’t know, but as a Milwaukee native, anything that happens near my hometown gets my attention. I’m close with the mayor there, and she’s not the type of person to ask for help unless the world is ending. She wants this handled quietly – and by the best. Which is why I’m sending you.’
Wisconsin in the ass-end of February. Just thinking about it made Ella’s skin prickle. ‘Understood, sir. If you get any details before we leave, could you-’
‘No,’ Ripley snapped. ‘This isn’t alright. You can’t just send us into a case blind, just because you’re buddies with the mayor over there. What if the profile suggests it’s a bomber, and we walk into a trap? I’ve seen two agents die that way.’
‘Mia, butchery and explosions don’t go-’
'I know they don't go together, but that's not the point. Murder isn't uniform, and we shouldn't treat it like it is. Every killer is different, but it's easy to forget that when you're more concerned with statistics than actually doing things right.'
Vernon went quiet, and for a second he looked embarrassed. ‘You’re right, Ripley. Again. But I’m not doing it because of that. I’m doing it because I trust you to see it through.’
‘That’s a nothing answer.’
‘Okay, you want me to be honest? Yes, of course I want this to take priority, because my hometown is important to me. I’m sure Edis sent you to Illinois more than any other state, correct?’
Ella nudged her partner. ‘He did, actually.’
‘Shut up, Dark.’
‘Right, so does caring about my people make me an asshole? I have to assign you two to one of the new active cases, and I want this one closed more than any other. I know this job wrecks the soul, but sue me for still having a heart. I care about my people. Is that a crime?’
Ella held her breath as she waited to see which Ripley would show up: the agent or the stone-cold bitch. Vernon had just outmaneuvered her with a confession, which was a move Ripley herself would never make and therefore one she couldn’t prepare for.
‘Fine. I’ll go to Wisconsin.’
‘Here’s my offer. Take the jet. Head over to Cedarburg, see what’s waiting for you. I understand this is new territory, but you two have weathered much worse.’
‘Yeah.’
‘And speaking of weather, it’s going to be cold over there, so wrap up warm.’
‘Thank you, sir,’ Ella said. ‘We’ll update you when we can.’
‘Appreciated. Just head to the parking lot. I’ll get a handler to rush you through security.’
They left the office and converged outside. Ella felt a phantom casefile under her arm. ‘This is weird,’ she said. ‘I don’t even know what to think.’
‘Don’t think anything. Let’s just get to Wisconsin.’
‘At least it’s not California.’
‘They call Wisconsin the dead heart of America for a reason.’
‘Do they call it that?’
'Yes. Maybe. I don't know. Somebody said it once, and I just remembered it,' Ripley said. 'Come on. At least we get to fly private, and I plan on drinking the whole mini-bar. Oh, and thanks for sticking up for me back there. I knew I could count on you to kick me when I'm down.'
‘You need to stop this, Mia. The guy is fine. He’s bending over backward to accommodate you, and Edis did send us to Illinois more times than I could count.’
‘Fine. Let’s go. We’ve got.... something waiting for us in Wisconsin.’
That was the difference between her and Ripley, thought Ella. Back in that office, Ripley had seen a fight to be won, but Ella’s mind was already on a poor woman dead in a cabin somewhere in Wisconsin.