She'd let it go past her without catching it, because it had sounded like the kind of thing an overworked sergeant said.It was simple loose language that meant nothing, except Fields didn't strike her as a man who spoke loosely.
Ella walked back toward the cordon.
‘Sergeant Fields.’
He looked up from his phone.
‘I need to see the file.’
‘Uh, which file?’
‘The file for the other victims, because Rose Michaels isn’t the first, is she?’
CHAPTER SEVEN
‘Alright, ya got me,’ Fields said.
They were in a place called Janet’s Diner, where Fields had insisted they rendezvous.Ella peered at Fields over the rim of her coffee mug.On the other side of the table sat the Sergeant with a file he’d collected from the precinct.Beside her, Mia Ripley waged unholy war on a plate that could’ve fed half of Louisiana.
‘You didn’t have to hide it,’ Ripley said through a mouthful of steak.‘Just tell us there are two bodies and you need some help.Then we’ll decide whether we want to or not.’
‘I hold my hands up.I knew that the second the wordserialgot out there, the feds would come in and take over.I don’t need that right now.Not after the failure with Doyle.’
‘Failure?’
‘Yeah,’ Fields said.‘I thought we’d hand her over gift-wrapped for you guys.That didn’t happen.’
Cops operated by a strange code, Ella thought.Pride came before many things in this game, most notably the fall.The job could be killing you, and you'd still tell everyone you were fine, because asking for a hand meant admitting you needed one.
‘So youdowant us to help, but you don’t want anyone to know about it?’
Fields laughed and looked out of the window.His silence did the talking.
‘We’ll take that as a yes,’ Ripley said.
‘You know how it is.I got three kids doing Micky Mouse degrees at college.I’m gonna be supporting them all ‘til they’re forty.I can’t afford to get demoted.I’m struggling to make headway with anything new because half of my guys are dealing with some drug empire that showed up last month.’
It would be hypocritical of Ella to be anything but understanding of Fields's situation.Law enforcement ate its own without much encouragement.Two bad cases in a row and it didn't matter what you'd done before.The file got thinner, and the assignments got quieter, and you were first on the chopping block when new budgets came in.
Fields didn’t read as a bad man, but there was one issue.
Ella said, ‘I’d say yes if it was up to me, but it’s not up to me.We need to get approval from our director to help out.I can get it within a few hours.We wouldn’t take over, either.’
Fields looked hopeful.‘And it would stay quiet?’
‘Yes.Our director’s got bigger things to worry about than telling the world that two of his agents helped out NOPD on their day off.’
‘Would you do that?If I could just get a break here…’
Ella shot a look at Ripley and, judging by the sigh she tried to conceal, knew exactly what Ella was thinking.Helping out Fields would keep them busy while they were here, however long that might be, and Ripley clearly didn’t like that plan.
‘Just what I wanted, Dark,’ Ripley said.
‘Come on, Mia.We might as well put the skills you spent a lifetime amassing to good use.’
Ripley set her fork down and looked at the table for a moment, as though weighing it up.Ella knew the look.It was the same one she'd given on the plane and at the precinct when Ella had suggested skipping dinner.It was a performance of reluctance, and not a particularly convincing one.
‘Fine,’ Ripley said.
