Chapter Two
"You really wanna know my diabolical pickle plan?"
"Okay," Steve says as they sit down. "What the hell was that out there?"
The deli is small, a mom and pop shop ten minutes from Linda Harker's house. Steve had stayed quiet throughout the entire car ride there, but Leila could see the wheels turning in his head as he tried to figure out what was going on in hers. She had pretended not to notice the way he kept glancing over at her.
It's only now, after they've ordered and sat down, that he's finally confronting her.
"You know what they say about women." Leila shrugs. "Can't drive for shit."
He looks at her, unamused, but she refuses to continue. If he wants answers, he can dig for them. Doesn't mean he'll find them.
(Because even if she were inclined to share her innermost feelings with the guy, how, exactly, is she supposed to explain that she had an out-of-body experience because some lady was kind of an asshole about her son?)
"Look," he says. "Something spooked you in there-"
"I wasn't-"
"I know fear when I see it," he snaps. "And ordinarily I'd let it go, but we're partners on this, and you need to tell me if it's about the case."
She stares at him. That's really his baggage? He thinks she's withholding information about the case? Jesus.
"Whatever you think you saw in there," she says finally, trying to keep the venom out of her voice, "has nothing to do with the case. You know everything I know."
He studies her for a long moment. The cook calls out their order. Three foot long breakfast sandwiches for Steve, one turkey sub for Leila. No super-metabolism. She'd ended up giving up the super-soldier serum to pick up a few old standby powers before they left for New York.
"Fine," he says as he stands up to get their food. He still has questions, she can tell; she's just not sure if he'll ask them.
They eat in silence for the most part, but some of the tension dissolves as they do, and their silence becomes almost companionable.
"I have a question," Steve says when they're almost done. Despite ordering three times as much food as her, he also seems to be eating three times as fast.
"I probably don't have an answer," Leila replies noncommittally, her walls coming back up.
"Why did you order pickles specifically and then pick them out when you got your order?"
She blinks-not what she was expecting-and then grins.
"You really wanna know my diabolical pickle plan?"
He leans back and gestures to her. "I'm all ears."
"I like the sandwich to have a kind of pickle-ish taste, without the pickle texture," she explains. "Too crunchy."
"Wow, that's brilliant," he deadpans, and she smiles.
"Learned it from an old friend."
They don't get back to the case until they're back in the car, for the sake of privacy. Leila pulls out her phone-Stark Tech, SHIELD issued-and runs a background check on Declan O'Neil, the kid who made the fission generator that Harker sabotaged.
There's not much to check. He's on track to be Midtown's Valedictorian at the end of his senior year, and as far as they can tell, hasn't gotten into any trouble-not even a detention in his entire school career.
"Very few insecurities to exploit," Leila says thoughtfully.
"A very reasonable thing to say about a teenage boy," Steve replies, but there's no real malice in it. Still, she rolls her eyes on principle.
"Didn't Linda Harker say the kid who showed up that night had red hair?" Leila doesn't really want to go back to their conversation with her, but it's important.
"I thought so. Why?"
Leila holds up her phone, showing O'Neil's student photo.
Black hair.
Declan O'Neil doesn't know anything, and didn't show up on Harker's mother's doorstep at any point. That's what he says, anyway, and Leila's inclined to believe him, given his general body language plus his hair color.
He does give them a lead, though.
"If you wanna know who stalked Harker, talk to Cameron Nolan," he says. "He was the one eating lunch in his classroom every day."
A quick check with the school confirms that while there's no Cameron Nolan at the school, there is a Camden Nolan, a junior with red hair, who was known among the staff as Harker's protege.
"Wanna know the icing on the cake?" Leila tells Steve in the car after relaying all of this.
"I'm sure you're gonna tell me."
"Harker was helping with Nolan's science project. Guess what it was."
"No."
"It was a barcode that could hack the system that scanned it."
Steve's eyes light up in understanding. "That's how Harker got into the bank."
"Dollars to dimes, Rogers."
Unlike O'Neil, Camden Nolan's history is somewhat troubled-a lot of detention, a lot of unexplained absences, and a lot of bullying (with himself on the receiving end)-but it's nothing compared to his twin sister.
Maybe it's because Teresa, going by her grades, doesn't have the same computer science outlet as her brother, but going over her records, Leila has a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. Constant fights, every Saturday in detention (when she bothers to show up), and the pièce de résistance, setting her house on fire a little over a year ago. She only dodged juvie thanks to strings pulled by her wealthy step-father, Richard Harris.
The Harris residence is the quintessential house on the hill. It's not Stark levels of gratuitous luxury, but the family is clearly well-off. The driveway is three times as long as it should be, the lawn is perfectly manicured, and it's three stories high-four, if you count the finished basement she's positive they have.
