Eliot got a call from Waterson the next day. They decided to meet at his house again to talk seeing as Eliot was staying at a hotel. He soon was dressed up again and on the way to the Waterson house. He kept on trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes. His dreams the night before had been filled with Melissa dead in a coffin. He couldn't shake the image out of his head. Something about Melissa made him curious, she seemed like a good person and a cool friend. Eliot thought about this the whole way to the Waterson's house. He just couldn't shake this feeling of guilt that he had never had on another job before. All the other jobs were just get in, kill, get out. Simple clean and precise, that was it and then he would leave, this job however he had to get close and befriend his victims.
Eliot slowly pulled into the fancy driveway of the Watersons and prepared to go in. He walked up to the house and rang the doorbell. There were a few noises and a shout of "Coming!" when the door finally opened Eliot was greeted with the sight of Melissa in an oversized t-shirt and long sweatpants. She looked at him with surprise and then averted her eyes to the ground, "Good morning Mr. Smith," she said quietly. Eliot got an annoyed face with the word Mr. "None of that Mr. business Melissa, it's James," he said stepping onto the threshold of the door. "Yes Mr. James," Melissa replied with a smile. Eliot just shook his head with a smirk. He had noticed that about Melissa. Eliot rarely smiled unless for a job, and even then they were never real smiles, but the smiles he gave Melissa were real smiles, something about her just made him more cheerful, something that had never been achieved by any of his friends before.
Eliot walked into the living room from the night before. Without so many people in the room Eliot finally got to see the full effect of the flower paintings that weaved their way up the walls. He realized that there was even a flower on the ceiling that was painted to be the opposite of the one on the floor. The one on the ceiling was silver with gold highlights every here and there, but the one on the floor was gold with silver highlights. Both were extremely beautiful and were quite an amazing site. Melissa came up behind him and said, "Like them?" "Like them? I love them, they are very well done I can't imagine how long that took you to do, just by yourself too." Eliot replied turning to Melissa. She smiled sadly looking at the flowers. "They were based off of a painting that my mother did, she always loved silver and gold, not because the symbolize weath or anything, no she liked them because they were the only colors that truly shined when people looked at them, or that's what she always used to say anyway." Melissa said with longing in her voice. Eliot looked sadly at Melissa knowing what the longing look meant.
Eliot was searching for something to say when Waterson entered the room, "Ah Mr. Smith, nice to see you again, I trust you enjoyed the party last night?" Eliot looked up at Waterson standing on the railing at the top of the stairs, "Yes Sir it was quite enjoyable. Perhaps we could talk about the details of our partnership in a more private area?" Eliot said glancing at Melissa. "Of course Mr. Smith, this way," Waterson said, hurrying down the rest of the steps and leading Eliot down the hall.
Eliot slowly walked down the hall, admiring the artwork in the house. He remembered reading in Moreau's file that Melissa's mother had also been a painter. The paintings were of Melissa with her mother and father. They soon came to the end of the hall and Waterson opened the door and walked into the office. Waterson's office was quite like the one that Eliot had visited at his companies' building.
Waterson strolled over to the desk and plopped down into his seat. "Well Mr. Smith, let's get started." Eliot walked over to the other side of the desk and sat down. "My boss seems to think it would be a good idea to have you on a team he is starting. He has heard that you are very good at choosing your partners. Never has any partner of yours wanted to walk out, so Mr. Waterson the first thing I have to ask you, how do you know how to choose the right people to work for you that will stay loyal to you and not go to any other company?" Eliot said pasting a fake smile on his face. Waterson chuckled and looked at Eliot. "You want to know my secret?" He asked. "Yes sir I do." Eliot replied honestly. Waterson chuckled. "My secret is very simple. The way I know if someone will stay loyal to me is by her." Waterson said pointing to a picture of Melissa on his desk.
"You've met her Mr. Smith, I know you thought there was something different about Melissa. You noticed how she looks around the room so often right?" Waterson said, raising an eyebrow. Eliot just nodded. "She has a certain set of "skills" that she got from her mother. She is my secret weapon Mr. Smith, all she has to do is meet someone and she could already tell you their life story." Eliot looked at him in shock. That was what the headshakes were for at the party. Waterson was asking Melissa what she thought of him. Eliot realized that this would maake his job a lot harder. If Melissa was really that good about reading people then she might figure out who he really was. He knew he would have to be at the top of his game for the rest of the job.
"So that is why your daughter is always at the parties?" Eliot asked. Waterson smirked, "Yes Mr. Smith, she is not quite fond of doing this but with a little persuasion she will read people just like a book." Eliot worried about what type of persuasion that Waterson used on his daughter. His memory flashed back to the scars on Melissa's wrists and the bruises on her arms. He suddenly had a pretty good idea on what Waterson did to insure that his little "secret weapon" stayed working for him. Eliot had never been so happy about having to kill someone. He could only imagine what Waterson did to make Melissa want to slit her own wrists.
Consumed in his own thoughts Eliot didn't notice that the telephone had rung until Waterson picked up. "Waterson's Insurance" he answered in a business-like tone. Waterson listened to the other person on the line talk for a few minutes before turning red in the face. "How did this happen! I will be there in 20 minutes." Waterson jumped to his feet, pulling on his suit jacket as he swiftly walked to the door of the office. He paused at the door, and turned around to Eliot. "Sorry, something has happened at the office, and I have to run there for a few minutes, I should be back in about an hour if you want to hang around."
Eliot debated his options and chose staying in hope of learning the layout of the house and maybe getting closer to Melissa. "I'll stay" Eliot said. "Good, I will be back soon." Waterson swiftly walked out of the office and to the front door. Eliot slowly got out of his chair and walked out of the office. Melissa was outside having been explained what had happened by her father, she said, "Well I guess we are alone then." This was going to be a long hour.