Page 53 of Girl, Bound

Ava's face went pale,the blood draining from her cheeks like someone had pulled a plug. ‘Oh, lord.I’m sorry to hear that. But of course, I’ll help all I can.’

Ella continued, ‘Wedon’t know what type of animal sedative we’re dealing with, but my researchshows me you store such toxins on your premises?

'Yes, we do. Ahandful, anyway. Not much.'

‘We need to know whomight have access to them.’

‘I'm the only one whohas access to those. They're locked up tight.’ She unhooked a set of keys offher belt. ‘This is the only key to the inventory locker. No one other than mecan go in there.’

Ripley asked, ‘Justyou? Not a single other person in this whole place?’

‘This is a smalloperation,’ Ava continued, her words tumbling out in a rush. ‘Just me and a fewhandlers. One admin staff, one delivery driver. No one else even knows wherethe storage room is.’

Ella said, ‘Then youwon't mind showing us your inventory logs. Just to put our minds at ease.’

Ava swallowed hard. ‘Idon't... I mean, we don't really keep detailed records. It's mostly just megoing in and out as needed.’

Ella felt a hot coalof anger burning in her gut. She was tired of the runaround, tired of chasingdead ends and half-truths. It was time to put the screws to this girl, to seewhat shook loose.

‘I don't care ifyou're running this place with an abacus and a prayer. You've got drugs on thepremises, drugs that could be used to hurt people. And we need to know who'shad access to them.’

Ava blanched, herhands twisting together like snakes in a mating dance. ‘But the sedatives wehave... they're not strong enough to take down a human. We only work with smallanimals here. Rodents, reptiles, that sort of thing.’

'Even a little bit ofthe right stuff can kill if you know what you're doing. And something tells meyou're not as clueless as you're pretending to be.'

She watched as Avasquirmed, sweat beading on her upper lip despite the oppressive heat. The girlwas a terrible liar, her face an open book of guilt and fear. Ella couldpractically see the gears turning in her head, the desperate scramble for anexit that didn't end in handcuffs.

But there was none.Ella had her cornered, a mouse in a trap with no way out. She just needed toapply a little pressure, a little persuasion, and the truth would come spillingout like pus from a lanced boil.

‘Look, I’m sorry,’ Avasaid. ‘I’m just trying to run a business, and I don’t have time to keep a lockon the inventory levels at all times.’

Ella sighed. ‘Soyou’re saying someone here could have stolen animal sedatives and you…wouldn’t know about it?’

‘If it happened, no,’Ava said. ‘But like I say, no other employees can get in there.’

‘And who else knowsabout these little discrepancies?’ she asked, her tone as casual as a knife tothe ribs.

‘No. No one. It's justme. I swear.’

Ella stared at Ava,her mind whirring like a busted slot machine. If this woman was the only onewith keys to the kingdom, then they were well and truly screwed. Dead end, gameover, thanks for playing.

She gave the girlanother once-over, taking in the scrawny frame and trembling hands. Unless Avawas secretly the Incredible Hulk under those khakis, there was no way in hellshe could've manhandled a body into a bag. Their unsub didn’t necessarily need tobe the strongest person in the world, but they had at least had enough strengthon their side to roll a human body into a bag. Despite what people believed,manipulating a body took some serious effort.

‘Alright, let's thinkthis through,’ Ella said. ‘Is there any chance, any at all, that someone elsecould've gotten their mitts on those sedatives? Maybe before you startedworking here?’

Ava’s brow furrowedlike a freshly plowed field. ‘I mean, I guess it's possible. I only took overthe inventory a year ago. Before that, things were kind of a free-for-allaround here.’

Ella pounced on it. ‘Afree-for-all? How so? Sloppy record keeping, sticky fingers, what?’

Ava shifted a little,glancing between her two interrogators. ‘A little of both, I guess. It was myidea to start locking everything up, keep it all on the straight and narrow.’

Suddenly, a lightbulbwent off behind Ava's eyes, so bright Ella could practically hear the ding. Thegirl had remembered something, something juicy. And Ella was going to squeezeit out of her like a ripe lemon.

‘Spill it,’ shebarked, leaning in close enough to smell the fear-sweat on Ava's skin. ‘I cansee the gears turning in that head of yours. What haven't you told us?’

Ava swallowed hard.‘There was this guy,’ she said. ‘A delivery driver. When I first started, hewas always hanging around, poking his nose where it didn't belong.’

Ripley perked up, herspidey senses tingling. ‘Let me guess. The guy was stealing stuff?’

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