Liv looked through to two-way mirror into the interrogation room. Vince Mulligan looked exactly how Felicity remembered him, not surprising since it had only been a few weeks since she had been sleeping with him. He certainly didn't look like a murderer, but then again not a lot of murderers actually do. Vince was slightly shorter than the average man, probably only an inch or two taller then herself. His brown hair was slightly greasy, like it had been one too many days since he last washed it and he had dark, heavy bags under his eyes. His gaze dragged lazily around the room as he sat slouched in the chair. The only indication that he was feeling even the slightest bit nervous was that he kept fidgeting with his wedding ring, his fingers repeatedly twisting it forward and backward, sliding it up his finger just until it reached his nail and then pushing it back down again. However, whether those nerves were due to do with the fact that he was sat in a police interrogation room or more to do with his impending divorce, Liv would never know.
"Seeing him trigger any visions?" Clive asked from beside her. Liv shook her head, so far Felicity's brain had been had been remarkably unhelpful in helping Liv find her killer. Liv had hoped that seeing him would trigger the vision of how he killed Felicity, but no such luck. It seemed that even in death all Felicity cared about was sex, a fact that was causing Liv constant annoyance as she started to imagine Vince bending her over the interrogation room table and taking her from behind.
"So you up for it?" Clive asked.
"Always." Liv moaned, breathlessly.
"What?" Clive said giving her a strange look.
"What?" Liv replied shaking herself out of her fantasy.
"Are you up for tagging along in the interrogation? What did you think I was asking?"
"No, nothing, yes, I'm up for it, the interrogation that is." Liv stumbled.
"Why do I put up with this?" Clive mumbled to himself before opening the interrogation room door. "Good afternoon Mr Mulligan, my name is Detective Babineaux and this is medical examiner Olivia Moore." Clive said as the two of them took their seats opposite Vince. "I hear we stopped you from taking a trip, mind telling me where you were off to and why?"
"I'm going through a stressful situation at home at the moment and wanted to get away somewhere. A buddy of mine has a place in Portland that he said I could stay at while he's out of town." Vince said confidently.
"Ah yes, I'm sorry to hear about your martial problems, I'm assuming that's the stressful situation you are referring to. That and the fact that you have just lost your job and your kids." Clive said carefully watching Vince's reaction.
"Yes, that about sums it up. I assume you can understand why I'm stressed." Vince replied coolly.
"Yes of course, I imagine anyone in your situation would be stressed. And angry too I imagine."
"Some people probably would be."
"Are you one of those people?"
"I try not to be." Vince said maintaining his calm vagueness. Clive realised this and tried a different approach.
"As I understand it, meeting Felicity Carter was the cause of all your problems."
"How do you mean?"
"Well your affair with her was what destroyed your marriage and lost you your job and kids. I imagine that made you pretty angry with her."
"You do a lot of imagining don't you." Vince mocked. "Yes, having an affair with Felicity ruined my life, but that was my fault, not hers. It takes two to tango and all that. If it hadn't been her it probably would have just been someone else."
"So it was you who initiated the affair?"
"No it was definitely her, but I didn't turn her away, so it's just as much my fault."
"So you're telling me that you hold no ill will to a woman who you said yourself ruined your life? That's pretty benevolent of you."
"I didn't say that, I said I didn't blame her, not that I don't hate her guts, which I do."
"That's a pretty irrational perspective."
"Who said anger was rational?" Liv could tell that Clive was getting frustrated at how calm and collected Vince was remaining under questioning.
"I tell you what Mr Mulligan, shall we cut to the chase? Where were you on the night of July 6th at 1am? And before you answer I would like to inform you that while you were detained you probably noticed that we took a DNA sample from you and we are comparing it to DNA found at the crime scene, so make sure your answer reflects what we both know those results are going to show." Clive said.
"Fine, at 1am I was heading home."
"And where were you heading home from?"
"I was heading home from the Grand hotel, where I had previously been fucking Felicity Carter."
"And are you aware that Felicity Carter was murdered in that same hotel on the same night you just confessed to being with her."
"Yes I was aware as an associate, Mary Handley, text me yesterday, informing me of Felicity's death and urging me to go to the police if I knew anything. I didn't then and I still don't know anything now so I didn't bother. I would show you the text but you took my phone away."
"And you didn't think that the fact that you were the last person to see her alive was important."
"Well considering she was very much alive when I left, no I didn't think it was important. Besides there was a bunch of other guys with her that night as well, I didn't see them in the holding cells."
"So you saw the other men that were there that night?"
"No, they were all gone by the time I got there, but there was evidence of them all over the room."
