Damon stands up as Nik Mikaelson and Elena Gilbert enter his office. With a sweep of his hand, he gestures for them to have a seat.
"Why are we here?" Elena asks, her gaze drifting from her brother in law to Damon.
"We found a bloody fingerprint at the scene of your sister's murder," Damon starts to say but is interrupted when Enzo joins them.
"Have you arrested someone?" Nik sits upright in his chair.
"No," Damon shakes his head.
"Then I repeat, what's the purpose of this little get together?" Elena meets Damon's eyes.
"We had a positive ID on the print... Unfortunately he managed to slip over the border. The Mexican police were holding him but..."
"But what?" Nik grips the armrest.
"He was murdered in his cell."
"What? Are you telling me the man who killed my wife is dead?" Nik's head snaps to face Elena.
Damon watches discerningly when she links her fingers with his.
"How could you let that happen?" Elena looks up angrily, their hands still linked.
"I'm just as dumbfounded as you and I didn't let anything happen. Mexico won't extradite a prisoner back to the United States if the death penalty is on the table. We asked the FBI for assistance. However the DA wasn't willing to give up that option just yet. We believe he was the man who murdered Mrs. Mikaelson. We found some of her DNA in his car. He borrowed it from his sister in West Virginia, and for some reason he showed up in Galveston at your house."
"So you're saying this was a random thing, he simply chose our house?"
"That's the way it appears - have you found anything else missing from your house? Her necklace was not in the sister's possession or in her car. I've talked to Captain Guerrera in Nogales, he told me there was no necklace in his personal effects when they arrested him. We're checking pawn shops both here and in West Virginia with the help of their police department. Is there anything you can tell us, did the necklace have any significance?"
"Which necklace are you talking about? Katherine had several."
"The one if in the photograph, the Tiffany necklace?" Elena looks at him.
"No," Nik shakes his head. I gave her a diamond encrusted heart necklace the night the twins were born. I've never even been inside a Tiffany store," Nik looks down at their hands and squeezes a little tighter.
"What significance does it have if this was simply a robbery?" Elena fumes, meeting Damon's blue eyes once more.
"Miss Gilbert, Elena, I'm not ready to close this case yet."
"Why?" Nik looks at Damon and then to Enzo who's eyeing their conjoined hands. "Is there something you're not telling us?"
"I want to know more about this Wes person. You said their break up was acrimonious. Go through her personal effects, see if you can find anything. I cannot locate someone with only a first name to go on."
"We'll do what we can," Elena nods and stands, Nik does the same. Damon walks over to the door to see them out. He watches as Nik spreads his palm on her lower back as they leave his office.
A chill runs up his spine at the thought of them being together.
"They're asleep," Elena joins Nik, who's enjoying a glass of wine in the living room. Plopping down on the couch beside him, she says thanks when he hands her a glass of Moscato D'Asti.
"I'm still kind of in shock at what the cops told us today. It sounded like they were pretty certain he was the killer."
"Thanks for all you're doing for us, Elena. I'll start looking for a place soon."
"Nik, there's no hurry, you can't take care of two babies by yourself." She takes a good sized swallow, adding, "It's good."
"I'll have to hire a nanny, Elena. I can't expect you to put your life on hold for us."
"Nik, I want to help and I know Katherine would want that too."
"I miss her," he sighs and throws back what's left in his glass. "My kids have to grow up without their mother. They're so young, will they even remember her?"
"I don't know. We'll have to keep her memory alive for them as they get older with pictures and stories, " she smiles sadly at him.
He nods and lifts the wine bottle, pouring himself another glass and adding a little to Elena's. "Here's to Katherine," he raises his glass.
"Katherine," Elena repeats, clinks his glass and empties hers in one long swallow. When she puts it down, suddenly Nik's hands are cupping her cheeks and before she can react, his lips are on hers.
"Thanks for coming down, Aunt Jenna. I need to return to work. I got that promotion and I haven't been back since. I'm actually looking forward to it but I haven't had time to interview anyone to babysit yet. I'm going to call the employment agency today."
