From his pocket, he pulled out the throw away phone he'd bought for himself and had been using to talk to Gus on their previous encounters.
"There's something wrong about this." He said. "I hope you're right."
A couple of beeps later and Ingrid could clearly hear the ringtone pressing into Ally's ear.
"Wait?" she blurted out before the line connected, "Don't mention me will you?"
"My my." The horrific, familiar African accent of Gus answered into the silence of the desert. "How is your lovely wife to be?"
"Good thanks." Ally replied like they were best of business partners. "All good."
"What can I do for you?" Ingrid heard Gus ask. "You're not looking for another one are you? I'm still hunting down my own bitch."
Pacing around the room, Ally looked up from the floor to see Ingrid's cuffed hands raised to her mouth with her right index finger vertically bisecting the middle of her lips.
Ally shook his head towards Ingrid, in acknowledgement of his secrecy about her presence, before laughing back down the phone to Gus. "Still no luck with that one then?" he asked, walking closer to Ingrid so that she could hear more clearly, as this concerned her.
"No." Gus replied "Her house has been burned to the ground and her husband is on the run so she won't be going back there in a hurry but I've still got guys out there looking."
Watching Ingrid's trembling fingers as her legs gave way to sitting on the bed, made Ally feel sick to his stomach.
"Some people say it's a small world." Ally said, much to Ingrid's disgust at the relevance of his cliché. "Do you think you'll find her?"
"If I live for another sixty years, then I'll be looking for her for those sixty years." Gus replied. "But that's non of your concern. What's going on with you?"
"I'm ringing for a favour about Tess." Ally said, "Being as you are the only person who knows about out existence and our situation, I was wondering if you might know somebody who might be able to get her an identity so that we can possibly get married?"
"Ha ha ha ha ha." Ingrid heard loudly through the receiver. "You really are a soppy bastard aren't you? Ha ha ha."
"Is that a good thing?" Ally asked.
"It's a shame we didn't meet under different circumstances." Gus replied. "My staff here took pity on you two. And I regret making you pay for your wife back. It was a time of high stress and I'm sorry."
"Understandably." Ally pretended to agree, concentrating on the sight before him of Ingrid's dismay, sitting on the bed.
"Leave it with me. I guess we all owe you one." Gus said. "Tell your wife that Sophia has been asking after her and that if she remembers anything about that woman she met on the boat, to get in touch."
"Thanks. Will do." Ally answered, looking into Ingrid's terrified eyes. "Tell Sophia that she can message Tess on this number if she wants."
"Will do." Gus confirmed. "Talk to you soon."
"Cheers. Bye" Ally rung off.
Looking at his phone screen to check that the call had ended, he sat next to the distraught Ingrid and cuddled her quivering shoulders, allowing her the release to begin sobbing because of the shocking revelation she wasn't supposed to know about.
Ally held her tightly and focused his eyes around the room over her shoulder as she shook uncontrollably.
The mound of contractors tool bags at the bottom of the stairs made Ally wonder if there could be a saw which would enable him to give Ingrid some light relief from her restraints, to ease her trauma.
The reappearance of Tess gave him the opportunity to leave Ingrid in her company and go rummaging through the tools belonging to the roofing contractors.
Returning soon after, armed with a metal hacksaw, he sat at the foot of the bed where Ingrid lay down, cuddling Tess.
Both girls looked down to see Ally cutting through Ingrid's first ankle cuff but soon turned their heads back to each other to continue their embrace.
Through her tears, Ally could make out Ingrid's interpretation of events, making him feel slightly more responsible, with every word she said.
Once through the first ankle cuff and without thanks, he moved her leg to gain access to her second cuff.
After ten minutes of sweat building motion, Ally finally removed the cuffs and dropped them to the ground.
Ingrid had calmed down in time to appreciate the benefit from this small release of her feet.
The two girls sat up on the side of the bed next to each other and looked down at Ingrid's ankles.
"Thank you." Ingrid whimpered.
Ally wiped the metal filings from the warm blade with his fingers, not knowing how to deliver the encore of bad news to Ingrid.
"That's ok." He began. "I'm sorry but this blade will just clog up and go blunt in an instant if I try and cut through that resin around your wrists."
His statement sounded convincing and grabbed both women's attention.
"I'll pick up something in the morning that will cut you free." He reassured her.
Ingrid's puppy dog face looked at Tess, then Ally and back down to Tess's waist again.
"Well what about cutting these?" Ingrid asked, touching one of the single links, bonding Tess's wrists to her waist belt. "You've got enough padlocks to replace them haven't you?"
Having been paid, caught up in a moment of guilty emotions, Ally looked at the nodding head of Tess, and agreed with Ingrid's request. He reached the saw forward and twisted Tess's elbow out of the way, far enough to assist him to provide stability to the chain link as he began cutting.
The first side of the link proved to be the easiest, but with perseverance and a dirty metallic mess of steel filings on the bed, the link eventually bent open and fell apart.
Tess's hand went straight up to comb the annoying straggling strands of hair from her face.
"Oh my god." She said, still running her fingers through the matted mess. "At last I can clean my teeth and wash these stinking fucking armpits."