"So let me get this straight, you expect me to believe that you went to an elicit rendezvous with the woman, who you said yourself ruined your life, and on that same night she ends up dead and your telling me you had nothing to do with it." Clive laughed mockingly.
"She was alive when I left that hotel room." Vince said through gritted teeth.
"Mr Mulligan, have you ever heard of a plant called Aconitum or Wolf's bane perhaps?"
"Nope never heard of them."
"Really, because in your house we found several books with detailed passages on it."
"They're Teri's, she loves all that plant stuff. I find it mind numbingly dull to be honest. "
"Mr Mulligan, this is a picture of your back garden, can you tell me what plant used to be here?" Clive said pointing at the bare patch in the picture.
"I'm afraid not, the garden was Teri's domain, she'd shout at me if I so much as went near her plants. Besides even if she had at some point told me what plant was there I'd never remember, they've all got stupid Latin names, waste of brain power trying to remember them."
"And what happened to the plant that used to be here?"
"Well you see, after Teri left, that just happened to be the plant I decided to take my anger out on. Dug the thing up, hacked it to pieces and burnt it. Like I said anger is irrational."
"Cut the bull shit Vince!" Clive suddenly shouted, standing up and banging his fists down on the table, causing Olivia to jump. "We know you killed her Vince. You had ample knowledge of the poison and as soon as your wife confirms that she was growing it, you had the means to acquire it. You admitted to being with her the night she was murdered and you had motive! She ruined your life Vince, you think a jury going to believe you didn't want her dead. Confess now and maybe you'll breath free air again before you die." Clive said, pushing a pen and notepad across the table to Vince. There was a moment of silence while Vince starred at the notepad in front of him before Vince reached out and slowly pushed the notepad back towards Clive, before leaning back and looking him in the eyes.
"Prove it." Vince said calmly. "Prove how I poisoned Felicity with a plant that you don't even know for certain was even being grown in my wife's garden. And meanwhile you can explain to me why, hypothetically speaking, if I did kill her, I would admit to being with her the night she was murdered." Vince levelled Clive with a confident stare, which practically made stream come out of Clive's ears. Vince knew that at the moment with the evidence they had, it wouldn't be enough to convict him. "Now detective and who ever you are," Vince said to Liv, "I've been a good little citizen, answered all your questions, but I'm done now. So either get me a lawyer or take me back to the holding cells. And in less that 72 hours I look forward to breathing free air again." Vince said, throwing Clive's words back at him.
Clive practically growled as he threw his chair back and marched out the room, Liv quickly following after him. Clive shouted an order at a uniformed officer to take Vince back to holding before plonking down at his desk.
"Please tell me you had a vision of exactly how that son of a bitch poisoned Felicity." Clive said, turning to her.
"I'm sorry, my third eye is apparently on vacation at the moment." Liv tried to joke, but Clive just looked at her unamused.
"Until we hear back from the wife or Ravi somehow figures out how she was poisoned we at at a dead end." Clive said rubbing his forehead with one of his hands. "Why don't you go and do your actual job for a bit, I'll let you know if anything comes up." Clive said turning his back to her and he booted up his computer. Liv didn't take his dismissal personally, she knew he was just frustrated with the case and so did as he said and headed to the elevator.
Arriving down in the morgue Liv found Ravi perched over a corpse on the operating table, clipboard in hand.
"Please tell me they were murdered, Felicity's brain is being ridiculously unhelpful in solving her own murder case and I'm tired of having to carry around extra underwear." Liv moaned, descending the steps.
"Ewww, too much information Liv. In any case, not murdered I'm afraid, heart attack in city hall." Ravi said putting down his clipboard and turning to Liv. "No luck upstairs then?"
"Actually he confessed to being with Felicity the night she was murdered, he has motive and soon we'll be able to prove he had access to the poison."
"That's great then." Ravi said, looking at Liv's dejected face. "Isn't it?"
"Not if we can't explain how he poisoned her. Any luck there?"
"I'm afraid not, I've examine every inch of her stomach contents and found no trace of the poison."
"Damn it!" Liv cursed, pushing herself away from the table and over to her desk and attempted to distract herself with work. However, three hours later all she could still think about was Vince's mug face as he watched Clive leave the interrogation room. Liv stood up and grabbed her coat, she knew something that would definitely take her mind off Vince.
