An incessant knocking on the front door pulled Clary out of her sleep. With a groan, she rolled over and glanced at the clock on the nightstand. It was still the middle of the night, which meant nothing good could be waiting for her on the other side of that door.
She silently opened the drawer on the nightstand and pulled out a small handgun she kept in there. She exited her bedroom and made her way to the front door without making a sound. Standing on her tiptoes, she looked out the peephole and let out a sigh of relief. Jace was standing outside her door, tapping his foot and glancing nervously up and down the hall.
Clary set the gun down on the table next to the door and unlocked the door.
"You better have a damn good excuse for being here at two in the morning, Wayland," she said as she opened the door.
"Can I come in?" he asked, surveying the hall again.
She rolled her eyes and opened the door wider as a silent invitation. He entered the apartment and she closed and locked the door behind her. Something serious must have happened for him to show up here. They hadn't talked in the past few weeks, ever since Hodge had been found. He usually just had Alec relay his messages to her.
"What's going on, Jace?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
He shakily ran a hand through his hair. "It's Aline, Clary."
Her heart dropped. "W-What about her?"
"He got to her. Magnus is doing an autopsy on her as we speak."
She stared at him, suddenly feeling sick to her stomach. What the hell was going on? First Hodge and now this? She just didn't understand why Valentine would have left Aline alive only to come back and kill her later. And Aline wasn't the only witness left alive.
Gasping, she grabbed Jace by the shoulders, ignoring his confused look at the physical contact. "I need you to tell me exactly what happened, Jace."
"We don't know yet. An officer went to relieve the one who had been watching over Aline and he found the other officer dead in the living room and Aline dead in her room. We have no idea what went on in there."
"And what did you guys do with Jonathan after discovering all of this?"
"We called the officers in charge of his safe house and upped the security."
She closed her eyes tightly for a moment, trying to steady her thoughts. "Listen to me carefully. Call Luke, tell him to get in contact with whoever's in charge of Jonathan. They need to keep moving him. Don't keep him in the same place for more than a few days. It's the only way we'll have a chance of Valentine not finding him."
"Do you really think he would go after a child after leaving him alive?"
"Considering everything that's been happening lately, I honestly don't know."
Clary stood in the middle of the autopsy room staring down at Aline's body. Magnus was standing in the far corner, keeping a careful eye on her. He was probably afraid she would pass out again, but she knew she wouldn't. If she was going to do anything it would probably involve throwing up.
A sheet was pulled over Aline's body, covering her from the collarbone down. However, that didn't hide the cause of death. Her throat had been slit and the cut was gaping at Clary.
Something just wasn't adding up for her between Aline's and Hodge's deaths. First of all, why would he leave Aline alive the first time only to come back and kill her later? Why would he kill Hodge when he was his best friend? Second of all, there was something completely off with the method of murder. Valentine wasn't one to get his hands dirty, in a literal sense. He always preferred guns to his fists and knives. Flying under the radar for ten years must have changed him a lot more than she expected.
The door to the autopsy room opened and Jace poked his head in. "Are you ready to go home?'
She nodded slowly and gave the body one last glance before following Jace out. They had met Luke at the station to discuss future action with Jonathan, and then they had kicked Jace out for a while to discuss what they would do with Jocelyn. They were going to follow the same plan with Jocelyn as they were with Jonathan: they were going to keep moving them between different locations and up the security. However, with Jocelyn, they were also going to arm her in case anything went wrong. Clary felt a little better about it, but she still had a bad feeling in her gut.
After their discussion, she sent Jace back in so he could take of the paperwork and official preparations with Luke. That's when she had decided to go down to autopsy to view the body, hoping it might help her figure out what the hell Valentine was doing.
As she slid into the passenger seat of the car, she turned to Jace. "Can you take me somewhere that's not home?"
"Sure. Where do you want to go?"
She closed her eyes and let out a small sigh. "Sebastian's. I have to break the news to him."
Chewing on her bottom lip, she tentatively knocked on Sebastian's door. As she heard the shuffling inside, the nerves inside her stomach coiled tighter. She didn't how to do this. She'd never had to break this kind of news to someone before, and she had no idea how to do it to someone she cared about.
