There were no routine mornings. Not anymore.
Last night she’d scraped together a few hours of sleep. She hated it,
but she was starting to understand why her bloody boss always did
look like shit. Everything seemed to be unraveling. Joe urged her to
take a break just a day but she couldn’t bear it. They were so
close, they had to be Hardy kept saying it, saying whoever did
this is getting tired, Miller! but it broke her heart how she’d found
herself with less and less time to give to her boys; Tom was sullen
most of the time, Fred cried. She knew they knew that she had to go,
that her work was urgent, but the instinct that she shouldn’t do this,
that she ought to be home to comfort them was enormous. She
loved Joe for being the parent she couldn’t, right now.
She’d been up since dawn, sorting listlessly through the files she’d
brought home. It’d been torment, trying to sleep, staring uselessly
up at the ceiling while Joe snored beside her. Her head weighed
heavy in her hand at the table, but she knew there was no quieting
her mind, now. It was far too late for sleep medication, anyway
she’d meet Hardy early at the office in an hour.
The call came about thirty minutes after people had begun trickling
into the station. Things were lively, now, a briefing due at quarter
past. She was squeezing past people in the hall to grab coffees
from the break room ( sometimes she thought it was the only thing
that kept Hardy and herself alive, these coffees ) when she felt her
phone vibrate.
[CHLOE LATIMER] the call read.
She answered immediately, worry knitting her brow,
“Chloe ? Hello? Everything all right, sweetheart?”
When Ellie picked up nearly straight away, Chloe let out a quiet
sigh of relief. There'd been that prickle of a doubt in the back of her
mind that Ellie wouldn't answer. That she'd be too busy to do something
as trivial as answering Chloe's call. The young girl have understood if
she hadn't, but it would have hurt nevertheless. She needed this talk,
perhaps more than she realised when she relaxed slightly upon hearing
Ellie's familiar voice at the other end of the line.
What she couldn't help noticing as the added background noise as
well, chatter it appeared to be. Quiet enough, she couldn't understand
what they were saying, but it was there. Glancing to the clock on her
bedside table, she confirmed the time once more. Still only eight.
"Yeah, it's me... Are you at work already?"
Her voice was purposefully quiet, though it didn't need to be just
now. Both her parents were downstairs, but she couldn't quite trust
them enough not to sneak upstairs quietly enough she might miss
the tell-tale sounds.
"I-I was wondering if we could talk... If you're at work, then it
doesn't matter. It can wait."