"Where's Nik?"
"Where's Uncle Ric?"
"School, he had a big test scheduled for today and didn't want to postpone it. Their Thanksgiving break is coming up. Now your turn..."
"Nik went to Houston to his home office about going back to work. Last night he was drinking a little too much, mentioned moving out, well more so finding them their own place - somewhere to stay till they can move into the home he was going to share with Katherine."
"While I don't think it's urgent, I do believe it's the right thing for him to do."
"I suppose... I just feel I owe it to Katherine to help them," she pushes a strand of hair behind her ear.
"We'll all help them Elena, but you can't just throw away everything that's important to you either and I'm certain wherever your sister is, she's very proud of the way you've stepped up."
"I hope you're right..." her words trail off when hungry cries fill the air.
"I hate to leave you but I need to get going. You'll find everything you need in the kitchen." She gives her aunt a hug and hurries out of the house, her mind still unable to forget the evening before.
"Damon, I just got off the phone with the Chief Fell in Huntington, West Virginia. They found a necklace that matches the description in Sloane Barstow's home with the aid of a search warrant. Seems she's continuing to be uncooperative."
"New rules," Damon leans back in his chair. "I find it hard to believe that Markos would borrow his sister's car, drive to Galveston then randomly," he air quotes that word, "choose the Mikaelson home to rob. There's something hinky going on here, Enzo."
"I think so too Damon - but again, what evidence do we have to indicate a conspiracy to murder Katherine Mikaelson?" Enzo lights up a smoke.
"I haven't spoken to Kai for a couple of days, has he gotten anything from Tiffany's?"
"The padlock was a very popular necklace, tons of them were sold."
"I don't doubt that but it's our only lead right now, do their records indicate if someone named Wes purchased one?"
"I talked to him yesterday, so far he's come up empty handed," Enzo takes a drag on his cigarette.
"I think we're being too narrow in our focus. This Wes may have purchased that necklace - if he purchased it - anywhere in the country, just because he lived - lives in Virginia, doesn't mean he bought it there."
"That's absolutely true but I think it was the right place to start. I'll talk to Judge Forbes about a warrant then we'll decide our next move."
"I'm going to ask Miss Gilbert to come in and tell me everything she knows about the man. Maybe something will jog her memory? And I'm also going to take what we have to Nora Hildegard, see if she can come up with anything useful."
"Are you thinking this guy may have had a hand in the murder?"
"Honestly, I don't know, Enzo. Markos Barstow may very well have acted alone but at the end of the day, you and I need to be satisfied that, that was indeed what happened."
"As much as I want to believe the robbery gone bad theory, I also have a gut feeling that there's more to it."
Enzo drops what's left of his cigarette in the coffee at the bottom of his cup, tosses it in the wastebasket and walks out while Damon picks up his phone to call their profiler, Nora.
"Nora, how are you?" Damon walks into her office and shakes her hand, eyeing the diamond band on her left ring finger. "Did you and Mary Louise finally make it official?" he smiles at his friend.
"We did, a few months ago," she gestures for him to have a seat.
"And I wasn't invited? I'm hurt," he pouts playfully.
"We didn't invite anyone. Judge Fell married us and then we flew to Cancun for a magical week long honeymoon," her face pinks up as she remembers...
Damon laughs, "Congratulations to both of you."
"Thanks Damon, I have to be in court in about 90 minutes so we better get to it."
"So... what can you tell me?" Damon leans forward in his chair.
"I looked over the crime scene photos, and read the reports. I believe the man that did this is highly intellectual, genius level IQ, probably very charming but rarely shows remorse. There's an element of fantasy - sex and death ones fueled by pornography. He's likely rude, maybe even cruel to his peers. And I believe him to be a narcissist, someone who will say or do whatever's needed to reach that fantasy - and totally egocentric."
"You concluded all that? There's no one better at this job than you," Damon's amazed. But he's also troubled because none of what she's told him would fit Markos Barstow.
"How often are you wrong?"
