Here we go! I hope you all enjoy it, I don't have much to say so I'll just let you get reading!
Wally readjusted the tie around his neck a bit nervously, his green eyes drifting around the station in search of the correct place to go. Artemis had never let him go to the station alone before; after all, blowing their illegal cover was the most tentative part of the job. Problems would never cease if they were wanted by the government. But she'd declared him capable and sent him off with the snap of a hairband after assisting him with his tie.
His mind was still a little stuck on the way her thin fingers had deftly fixed the accessory, her sharp eyes glinting with a hint of teasing as they'd worked together to dress him up. It was almost domestic, the way she'd pulled him in front of the mirror and made sure he'd tucked in his button up. Luckily his freckles managed to hide the blush decently well.
"Special Agent Lee Evans?" A detective spoke up, catching Wally's attention as the redhead meandered around the lobby.
"Yeah, that's me," Wally grinned, shaking the hand of the detective who returned it with a grim face.
"I'm Detective Bradley. I have to say I'm surprised the FBI is interested in our case," Bradley said, scrutinizing Wally's semi-casual dress.
"Well the FBI is interested in strange cases and this is definitely something we've never seen before," Wally deflected.
"That's true," The detective let out a slight laugh, "Come with me. I'll show you the files,"
Wally followed the man through a few cinder block hallways until they reached a conference room with a few men and women going over the papers strewn across the table. Bradley shooed them away and guided the redhead to the papers from the first case.
"There have been three victims?" Wally asked, picking up a picture of the first crime scene and frowning at the blood, a husband dead on the kitchen floor. Bradley handed him the testimony of the wife who was found at the scene.
"Six, if you count the suspected murderers," Bradley explained, "All of the suspects were found with the murdered victims, all evidence points to them, and yet none remember doing it and are genuinely traumatized by the events,"
"So the suspects were all very close to the victims," Wally mused, looking over the whiteboard that had been filled with the similarities between the crimes, "How do you know that they're all genuine?" He asked, turning back to the detective.
"I know," Bradley nodded with a sigh, "I didn't believe it either at first. But we've brought in the city's best psychologists, lie detectors, and researched into the relationships between the suspects and victims. There were no stressing factors to lead up to murder and the suspects truly are disturbed and shocked by what happened,"
"Did you notice anything strange about the crime scenes?" The redhead asked, once again perusing the pictures, "Have they been cleaned yet?"
"No, all crime scenes are still available to go over, only the blood has been disposed of and there are pictures of all blood placement," Bradley explained, "And all suspects are in custody if you wish to interview them,"
"Well you have got everything nice and tidy, haven't you?" Wally smiled, glad that all the elbow grease was out of the way, "Have you discovered any link between the victims,"
"We try to keep things organized," Bradley smirked, "And besides the coincidence of the situation there is nothing in common besides the fact that they all live in this city,"
"Alright, I think I have everything I need for now, I'll contact you when my partner, Special Agent Denise Parker, and I want to interview a suspect," Wally finished, taking the file copies that Detective Bradley had made for them, "Thank you very much for your cooperation, Detective," He smiled, outstretching his hand.
Bradley shook his hand and nodded professionally, "Thank you for your assistance,"
Wally opened the door to the motel room and he was certain that he had stepped into heaven.
"Welcome back, Wallace," Artemis said, only turning slightly in the chair to glance at him from the side of her glasses, a smirk on her lips.
"Is that a hot pocket?" He whispered, dropping his stuff on Artemis's bed and walking to the steaming plate sitting on top of the microwave, "You're an angel," He mumbled delightedly.
"It's a gift, congratulations on talking to the police alone without fucking up," She turned fully around to give her partner a raised eyebrow, "You did keep our cover?" Artemis checked.
Wally only nodded through a mouthful of hot pocket, his eyes closed his bliss. Artemis laughed and stood up, striding over to her bed to retrieve the papers.
"What did you find out?" She asked as she flipped through the pages, her glasses falling down her nose. Wally joined her, wiping one of his hands on his nice pants to get rid of the grease before pushing her glasses back up, Artemis just gave him a small smile.
"Demon or cursed object," Wally declared around a mouthful of food, "Probably not a vengeful spirit. There isn't enough of a connection between the victims,"
Artemis nodded and took the files back to her laptop, "I'll read these over; got any info that isn't in them?"
"We can interview the suspects from the scene and the scenes themselves," The redhead explained, licking his fingers clean, "Man I could go for another one of these," He mumbled.
"I know, check the microwave," Artemis quipped, nodding her head toward the table it sat on. Wally gasped and ran to it, opening the door to find a plate with another already-cooked hot pocket.
"You are the best ever," He laughed, excitedly biting into it. Artemis smiled and got back to the papers.
"Okay so I found something while you were gone," The blonde spoke up, pulling up a page on her computer, "I looked for anything strange that occurred just before the first murder,"
"And?" Wally asked, leaning his head back to speak with his mouth full without projecting anything. Artemis wrinkled her nose.
"And, there were three people that went missing the day before. Searches were made, no bodies were found and they didn't find any electronic leads either,"
"Oh," Wally sighed, sitting down on his bed, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Probably," The blonde pursed her lips, "I've heard of the system before but I've never seen it,"
"It's a system?" He frowned, "Are we both talking about demons?"
"Yes," Artemis nodded, "It's called a base-body possession. Demons chose someone as kind of a home base for while they're out of hell. But sometimes they'll possess someone specific for whatever reason, and their base-body will be locked up so that they can come back whenever they want."
