24. Messiah

She glares at me as I step back into the bedroom and smile, holding up the heavy stuffie. Her eyes widen and I can see her jaw tense as I walk it over to my bed and place it in front of the pillows.

"See, it is like you are already moving in," I smile.

I am pretty certain the words emanating from behind the tape are some manner of fuck you, but I don't take it too much to heart.

"Alright –" I rip the tape off her mouth and walk back to sit at the end of my bed. "Tell me why you were killing them."

"When I don't show up for work, Kevin is going to come looking for me," she snaps.

"And? He isn't going to think to look here. He doesn't know where I live. I am not that friendly with the bastard."

Her head falls back and she groans at the ceiling. I notice she has a freckle just under her chin. There is also a scar along her collar bone that I hadn't noticed before.

"Look, I already got your prints and a ghost is digging now. So, you can go ahead and tell me or I can just be a bit more patient and we can read the news together. Which is it?"

"It doesn't matter to you who I kill or why," she snarls.

"It does when my boss hired me to make sure you fucking stopped."

"Then stop me," she challenges.

Fuck, this woman. Taking a slow breath, I rub my eyes and glance around. I should call the ghosts and see what they have. The clock flashes in the corner of my eye and I realize it is already past noon.

"Lunch time," I tell her. "You going to eat or is it another smoothie shower?"

Her resolve was definitely something to fight with. After forcing another pink mystery concoction down her throat and hosing her down in the shower, I leave her hanging to dry out while I call the ghost. He already had the information I wanted and tells me it was in my email.

The list was not what I was expecting to find. She spent two years in foster care before doing three months in juvenile detention before disappearing from the radar for a time. She doesn't reappear until she was arrested once for solicitation. The mug shot that comes across my screen is definitely her, but not the same her that was hanging in my bathroom. She had more weight on her, filling out her face and making her look less ghostly and more angry. She is only eighteen in the picture.

Things go black again until she reappears in some police records. She was named as a witness in the same case as River Morch, but she never gave a statement. Bingo. A motive. I take my laptop back with me to the bathroom and lean against the doorframe. Her head is hanging down and I can see she is shivering. Sighing, I set the laptop on the counter and reach for the towel. Her head lifts up and she watches me as I pat her wet hair and rub the last of the water off her skin.

She winces when I lower her arms, they must be starting to hurt. I am going to have to figure out somewhere else to keep her. I take her into the living room and tape her hands behind together. She tries to bolt, but I grab her and slam her down against the couch cushions.

"You going to run out here tied up and naked? Let me get you clothes."

She shoves my hands off her and I go into the bedroom and pull out some pajama pants and a t-shirt. She cooperates as I help her get dressed and sit her back on the couch before retrieving my laptop. Before she has a chance to say anything, I turn the screen and show her the rap sheet with her mug shot taking up most of the top corner.

"Could have told me yourself," I point out. "Now, I know River was connected to Mikel. I am sure you remember that one. You left him hanging in a tree. How did you even get him up there?"

She looks away and I can see the glimmer of tears lining the bottom of her eyes. Is she giving up her obstinance?