Leave No Trace

Chapter 30

Mira

Ally was sitting next to her in a conference room at the busy headquarters of the Globe and Mail. “Remind me again why I’m here?” she asked. “I mean, didn’t the reporter want to talk to you? You’re the hero of the story after all!”

“Don’t say that.” Mira reprimanded with a frown.

“Ally, look, if you don’t want to do this interview, you don’t have to.” Danielson said from beside the door.

“I want to. Exclusive interview, remember?” Ally asked him.

Mira was waiting patiently. So was Ally, only Ally was glancing down at her recently returned iPod. Danielson sighed loudly from beside the door. “Honestly, girls, this reporter deals with social gossip and does guest columns for magazines.”

“Are we talking actual magazines or gossip rags?” Ally asked absentmindedly.

“Guess” Mira said, making sure the sarcasm in her voice was evident.

“Ah.” Ally didn’t even need her to finish the sentence.

The door opened, and in walked someone they weren’t expecting. At twenty-seven, Russell Hughes looked twenty, and the surprise they all were expressing caused a smirk to register on his handsome face. Mira instantly understood. Saddle the rookie with the gossip rags. She didn’t say anything.

Russell grinned at seeing who they were. He shook hands with Danielson, and opened his mouth. “It’s a pleasure, you must be Detective Danielson,” he walked over to Mira next “And Mira Neal, what a pleasure…” He turned and looked at Ally, frowned and then smiled. “You would have to be the girl herself. Allison Perry, I’d assume?”

“That would be correct.” She shook his (albeit reluctantly offered) hand. He sat down across from them at the conference table. “Now, I assume you girls have done one of these interview before?”

“Sure.” Mira said sarcastically. “You ask questions, we answer them.”

He raised his eyebrows at her sarcasm. “You don’t mind if I tape the interview?” But he wasn’t speaking to Mira or Ally when he asked, he was asking Danielson.

“It isn’t my permission you need.” Danielson replied. “It’s theirs.”

“Girls?” He asked.

“Sure.” Mira said.

“I guess.” Ally said. If the reporter had any shred of common sense, and not just a nose for a story, he would have sensed her hesitation. But he didn’t.

“Excellent.” He said briskly. “I believe we should get started.”

“Right.” Mira said, clearing her throat.

Ally looked down at the table nervously, as Mira reached under the table and grabbed her hand. Ally still wasn’t used to sudden movements and flinched somewhat, but said nothing, she just hesitantly smiled at Mira.

Mira, who wasn’t one for affection, was displaying it for Ally, because it was the reassurance that Ally needed.

“Now, Mira.” He turned on his tape recorder. “How long have you and Ally been friends?”

“A little over two years.”

“Yep” Ally said softly. “September fourteenth, 2012. Long time ago.”

“And Mira, you were initially a suspect in the investigation?”

“Through no fault of my own. It was the implications of Dean Marshall that I was.”