Moving forward slowly... inspiration is getting back to me, LOL.
Thanks for your patience!
Chapter 10
The smell of prison was nothing like Sara had imagined. It was almost like a hospital: sterile, empty, hollow. But despite the absence of smell, the air felt thick and heavy. Now the temperature was something to notice here, it was really cold, the AC must be turned on a cooler level than average. Sara wondered if, maybe it was to keep prisoners more still or something?
Mozzie had assured her that maximum security prison for dangerous criminals was almost like a psychiatric ward and Sara didn't ask further or didn't even want to know how Mozzie knew the inside of one of those but she preferred this reality to the one she had come up with in her imagination… smelly, old, dark… this was, pleasantly different.
Of course you can't just walk into pay a social visit to a murderer casually, unless you proved to be family. So Sara had to make a fake letter from Sterling Bosch, claiming that Rachel Turner had been an important piece of investigation in a high-profile case.
"I think it's best if I go in there alone" said Sara looking down at the bald man who had become her friend over the years
"Are you sure?" asked Mozzie with a hint of uneasiness. Neal had specifically instructed to not lose her out of his sight
"I'll be fine, Mozzie" answered Sara with a reassuring smile and without further discussion, she started walking into the meeting room which consisted in a table with two chairs and divided by thick glass.
Rebecca was already there…
"Well, this is a terrible surprise…" said the blue-eyed woman with a grimace
"Hi Rebecca or should I call you Rachel?" asked Sara taking a seat in front of her
Rebecca just remained quiet and crossed her arms "What do you want?"
Sara cleared her throat. She was nervous, damn it. She thought she could handle this just fine, she already had back there in the warehouse in DC and she even had a gun pointed at her head. So why was she so nervous when the circumstances where now all on her favor? Maybe because she now knew who this woman was and how much she had hurt Neal… "Not an orange suit? I thought that was standard for prison. Gray really is not your color…" she said trying to ease some of the tension she felt
Rebecca remained stoned-faced just looking straight at Sara
"Okay… someone's not in the mood for chitchat…" muttered Sara
"Oh, did I have to bring tea?" asked Rebecca pursing her lips and mock-frowning "You know, Sara, I'm really not in the mood for you. Whatever you want from me, you're not gonna get it"
Sara thought for a second and frowned. She knew it wasn't gonna be easy and she had thought of a way to get information out of Rebecca on her way here so it was show time. "Hmm see, and here I thought we had bonded over our mutual love-hate for Neal back in DC"
Rebecca smirked "Honey, you love him. I just hate him"
Sara laughed at that "Yeah right… C'mon Rebecca, that's just bullshit" she said and rearranged her hair behind her ear before leaning closer "For your information, I did love him. Did, as in past tense. Now I just loath the son of a bitch" she muttered for emphasis
Rebecca frowned "Do you think I'm going to believe that?" she chuckled "Seriously, why are you here?"
"Because I want revenge and I need your help for that" said Sara with a wicked smile
Rebecca raised a surprised eyebrow "Did he break your little dumb heart?"
"Yeah well… I don't wanna talk about it" said Sara, clearing her throat and looking down feigning embarrassment "What I want is to get back at him and I know exactly how"
"You know, it's boring around here so, go on, amuse me. I'm listening…" said Rebecca, leaning back in her chair
"I'm gonna go straight to the point" said Sara and readjusted on her chair "The bastard stole a painting a long time ago and it has resurfaced. It is insured by Sterling Bosch and I'm gonna get 10% commission if I get it back" she said and took a picture of the Rembrandt out of her purse "This is the painting, it is worth 500 million so 10% is a lot of money"
At that, Rebecca changed her expression from bored to totally interested. She now had a little smirk "You have a nice job, Sara. No wonder why Neal got so interested in you"
"Yeah well, don't get me started. He had me buying him art stuff and expensive suits all the time…" said Sara sighing and seeing how Rebecca was smiling and truly enjoying this, she thought she could push a little further for sympathy "Did he ever show you his collection of cufflinks? That's probably, half of it bought by me. God, I'm stupid, aren't I?"
Rebecca laughed wholeheartedly "First time I agree with you"
Sara smiled too "Well… so I want to get him with this, it's the perfect opportunity to nail his ass to the wall and finally get him for good in jail"
Rebecca frowned "Neal was supposed to be reformed…" she then sighed wistfully "he was willing to give up the life to settle with me, you know?"
Sara tightened her jaw. Rebecca could be lying but then again, Neal did care about her… "Oh that's what he always says" she retorted nonchalantly "Believe me, I know because it was exactly what he told me right before he ran to Cape Verde"
Rebecca's face changed and a tiny look of hurt clouded her eyes
"Don't feel bad. He's a conman, it's what he does… I'm sure you know about it better than anyone" said Sara gaining some leverage again on this situation. She could see how Rebecca was being affected by this so she kept digging "and don't tell me Neal was your first victim. You probably fooled a lot of men before, right?"
"That is none of your business" was Rebecca's simple answer
Sara thought she had had enough. She wanted to be on Rebecca's sympathy side and if she pushed more, she was about to get on her bad side again "I'm sorry… I'm just really pissed off at him and no matter how much I used to love him, I want to make him pay what he did to me" she said and paused for dramatic effect "You can get back at him too… if you help me"
Rebecca frowned "You know, Sara, you're more of a bitch than I am… What makes you think I want to hurt him on purpose?"
TBC