Hi there!
Prompt from Shutterbug5269: AU after Veritas, Kate gets evidence that Bracken was framed for Johanna's murder. How does she handle it?
***Before you read 1.) I changed the prompt slightly from what was requested. 2.) This is insanely AU and alot of it doesn't fit, but it was a different perspective, so keep an open mind!
Enjoy!
She thought this was over. She thought her mind would finally be at ease. She thought that she would finally be able to lift the massive weights off her shoulders and live the life she had always dreamed of; the life she worked so hard to create. What sat in front of her proved her very, very wrong.
Kate had returned home to the loft that night and found a package, addressed to her, sitting at the door. She didn't recognize the handwriting, no return address, and no shipping information. Someone had hand delivered. So she made her way inside and over to the kitchen where she placed the box on the counter and opened it carefully. Something about it seemed off, but curiosity won; it also killed the cat.
The first thing she pulled from the box was a long envelop letter with her name printed on the front in the same, blocky handwriting as the box. She set it aside and pulled out two manila envelops. One marked "pictures and newspapers", the other "evidence".
Kate's stomach flipped. Whatever this was was much bigger than she had anticipated. She started with the letter addressed to her. The seal hadn't been done so the paper slid easily from its home. It started;
Kate,
We don't know each other. But you do know my husband.
You sent Senator William Bracken to prison on charges of fraud, conspiracy, and murder.
He is innocent.
Enclosed is everything you need to know.
x.
His wife.
Kate immediately picked up the folder labeled "evidence" and spread the content on the counter. Each piece of paper held years and years of alibis, evidence, cover ups, lies, truths, scandals, murder.
She flipped through the first two pages, all of which were alibis for Senator Bracken starting from Johanna's murder, and ending just before his arrest.
The next three pages were government based documents. From what she could tell it was some sort of contract. Kate scanned the pages, pulling from it that it was a contract, but not anything that she had expected. It looked government official, but there was no state seal. The wording was off, and it was clearly too short. This wasn't Bracken's official in. At the bottom of the last page was Bracken's signature with the date. January 23, 1999.
Two weeks after Johanna was killed.
She went back to the beginning of the contract and read every single word. When she had finally done so for the third time, it finally dawned on her that this was some sort of insider organization that Bracken had become a part of.
She went back to the alibis and looked at the only date that mattered. January 9, 1999, Bracken was in D.C. for a convention. He hadn't even been in New York? But she had checked it, he had been. But what she was reading told her otherwise. With the alibi was a plane ticket, hotel bill, and credit card info.
The next document in the stack was an email between Bracken and what seemed to be a higher up. There was no discernable email address, and considering it was dated from the 90's, there was little to no chance in tracking it. It was dated to three days before the contract was signed. The text was short, no fancy words or professional scrawl.
You're in way over your head. If you don't sign that contract I'll burry you for it. You either work for me or you're done before you even start. That's a promise.
It wasn't signed.
The next couple of pages were more emails, none of which included Bracken. Kate buzzed through it, sequences of words catching her eye.
pin it on bracken
drug ring
out of the country
murder the bitch
he won't know any better
no one will ever know
If what she was reading was true, she really had been in over her head. And she still was. Bracken was framed. He was drug into this by someone higher up. Someone more powerful and more evil than he ever had been. This was huge.
There's a moment of sheer and utter panic. Bracken didn't do it. She had sent an innocent man to prison. She had destroyed someone's life as someone had hers.
Guilt flooded every corner of her body. Kate leaned on the counter, her legs shaking. She slowly lowered herself to the ground, sitting on the kitchen floor. Her eyes were fixed on the cabinet as she tried to think of some possible way that this was fake. But all the evidence she needed was right her in front of her; a little brown package all tied up with string. And she knew, deep down in her gut that if she continued through this rabbit hole of a box, she would find even more that Bracken was innocent in the murder of Johanna Beckett. Her gut never lied.
Yes, he was still guilty of the conspiracy and fraud, but he had been set up by someone who was so much more powerful and more concealed than Bracken ever had been.
Kate knew there was only one thing she could do. She had to make things right. She had to go back through all of this pain and suffering and help the man she so desperately wanted put away to begin with.
So she picked herself up off of the kitchen floor, put her hands behind her head and took a deep breath, held it, and let it go slowly. She wound her hair into a ponytail and stood before the evidence again.
Time to make things right. Time to get to work.
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xoxo