Leila raps her knuckles against the door three times in quick succession, and it takes a moment-Leila's almost about to knock again-before who she assumes must be Anne-Marie Harris answers the door. She's dressed immaculately, even though Leila knows she doesn't have plans that night, which means she dresses that way in her spare time-either because she likes dressing that way and public appearances have nothing to do with it, or, conversely, because she's so invested in public appearances that she keeps them up even when there's no public around, just in case.
Anne Marie smiles sweetly.
"How can I help you two?" she asks.
"I'm Agent Whittaker, this is Agent Rogers, we're with SHIELD." As much as Leila enjoys lying, her background check showed that both Nolan twins have an interest in the Avengers, and she can't risk her first words to these people being a lie that they can catch. "We just wanted to ask your son a few questions about his teacher, Felix Harker."
Anne Marie's smile tightens. "By all means, come in," she says with a sort of strained hospitality.
The parlor opens into a huge dining area adjacent to a gorgeous kitchen. She glances over and catches the eye of a middle-aged man she assumes must be Richard Harris, who smiles and comes to greet them.
"And who are our guests?" he asks his wife, pecking her cheek.
"I'm Agent Whittaker, this is Agent Rogers. We wanted to talk to your son Camden about his teacher."
Richard's smile fades a little. "Right. Well, you're welcome to talk to him. He should be upstairs."
Leila nods. "Just one question for you two, quickly. We have reason to believe that your son visited his teacher's mother's house in the middle of the night two weeks ago. Do you know anything about that?"
Anne Marie shakes her head. "No, that couldn't have been our Camden. He'd never go out like that on a school night."
Leila doesn't believe her.
"Okay," she says, adopting a variation on Anne Marie's faux-sweetness. "We'll just go talk to him then."
Camden isn't there.
They ask a maid where his room is, and it's empty. Steve, thankfully, doesn't object when she pokes around a few other rooms; apparently he's sensing something wrong with the whole dynamic, too.
"What now?"
"We wait," Leila says, collapsing onto Camden's computer chair. "And if he doesn't show up, we come back tomorrow."
They spend an hour and a half there, Leila reading comics she found on the kid's bookshelf (he's a particular fan of Captain America, she finds), and Steve sitting on the bed, reading something on his phone.
Finally, checking the time, she stands up. "Let's go, super soldier," she says, shifting her weight to the balls of feet to stretch. "I don't think he's gonna be here anytime soon."
Steve sighs and gets to his feet. "What time do we come back tomorrow?"
"It's Friday night. If he's out this late, he'll be sleeping in."
"So we get here earlier," Steve says. "Throw him off his game."
She smirks. "A very reasonable thing to say about a teenage boy."
On their way out, Richard is in the kitchen again, but he sees them about to leave and comes over to see them out.
"Did you get everything you needed?" Richard asks.
"He wasn't-" Steve starts, but Leila steps on his foot. It's better that they don't know. If they find out Camden embarrassed them, he'll be punished, and less likely to open up the next day.
"He was very helpful. We'd just like to come by tomorrow morning for some follow up questions…" she pauses as a flash of red catches her eye. Richard follows her gaze, turning around.
"Tessa!" Richard calls, and the girl jumps, turning around. She looks exactly like she did in the pictures in her file-short, scrawny, covered with bruises. Her eyes are wide and wary as she looks from her stepfather to Steve to Leila.
She comes over, keeping her step-father at arm's length, but he reaches over to touch her shoulder and gently pull her closer to him.
"This is my step-daughter, Tessa. Cam's twin sister."
Tessa studies Leila warily, and everything about the scene-Richard's hand on her shoulder, the way she's flinching away from him, the way she's looking at them all like she's ready for some kind of fight-sends off alarm bells.
She finds herself splitting again, watching the room like a movie.
Steve extends a hand. "Tessa," he says. "I'm St-"
"I know who you are," Tessa says. "My brother's obsessed with you."
"Don't be shy, Tessa," Richard says, "we know you're a fan, too."
Steve glances at Leila, like he's waiting for the told-you-so look, but Leila's too focused on Richard's hand on Tessa's shoulder. Her eyes trace his fingernails, the pattern on Tessa's sweater.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
"Right," Steve says, letting his hand fall to his side. "This is-"
"We have to be going," Leila says. "We'll be back tomorrow. Thank you for your time."
She sets a hand on Steve's shoulder and guides him to the doorway-or maybe it's her that needs a guide. She doesn't have it in her to care.
Right before they leave, Leila turns back, and sees Tessa Nolan watching her with enormous brown eyes from over her step-father's shoulder.