Page 48 of Justified
At this point, I found myself in the middle of a forked road.I could just come clean and go all vigilante on her or I could continue to pretend to work for this mysterious boss.Which path I took would depend on how I went about questioning her for more information.I decided to keep up the ploy and continue with the line of interrogation I was on.
“Mr.Chance wasn’t the one who picked it up the last time.Do you know who did?”I asked.I wanted to see if she knew anyone else who could work for this boss I’d been hearing about.
She shook her head.“I only deal with Mr.Chance.That’s who they told me would be picking up the money.I swear.If it was someone else, don’t you know?”
“If I did, I wouldn’t have asked you.We don’t all know each other, but I’m dedicated to getting to the bottom of this,” I said, hoping I hadn’t blown my cover.
“I—I don’t know who Nancy gave t—the money to if it wasn’t Mm—mm—Mr.Chance,” she stammered.
I sighed.“I’ve got to tell you, Ms.Danvers, I don’t like having to deliver bad news to my boss.”
She started crying even harder now.I mean, really bawling.“I swear to god that I don’t know.I would never double cross your boss.Please, please don’t kill me.Let me talk to your boss, I’m sure I could explain myself.”
I arched an eyebrow.“Fine.I’ll let you call him,” I said, hoping to make that very special connection.
“I—I don’t have his number,” she admitted, to my disappointment.“I was hoping you’d…you’d call him.”
Okay, this line of questioning just hit a motherfucking dead end.Time to come clean.I walked over to her so she could see me more clearly.“Cecily, I’m going to come clean right now.I don’t work for this boss you mentioned, I’m working against him.See, I don’t like what he’s doing with that Killing Game website.”
She frowned in her confusion.“I—I don’t understand?”
“Then listen very carefully,” I said, enunciating every word carefully.“I want to know everything you know about who these people are and where I can find them.”
“I will tell you if you promise to let me go,” she bargained, as if that was in the cards.
“If what you tell me pans out, I’ll let you live,” I lied.I had no problem lying to a piece of shit like her.I wasn’t letting this bitch go, but I needed her to believe she had a chance of surviving this if she cooperated.
Cecily nodded.“I want to live, so I wouldn’t lie to you about this.”
“That stands to be seen.Now, tell me what you know.”
“Is Nancy really dead?”she asked.
The question kind of threw me off because maybe she really did care about Nancy, even if it was only a little bit.Or maybe she was just trying to see how much of a threat I posed.Now that I thought about it, I bet it was the latter.
I nodded.“Oh, that bitch is dead.She wouldn’t play nice, so I sent her to her maker.”I decided to show her a picture of Nancy’s body still tied to her bed at home, all sliced up and bloody.
Cecily gasped in horror and started trembling in fear all over again.“How?I—I—She was with me this morning!”
“Ahhh, I see.That was actually me.I have the ability to transform into whomever I want to be.Man, woman, child… I’m not sure if I can do animals, though.Frankly, not sure I want to try.But that’s neither here nor there.Bottom line, I want answers,” I stated.
“You’re… you’re one of those Enhanced Humans,” Cecily said.
I nodded.“I am.Now, tell me what you know.”
“I just have a number where I can reach him when I have to send in a payment.”She gave me the number, which was local.That was nice.
“I’ll check this out right now.”I sent the number to Jordan with a text for him to look into it and see what he could gather.
Duh, he texted back.
Smart ass, I replied.As I sat and waited while Cecily continued to plead for her life, the fact that I wasn’t talking to her made her even more nervous and that was perfectly fine with me.About fifteen minutes passed before I received a text from Jordan.
It’s an active local number, all right.A burner, so no personal information could be gathered about the owner.The GPS was disabled, too.Maybe you can get her to call the number and set up a meeting with the guy,was Jordan’s message.
Thanks J, I texted back.All right, I needed to see where I could go with this.I walked over to her and stepped into light again.She looked up at me all sweaty and trembling, seeing as she was full of fear.
“Who are you?”she asked.
