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‘FBI big wigs can only serve ten years and Edis was one away from a full term. It’s really sad, especially as he’s been so good to me and Dark.’
‘Ripley was his golden girl,’ Ella said.
‘Me and Edis grew up together. We started at the Bureau around the same time thirty-odd years ago.’
‘And you’ll be leaving around the same time too,’ Martin laughed.
Ripley reached for her glass. ‘True. Retirement beckons. Three months to go.’
‘Hope you’re ready to handle her twenty-four-seven,’ Ella nodded at Martin.
Martin clasped his hands together. ‘I’ve been retired for ten years and all that time, I’ve been looking for the right person to spend it with.’ He placed a hand on Mia’s wrist. ‘I think I’ve got lucky here, and nothing’s gonna stop me treating this woman right.’
Ben returned to the table, setting down his drink. ‘What did I miss?’
‘Martin making us sick,’ Ella said.
Ripley blushed, a rare occurrence for the usually stoic agent. ‘Don't listen to her. On the inside, Dark’s happy that she won’t have me in her ear every week.’
Martin leaned towards Ella. ‘From what Mia tells me, you don’t need her anymore. She’s told me every detail of your last, what, five cases? California, Iowa, Massachusetts, wherever you guys went. And in every tale, you always come out looking better than old Ripley over here.’
Ella raised an eyebrow at her partner. ‘Five cases, huh?’
Ripley smirked and looked away, clearly reading between the lines. ‘Maybe.’
‘Weird, she only told me about you a couple of weeks ago, Martin.’
‘Guess I’m her dirty little secret,’ he laughed. ‘That’s fine by me.’
‘Okay, okay,’ Ripley jumped in. ‘You’re right, Dark doesn’t need me anymore. We’ve come a long way since her rookie days, but let me ask you something… can anyone else here tell a person’s life story from their thumb?’
Any excuse to bring her thumb-based profiling techniques, Ella thought. Ben extended his thumb, scrutinizing it like he’d never seen it before.
‘Life story from a thumb? What?’
‘Don’t ask,’ Ella said.
Ben picked at a patch of torn skin. ‘I’m curious. What can you see from mine?’
Ripley's eyes lit up, a mischievous glint appearing as she accepted the challenge. ‘All right, let me see,’ she said, leaning forward to examine Ben's thumb. Ella watched with a mix of amusement and resignation. She had seen Ripley's thumb profiling in action many times, often with uncanny accuracy.
Ripley peered closely. ‘Well, for starters, your thumb tells me you're a thinker. The way you pick at the skin shows a habit of deep contemplation, but not anxiety.’
Ben raised his eyebrows. ‘Exactly right.’
‘You’ve bitten your nail in the center but not the edges, meaning you do that purposely, not out of nervousness. Short nails are a requirement, maybe for your job. Given the flexibility, you don’t spend your days at a keyboard. You do something manual.’
‘Got it in one.’
‘But it’s easy to hide your microsignals when you know someone is looking for them. But the real observations are made when the person is unaware,’ Ripley said as she brought her profile to a conclusion. ‘The thumb on your other hand says a lot more. Given how it keeps gravitating towards Dark’s wrist, it means you’ve got a deep affection for her. You’re not just with her for her money.’
Ben glanced at his left hand, then up at his partner ‘She hasn’t got any.’
‘Exactly.’ Ripley turned to her partner. ‘Keep hold of this guy, because he’s one of the few men that actually likes you.’
Coming from anyone else, Ella might have been offended. Although she couldn’t argue that Ripley had a point.
‘I plan to,’ Ella chuckled, but just as the laughter began to subside, both Ella and Ripley's phones jingled simultaneously.