-x-
It scared Liv how quickly she had become accustomed to the route to Blaine's apartment and the fact that both the doorman and the concierge greeted her by name as she walked past them. Grabbing the key from her pocket she quickly let herself in expecting to wait around for a few hours until Blaine showed up. What she did not expect was for Blaine to be sitting at his dinning room table with another man and a woman. The mystery man was absolutely giant and not just by Liv's standards and was clearly a zombie, if his pale skin and white hair were anything to go by. The mystery woman looked to be almost as short as Liv, in her 40's or 50's and considering her patchy fake tan and the company she was keeping, was probably a zombie as well.
"Now even I didn't expect you to crack this quickly," holding up his wrist to examine his watch, Blaine chuckled. "Less than 14 hours and your already back for more. Even Felicity had more dignity than that, especially after your self righteous spiel this morning."
"Sorry, I didn't think you'd be here or have company." Liv stuttered, utterly embarrassed at the fact Blaine had outed her as his desperate sex buddy in front of two strangers. "Sorry, I should have called or text. But I see you're busy so I'll leave." Liv said turning around to grab the door.
"Hold your horses there Liv." Blaine called over. "We're just wrapping up here, wait in the bedroom and I'll be with you in a bit."
Liv felt thoroughly disgusted with herself when she found herself simply nodding and disappearing into the bedroom area. She heard their conversation start up again however they were clearly doing it hushed voices so she couldn't over hear. Liv walked over to the balcony door in the bedroom that led out onto a much smaller balcony than the one in the living room. Thoughts of Vince's interrogation still occupied her mind but just being near Blaine again she felt the now familiar ache inside begin to dominate her mind. Behind her she heard the voices get closer and then the sound of the the front door opening and closing. Seconds later she felt Blaine's front press up against her back as his hands clasped the metal railing either side of hers.
"Not that I'm complaining," Blaine said placing soft kisses on Liv's exposed neck. "But what brought you back so soon? Especially after the way you stormed out this morning after deciding that I'm apparently the worst ex-human being in Seattle."
"The man that killed Felicity is probably going to get away with it and there is nothing I can do to stop him." Liv said pressing herself against him.
"You must give me his name, knowing how to get away with murder might come in useful." Blaine said, unbuttoning the top of Liv's jeans. However, Liv spun round and poked a finger into Blaine's chest.
"I didn't come here to give you tips on how to be an even bigger sleezeball."
"And why did you come here?" Blaine said lifting her up so she wrapped her legs round him.
"To forget about my worries."
-x-
"So how much longer will Felicity be with us?" Blaine said as his head rested on Liv's stomach, his fingers ghosting patterns on her skin.
"Two more days, three at a push." Liv replied, her hand repeatedly stroking through Blaine's hair. "Just two more days and I can put this mess behind me and forget this ever happened." Liv said, trying to convince herself more than Blaine.
"That's one path you could take, there is however an alternative."
"And what's that?" Liv asked, although she could guess where he was going.
"Well my door is always open if you were inclined to continue our little…dalliances. That is a figure of speech by the way, my door is not always open and your lucky I was in a forgiving mode when you interrupted my business meeting earlier."
"Dalliances? Really? Who says that?" Liv said, ignoring the rush of excitement she felt at Blaine's invitation. "Besides casual relationships are Felicity's thing not mine, I want a relationship."
"Your telling me you're willing to give up the best sex of your life to sit around so you can sit around and wait for a cure that may never come, so you can have a relationship." Blaine said lifting his head to look at her.
"You're not one to brag are you?" Liv said sarcastically in a attempt to avoid the truth in his statement.
"It's not bragging if it's true." Blaine said starring at her intently.
"Maybe I want some one else." Liv said flippantly, thinking of Major.
"Oh really? And can this someone else make you feel as alive as I make you." Blaine said as one of his fingers traced over her nipple sending a shock of electricity through her. "Can you truly lose control with him in a moment of passion?" Blaine trailed his fingernail lightly between the valley of her breasts to leave no doubt about he was talking about.
"If I turn him into a zombie I can."
"But would you? Ruin this person's life just so you have someone to fuck? I don't think you have it in you." And he was right, no matter how much she wanted to be with Major, she would never turn him into a zombie, she wouldn't wish this life on anyone. "I thought so." Blaine said, seeing the defeated look on her face. He rolled over on to his back next to her and said, "Cheer up, my offer still stands."
"Some offer." Liv mumbled, "To be your dirty little secret."
"Not a secret, Cissie and Chief know." Blaine joked, however when he turned to Liv she still had a sour look on her face. "Look what more do you want? I'm offering you frequent, no strings attached, hot zombie sex. And don't say a relationship, because seriously that wouldn't work. Could you imagine us, going to the movies, having dinner parties, holding hands down the street? Yeah right." Blaine scoffed.
