forensicks | lastvoyages Inbox

[He is here! Green button down and normal shorts. He did not clean up for this but he totally did.]

Should I say "love what you've done with the place" when it was magic this time?

[Cool Things To Say To Girls

Thank God There's Not Something Obviously Bad Making This Quip Unreasonable To Say]

You still can!

[She says, ushering him into her living room with an affected little flourish. The rat cage is in here now, where Caligula's cage is in her real house, both little rodents sniffing curiously through the bars.]

I mean, it is an exact replica of my real home.

Then I guess they're both perfectly lovely.

[It's cozy. There's an emptiness to his inland house, and a chipper practicality to the houseboat. There are lots of thoughts he should put out of his mind.

He walks over and leans down to say to the residents of the cage, almost close enough to nuzzle back at the little mammals:]

I also love what you guys have done with your place.

[One (white in color) presses up against the bars in renewed sniffing attempts; the other (light gray) draws back a little, not uninterested but still a bit shy.]

The friendly one is Hannibal.

[Offers Misty, stepping up behind him.]

And the skittish one is Clarice. And I have a bird at home - a parrot, actually. And now you know the story behind my username.

[One warden and one inmate, Walter's mind supplies unhelpfully.]

Huh. I always thought you just related to them.

[Weighed down by the past, smarter than anyone thinks but just a little too snappy...]

Putting the sick in forensics, I thought it was fun that the character limit was so long. And I always liked that the citizen detectives appreciated people who thought... differently.

[People who had something wrong with them. He... feels that even more than before.]

You thought I related to parrots?

[It's not not true, but it's also something she's never been directly called out on, and his doing so intrigues her now.]

Sure. Why not?

[He pauses a second, not sure if it's secure footing to say something about how he sees her, but:]

Though not all scientists fully accept it without more examples, those parrots in particular remember words and patterns from years ago. Pretty good traits for a citizen detective.

[A little smile crosses her face, and she pushes her glasses up her nose - pleased, and a bit bashful.]

Well. I happen to agree, so thank you. And-- oh! The tea!

[This is said just as the kettle in her newly-acquired kitchen starts to whistle; she hustles into the other room, continuing to talk over her shoulder.]

So what have you been up to for the past month?

[Walter shuffles a bit as she walks away, before realizing she probably is rushing to bring it back in here where they can sit, rather than planning for them to sit in the kitchen.]

I've been talking with a lot of inmates who showed up right before or after me. About what wardens have been helping us, and jobs we like to work on, shipside jobs I mean. And... maybe taking the next step on my journey. On my own before the flood this time, even.

[He's sorry about the last time!!]

[Misty turns to face him - two steaming mugs of peach hibiscus herbal tea in hand, her head tilted and a thoughtful frown on her face.]

The next step on your journey?

[Sweet and flavorful!! Yes!! This is definitely something Walter would like! This confrontation... maybe he would have liked to put it off and let the tea get cold. Or maybe his nervousness is heightened for rhetorical effect to make his question as nonthreatening as possible.]

I haven't wanted to overstep any boundaries that would affect you, though, maybe that's just an excuse... More than that, I've kept thinking... what happens when I get home? It's not just murder, it's getting away with murder. Wouldn't the opposite of that be, you know, jail? And... I realized you'd know more about that than anyone else.

[Maybe Malcolm, considering his almost indistinguishable world, but at this point Walter isn't so sure how well he'd apply that knowledge.]

And you're not interested in staying on as a warden after graduation to fix that...

[She doesn't sound judgmental, but she is assuming that that's the case; if it wasn't, she figures, his point here would be moot.]

Well, how good was your cover-up job?

There aren't wardens offering deals to me either this time. Maybe if a lot of things were different, but even then, it's good to have a Plan B... Thinking I can just fix it eventually isn't really helping me graduate, I guess.

[Walter can't entirely hide his surprise at the suggestion that his cover-up job might just stand; he raises his hand to his mouth in a thinking gesture that also covers it.]

Even though my fabricated evidence was digital, so was a lot of theirs. I don't think interpretation of the physical evidence will ever get unfavorable again at this point. Saracusa is the real liability—the other cop. From a strictly tactical perspective, it might have been best to eventually get him out of the picture altogether...

[Misty lets out a quiet sigh of acknowledgement - he's probably right, and while she doesn't necessarily miss having the simplest, easiest, most brutal options in life available to her, there's no denying that they were simpler and easier along with their brutality.]

Well, maybe we can workshop this together. It'll be good for me, too!

Yeah, [Walter says, bringing the mug of tea within his each on the little table. Perfect segue! He manages to look calm as he says this. It will be good for her, he is helping! He doesn't need to freak out until he confirms Misty's point of view.]

Since compared to the case of Jessica Roberts, there's even more digital evidence pointing to the text messages and credit card transactions of Adam Martin and his lover, right?

Alleged lover.

[She interjects, a facial muscle twitching slightly as she leans forward over her tea mug.]

I mean-- that is all just conjecture, right? And you know what they say: assuming makes an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me'!"

[Walter frowns. He finds this kind of not promising given the gravity of the evidence.]

Well, I guess Kevyn Tan was the only one who heard Jeffrey's version of the story [where, Walter has said, he claimed he got carried away when he found his wife's lover], so in that sense, yeah. [Walter wonders. He'd briefly speculated that Natalie had been Misty's friend with a lover, the one she was so eager to protect - could that be true after all? But the cell phone evidence must have pointed to Shauna Sadecki, right? Who would use someone else's phone for that?] Even if he had lived, that would legally be hearsay.

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