Page 216 of Lau Ahi
“Riff-raff? That’s what you think of me?”
I chuckled and stepped closer to her but she was still roughly a meter away. “You don’t want to know what I really think of you.”
“Wow, there’s no reason for you to be here then. I don’t allow people in my home—” She went to step away but I needed her to stay away from the door.
“Something about the case I worked on always bothered me.” Margo damn near froze when I brought up the case but I knew curiosity wouldn’t let her rest until she knew what I did. When she turned around, the cheerful smile was back on her face suggesting she had a new angle to approach this from.
“And what bothered you? It’s solved now, right? You could’ve come to me earlier for help, Asha.” Two steps to shorten the distance between us brought her closer to me than she had been before. “Well, I wasn’t going to break the rules. Ori was a stickler for decorum,” I watched how she got aggravated every time Imentioned him and it made me smile. “But what was bothering me was something I should’ve seen all along. The Clancy boy wasn’t a lone actor. He had help. It took me almost a year to realize but it was you.”
“What are you talking about, Asha? Is this grief speaking? Have you been drinking?” Margo attempted to laugh off my accusation but the one thing she didn’t do was deny any of it. Deflecting and dismissing were the only tools she felt necessary to redirect my attention. I truly hated when people insulted my intelligence.
“Margo, let me speak plainly. This isn’t conjecture. All the evidence is at my flat waiting to be turned over to the authorities. But of course, I’m not going to do that.”
“You’re not?” She looked rightfully hesitant and all I could do was smile at her, mirroring the cheerfulness she’d displayed earlier.
“No. Why would I do that? I figured that there had to be some type of scientific explanation for what you’d done. Was it a real-life experiment that just went too far? I’m sure that the glimpses of the mind that we’re limited to wasn’t fulfilling for someone who’s been in the field as long as you have.”
As predicted the flattery worked, and the look of smug confidence was back on her face. “They want us to wait to see how the criminal mind works by having these tiny little trials done or waiting until death to get our hands on their brain. What better way to see what makes someone a killer than to lock in on their motivation and exploit it? If I would’ve known you would understand I would have definitely included you on the trial. As it is, there’s a host of students I’ve tagged that might be susceptible just like he was. You must tell me how you figured it out so that we can prevent the same mistake from happening again.” She walked toward me conspiratorially ready to hear where she’d messed up so that she could perfect her technique.To hear that she had more kids earmarked to be exploited was completely unnerving.
“You did what all people who believe they’re more intelligent than others do: you talked too fucking much.”
Her brows dipped and she looked at me oddly as though she were waiting for the real reason to be spoken. When I remained quiet she shook her head silently refuting that it was her failure that led to being discovered. “No, it can’t be as simple as that. There is far more to it than you’re saying. I never thought you would be the type to have a superiority complex, but surely you’re not trying to say I made a mistake.” She looked incredulous at the idea but I wasn’t going to lie to her Not with her ending coming so soon. “What tipped you off?”
“You knew where I lived.”
“What?” Her shock couldn’t be feigned and she waited on me to elaborate, which I was more than happy to do.
“You knew where I lived. I hadn’t rushed to open the many gifts that we’d received for our wedding since we traveled for months afterward. And they had to go through checks before we could bring them into our home. By the time they were delivered, I was a widow and then the house was flooded with floral arrangements and condolences. You tried to win your way back into my good graces by buying me a gift and sending me your love during my grief. But I never told you where I lived, Margo.”
She bit her lips realizing her mistake but not being willing to admit it. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“At first, nothing. I thought you were just some stalking bitch who wanted to stick her tongue in my pussy to see how many times she could make me cum.”
She got an odd look on her face, and I was just waiting on her to continue. “You said that was the first thing, what was the second?”
“You couldn’t help but leave your imprint on the murder. To get credit somehow. One that you knew I was going to recognize immediately. The hesitant way he gnawed at her organs. He wasn’t a cannibal. At best, he was mimicking someone else. Someone that he shouldn’t know about because it was all hush-hush in the UK. A blip on the news since none of the victims found were citizens and whoever killed him couldn’t be identified. It was a service to the crown and nation and promptly swept under the rug.”
“He didn’t want to eat her. He didn’t have the stomach for it. I realized that when it was too late.” She looked disappointed that she hadn’t been able to clone the perfect serial killer.
I nodded happy I’d secured her confession. “And I realized that. His heart wasn’t in it. The hesitation was obvious. How long was it before you were sleeping with him? I know that the dean is lazy as fuck and I’m sure he foisted his work off on whomever he could. I’m shocked the promise of sex worked for a kid like that.”
She sat down on one of her armchairs that looked like it came straight out of a Ralph Lauren catalog. “It wasn’t sex, it was power. The desire to be in the upper echelons of American society and know that you’re protected for the rest of your life. That you can move freely and almost without consequence. That was the real reason he was so easy to turn. The sex was just a bonus. One simple lie that killing her was an initiation. That her father’s voting habits made him a race traitor and boom, he was ready to go. As it were his death is your fault.”
I couldn’t believe this woman was delusional enough to blame his death on me, but then again she wasn’t rational.
“What do you mean?”
Her grin was sinister, as though the next words she spoke would be my undoing.
“He didn’t realize that the little pill was his death. He thought you were in on it. I told him that as soon as he saw you he needed to break the capsule. I knew you couldn’t stay away. When he gave you the code that’s when you were supposed to welcome him into the fold.”
I had no sympathy for Clancy but now his dying question of ‘is it supposed to hurt?’ made perfect sense.
“Only he spoke those words and died instead. You’re deranged.”
Margo’s face broke into a triumphant grin. My words a confirmation of her superiority. “Deranged. Brilliant. It’s all in the eye of the beholder.”
“His girlfriend saw you. She didn’t recognize you but we had your general description only none of us thought to run down his side chick. Shame we didn’t look more closely at that lead.” My face was filled with disgust my body humming with anxiety the longer I watched her.
