What Kind of Man || Jim Moriarty

Twelve

"We have an opening." Moriarty continued on from his dramatic 'consulting' statement, watching her with amused eyes and a squinted smile. "I have a lot going on out there in the big bad world. But there's more that could be done, so much more. You mentioned you were a maid?" With a quirked brow, he noticed her face fall in a flash and her back straightened like a wooden pole was shoved down her dress.

"I'm a cleaner, not a maid." Oh she was so sweet it almost sickened him.

"Same difference." Moriarty shrugged and dismissed her glare directed his way. "Well, lucky for you...some of my own clients are in need of a maid-cleaner." He picked up the napkin, laying where his knife had been placed and wiped off his hands.

"Clients? Like me?" He voice was small, unmatched to the heat in her eyes. But her tone was questioning.

"Exactly. For example cast your mind back to yesterday when you murdered two innocent people." The bastard really was something else. Just when Lucy thought she had his personality figured out, as much as one could in their short meetings, he would do something which sent him even lower in her estimations. Her eyes glazed with anger, Lucy bit down hard on the inside of her lips. "Oh don't look at me like that, they were going to die one day no matter what." As Moriarty started to laugh, she forcefully relaxed before he managed to spin her thoughts again. "Anyway, picture that situation but it's a little more off the books. It's needs cleared up, everything needs to disappear. Bodies, blood, other awful substances like that. DNA." The air was still as Jim prepared his next question and she poised herself for the likelihood of it being another dig. But it wasn't, instead this voice came was softer than she had ever heard it. "You think I could trust you to do that for me?"

"I don't fully understand." Moriarty's voice had swirled into her ears just like his fingers had danced across her hands and, shamefully, it made her unable to focus. Both times. She needed to be told straight and he knew that.

"You haven't got the money to pay? For the first time and the last time I'm going to make an exception. Instead of walking away...like I probably should, I'll let you work it off." There was no doubt he was becoming frustrated.

"Work it off? For you?"

"Who else?" He frowned, a crease forming in his brow. "I'll make you disappear but you will work when I tell you to work. Do what I tell you to do. Etcetera Etcetera..." Moriarty waved his hand around by his head. "It won't be easy, I hope for your sake you have a strong stomach because some of my clients, well they can be a little violent." Lucy's stomach twisted just at his words as they sent the images of Peter Samson's lifeless body crashing to the floor, back to her memory.

"Just cleaning?" She asked what she thought was a harmless question, but was proven to be mistaken when Moriarty's hand slammed against the table top. Their cutlery jangled against the China and ripples disturbed their wine.

"No not just cleaning! Aren't you listening? If you don't do something properly, if you slack, you could end up endangering my work and my clients. You could give me a bad reputation. It wouldn't just be sweeping dirt under the rug and hoping no one notices."

"You said off the books? It would be illegal." It was more of a statement to herself than a question for Moriarty. It made her think. She'd spent the past 24 hours mixed up in the wrong side of the law and she hated it, did she really want to step into a life...a new life, of working in it? Although she wouldn't be on her own, it would be part of a business with a boss. For some reason, that made it much more attractive to her. It was just like she was stepping into a job just like she did now, only under new management.

"I'm asking you to dispose of murdered corpses Lucy, of course it's not legal." Moriarty scoffed at her and swigged the last of his wine before retrieving the bottle from the cooler, and filling up both of their glasses. "Maybe I was wrong, you're not different or interesting..." Placing the bottle down, Moriarty turned his full attention back to Lucy and watched her through narrowed eyes. "You're so safe like the rest of them. On the side of the Angels."