Arrow: the Two Archers

Chapter 27: Digging up Secrets

"Who the hell taught you to organize?"

Laurel looked up from her computer to see Thea facing Lydia's desk with a horrified expression while the other girl looked on in confusion.

"What's wrong with it?" Lydia asked.

"It's a mess! How do you even find anything here?"

"I know where things are. I can find them."

"Well, we're changing that because watching you continue to work like this will drive me insane. You're lucky my mom hasn't seen this."

Lydia looked back and forth between the desk and Thea before releasing a sigh.

"How about we go get some coffee first? Then you can provide your organizational wisdom."

Laurel couldn't help but smile at that. The two girls were not at a stage where they were able to give each other smiles that weren't at least a little forced, but she could tell that they were both making an effort to be civil and maybe try to find some common ground, which made Laurel very proud. Plus, there hadn't been another shouting match yet, so she would take her victories wherever they could be found.

The ringing of her phone pulled her away from her thoughts. The caller ID said "Dad". Which wasn't really a shock to Laurel. Ever since the break-in attempted by Vanch a few days prior, he had been making a point of having regular lunches with her. She knew they were truly a way for him to check up on her without being too overt about it, but she chose not to say anything about it. After all, it was nice to get to have these lunches with her dad, and it gave her the opportunity to get to know Lydia better too (whenever she could convince her to come along). She figured this call was likely to be him wanting to confirm that she hadn't forgotten or tried to weasel out of it. Laurel chose to humor him.

"Hey, dad."

"Hey, honey." he greeted, his voice carrying a certain undertone of fatigue.
"I'm really sorry, but I'm not gonna be able to make it to lunch today."

That was very much not what she was expecting.

"Why? Did something happen?"

"A murder. It was reported earlier today, some girl was found dead in an alley a couple blocks away from the precinct. It... I shouldn't be telling you this, but I know you're gonna ask anyway. She was killed by an arrow."

Laurel's breath hitched. It hadn't been Lydia or Oliver, she knew that for sure. Which could only mean that for some reason, the Dark Archer was back. Had he caught on that Oliver was still going after the names on the List and wanted to finally put an end to it? Was this another way of calling him out?

"It-it wasn't..."

"It wasn't the Hood or the Rogue. The arrow was black." her dad confirmed.
"Plus, the victim seems to have just been an IT girl. Doesn't fit their target profile."

That was true, but there was also another thing that her father wasn't considering. This wasn't consistent with the Dark Archer's target profile either. All his other kills had been high profile targets that were guaranteed to get reported by the news. More importantly, they were meant to get the attention of the Hood and the Rogue. They had been targets on the List. And as far as any of them knew, none of the names on the List belonged to a regular IT girl.

"Do you think it's..."

"The copycat? Most likely." her dad confirmed.
"Look, I know you've made it a habit to ignore me when it comes to this stuff lately. But please Laurel, listen to me on this one and stay clear of this mess. This guy is dangerous, a million times more than the Hood and the Rogue."