LAUGHTER LINES, spencer reid.

chapter twenty six

LAUGHTER LINES
chapter twenty six

"What a crazy bitch!" Lizzie yelled angrily, tugging at her newly handcuffed wrist. She kicked at the ground in frustration. She glared up at the ceiling. "Do you hear me! You are a crazy bitch!" she continued to pace in her small amount of space. She let her temper flare up again and nothing could contain her anger any more.

Gwen leaned against the wall letting her own handcuffed wrist fall to her side. She had just spent the past few minutes explaining a long convoluted reason for Adrienne Foster's revenge. All of this had made Gwen emotionally tired on top of the physical exhaustion that had settled in a couple hours ago. She couldn't fall asleep. Not when there was a homicidal maniac a floor above and her niece standing next to her.

Lizzie huffed and snapped her head towards Gwenevere. "Grandpa didn't kill this Matthew guy," she said pointedly, almost as if Gwen was the one suggesting such a heinous act. "The guy died in prison. My mom told me when it happened."

Gwen nodded slowly, blinking to wake herself up slightly. With a sigh, she slid her gaze towards Lizzie. "Matthew Turner is… was Adrienne's boyfriend fourteen years ago." Gwen lifted her handcuffed hand up to brush the swollen cut on her forehead. She let out a soft groan and rested he head against the wall once more. "Grandpa put him in jail, where Matthew died from injuries sustained during a prison riot. Grandpa asked to open up an investigation, but found it unnecessary when the assailant confessed from his prison cell.

"The gangster that did it thought that thirty years in prison for killing a child wasn't enough of a punishment.

"There wasn't some conspiracy or anything like that, but Adrienne managed to turn this news of an inter-prison gang killing into some twisted piece of logic in her head. A logic that puts my father in the hot seat. She thinks he set the ball in motion by putting Turner with the general public." Gwen pushed her hair out of her eyes before continuing. She waived a hand around their surroundings. "And now… she's done this."

Lizzie growled unpleasantly, studying the basement and its furniture. There was nothing within her reach that she could use to get free. Escape didn't really seem like an option when Adrienne's accusations made Lizzie worry even more. How could anyone possibly think that her grandfather was responsible for a death in prison outside of Metro police control? Prisons were controlled by the county, the state, or even the federal government. Not a city- or district, she thought, police force.

James Thompson also wasn't that kind of man. He would do anything to protect his daughter but arranging a murder was simply out of the question. He's a good guy, Lizzie thought, troubled.

Lizzie took a moment to direct her attention towards her aunt. Before Adrienne had left the basement, she had made a snide comment about the basement light keeping Gwen awake. Gwen had bruises up and down her arms, a few on her face, dark bags under her eyes, and a decent sized cut on her forehead. Lizzie could tell that it was taking nearly all of Gwen's remaining strength just to stand up.

"What are we going to do?" Lizzie asked.

Gwen slid down the wall, closing her eyes for a moment's rest. Before, she could have given up the fight and waited for help to come. When Lizzie was brought into the picture, the tables had been turned making escape a priority and not an option. "I can't do much if I'm handcuffed," she said tiredly. "If I was free, maybe, just maybe, I could get us out of this mess. Until then, start thinking about how to fend off Brutus."