"This is a terrible idea," Raven murmured, eyeing the car that had just pulled up.
"Shut up, Raven."
"They are criminals, they could shank us." Raven continued.
"Raven, shut up." Lexa repeated, watching the car as the door slid open and out stepped one of the three cons they would be working with. Octavia Blake, if she remembered corrected. The girl had her dark her thrown haphazardly over her shoulder and her dark grey jumpsuit was tied around her waist, leaving her in a white tank top. She had tattoos painted down her arms and over her shoulders, probably running over to her back.
"This is a great idea,"
Lexa grinned, side-eyeing raven who was staring at Octavia with an almost predatory look in her eyes. "Easy there, Reyes, that one could kill you with her thumb nail."
A boy came out next, Nathan Miller, who looked pissed as he tugged at the cuffs he had around his wrists.
Clarke Griffin stepped out next and, sure, Lexa had see Clarke before, her file had a photo clipped to it, but that couldn't really prepare her for Clarke in the flesh. Instead of her prison jumpsuit she was wearing a grey, prison issued shirt with a long sleeved white shirt under a grey prison issued shirt and a grey pair of khakis and, really, that should be the least attractive look out there.
So why were her palms getting all sweaty?
"Easy there, Woods, they are criminals."
"Bite me, Raven." Lexa murmured, smiling at Kane as he walked over to them, the three cons lagging behind him.
"Lexa, Raven, meet your new associates." Kane stepped aside, allowing them a proper look at the convicts.
"My name is deputy marshal Lexa Woods and this is marshal Raven Reyes."
"Raven Reyes," Octavia was practically purring as she took a step closer to Raven, a little smirk playing on her lips.
"Spanish, translates into English as Kings." Clarke commented offhandedly.
"Kings, huh?" Octavia was almost pressed against Raven now, her teeth pressing into her bottom lip. The marshals little grin didn't wavering at the closeness of the girl. "You can rule over me any day."
"Oh, I plan too. Every day you are out of Arcadia prison and under my supervision. I'll be sure to keep a close eye on you." Raven cocked an eyebrow at Octavia who grinned wickedly at the fact Raven was playing along, her tongue running over the tip of her teeth
"I'll be sure to give you a show."
"Wow, if this doesn't scream 'issues with authority' I don't know what does." Clarke muttered, smiling at Octavia when she shot her a glare.
"If you would like to follow me I will explain to you how this is going to work and then we will jump right in to our first case." Lexa lead the group into the building.
"Private elevator," Miller hummed, giving a little impressed nod. "Nice."
"Were the shackles really necessary?" Lexa grumbled, holding her hand out to Kane.
"You would know it is if you read their files."
Lexa tutted, snatching the keys from Kane. "If they are going to be a part of this program we need to trust them." Lexa unlocked the shackles, shaking her head at Kane.
"He obviously has control issues," Clarke muttered, more to herself than anyone else, rubbing the spot the to tight cuffs had been chaffing off her skin.
"I'm sorry?"
Clarke's eyes snapped up to Kane who was glaring at her expectantly, Clarke glanced over at Lexa and Raven before speaking.
"Well, the cuffs coupled with the ridiculous mood swings you had on the drive here point to a classic controlling personality." Clarke shrugged. "I'm willing to bet you are divorced, you drove your ex wife crazy, if you caught her talking to another man she was automatically a whore."
Kane's jaws tensed, his eyes moving to Lexa while the rest of the cons watched him carefully, waiting for him to explode. "I don't think this one is going to work."
"We need her,"
"For what?"
"Pretty much what I just done to you." Clarke quipped, smiling smugly at Kane. "I can get inside people's heads pretty easily. Tell you their next move."
"Surely there is hundreds of doctors out there that can do that." Kane protested, glaring at Clarke again when she snorted.
"None of them could do it even a fraction as well as I do."
"Look, she's obnoxious, irritating and obviously has an ego the size of Jupiter." Lexa started, side-eyeing Clarke who nodded along with everything she had just said. "But she's the best in her field, we won't find anyone better than her."
"She just called you obnoxious," Octavia muttered to Clarke.
"She's not wrong." Clarke shrugged.
Lexa pulled the door to the loft open, introducing everyone to their computer expert, Monroe, and assigning everyone a desk.
"Ok, so this is how this is going to work," Lexa started, pacing down the middle of the room. "Each runner you help us catch you get a month off your sentence. Any of you even attempt to run every one of you will be transferred from Arcadia prison to maximum security, your sentences doubled, am I clear?"
Clarke slowly raised her hand, causing Lexa to roll her eyes. "Was I not clear, Clarke?"
"No, you were totally clear, boss. I just don't think it's fair that my fate rests with those two." Clarke pointed at Miller and Octavia with her thumb and pinky. "They hardly look reliable."
Octavia flashed Clarke a sarcastic smile as she flipped her off and Miller merely rolled his eyes.
"Oh, come on. Like what I'm saying is entirely unreasonable, and like you both aren't thinking the exact same thing."
"If you don't like it, Griffin, you can go back to Arcadia." Lexa turned to face her fully, her eyebrows raised challengingly. "So, what's it going to be?"