"Hey! I never said I wanted a relationship with you!" Liv said, turning on her side and propping her head un with her hand.
"So you want a relationship with some mystery guy, good for you. But while you waiting for your boy Ravi to make a cure, you've decided to stay celibate? That's crazy. So why don't you mull my offer over and when you come to your senses, text first." Blaine finished in a threatening voice.
"You let me keep the key, what did you think I was going to do with it?" Liv asked, lying back on her back, trying not to think about Blaine's offer.
"Like I said, I didn't think you'd crack so soon. You're doing wonders for my ego by the way." Blaine rolling onto his side to smirk at Liv.
"Like your ego needs anymore stroking." Liv said.
"Actually, Felicity loved stroking my 'ego.'" Blaine laughed as Liv wrinkled her nose in an effort to convince him that the thought was disgusting to her, when in fact it had the opposite effect. "Which reminds," Blaine said as he rolled back over and started rummaging around in the bed side table. "Here." He said throwing something over to her. Liv struggled to locate the thing he had thrown to her in the mess of covers. Her hand eventually found what she was looking and pulled it up to her face, a box of cigarettes. "Felicity always had to have a cigarette after sex, thought you must be gagging for one by now." Until Blaine had mentioned it, Liv hadn't noticed the subtle craving for a cigarette. Liv quickly broke the seal of the fresh packet and opened the lid and saw all the cigarettes all neatly lined up. However, before she had a chance to reach for one she felt herself been thrown into a vision.
Felicity was rummaging around in her bag looking for something that clearly wasn't there. Looking around the room she was in, in case she had left them somewhere else, Liv recognised the hotel room she was found dead in. This must be the moment she was murdered.
"You got any cigarettes? I can't find mine." Felicity asked turning to the other occupant in the room, Vince Mulligan.
"Here." Vince said, pulling a packet out his jeans that he was fastening up. "You know these things will kill you."
"When I'm dead I give you permission to say I told you so." Felicity said as she grabbed one out the packet and lit it up.
"I'll hold you to that." Vince mumbled turning towards the door.
"Hey, before you go, what brand are these? They taste funny." Felicity said as she laid down on the bed, still naked from her previous activities.
"They're flavoured, some plant thing, I can't remember the name. Do you like them?"
"Not really, but I guess that's the problem with being addicted to them, I still have to smoke it." Felicity said grimacing slightly at the taste before taking another drag.
"Yeah, you're predictable that way." Vince said as he waited until Felicity was no longer looking at him, grabbed her hand bag and clothes and left the hotel room.
The vision ended abruptly and Liv was left starring at the packet of cigarettes she was holding.
"You're going to have to go on the balcony though, I'm not having you stink up my apartment." Blaine said, rolling onto his side about to fall asleep.
"That's it." Liv whispered.
"Huh?" Blaine said turning back towards her. "That's what?" Liv turned to face him, grabbed his face in her hands and kissed him briefly, before pulling back and announcing.
"I know how he killed her." Liv said jumping out of bed and looking for her bag to call Clive.
"Woop-dee fucking-doo." Blaine said, lying back done and attempting to sleep, clearly not as excited by Liv's revelation as she was. "Now either fuck off or go to sleep."
Liv didn't even acknowledge he had spoken, too high on her breakthrough. Quickly getting dressed and pulling her phone out of her bag as dialling Clive's number as she made her way out of Blaine's apartment.
"Liv?" Clive answered in a slightly groggy voice, "Do you have any idea what time it is?"
"I don't actually, but I do know how Vince killed Felicity." Liv said in a sing song voice.
"Tell me everything." Clive said, suddenly very more awake.
"You are never going to believe how that son of a bitch killed her." Liv began as she climbed into the expected waiting cab.
-x-
Vince was led into the police interrogation room where Clive and Liv were waiting for him with a confident smirk on his face. However, his smirk faltered slightly when he noticed something sat on the table in front of them, Felicity's hand bag.
