The Adventure Continues

[abrightboy]

For thatsfascinating.



The villa Malcolm rented was in the Languedoc, not far from Marseilles, south of Avignon. It was a very historic region, though Malcolm was particularly not interested in visiting Marseilles again. There was a charming village nearby the villa and if they were going to go to an historic city for a day, he'd rather make the trip over to Montpellier, where he'd never been at all, much less with Dr Whitly.

The villa had six bedrooms. As the driver brought their luggage inside the bright and spacious main room, Malcolm handed him some folded Euros and thanked him and shut the door behind him.

"First choice of a room is yours," he told Edrisa with a smile. "But you might want to explore first."

Comments

[thatsfascinating]

Edrisa might not have had a lot to offer in the conversation between Malcolm and Eve, but there was no way she wasn't going to be by his side as he walked into this. Malcolm was strong, and maybe he wouldn't need her, but if he did, if things went bad, she was going to be there.

Seeing Eve for the first time, Edrisa couldn't help but remember how Mrs. Whitly had been angling for Malcolm to become involved with her. How terrible would that have been, if the realization that the woman was taking advantage of Malcolm's family had come within the context of Malcolm allowing himself to be intimate, and therefore vulnerable, with her. He dodged a bullet there, and Edrisa was glad of it.

She sat as Eve bid, watching the woman carefully. Edrisa didn't have Malcolm's talents when it came to reading people, not by a long shot, but she still wanted to keep her eyes open, to be able to do all she could to protect Malcolm if necessary.

Eve looked up and considered Malcolm for a moment as he asked for a photo. Then she reached for her purse and pulled out a photograph. She looked at it for a moment, then handed it wordlessly to Malcolm.

[abrightboy]

He needed Edrisa there. Nothing was more fraught for him, emotionally, than the search for the girl in the box.

Malcolm took the picture and looked at it and then just stared at it in silence, his hand already starting to shake faintly.

She was there, in the box, stripped to her underwear, groggy, blinking at the sudden light from the trunk opening. Something covers his mouth; it smells of chemical. He's in the back of the station wagon. Something is moving, squirming in the back, in the dark. He reaches over the seat and pulls back the blanket. He sees her face. He's grabbed from behind again.

It seemed like his whole body was trembling by the time he set the photograph reverently on the desk. Slowly his eyes lifted from where he'd carefully set it to Eve's face. She had stilled and was watching him. She had to have known what the answer would be but she said nothing.

"It's her," Malcolm said, barely above a whisper.

Eve's face crumpled and she covered her face with her hand.

"I'm sorry," Malcolm told her sincerely. "Who is she?" he asked gently.

Eve took a moment to collect herself. "Her name is Sophie. She's my sister," Eve explained quietly. "We were separated when our mother died. I went to an orphanage; she ran away to New York. But she used to write to me, until one day, she stopped."

"You thought she was a victim of human trafficking," Malcolm surmised. Hence her work. "Until you didn't. What changed?"

"I worked on taking down human traffickers for years, but I've never found a single clue to where she went. Then I saw a documentary on the Surgeon and her disappearance happened a couple of weeks before his arrest."

Malcolm nodded, reaching almost absently for the comfort of Edrisa's hand.

[thatsfascinating]

Edrisa saw that tremor and knew instantly that the girl in the picture was the girl in the box. She moved her hand over to touch his leg, reminding him she was there, offering support and grounding. When he reached for her hand she took his and squeezed firmly.

"We need to talk to him," she said softly, mostly to Malcolm. "We need to talk to the Surgeon."

She knew it was the last think Malcolm wanted to do, but as far as Edrisa could tell, it was the only thing to be done.

[abrightboy]

He looked down at their hands intertwined and nodded tightly.

“But we can’t just go there and ask him. He won’t tell us. I’ve asked him a hundred times and he won’t even admit she exists.”

[thatsfascinating]

/*-"But he can't deny it now," she pointed out, then looked at Eve. "Not to both of you." She turned her gaze back to Malcolm and squeezed his hand. "He can't just say you were imagining things. You have evidence. The Surgeon might be your father, but in this case he's a murder suspect. We know how to deal with suspects."

She looked at Eve again. "Do you think you could face him?"

Eve tightened her jaw and nodded firmly.

[abrightboy]

"We have no evidence that he actually had her. He won't just admit it. It won't take just going there. It's going to take manipulation. Emotional blackmail. He's a malignant narcissist. We have to go there to take away what he wants. Then he might tell us. It's a long game. It won't happen right then." He looks between Edrisa and Eve. "Are you both up for that?" He held up his hand. "And remember that Nietzche warned to be careful when you battle monsters, lest you become a monster."

[thatsfascinating]

Edrisa knew that becoming the monster his father was was Malcolm's worst fear.

"You're not your father," she said softly, squeezing his hand. "If we have to manipulate him to get answers...then that's what we do. We know what he wants. You."

[abrightboy]

"I can't do what needs done. I can't light the fuse. He'll shrug it off from me." He looked between Eve and Edrisa. "One of you has to do it."

"I'll do it," Eve said immediately, her chin jutting out a little.

"You don't even know what 'it' entails," Malcolm pointed out.

"If it helps us find out what happened to my sister, I don't care what 'it' is."

[thatsfascinating]

Edrisa glanced at Eve and nodded back. She admired the woman's determination, even if she didn't like how she had deceived the Whitlys.

"What is 'it'?" Edrisa asked turning back to Malcolm.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm understood why she did it. His mother was mad but... Malcolm had crossed lines in his search for answers before. He knew what it was like.

"You have to demean him. Tell him he's nothing to his face. Then we leave, on the condition that I'm willing to talk to him again when he's ready to tell us the truth. But the first part is the important part. He's a profound narcissist. He needs to feel important. He has to believe you think he's garbage. We leave only one door for him to regain status."

[thatsfascinating]

A smile played on Eve's lips. "I think I can do that."

"Me too," Edrisa promised. "I can help convince him that he'll never see us again unless he relents and cooperates."

[abrightboy]

"And he has to understand what little esteem we hold him in, for keeping this information to himself," Malcolm added, looking between them again to see that they understood.

[thatsfascinating]

"Oh, that won't be hard," Edrisa answered. "He's terrible for what he's done to you." She looked at Eve. "What he's done to you both."