The door opened, and Sebastian's face lit up at the sight of her. "Clary! What are you doing her so early? You do realize it's like six thirty, right?"
She wrung her hands in front of her and swallowed hard. "Um, yeah. Can I come in?"
"Of course," he said as he stepped to the side and let her through. "Are you okay? You look really upset, Clare."
She nodded. "I-I just have something to tell you. It's probably best if you sit down for this."
He obliged, but gave her a concerned look. "You're really worrying me Clary. What's going on?"
She ran a hand through her hair and started to pace in front of him. "I'm really sorry Sebastian, but Aline was found dead this morning," she rushed out before finally stilling in front of him.
He stared at her silently, the look on his face slowly shifting from concerned to outraged. "What?" he seethed as he stood up. "How could this happen?"
"We- We aren't sure yet. She was found dead during a shift change along with an of-"
She was cut off as Sebastian's hand suddenly connected with her right cheek. Her hand flew to her face as she gaped at him, tears stinging the back of her eyes. Did he really just hit her?
"You guys had one job. One job! All you had to fucking do was keep my cousin alive, and you couldn't even fucking do that! How are you supposed to catch the psycho behind all of this?"
"Seb, I'm sorry. I don't know how it happened! We're trying our best!" she shouted, trying to get him to calm down. He'd never acted like this toward her before.
He looked at her, disgusted. "You're best isn't good enough. Now get out. I need some time to think."
Clary sat on a park bench staring at ducks swim in a pond. It's what she had been doing for the past few hours. Sebastian had really gotten to her. It wasn't the hit that was bothering, though. It was her words. How was she supposed to catch Valentine? She didn't have any leads and more people kept dying and more people kept getting put in danger.
She had only proven to be a failure so far. She was trying her best, but maybe Sebastian was right. Maybe her best just wasn't good enough. Who had she been trying to kid? She was a composite artist for fuck's sake. She wasn't a detective. She didn't have the skills that Jace and Alec had. She only had information on Valentine's past life. But none of that seemed relevant now. She felt like she was no longer needed on the case.
She finally stood up, deciding she needed to talk to Luke. The station was only a few blocks away and she could easily walk there. She had to find out if her help was really still needed. She didn't think it was. Any information she had on Valentine didn't matter anymore. He was a completely different man than he had been ten years ago. His methods and behaviors had changed so much. It was probably better if she left everything to the professionals.
Taking a deep breath and setting her shoulders straight, she confidently walked into the precinct. She started making her way past all the desks and towards Luke's office, but Jace stopped her as she moved past his desk.
"Clary? What are you doing here?"
She turned to face him and shrugged nonchalantly. "I just came to discuss something with Luke."
He cocked his head to the side and looked at her for a moment before standing. "What happened?"
"What do you mean?"
He reached and gently brushed a thumb over her right cheek. "This wasn't bruise wasn't here early."
She flinched at the slight pressure applied to the sensitive spot and moved out of his reach. "It's nothing," she said with a wave of her hand. "I went home after talking to Sebastian to give him some time to process everything and went back to bed and somehow managed to fall out of bed and hit my face on the nightstand."
He looked skeptical but didn't press the matter. "Damn, Fray. You don't need to worry about Camille coming after you. You'll probably end up killing yourself somehow at this rate."
She forced a laugh before telling him that she really needed to go and talk to Luke. His door was already open and she walked in, shutting and locking it behind her.
Luke looked up from his desk, surprised. "Clary? To what do I owe the pleasure?"
She sat down in the chair across from and looked down at her hands in her lap. "I really need to talk to you about my involvement in this case."
"What do you mean by that?" he asked, placing his elbows on the desk and leaning against them.
"I just don't know if I'm necessarily needed anymore."
"Why would you ever think that? You're an invaluable part of this investigation, Clary."
"It's just that everything I know about Valentine and the way he does his business doesn't seem to fit anymore. He's changed so much."
"I can see what you mean by that. It's as if he has doppelgänger running around pretending to be him."
Clary's head snapped up at this and she stared at Luke with wide eyes. "That's it! A doppelgänger!"
Luke laughed at her. "You can't seriously think Valentine has a doppelgänger running around committing crime."
Clary shook her head. "Not a doppelgänger. A son."
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