I'll Track You Down

Let's get your story straight

I typically like questions without one clear answer, or at least not clear yet. But all of these events keep occurring and it feels like all these dominos are falling but not from the same chain reaction.

I'm just trying to keep it together, and hope I don't make a fool of myself when I start to actually investigate this case.

I spend the rest of the day trying to work, but Caspian's words stick with me.

So when everyone starts to pack up and leave and when I don't see Decker in sight, I push the button I'd been dreading the whole day.

Straightening my shoulders and pulling my hair into a ponytail keeps me occupied on the ride down.

"Why are you getting so worked up about this man?" I whisper to myself. My head is spinning with a million thoughts and I don't understand why I haven't made any progress on Malgrave and why I'm walking to a cell with an idiot on the other side, just so I can confirm
something that most likely isn't true.

I go to open the door when a guard stops me, I flash my ID and he backs down right away. I push my face into a straight line and brace myself.

Unlocking the steel door makes me realize that I probably shouldn't be down here, and that this could end very badly. But I dismiss the thought.

"I am Kalisa Warner." I say to myself. "I have nothing to fear." I confidently walked into the room and shut the door behind me. He's sitting down on the creaky bed in the corner of the room, most likely because it hurts too much to stand.

Caspian's dark hair seems to be pointing in every direction possible and the huge bags under his eyes could fit a whole ocean. His nose seems to have stopped bleeding but his lip still looks pretty bad. He's now wearing an orange jumpsuit and I look down to see his ankles are cuffed together.

"Good afternoon Kali." He says playfully.

"It's the evening." I say, not breaking eye contact, there's no windows in his cell so I doubt he has a good sense of what time it is.

"Whatever. Anyways, welcome to my cell, it's not too bad, but if you're feeling thirsty or hungry there's not much I can do for you." He's not wrong, the space is basically a rectangular room with a bed and toilet.

"Good thing I'm not here for the amenities."

"Are you here for my company then?" He asks sheepishly. "Good timing on your part because I won't be here in a few days."

"What is with your insistence that you will be escaping, you've committed a large number of crimes in the past 36 hours, stalking, attempted kidnapping, and whatever you've done before for other jobs." I cross my arms. "There's no way you're going to get out of here." He just smiles.

"Kali, you only look at things the logical way. I know it wasn't logical for me to hold back when they broke my ribs if I was just going to spill it later, but-"

"Then why the hell did you do it?!" I raise my voice.

"Because I needed to see you again." He looks down. "I knew that if I didn't cooperate that they would send you in."

"What for?" I exhale slowly. "It's not like I can help you, and even if I could, there is no way-"

"It's not because of that." Caspian takes a deep breath out. "I would have answered all your questions if you wanted me to, but they were listening on the other side. So I couldn't tell you what I knew. It basically ruined everything."

"Are you so confident that I wouldn't tell Decker? And what's in it for you if you answer everything? We aren't exactly best friends."

"I know you won't tell, I'm here to offer you a deal." Caspian raises his head and looks at me, pools of blue sinking into my emerald. I throw my arms in the air exasperated.

"Care to share with the rest of the class?" I say, annoyed.

"Gladly." He says while standing up, I suddenly realize he's around a foot taller than me, but I straighten my posture, straighten my spine and throw my shoulders back."I have information on the Malgrave." I place a hand to my mouth. "I will give it to you Kali, no question about it, but only if you help me get out of here."

"I thought you said you could get out of here by yourself." I say while crossing my arms.

"I could if I wanted to, but there are many cracks in my plan that I can't fill, and once they figure out that you'd have a source of contact with me, they wouldn't let you go."

"Wouldn't that still apply if I let you out?"

"Not if you come with me."