Clarke let her eyes wander down Lexa's body, following the way her hip popped out as she waited for Clarke's answer. "Yeah, I'm in." Clarke answered, her eyes jumping up to Lexa's again, an innocent little smile appearing on her lips.
"Good," Lexa clipped, wheeling around to look at Octavia and Miller. "And you guys?"
"I've got nothing better to do," Octavia shrugged.
"So long as she stays out of my head." Miller pointed over at Clarke who flashed him a smile.
"Too late," Clarke chirped. "I already have everyone of you figured out."
"You will need to start behaving for this to work," Lexa warned, lifting her eyes to Raven. "What have we got?"
"This is Roger Boyce," Raven started, pinning the man's photo up onto the board as Monroe handed out files to everyone. "He has escaped from two prisons so far, this is his third escape. He killed two officers before breaking out of the transport van."
Everyone flicked open their files as Raven continued talking.
"He's suffering from malignant narcissism." Clarke murmured, sounding almost bored.
"Where does it say that?" Lexa frowned, flicking back to the first page of Roger's file.
"Well, it's doesn't. They should really fire those doctors at whatever prison he is in because it's blatantly obvious." Clarke rolled her eyes, looking up to see everyone looking at her expectantly. "Traits of a malignant narcissist are narcissism, antisocial personality disorder, aggression and sadism. He murdered six women, all of which he kept for three to six days before killing them, each time he left a riddle for the police, obviously thinking he was smarter than the officers; narcissism. It says here that he didn't take part in any form of group bonding in prison, he was constantly lying and changing his story for the doctors, he escaped ways that could easily have landed him in a coffin showing that he doesn't care about his own safety, and he evidently wasn't remorseful for his killings; ASPD. The girls he killed were beating to an almost unrecognisable mess so he is clearly aggressive, in fact he's an animal. And how much do you want to bet he got off on what he did to those girls?"
"What does that mean for us?" Raven asked.
"Well, I wouldn't be surprised if he had another victim with him right now." Clarke hummed, pointing down at the file. "But people like this they are usually somewhat... nostalgic, I guess. If they have been out of the killing game for an extensive amount of this they tend to try and reenact their first kills."
"So, we find out where his first kills took place we find him." Octavia reasoned.
"Theoretically." Clarke nodded once.
"We need more than a theory here, this is a dangerous man."
"Well, that's all I have." Clarke said incredulously. "I mean nine out of ten of these narcissistic assholes will act like this but there is alway that one who doesn't."
"Are you that one?" Octavia quipped, grinning around the pen she was chewing on.
"Keep pushing me and we'll find out if I'm that one or one of the other nine." Clarke shot back without missing a beat, winking over at Octavia when the girl chuckled.
"If you both are quite finished we have a mass-murdering sociopath to find."
"Psychopath." Clarke corrected.
"What's the difference?" Miller frowned curiously.
"Well, for one, sociopaths have a conscience, psychopaths don't, typically, have one." Clarke explained. "And psychopaths tend to be quite charming, can worm their way out of anything but this guy is a hot-head, another trait of a sociopath."
"How is this helping?" Raven snapped, looking between Miller and Clarke.
"Miller knowing the difference between the two might help in future investigations." Clarke stated simply, grinning to herself when Raven took that as a valid answer.
"A murder was just reported." Monroe commented, catching everyone's attention. "It happened at the home that Roger committed his first murder, there was even a riddle left."
"Ok, we will head down there now, text me the address and call me if anything else comes through."
"This doesn't make sense," Clarke murmured, a thoughtful little frowned marrying her brow as she gently twisted the tip of her left ear. "He kept his first victim for six days, it has barely been ten hours since he escaped."
"Looks like he's that one in ten." Octavia said.
"If his riddles have an credibility to them we will find him."
"What makes you so sure?" Miller almost challenged.
"I'm smarter than him, I will figure it out."
They reached the crime scene ten minutes later, receiving suspicious looked from officers at the crime scene, though they were quickly shut down by Lexa.
("can I help you, Martenez?"
"No, ma'am.")
"Why isn't Kane with us?" Octavia asked as they walked into the house.
"He won't be with us most of the time, he's my boss."
"He's definitely aggressive," Clarke commented, catching the groups attention.
Clarke had slipped away from the ground without anyone noticing and was now crouched down beside the body, examining it closely.
"He had a choice of any weapon, he had the gun belonging to the officer he killed, yet he still choose to use a tire iron." Clarke looked over the body with an almost amazed glint in her eye. "He wants to draw out his victims pain, he gets off on it."
"He's an evil son of a bitch," Raven snapped, shaking her head as she averted her eyes from the body.
"Evil is a concept the human race has come up with to try and isolate someone who could easily be themselves." Clarke glanced up at Raven who gave her a 'what the fuck' look. "But, yes, if you had to classify anyone as evil it would be this guy."
The officer appeared at Lexa's side then, offering her a little sheet of paper. "Griffin?"
Clarke was on her feet and over at Lexa within seconds, eyeing the paper over her shoulder.
"If it's information you seek, come and see me. If it's pairs of letters you need, I have consecutively three. Who am I?" Lexa read, glancing back at Clarke who had taken to playing with the tip of her ear again.