"I can tell from the look on your face that you recognise what this is." Clive said as Vince was placed in the seat opposite them. "It was just plain luck that officers found it when I sent them to the city dump. I mean what are the chances that in the millions of pieces of waste that this city throws out, we would find it. Clearly it was a chance you thought worth taking. Now originally after we found her wallet in it, no one thought it would have any further use and it got thrown into an evidence bag and pretty much forgotten about, until we found out about Felicity's other addiction." By this point, Vince's smile had completely fallen off his face as Clive reached in the bag and pulled out a packet of cigarettes, the same packet that Liv had seen in her vision. "You know what we found when we examined this packet of cigarettes, but I'm going to tell you anyway. Naturally we found both your and Felicity's finger prints on the packet, but that wasn't the most interesting thing. No, that was the fact that the cigarettes had been soaked in Aconitum. Remember that poison that you said you had no knowledge of." Vince remained silent and Clive decided to push him more. "Now, you'd slept with Felicity on multiple occasions, you would have known about her habit, she probably even mentioned it during your sex addicts group. It provided you with the perfect means to kill her, after all once you disposed of the evidence what were the chances that the police would find it? And the fact that we wouldn't even have thought about looking twice at such a common place item, well it was just too easy wasn't it? After all, she'd ruined your life, you deserved vengeance didn't you? She owed you, and you collected." Clive prodded, but Vince remained silent. "You have two options now Vince, confess now and maybe you'll get a reduced sentence. Or go to trial, and now with this new evidence, I don't think the jury will be as inclined to go easy on you. Your choice." Clive said pushing the notepad towards Vince and leaving the room, Liv following behind. Together the two of them watched through the two-way mirror as Vince continued to nervously play with his wedding ring while starring at the notepad. Eventually Vince's shoulders slumped in defeat and he very carefully slid his wedding ring completely off his finger and placed it tentatively on the other side of the table before picking up the pen and writing.
"Good job Liv." Clive said.
"Don't thank me, thank the officers who had to rummage through that garbage." Liv said, turning away from the mirror. "I'm going to let Ravi know the case is closed."
Arriving back in the morgue, Liv found Ravi rummaging through the fridge. "Vince confessed." Liv announced, sitting down at the table.
"That's good, I guess this means you can throw away this other hemisphere of Felicity's brain, now you've solved her murder." Ravi said, placing the Tupperware container with the other half of Felicity's brain in it down on the table in front of Liv.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Liv said looking down at it.
"I've got to go report some findings to one of the Vice detectives, I'll be back in a bit." Ravi said, grabbing some notes from his desk and disappearing out the morgue. Liv meanwhile hadn't taken her eyes off the container. The last remnants of Felicity's personality were fading from Liv's consciousness and with that went her excuse to be with Blaine. However, if she rationed out the remainder of Felicity's brain, she could prolong her what ever it was she had with Blaine as few more weeks. Liv shook her head at the thought, grabbed the container and walked over to the human waste bin, but her hand hovered over it. When she was with Blaine, she felt human again and she didn't want to give it up. But using Felicity's addiction as justification felt wrong. But being celibate for the foreseeable future, wasn't appealing either. As Liv stood in this indecisive state she put her hand in her pocket and realised that she still had Blaine's key, she hadn't even noticed that she'd grabbed it that morning. Regardless of what ever she decided, she had to go and see him again.
-x-
Knocking on Blaine's door almost felt foreign to her after quickly getting used to having her own key, the key that felt like it was burning a hole in her hand. Blaine eventually opened the door and looked at her confused, he clearly knew that she still had his key and was confused as to why she knocked.
"Are you incapable of giving me advance notice?" Blaine, leaving the door open for her and walking into the living area.
"I didn't want to lose my nerve if you said you were busy. I was actually hoping you wouldn't be here."
"Ahh, so Felicity's gone then." Blaine said, putting his hands in his pockets and nodding to himself.
"Yep, no more Felicity." Liv said. "I just came to give you your key back." Holding it out to him, however he made no move to take it.
"So my offer hasn't tempted you?" Blaine asked.
"It has, more than you know. But like I said, casual relationships aren't me." Placing the key down on the coffee table. There was a moment of silence between them, neither sure how to say goodbye. "I do however, have a counter offer." Liv said, surprising herself.
"Now you've intrigued me." Blaine said sitting down on one of the sofa's, Liv however remained standing. "And what is this counter offer?"
"I'm going to be cured one day," Liv said with more confidence than she felt. "But I don't want to be alone until then. I don't want a relationship with you, but I also don't want just sex. I want to know this new man you say you are, I want to be exclusive and I want be able to able to fully let me guard down around you. Those are my terms, what do you say?" Liv said, trying not to let her voice tremble.
"And what if you still don't like this new me?" Blaine asked, looking thoughtful.
"I guess I cross that bridge when I come to it. Do we have a deal?" Liv said holding her hand out. Blaine looked at her thoughtfully for a while, almost to the point where Liv was sure he'd say no. When suddenly he grabbed her hand and harshly pulled her down so she fell on his lap.
"You have a deal." Blaine said before capturing her lips with his own. Liv wrapped her arms round him and kissed him back. She knew that this deal was probably going to end up biting her back in the long run, but for now, in this moment, she was human again.