We can’t just leave Ricki and hope the cops do something about it!” Roberta didn’t reply, as Riley knew she wouldn’t, not before caffeine flowed heavily in her bloodstream. The argument had swung back and forth between the two Vaughan sisters long into the night, pausing only when through sheer fatigue Roberta had called a halt to the proceedings. Her exertions of the previous day both physical and mental had forced her at around three in the morning to grab a few hours of sleep on the cracked leather sofa in the office. Riley stayed awake for an hour longer, before she too dozed off in Ricki’s chair. Their debate had taken in great swathes of guilt. Before Roberta could finish her first coffee and half-heartedly begin washing her face in the kitchenette sink, Riley took the attack up again. She understood that Roberta wanted to play it safe, to trust in the goodness of Terry to see it through. Riley was sure she was blinded by that faith, by her love for her partner, that to sit and do nothing was not how the Vaughan sisters had been raised.