"Why do demons have to be smart?" Wally groaned, finished with the second hot pocket, "How do we know it's not a cursed object?" He asked.
"We don't." Artemis responded, "We'll have to interview a suspect or two," She answered with her nose in the files, "But the three missing people didn't even know each other so it's pointing toward demons,"
"I'll get out the ice cream while you finish reading," Wally declared, heading toward the mini fridge.
"Don't loosen your tie," Artemis ordered, "And if you don't share I'll use up all the hot water,"
"You got it, Babe," Wally laughed.
"Are we doing bad cop, good cop?" Wally whispered, stopping Artemis before they entered the interrogation room, his eyes bright with a bit of excitement.
"Evans, really," The blonde snorted, emphasizing his fake name, "The guy is traumatized and he's already under arrest. I don't think he's gonna hide anything,"
Wally narrowed his eyes, thinking it through, "Right," He nodded, gesturing for Artemis to lead the way. Artemis smiled slightly and pushed the door open where their suspect was waiting, handcuffed, sitting at a table.
"Clayton Bronner," Artemis started, walking in with some files tucked under her arm. She and Wally sat down at the table across from him, "We're Special Agents Denise Parker and Lee Evans,"
The broad man across from them said nothing in response, his bloodshot eyes trained sadly down at the tabletop and his hands clasped together in his lap.
"We just want to ask you a few questions about what happened, is that alright?" Wally questioned, his voice sincere. Bronner just nodded slowly and the two hunters shared a pitying glance with each other.
"It was you sister, right?" Artemis asked him softly, the crime scene photos tucked safely away from the man's view.
"Mallory," Bronner answered quickly, his voice hoarse.
"Mallory," The blonde corrected.
"Are you here to ask if I killed her?" Bronner choked out, still not meeting either of their eyes.
"Whether you physically did it or not, we're certain you weren't in your right mind when you did it," Wally explained, glad that there weren't any cops watching and that they'd turned the recorder off.
It was at this statement that Bronner seemed genuinely responsive, "It wasn't me," He frowned for a moment, "I mean, it was like..." He shrunk back in his chair a bit, closing himself off once more, "No..."
"It doesn't matter how crazy it sounds," Artemis told him.
"We won't think you're insane," Wally added, catching Bronner's eye when the man finally looked up.
Bronner gave a deep sigh and rubbed at his eyes, a few fat tears falling behind his digits, "No one else was there," He told them, his voice raspy and strained, "I could see my hands hurting her. I could hear her screaming. But it wasn't me," Bronner's hands shook as he moved them to his hair, his eyes clenched shut, "I wanted it to stop. I didn't want to hurt her. It all happened so fast, and when Mallory stopped...when she stopped moving I was in control again,"
"Mr. Bronner," Artemis started, coaxing him out of his despair, "Do you remember...saying anything to Mallory? While you weren't in control," She clarified.
"I..." Bronner frowned.
"It's alright, take your time," Wally told him.
"Uh...I think so. I remember a voice," The man scowled in confusion, "A man's voice. It didn't sound like me though,"
Wally and Artemis glanced at each other before the blonde spoke, "Thank you very much Mr. Bronner," She said, "You've been a great help,"
Bronner just nodded as they left quietly, still stewing in his own confusion and guilt.
Wally was sitting at the computer contentedly typing away as Artemis was seated on the bed with her feet crossed, her nimble fingers working through her hair to create a braid.
"I can't find any history on cursed objects that made the possessed speak," Wally spoke up, catching the blonde's attention.
"I'm telling you Wally, it's demons for sure," Artemis sighed.
"We need to be sure or someone will get hurt later," Wally declared.
"But I'm sure. All the pieces lead up to demons, nota cursed object," The blonde pointed out, wrapping the end of her braid with a hairband and flipping it to rest along her back.
"Alright," Wally huffed, leaving his chair to sit down next to Artemis, picking up her new braid and turning it over in his hands a few times curiously, "So it's demons then. What do we do next? How do we find them?"
Artemis smirked and the redhead was pleased that she continued to let him play with her new braid, "They'll have to be hiding somewhere in the city, somewhere that they won't be noticed,"
"And?" Wally pressed on, "The city's kind of big,"
"There will be sulfur around where they are too, because they'll be around there a lot. So all we need to do is walk around the city in low population areas until we find sulfur," Artemis shrugged, meeting the redheads eyes since she knew what his reaction was going to be.
"Oh my Great-Grandmother," Wally groaned, throwing himself back into the pillows.
"Did you really just say that?" Artemis laughed, swatting him on the shoulder.
"You're going to give me more ground to cover, aren't you?" He pouted, tugging on her braid again.
Artemis shrugged, "Go where I tell you, don't look at the map, and you won't even know," She smirked.
"I knew it," Wally snorted with a laugh.
"It makes sense, you can run from place to place," She smiled, scooting off of the bed and rolling her shoulders as she headed toward her favorite jacket, "Get up Wally, we've got work to do,"
"Help me up," He moaned, stretching his arms out toward her.
Artemis rolled her eyes but relented, striding over and heaving him off of the bed. Wally laughed and used the momentum to spin the blonde around a few times.
"I'll vomit on you," The blonde snickered, freeing herself and jumping back over to the bed to toss a pillow at him that he dodged.
"Really Arty, we have work to do. Get your stuff together," Wally huffed with a smile.
He didn't dodge the next pillow.
I totally made up the whole "Base body possession" term, although it is something that demons do in the show. So what do you guys think is going to happen next? Any ideas on where this is going?
Please review and let me know what you think!
Love, Veg