Totally happy to stay in your shitty little station?’ She gave a mirthless laugh.
‘You know what?’ Ashley told her. ‘I don’t know what I’ll do. But as I’ve said, I’m just enjoying breathing right now.’ She turned to Gina, who looked stunned by what she’d just witnessed. ‘Oh, by the way, soon as I catch my breath, next priority is taking you on a date,’ Ashley told her firmly.
Gina’s mouth - hanging open in shock at how Ashley had spoken to Kara Malone - closed quickly. A smile began to slide onto her beautiful lips. A big one. ‘So long as you don’t take me for pizza, that sounds brilliant.’
Ashley laughed. She realised Kara was still there. ‘Was there something else? Scoot, would you?’
Kara was positively enraged now. ‘You know I am the news, don’t you? I’m gonna make sure no one ever hires you.’
Ashley shook her head, feeling free. Not just of Pete. Of a lot of things. ‘Whatever power you might have, it doesn’t mean what you think it does.’
Kara stormed off.
Ashley turned back to Gina. ‘So about this date. Maybe Chinese?’
‘Ashley… first off, yes, I love Chinese food. Second, what on earth did you just do?’ Gina asked.
‘I already said. Don’t care.’
‘What, suddenly your career doesn’t matter anymore?’
‘Oh, it does,’ Ashley told her. ‘Just maybe not as a news reporter.’
‘So what’ll you do?’
‘Well, once I get my phone back, I’m gonna call my boss and probably hand in my notice.’ She had a thought. ‘Oh, but maybe before that, I might have to… Do you think the channel will pay the cost of a new school roof for an exclusive interview?’
Gina looked baffled. ‘Probably?’
Ashley laughed. ‘I’ll explain that another time.’
‘Maybe on our date?’
‘Yeah, then,’ Ashley agreed, happily.
Once they’d grinned at each other a bit too long, Gina said, ‘So after you quit the station, what then?’
‘Don’t know. I’m free to do anything. And all I want to do is have a cup of tea, a sleep, and then… we’ll see.’
‘I can’t wait to see what it’s going to be,’ Gina said. ‘Because whatever you do, I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be worth watching.’
Ashley smiled. ‘Well, I hope you’ll be around to see whatever it is in real time, live.’
‘Me too,’ Gina said. She leaned in to kiss her.
‘Err, I still need to take your pulse,’ the paramedic said sharply, fed up of waiting.
‘Will no one just give me a break today?’ Ashley asked the universe. But she held out her wrist, and the medic took it. While her pulse was measured, she used the other hand to drag Gina in for that kiss. She was pretty sure that her readings were gonna go through the roof.
Twenty-Nine
‘Sweet Jesus, did you get that?’ Ashley asked.
‘Of course I got it, what do you think I’m doing, filming my shoes?’ Gina said. ‘Is that a cut, by the way?’
‘I reckon. They dragged the guy off to solitary, I think the fight’s over,’ Ashley said.
Gina dropped her camera off her shoulder, holding it down by her side. She hoped they might knock off now. It had been a long morning.
‘How much battery you got left,’ Ashley asked. ‘Might go and talk to the loser of that fight?’
Gina tutted. ‘Do you ever take a break?’
‘He’s still bleeding through the nose. I think you’ll have to leave it for now,’ the prison guard said.
Ashley sighed. ‘Yeah, fine.’
Gina nudged Ashley in the ribs. ‘I’m starving, I want lunch.’
‘You can just get something from the prison cafeteria.’
Gina fixed her with a look.
‘Fine, sorry, we’ll leave it there if you like. Go somewhere proper to eat,’ Ashley said repentantly.
Gina smiled. ‘That’s more like it.’
Ashley turned to the guard. ‘So, we’ll be calling it a day, Mike, OK?’
‘You coming back tomorrow?’ the guard asked.
‘I’m coming back every day until my access is revoked,’ she told the guy with a cheeky grin. ‘I wanna get the whole male prison experience, really get in deep.’
The guard looked baffled by that. Then he remembered something. ‘Oh, the warden said yes on Steven Peace, by the way.’
Ashley gave a small whoop.
Gina’s eyes went wide. ‘Oh. I was kind of hoping he wouldn’t grant us quite as much access as that.’
‘Peace is never getting out,’ Ashley assured her. ‘He was given a hundred and fifty years for what he did.’
Gina shuddered. ‘That’s what bothers me. I mean, what he did to those cows alone… And that thing with the meat cleaver and the tricycle?’
Ashley raised an eyebrow. ‘Gina, come on. We go…’
‘…Where the