Page 4 of Judas

“Old injury, not your Goddamn problem.”

We are going to get on like cats and dogs, I guess.

“Don’t let it be a problem or I’ll walk away from this shit. Dealing with a convict is one thing, but an injured female? Give me a break.” Not hiding his exasperation at all.

“Charming. You going to keep up with the misogynistic prick act or help me out? I’m on a time constraint.”

Silence settles in for a moment. I can’t tell if he hung up or if he was sitting on the other side of the phone, stewing over what I said. Most men don’t take lightly to being called misogynistic. Bet I struck a nerve. Poor thing, and his feelings.

“Speak ass, mouth won’t.” I clip.

“Choose your next words wisely.” Ra growls.

His petulant behavior yanks a smirk across my lips, of course I’m going to bite back.

“You’re hiding behind the screen of a phone, and am I supposed to be threatened by your tone? I’ve dealt with farworse men, your little growl does fuck all. Now, what do you need from me?”

Low and behold, I’m met with more silence.

This guy lacks patience, well, that’s evident in how he speaks to me. I wonder what has him so riled up that he has to take an actual break between listening and speaking—just so he won’t blow a fuse.

“Tell me what you saw in the house, I can get a time line going. See if I can get you a direction or some form of visual for who you’re searching for once I hack the city’s mainframe. And, Nadia?” His voice was much calmer this time. Either this is a whole different person, or he is very good at compartmentalizing.

“Yeah?”

“I know your type.” He begins, nonchalantly.

Whiplash anyone?

“You ought to watch your mouth with the people who are extending free help to you. I’m not a fan of broken families. Which is the only reason Fury talked me into assisting. However, you keep on with your smart mouth, I’ll lead you in the opposite direction and you will lose everything. Do you understand me?”

Yanking the cellphone away, I scowl at the stupid thing for a second, who the hell did this guy think he was talking to? Some things you can’t take back and threatening my daughter is one of them. I’ve never been someone ready to kill another human being but if anyone, and I mean ANYONE gets in the way of me finding Sadie… Gritting my teeth, about to dish him a verbal beating, I stop myself and nod.

You’ve always been a hard ass, Nadia, don’t make the mistake of not being a better person.

Once I am done re-centering myself, I launch into the description of the crime scene and what I was able to find so Ra could do his damn job. Recounting everything from theovergrown grass, to the built up mail on the porch, the missing persons notice I received from my lawyer before my release and then some. The strength of the decay smell, the flies I could hear buzzing around, the mugginess of the atmosphere in the house—indicating that the temperature was not low enough to prevent rapid decomp.

“You said the bodies were bloated?”

“Yes.”

“You have about a four to ten day window, outside of the missing persons report. Did you see anything else? I need to narrow this down as far as possible. Being so far north, the guy that has your girl may already be across the Canadian border. If that is the case, I’ll need to reach out to another contact.”

“Uhm, the male was far more bloated than the woman. She was dressed in comfortable clothing, as if she had just come back from a trip of some sort. Can you see what her credit card trail looks like? It could give us the exact date she got home. If Lucien killed them both on different days, then he was there with Sadie for a long time.”

The thought of that almost makes me physically ill. That absolute fucking monster with his claws in my child… Maybe I need to revisit the ‘don’t kill other people’ thing and put him at the top of my damn list.

I remember how he would invade my bubble at Darkwater. The day he stood behind me and breathed in my scent still gives me chills. That’s not to say the other creepy shit he did didn’t put me on edge either. He had his eyes set on me and seventeen years later, I still don’t know why. If there’s any truth to the letter he sent Sadie, which I doubt it, then that could very well be why he locked on.

“Stop speculating. Tell me more about the woman, how did her skin look?” Ra asks, interrupting my thoughts.

“Glossy, a few blisters, little bit of discoloration. The man's skin was brown, leaking around the sides.”

“Gotcha, sounds like the woman is just now going into putrefaction, so she’s right around day three or four. Give me about thirty minutes and I’ll call you back.”

“By—”

Click.

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