"I have consecutively three," Clarke murmured under her breath, clicking her fingers a few seconds later, causing Miller to jump. "Bookkeeper."
"So it's something to do with a library." Octavia offered.
"Maybe," Clarke hummed, not sounding entirely convinced.
"Hey, brain box, what are you thinking?" Lexa demanded.
"With just that clue, not much."
"Well, Clarke, to get another clue we would have to have another dead girl, and that's what we're trying to avoid."
"I guess we should try the library then."
Unsurprisingly, at least to Clarke, there was nothing at the library. There was more to it then just a simple location, Clarke knew that, and everyone else seemed to understand that Clarke knew that too.
"Can you think of anything?" Lexa asked, softer than Clarke had heard her speak all day, as she took a seat on the blondes desk.
"Not with just this, no."
"What about if we got the other riddles?"
"I mean, it's a different round of killings but sure, it might help."
"Monroe, can you get me Roger's older riddles, please." Lexa requested.
"This guy is a mess. Dad beats his mom to death in front of him at the age of five, he was bounced around in the system until he was eighteen, didn't stay with a foster family for more than three months before they sent him back. I'm not surprised this is how he is."
"That's not an excuse." Octavia argued.
"No, I know." Clarke agreed with a solid nod. "For him to do this there had to be something fundamentally wrong with his mind, but what happened in his childhood solidified who he went after."
"Have you guys gone to the orphanage?" Octavia asked.
"It's closed down," Raven answered, looking at Octavia over the top of the file in her hand. The attention seemed to have Octavia perking up slightly. "Has been for over a decade now."
"Maybe we should still go," Clarke whispered distractedly, looking down at the sheet of riddles Monroe had just sat down in front of her. "Like I said, people like him are nostalgic, the place was the only real home he had."
"You think he could be there?"
"It's all I have right now," was Clarke's answer and Lexa seemed to accept that.
"Ok, you stay here and try and figure these out, you guys come with me."
It wasn't until they were gone for a good ten minutes that Clarke figured you through one little search that, before it was an orphanage the building was a library.
She quickly called Lexa who answered in seconds.
"You find something?"
"The orphanage used to be a library." Clarke announced. "Be cautious, there could be more to this building that we initially thought."
It turned out that he was there, using the building as a hide out. The group took him by surprise, obviously not expecting anyone to be clever enough to figure out where he was.
After a short stand off, which ended with Octavia choking the man out, the group came back with the man in handcuffs.
Clarke eyed him curiously across the table as they waited for the man's armed transport.
"Can I help you, blondie?" He scowled after a while, making everyone turn to look at him.
Clarke's eyes were narrowed curiously. "You are just decidedly less impressive than I thought you would be." Clarke hummed, smirked when the man shot out of his seat, his shackles stopping him just as he was looming over the table, preventing him from getting to Clarke.
Clarke was out of her seat not long after him, looking the man square in the eyes, not even a glint of fear in her eyes. "Look at you, you're an animal. You have absolutely no control do you?"
"I would have the control to slice the skin off of your bones."
A little laugh escaped Clarke's throat and that seemed to throw the man. He was used to seeing fear in the eyes of any women he was this close with, the fact that, if anything, Clarke seemed to be enjoying herself, was throwing him completely.
"There's nothing scary about you. You're a savage, like a rabid animal. And I'm sure you know what they do with rabid animals."
"Clarke, sit down." Lexa finally interrupted, bringing Clarke back from the little bubble she was in to see everyone looking at her, looking shocked and somewhat impressed. Clarke held her hands up in defence, falling back into her seat as Lexa force the man back into his.
He left ten minutes after that (ten minutes he spent all his time scowling at a smug Clarke).
"You guys will be heading back to Arcadia in ten." Lexa announces.
"And when will we be out next?" Miller asked.
"Whenever someone breaks out next," Lexa shrugged, sitting a piece of paper and a pan down on the table. "Now, put your sizes and your preferred style, we can't have you guys running around in prison scrubs."
"What if it's sexy lingerie?" Octavia asked coyly, grinning up at Raven as she sauntered past.
"If you want to chase criminals in that then sure," Raven answered, leaning back against the desk, seemingly unaffected by Octavia's blatant flirting.
"Would that do it for you? Me fighting in sexy underwear."
"Blake," Lexa said in a warning tone. "Behave yourself."
Octavia's eyes fluttered over to Lexa briefly before returning to Raven, her little smirk not faltering as she scribbled down what she wanted on the paper.
"Women," Clarke commented, rolling her eyes as she walked over to the table.
Raven's lips hooked up into a little smile as she nodded in agreement.
"Ok, get everything you need and meet me down stairs." Lexa announced, making her way toward to elevator.
Clarke watched her go, her eyes skimming down the woman's body appreciatively.
"Easy there, tiger." Raven grinned knowingly at Clarke who merely shrugged and headed back to her desk for her things.
"I'll see you next time," Octavia said coyly, swaying her hips as she made her way over to her desk.
Raven was sure she hear Miller make a comment about 'horny women' as he got his things together.