by Martha Woods
“Oh my god… I… I thought this was a problem that was solved already! Aren’t the hunters supposed to be your friends now?”
* * *
“We do have some hunters working with us, but a lot of other hunters split off because of their old leader. He’s not really fond of anything that isn’t pure human and a lot of his minions agree, but if push comes to shove the hunters that we have with us are probably going to happily fight against him with us. But that’s not really the worst part of all of this if you can believe that.”
* * *
“There’s something worse than almost being murdered by a group of… what, human supremacists? Some sort of supremacist? Some piece of shit who just gets off on being a piece of shit? There’s something worse than being the target of those people?” She raised her eyebrow, wincing in sympathy. “I used to think that your life was starting to get glamorous and exciting but… I don’t know anymore.”
I snorted, leave it to Cara to make me laugh at a time like this. Especially since there wasn’t much at all to be laughing about. “Yeah actually, there is something worse about it, honestly I don’t know how I haven’t completely broken down yet because it’s… definitely not what I needed right now.” She placed her hand over mine, smiling encouragingly and waiting for me to finish.
* * *
Taking a deep breath, I finally let it all out in one breath, “Rick is working with them.”
* * *
A moment went past where neither of us spoke, then another, then finally I realized that she seemed to be utterly incapable of speaking at all. All she could do was stare at me blankly and wait for me to explain just what the hell I had said, because clearly she had heard me wrong, there was no way that Rick of all people could possibly be working with the same people that had tried to kill me and Tariq, that would be absolute insanity.
* * *
Unfortunately, I had to let her know that she had heard me just fine.
* * *
“I saw him having a meeting yesterday with Tristian, the head of the rogue hunters. They were looking pretty buddy buddy, you almost wouldn’t be able to tell what the two of them were talking about, they just looked…” I clenched my fist, the grief had definitely started to go away since last night, with anger stepping in to fill the void. “They looked like they trusted each other, which is why Rick gave him a few files to read over. There is very sensitive information in those files Cara, he wouldn’t just give those to anyone. I had to jump through hoops to get one that wasn’t related solidly to a case I was working, no way would he just give one to some random who doesn’t even work there.”
* * *
“What would he have been giving away files for though? What purpose would that serve?”
* * *
“I think that he was involved with the witch murders that I was investigating, I think that he found a killer from out of state by going through the files on unsolved murders and managed to somehow make contact without getting them to run.” I shrugged, there weren’t many other things that I could actually do. “From there I guess either they didn’t intend for the witches to be discovered so quickly or they wanted me to get distracted so that I couldn’t prevent them from going after the rest, I honestly have no idea.”
* * *
“But wait, how would this affect me? I don’t want to sound like an asshole or anything, but I’m a human. A human type human, why would they come after me?”
* * *
“Because they know how much you mean to me, and Tariq, and basically everyone who meets you. If they really wanted to get to me, if they wanted to really destroy me, they would do something to either Vincent, Damon… or you.”
“Awww,” She cooed, somehow smiling through this, “Thanks Amy, you mean a lot to me too.”
“I know, that’s why… I want you to know that I don’t think you’re weak, or in the way, or whatever horrible thing you might think that I think of you, but I think it would be best if you left town for a while. Just while we sorted everything out here.”
* * *
“Leave town?” She asked, “And go where? To my grandma’s? I’ll kill myself out of boredom in the first three days.”
“No not to… Stacy’s… I don’t know! Just anywhere that you would feel safe, away from me. I don’t want to be the reason that you get hurt or… or killed or whatever horrible shit it is that they’re planning to do to get to me. Especially since there’s a good chance that he’ll be able to get regular cops involved in this as well.”
“What? How?”
“Our department is… well honestly it’s getting pretty obvious that it’s either ludicrously corrupt or ludicrously incompetent, which means that all he’ll have to do is say that they need to do something and they’ll do it regardless of whether it’s illegal or not.” I shook my head, I can’t believe that I spent so much time there and didn’t see it until recently. Though I suppose almost seeing four innocent men get thrown in jail because the cops didn’t want to actually do their jobs would shake anyone’s faith in the system to the core. “Maybe I’m just being paranoid, but I’d rather not take the chance when it comes to you.”
* * *
“You’re not going to have to,” She said, “Because it’s my decision to stay here, and you’re not going to be able to do anything to convince me otherwise.”
