A Shot in the Dark

That wasn't me

"I should have killed her when I got the chance" Villanelle said out of the blue, with her arms crossed behind her head. They were still laying in bed, naked. It was surreal to see the abrupt shift in Villanelle. Eve couldn't fathom the speed in which the other woman could go from looking carefree and full of emotions, to the cold, emotionless person she met some years before.
    "What?" the brunette asked.
    "They once asked me to kill Carolyn" she replied as a matter of fact, still looking at the ceiling. "She was in Havana and Helene was the one handing me the orders"
    Eve looked puzzled.
    "You know" she rolled to face her. "She said she came visit me at the orphanage once"
    Eve was even more confused.
    "Yeah, I actually don't remember her" she said frowning as to grasp some thought that might reveal some insight. "I frankly don't believe she did. It was probably another of her manipulative ways of getting me to do some dirty work. She went on and on about how good I was at doing what I did and that day I ended up killing a man, a Russian agent, that was tortured by order of Helene"
    That surely sounded like something Carolyn might do, especially with the truth that resurfaced, her being the one who actually helped the Twelve to be a reality in the first place. Not to mention how she sold Villanelle out to Raymond when they were in Rome.
    "You once told me that if I went high enough, I'd probably find we worked for the same people"
    "Not so surprising anymore, isn't it?" Villanelle asserted. Then smiled when she noticed the look on Eve's face. The revelation finally coming to her.
    "Wait!" Eve pushed herself on a sitting position. "Rome! She was too much interested in wanting to find out Aaron Peel's weapon. And as soon as you killed him, all the evidence of MI6 ever being there was immediately cleaned. She wanted it to happen, she wanted you to kill Aaron"
    Everything was starting to fall in place. The cyber-weapon Aaron Peel was trying to sell was indeed something that could have ruined Carolyn's plans, for it could reveal her hidden plans and secrets; let's not forget that during the time they were working at the MI6 the older woman literally kept no records of what she was doing.
    "Right?" Villanelle raised an eyebrow. "It's like she wanted me to remain an assassin, even more that the Twelve. When I asked her to work for her as something else other than an assassin, she literally told me I was of no use"
    "But why all this? Why playing these games with both MI6 and the Twelve?"
    "I think she's only loyal to herself" she whispered, by then her attention was caught by something else. Eve shifting on a sitting position made her breasts too visible for Villanelle to keep her lust in check. The conversation was soon forgotten and replaced by another session of steamy sex.

***

    As Villanelle moved around the kitchen to make some quick breakfast, Eve was at the table, on her laptop. That device seemed to have become a third limb.
    "When I was at the hospital you were admitted to, Pam told me that Carolyn was determined to get back to work at MI6" she kept tapping on the keyboard. "And said that she couldn't go back empty-handed. So killing you would have been a free pass"
    "I think she knew all along that we had Helene's phone"
    Villanelle was right. Eve could remember with what mocking seriousness Carolyn spoke to her when they met at the Barn Swallow, the pub by MI6. It couldn't be a coincidence. She knew what she was going to do that night, and she had been planning it for a long time.
    "...and do something different" the words echoed in Eve's mind. That something different being Villanelle's attempted murder.
    "Hey!" Villanelle yelled, making Eve jump, waking her up from the revery. "Eat the pancakes" and blinked her eyes in a cute way.
    They ate mostly in silence as to find some connections between the vast sea of mixed and tangled informations collected through the years. But the more they tried to understand Carolyn's intricate double-play, the more confused they would get. Puffing her cheeks, Villanelle took the remote and turned the tv on. She was hating that silence, and she didn't like being bored.
    As they both gave themselves playful and flirty glances between bites to the pancakes, the News presenter's voice on the tv was like an undefined noise. Until Villanelle's smile dropped and her eyes fell on the tv.
    "What?" Eve was mid-smile when she turned around.
    "...the body was found last night. According to authorities it's a murder. When the man's family didn't see him go back home, they raised the alarm. The images they found were gruesome..."
    "Is that..." Eve started to speak. Recognizing the place Villanelle paid a visit the day before. "What the fuck?" she turned around to look at her again, questioning her.
    "Eve" she looked at her sternly. "That wasn't me"