"Why do you ask?" she leans forward, elbows on her desktop and tents her fingers.
"The man we believed killed her, he left a bloody print on the premises. We also know he was quite careless, by that I mean, he left a lot of evidence for us in a car he borrowed from his sister. Your profile seems 180 degrees removed from the man we know Markos Barstow to have been."
"Have been?"
"He was murdered in a Mexican jail."
"Have you considered that maybe he was working for someone?"
"Actually I have, we don't have much to go on other than a first name. We know our victim had an affair with this man and followed him to Virginia. We also know that she, her husband and those two babies, left the area in the "dead of night" so he wouldn't know. They also kept the location so secretive that only her sister and his parents knew they moved to Galveston."
Relaxing back in her chair, Nora opens up the file Damon gave her and thumbs through the morbid photos again, including one of the bloodied toddlers. "I stand by my assessment, Damon."
"Okay, thank you, Nora. I'll let you know how things turn out," Damon stands up, and moves to leave. After opening the door, he looks over his shoulder. "I'll give you a call, I'd like to take you both out to eat to celebrate your wedding."
"I'd like that, Damon," she nods, and walks him out, watching his departing form till he steps in an elevator and disappears from sight.
Having heard Noah fuss, Elena pads to the makeshift nursery to find Noah standing up, gripping the crib's railing. "Why are you awake?" she brushes his nose with her fingertip.
"Baba," he reaches for her.
"Okay, little man," she picks him up and quickly leaves the nursery before his sister wakes up too.
After a quick trip to the kitchen, they return to the room where Elena plops down in the rocker, hands him a bottle of milk. Taking it in his tiny hands, he sticks the nipple in his mouth and immediately a suckling sound fills the room. She's amazed at how much he resembles her sister whereas Nadia looks more like Nik. She sings softly to him, while moving back and forth. Soon his little eyes drop closed and the nipple slips from his mouth.
Ever so carefully, she lays him back down, grabs the baby monitor and tiptoes out of the room, closing the door softly behind her. After taking a nice relaxing bubble bath with lavender bath salts, she crawls in herself. Soon she's deep in slumber, her eyes flickering softly...
The tapping of the rain, voices, a car and a ship's horn. A single chime of a church bell, a door opening. A song on the radio. The sounds are faint and calm as she shifts onto her side unconsciously.
Elena is riding a bike, parking it near the swing set. A group of children whistle and clap at the soccer field. Approaching the swings, she recognizes her sister. "Katherine, how come you're here?"
Her big sister parachutes off the swing, takes her wrist and drags her over to the tree maze then she lets go and darts inside. Elena chases after her, calling her name.
"Wait for me," she tries to keep up but all she sees is a wisp of her sister's pink dress as she makes a turn ahead of her. When she reaches the exit, Katherine approaches her, puts her hands on her younger sister's shoulders, places her mouth to her ear and whispers only one word. Then before Elena can ask her about it, she steps back and vanishes into thin air.
Elena's eyes shoot open. Her heart is pounding in a her throat and beads of sweat dot her forehead. She looks around the room, wide eyed at the one word...
Wes.
Huge apologies for not responding to your reviews for 'Cheeseburger In Paradise' and for missing last week's update for this story. My son ended up in the hospital with one of those freakish things that happen sometimes. He choked so hard on a piece of ham that he ended up with an esophogeal tear and hemorrhage. He required 4 transfusions and several days in the hospital. I see GI bleeds all the time as a nurse but it didn't hit that Morgan could have died till after he got home.
I did post a one-shot "At The Beginning" yesterday. It's a DE wedding fic. Eva thanks you all from the bottom of her DE loving heart for all the birthday wishes. You are all the most amazing people. We're so grateful for your support and friendships.
Chapter title: 'At Wit's End' by the Darkeyed Musician.
Long ways to go, this has 24 chapters. Much longer than I anticipated when writing it. I promise I'll do another double update at some point to make up for missing last week's chapter. We're really excited about another little something we have coming soon ;)
Have a wonderful day and we'll see you next time.