❝you're in danger here, spencer.❞
❝we'll worry about that later. right now all that matters is you and me.❞
hazel finley is afraid. afraid of being alone. afraid of losing the people she loves. afraid of making mistakes. afraid of falling back into...
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❝I felt a tremendous distance between me and everything real.❞
HUNTER S. THOMPSON
✩
2.6: steel reserve and winstons
IT IS TWO LONG, UTTERLY AGONIZING DAYS OF STARING AT COMPUTER SCREENS BEFORE PENELOPE AND FIN FIND SOMETHING NEW ON ESTHER. Fin thinks she might have memorized Esther's prison Internet history (she stalked Lars' Facebook page a lot), and every time a video of the trial comes up, Penelope hisses and clears the tab out, like it's something entirely offensive. Fin isn't annoyed; in fact, she finds herself loving Penelope more than ever.
But today is their breakthrough day. Fin is eating a turkey and avocado panini–Spencer surprised her with lunch from her favorite sandwich shop–and watching Penelope create a database of security cameras based on Esther's proximity to Fin's old apartment, the BAU, and the abandoned building in downtown Quantico, when her phone rings.
Quickly, Fin swallows her bite of sandwich and pulls it out. It's Ethan. She pushes her chair back, hurrying back out into the hallway so she doesn't bother Penelope, and answers it. "Hey."
"We've had a breakthrough." Ethan's voice is low, excited, nearly out-of-breath. "We've had a bloody break!"
"What are you talking about?" Already, Fin's heart is beginning to race.
"You remember when we went to the building in Quantico, and we looked at the photos, and you said that she likely stole a credit card, yes?"
"Yeah..." Fin replies slowly, attempting to keep her voice level so Penelope doesn't think something is wrong. Ethan's starting to scare her. "Why?"
"I had Blair's team searching for credit cards reported stolen and purchases matching the types of camera and lens she bought, and we weren't coming up with anything at all, even when we searched in Mississippi, in surrounding states, and in Virginia. There was absolutely nothing."
"Ethan, get to the point, for God's sake." Fin rubs her forehead with her fingertips, her heart thudding in her throat. "The suspense is killing me."
"So then, just yesterday, I had a rather insane thought," Ethan continues, more excited than she's ever heard him. "What if she didn't steal a credit card in America? What if she thought she'd be clever and steal one in Mexico, so that she'd be off ours and the Prison Bureau's radar?"
Fin's heart stutters. Oh my god. "And?"
"Three months after she was released from prison, a man named Jorge Vasquez and his wife Juana were stabbed to death in their home in San Fernando, and when the police searched their house, both their credit cards and all their cash was missing, but nothing else. In light of the recent massacres, they assumed it was cartel-related and no further investigation was done. But Jorge and Juana were dual citizens. They moved back from Corpus Christi to take care of Juana's mother, who was ill. The credit cards she stole were American."