* * *
It took every ounce of my self control not to throttle her right then and there, of all the things that I needed at this point in time this was absolutely not on the list, I needed her to be safe and on a train to somewhere out in kentucky or something, somewhere no one would think to look for her and hurt her. “Cara, please… I wouldn’t ask if this wasn’t important, I don’t want you to be in danger…”
* * *
“I’m not going to run away, not while you and everyone else is in even more danger than I am, what kind of person would do that? You might think that you’re the only one who can protect people, but I’ve been protecting you from all sorts of shit for years now, I don’t plan on stopping now!”
“Cara…”
“No Amy, please, listen to me. I can still help you, you might not think so but I just need you to trust me alright? This is my decision, you did your best to get me to safety, but now it’s out of your hands. Just… sit back and relax now.”
* * *
I wanted to argue, actually I wanted to throw her into the car and drive her out of town myself, but she was right when she said that it was her decision. As much as I might disagree with it, as much as I might be kicking my own ass for accepting it, her decisions were important to me. If she said that she wanted to do one thing then I wasn’t going to force her to do otherwise, I would let her know how bad of an idea I thought it was, I would offer to help in a thousand different ways, but in the end her decision was her decision.
Plus I already knew from years of experience that she was almost impossibly stubborn, I would sooner be able to convince a brick wall to become water than to change her mind on something she was set on.
So all I could really do was take her advice, sit back, relax, and just accept things for what they were. Maybe I could just pretend that everything was normal for a little while, that would be nice, even if it was almost certainly going to come to an end as soon as I stepped away from the table and went back to my apartment. But until then… I guess I could indulge Cara on what she so clearly wanted to know about.
“So… you want to hear about when the three of us finally did it all at once?”
Chapter 3
There weren’t many worse ideas that I’d ever had if I was being honest, in a time where good ideas were the key to winning this certainly couldn’t be considered one of the good ones. In fact, if I was to wager I would say that the odds of something like this blowing up in my face were actually astronomically high, especially since I had told Damon and Vincent to stay home while I went out and did it.
Because honestly, when your
boss, the head of the forensic investigation department of the police force for the entire city, a point that I’ve stated before but feel warrants stating again, in what universe would it be a good idea to confront him, alone, at night, at the police station when the rest of the staff had gone home? Only an idiot would come up with a plan like this, and I was feeling pretty fucking stupid lately.
“This is so dumb,” I said, shutting the door to my car and stepping away. I hadn’t pulled up in front of the station at least, if things went really south I wanted to be sure that I could sprint around the block and not get shot as soon as I got back in my car. At least hidden in an alleyway between two garages no one would immediately be looking out for my car, and if someone happened to be passing by they would just think it was any old car.
* * *
“Stop delaying, just get in there and get to it.”
* * *
The walk up those steps had never felt so long before, my footsteps echoing off the stone columns so loudly you would think that I was marching down the green mile. If things went bad here I wouldn’t have anyone else to fall back on, for some stupid reason I had told Damon and Vincent to make sure that Cara and Tariq were safe and not to worry about me, I hadn’t even informed Joseph of what I was doing but no doubt he would find out soon enough. I wasn’t looking forward to his anger when I met up with him eventually, but that was something to worry about for the future, not now. Right now I had to worry about not getting shot opening any of the doors of the building where my now homicidal boss was still sitting and sorting through files.
I made it through the lobby, which was always creepy to walk through when there was no receptionist there but given my previous record with the people that sat in that chair I wasn’t exactly complaining, at least no one was going to be dying in a bathroom in front of me tonight.
I hoped.
It was when I was halfway through the bullpen that I saw the lights weren’t on his office, rather they were shining down the hallway leading towards the lab. I couldn’t really be blamed for walking down the hallway towards the source of the lights, I’d come here for a confrontation after all and the surest way to find one was to go towards the obvious signs of life. Even still, to walk through the door and see Rick just sitting at one of the examinations tables, no grand gestures, no gun pointed at the door just… sitting there, it really threw me for a loop.
* * *
“Uhh, hi Rick. What are you doing in here?”
* * *
“I figured that you’d be coming around here sooner or later, figured it would be best to hash this out in the place you spent most of your time,” He grunted, not bothering to look up at me while he inspected the surface of the table, “We really spent a good few years working ourselves to the bone here, huh?”
* * *
“Rick, I don’t…”
* * *
Finally he looked up at me, the lines on his face so much more pronounced than they had ever been before, he looked so much less like the man who had taken me in and molded me into the investigator and more like… a living corpse, like the only thing keeping him going was sheer will and stubbornness, and those were rapidly running out. When he spoke it wasn’t with the usual warmth and barely the brevity that I’d gotten used to poring over cases, it was with the harsh growl of someone who had taken up smoking to have something to fill up how empty they had suddenly gotten, a sound like the only things remaining in his body were smoke and anger.
