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Aurora laughed. ‘Ripley? Like Ellen Ripley, from Alien.’
Mia pulled the masked man to his feet. Ella saw movement in his lungs. She breathed heavily, relieved he would see the inside of a jail cell and not be confined to the ground before justice could prevail.
‘Yup,’ Ripley said. ‘I’ve seen that one.’
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
Ella had never been so happy to be in an airport lounge. Exhausted travelers dozed in their chairs or typed away on their laptops. The hum of distant conversations mixed with the occasional overhead announcement created a gentle background murmur. Ella sat beside Ripley on a two-seater, coffee in front of each of them. Her arm was bandaged, and her complexion was slightly paler than usual, but she was very much alive and ready to move on.
Perhaps not as much as her partner was.
‘So long, California,’ Ripley said.
Ella said, ‘Last time ever, huh.’
Ripley reached for her coffee, whichmay or may not have whiskey inby Ripley’s vague admission. ‘I’ll drink to that. Have you seen the news?’
Ella couldn’t miss it. News of the murders was on every website, every channel, every social media page. Sensationalized to hell, but in a week, something else would come along and dominate the headlines, banishing Curtis Madden to a life of obscurity.
‘Let the press go crazy. It’s a pretty wild story, after all.’
Ripley pulled out her phone and showed Ella a recent update on some news site. The headline readFilm Actress Turned Real Life Heroine.Below was one of Aurora Davis’ professional shots.
‘She’s finally getting her fifteen minutes,’ Mia laughed.
Ella leaned back, happy that Aurora was embracing the spotlight. ‘She deserves it. If it wasn’t for her, I might be dead. I might actually reply to one of those journalists in the morning, maybe give Aurora some praise.’
‘When Lifetime turn this case into some shit TV movie, I think Aurora would make a good you.’
‘You think?’
‘Yeah. She basically you, just younger and hotter.’
‘True. Who’d play you?’
‘Sigourney Weaver,’ Mia answered instantly. ‘She’s the only one.’
‘Obvious choice,’ Ella nodded.
Ripley scrolled through the page and said, ‘I just wish they wouldn’t turn this into a spectacle. Three women are dead.’
‘I know. But it's the world we live in. Sensationalism sells. Fear sells.’ She paused. ‘But so does hope. People are drawn to stories of survival, of resilience.’
‘You sound almost optimistic,’ Ripley remarked with a smirk.
Ella laughed softly. ‘Maybe I am. Despite everything. Or perhaps because of it. We faced a nightmare and lived to tell the tale. That has to count for something… And our ending was better than anything that creepy director could come up with.’
‘Speaking of Harry Faulkner, Daniels is holding him on obstruction. Harry does indeed know Curtis, and probably knew he was the killer the moment we showed him the mask.’
‘Well, he wanted attention, now he’s going to get it,’ Ella said.
‘Not the type of attention he expected. Oh, and I got you a gift.’
Ella sat up. ‘You did?’
‘Yup.’ Ripley reached into her bag. ‘As Aurora was inside that film set, blowing the door off won’t count as a misdemeanor.’
Ella feigned a frown. ‘That’s too bad.’
