Page 8 of Girl, Haunted

But Luca – he got it. He was in the same boat, rowing with the same oars. This time, Ella had popped the cohabitation question, and Luca hadn’t even flinched. He’d just said ‘what took you so long to ask?’ despite them only being official for a month.

So far, it had been sunshine and roses, maybe because they hadn’t worked a case together in three months. But wherever they were, they had each other’s backs, in the field and out. Ella had never had that before, never let herself have it. Attachments were a liability in this line of work, but Luca made her want to risk it. It was like leaping off a cliff and trusting he'd be there to catch her.

So far, he had been.

'Forgive me,' Ella said. She plucked her handbag off the floor and rifled through the contents. She found her phone and lit up the screen. 'Twenty-seven emails, none of which are from Luca Hawkins. No texts from him either. Hmm?'

‘Well, that’s not true because I did email you.’

Ella checked again. ‘Okay. One email from Luca Hawkins, of which you’ve CC’d me. What am I, just a colleague now?’

Luca worked out a knot in her left calf with surprising efficiency. ‘Did that southern air scramble your brain? That’s your work phone, you clutz. I don’t text your work phone since you made it clear that tech are reading our messages.’

‘Of course they are. If I was them, I’d read everyone’s messages.’

‘You just want to know who’s sleeping with who.’

‘So do you,’ Ella said.

‘Well…’

Ella went through her handbag again. Just a wallet, an empty cup, three pens, some tissues and a battery for some reason. ‘I’msure I took both phones with me. And a hairbrush. Maybe I left them at the office.’

‘Maybe you’re going mad.’

'I might be forgetting things, but at least I'm not forgetting things.'

‘You’ve only just noticed that your phone is missing?’

Ella threw her bag back down. ‘I use my work phone for everything. It’s more active than my normal one.’

‘That’s sad.’

‘Isn’t it? I need to go and check my desk.’

‘Same.’

‘Wait a minute. It’s Monday morning. Whyaren’tyou at your desk?’

‘Edis told me to wait for you, make sure you didn’t go mad.’

‘Mission failed.’ Ella stretched herself up to a standing position, put her hands on her hips and surveyed the living room. The place was still a man-pad, despite her being a full-time occupant of this place for two months. She’d been meaning to wallpaper the feature wall, add some plants, remove that god-awful crown molding that was straight out of the eighties. She just hadn’t found the time.

Luca asked, ‘What’s the plan? Want to hit the office? Pretend we’re model employees?’

‘Or,’ Ella said, ‘we could get some TLC done.’

‘It’s nine AM. That’s a midday activity at best.’

‘Agreed, so not that,’ Ella said. She gestured at the walls. ‘We’ve got some DIY to do. Need to womanize this place a little.’

Luca threw his feet up on the coffee table. ‘Womanize? Today?’

‘We’ve been saying we’ll do it for weeks.’

‘We’ve never had time.’

Ella said, ‘I haven’t got any ongoing cases, have you?’

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