* * *
“Cut the bullshit Amy, I know why you’re here. I couldn’t hide for very long, could I?”
“I… what? How did you?”
“I’m the head of the entire department that you’re basically the queen of, I didn’t get here by not being a good investigator, give me some credit at least. It’ll save us a lot of time and dignity if you just say what you came here to say.”
* * *
There wasn’t any point in not doing exactly that, but I was still somewhat taken aback even as I pulled out a stool opposite him and took a seat. Both his hands were on the tabletop so that was a good time, but I had no idea if he was actually armed or not underneath, and I wasn’t exactly eager to find out either, considering I only had the silver knife that I always carried tucked against my calf. Statistically you had a better chance of coming out on top with a knife if someone else had a gun this close, but that only really applies if you have it out to begin with. Otherwise I’m just going to end up slamming my head into the counter trying to pull a knife out and then getting a bullet in my brain to top it all off.
* * *
“I’m not going to shoot you Amy,” He said, almost reading my mind, “If I was going to do that I wouldn’t have bothered turning the light on. Let’s just get this over with already.”
* * *
“You’re a real people person, have I ever told you that?” I smiled, trying and failing to ease the tension. Screw it, I was angry enough over everything that had happened lately and I still tried to start this off nicely, but if he wanted to blow me off then I was more than willing to go from there.
* * *
“So Rick, why the fuck are you trying to kill me?”
“I’m not trying to kill you Amy…” He stopped himself, shaking his head and taking a sip from a flask that I hadn’t even seen in his palm. “Not you specifically, it’s the rest of them that I want gone. That shirtless freak from that night, that thing you brought back, that monster who could shoot fire from his hands just as easily as I can breath air… none of them were ever supposed to exist, not in this civilized world that we live in now.”
* * *
“So you don’t want to kill me specifically, you just want to kill all of my friends and everyone that I love, while also not really doing that much to prevent people from coming after me. Yeah, excuse me if I think that’s one big crock of shit.” I leaned in, pulling the flask from his hand and taking one big swig for myself. “You’re supposed to be someone who stands up for justice, who solves and prevents crimes, not fucking commits them! Jesus, two innocent people are dead because of what you did!”
* * *
He scoffed, “Innocent…”
* * *
“Yes Rick, innocent! They were basically children, you gave a psychopathic butcher free reign to eviscerate two completely innocent teenagers, in pursuit of what? Your idea of a greater good? Some peaceful ethno-state where the only thing that lives there are humans once you’ve wiped out all the paranormals?” I tossed the flask back towards him, the clatter of metal on metal echoing off the walls. “You’re a coward, and disgusting, I can’t believe that I ever actually looked up to you. How can you look at yourself in the mirror and think that you deserve to call yourself a cop?”
* * *
“Have you seen the rest of this precinct? I’d say I’m far from the first person to stumble a little, but unlike them I’ve managed to right myself.” He sat up straighter, and I liked this sight even less than his downtrodden, world weary performance of before. “Four innocent men were almost thrown in jail because of the actions of a madman, and we had no evidence saying otherwise that they were the ones who did it. The only one who gave half a shit about them was you, and you finally led me to him eventually.”
* * *
“And you covered for us when we were finished with him, you told everyone that he killed himself and that the case was closed. Those four men went free because we worked together, how could you think differently?”
* * *
“Because there never would have been a need for it if that thing didn’t exist in the first place. Because it was only due to the machinations of an insane paranormal that four innocent human beings were placed in the firing line for something that they never would have done in their right minds, but they were forced to anyway. If I could solve that problem at the source… then nothing like that would ever happen again.”
This was getting more ridiculous by the second, I was having a
very hard time keeping my cool and not reaching across the table and smacking him. “You decided that you wanted to prevent future-crime? Have you never seen Minority Report? It doesn’t exactly work out super well there.”
“Don’t pretend like you haven’t seen some of the horrible things that witches have done, with a front row ticket I imagine that you have more than a few stories of maimings and debauchery that you could share. How is it trying to train them? Hauling them around like a group of trained monkeys barking commands at them that they sometimes obey?”
* * *
This time I did reach across the table, my hand cracking across his cheek and snapping in the cold air. There were a lot of things that I was willing to accept tonight, but an insult against the very people that I have seen on multiple occasions fight and even die for the results that they so desired, all of us wanting to work towards a future where we could truly live in solidarity. No doubt that was one of the things that Tristian had told him about, and no doubt it was one of the things that he had lied about, filling his head with so many fabrications and disgusting thoughts that I could never hope to punch through the thick cloud. Not that I couldn’t at least try, once I looked at the red handprint on his cheek and looked him sharply in the eye.