118 Falling Back on Fears

"Yes, they said it was child abuse," she was panicking. 

"And?" Sebastian asked. 

"A multiple murder case?" she didn't sound so sure anymore. 

"Yes, people have been murdered in your neighborhood. Two boys around the age of five have been killed." Sebastian only laid out the facts. 

"And you think I killed them?" she yelled. 

"No." He said with finality. "Carol did. She confessed," Sebastian said. Grace sank into the chair, a mixture of relief and confusion on her face.

"Are you glad that you aren't being accused of murder?" I asked, my voice so calm that it must have been frightening. Grace looked up, jolted. 

"What?" she said. 

"You starved and traumatized a child so that they thought that she needed to pretend to be a normal girl. When that didn't help, she thought that the only way she could feel human was by killing people." I felt Sebastian's hand on my knee. I didn't pay it mind. "Your daughter would have been a lot better if you had shown a shred of love for her. If she didn't have to worry about the sleeping pills you put in her milk, or that you wanted to kill her so you could have your happy ending." I looked her straight in the eye. 

"I didn't want to kill her!" she yelled. "I just..."

"You did, didn't you? Kill the monster before it kills you?" I smirked. I was ramping up the pressure, not for the sake of the investigation for the benefit of a little girl who had been swayed into killing others.

"I did ramp up the medication, I didn't want to kill her... just lull her into longer sleep." Longer sleep, what a nice way to put it. 

"How long?" Sebastian asked, his eyes flitting between me and Grace, hoping I would stop talking. 

"As long as I could," she admitted and then stopped. Her eyes were panicked. "I'm sorry."

"You shouldn't be apologizing to us. You should apologize to the child you brought into the world and abandoned. You don't owe us anything. But to Carol? You owe the world. You should be very sorry." Sebastian's shoulder slumped. 

"I will apologize to her if it makes it any better!" she said immediately. 

No trace of guilt. Nothing. I almost wished we had shown her the pictures. For this woman did not have a shred of humanity in her.

"Sure, we will bring her in." Sebastian grabbed my hand and pulled me out with him. Once the door was closed behind us, he turned to face me with a distressed expression. "Why did you do that?" he asked, his voice barely over a whisper. 

"I was pissed off," I shrugged. 

"When a child is involved, you have to let your emotions in, Sebastian. This woman led her daughter to believe that she was so different from other children that she needed to do something drastic to feel human. She pushed this girl into seeing things that no young person is meant to. She allowed a psychopath in her house and let that man teach her daughter how to kill. Children were killed and if it hadn't been for our fast-thinking, more children would have been killed."

"I understand, but you treated her like..." he trailed off.

"It got the work done, didn't it? I ramped up the pressure and I made her confess to drugging and almost killing her daughter. Now, if we make her feel guilty enough for treating her daughter that way, we will have a list of clients she has seen in the past and get the man who has been prancing around town trying to make himself known to you." I raised a brow at him. 

"So, this is not about Carol fully. It is about your fear of someone following me around," he claimed. How did he come to that conclusion? 

"I don't know what you are talking about." I gritted my teeth. 

"Are you falling back on your fears? Where is my fearless Evie who is trying her best to overcome the thinking that anyone close to her will get hurt?" His hand inched towards my face and I found myself paralyzed in front of him. He cradled my chin and looked deeply into my eyes. 

"When my fears are proven wrong, they are not irrational or biased any longer. This is not about magical thinking. This is about you being stalked. Someone is after you and waiting for your attention. This is a man who is influencing others to kill and he is enjoying this god complex. He is dangerous!"

He smiled. "Oh, you do like me," he said. I frowned. 

"Is that... an observation?" I asked. 

"No. Not that..." he chuckled. "We're this close to getting the man. He's nothing but a scavenger, easy to catch seeing how he let himself be known." I bit my lip. 

"It is the fact that he let himself known that bothers me. Carol didn't pause before talking about this man in the white shirt. She gave me all the information she knew without a hint of deception. If she was told to withhold the information, she wouldn't even have mentioned him. I suspect he told her to tell us about him. He is letting himself be known."

Sebastian thought about it for a moment. "So, you are telling me that he is declaring that the game has just begun?" I nodded. That was exactly what I thought. "And he is boastful. No one who is this confident gets away with crime, Evie. We have solid leads on him and once we get his name, we can have a full investigation into him and catch him for the smallest things." 

I shook my head. "He doesn't commit crimes, Sebastian. He inspires people to do it. He enjoys being the puppeteer. You know this very well. We can't catch him for anything."

"But we can inform the intelligence agencies to be aware that he is doing something of this sort. Baiting and abetting a crime is severe." 

I shrugged. "Do you think I am wrong then? In instigating her and scaring her to give us information?" I demanded. 

"A little. I just hope this is not seen as coercion in court. I'll talk to Nash about it. For now, let's talk to Carol and see if she wants to speak to her mother." He sighed. 

"The woman looked at you strangely, too," I mentioned. He paused in his step and looked at me incredulously. 

"Did I just hear Evie Marie Lewis being jealous?" I rolled my eyes at his exclamation. 

"Dream on!" I snickered. 

"Very well. A man can hope." I saw him grin and shook my head in amusement. So easily satisfied, this man.

We went into the room where they were holding Carol. Hearing our footsteps, the girl looked up. "Evie, you are back," she smiled. It was indeed fake, but the hint of excitement in her eyes made me aware that she was pleased with my arrival. "And who is this with you?" she looked over to Sebastian. 

"He's my colleague," she introduced. 

"You're very handsome. Much more handsome than the men my mother brings home," she said with a light giggle. 

"Why thank you. Even more handsome than the man in the white shirt?" Sebastian asked casually. Smooth talking, man. 

"Him?" she scrunched her nose. "He looked..." she thought about it carefully. "I can't really remember how he looked. It's strange."

"Then I am definitely more handsome than him," Sebastian joked. 

"I suppose," Carol said lightly. "But your eyes..." her head tilted to the side. "I thought he was talking about Evie, but it could be you, too." She clapped her hand.

"What?" Sebastian asked, acting dumb. 

"He said that you would understand me. Do you understand me?" she asked. So, this was another one of her needs: to talk to people who understood her. Who didn't see her as a monster. 

"Perfectly. I am very good at it," Sebastian admitted. 

"Then you are who he was referring to," Carol said with conviction. "Evie could kill people but she is too polite. She pretends really well, too. You don't need to pretend, do you? You do as you please. I like that."

Yes, he didn't need to pretend.

"Are you tired of pretending, too?" Sebastian asked, crouching down in front of her. Carol nodded. "Then, do you want to tell your mother the truth? She should know, shouldn't she?" Sebastian's face held no smile.

"What about?" Carol asked, confused. 

"Anything you want to tell her." Sebastian shrugged. 

"Anything?" she squeaked. 

"Anything," both Sebastian and I reassured at the same time.