Dismembered 🔪 Dexter

04. Trade Secrets

"I like her." Deb decided as she walked into my open lab. She closed the door behind her, setting her mug of coffee down on my desk next to the lab paperwork I was filling out.

"She's young." I muttered back, keeping my attention on my paperwork. Deb leaned against the edge of my desk next to me, crossing her arms.

"She's only a few years younger than me. Besides, what does it fucking matter how old she is?" Deb interrogated, her voice a little sharp.

"Look, I didn't mean anything against you. What I meant is that Elena is inexperienced." I explained, setting down my pen and looking up at Deb.

"This is her first fucking job, and "inexperienced" isn't exactly how I would describe what she figured out this morning at the crime scene. God, Dex, why are you being such a fucking hardass to her? Do you have some sort of bad blood with her or something?" Deb asked. I knew there was a certain irony in what she just said.

I had to think of an explanation quickly. Deb wouldn't give up until I gave her a deep, psychological, feelings-based answer. Deb was always trying to get me to talk to her about my feelings, which is particularly difficult when you don't have any.

"I guess I'm worried she's better at my job than I am." I lied. "And I'm used to working alone. Now I'm expected to share my job with this woman I don't even know." I explained and Deb nodded, seemingly accepting my reason for my certain resentment I had displayed towards Elena.

"Well, then maybe you should get to know her more." Deb proposed and slid off the desk. She cracked the door open and popped her head out to where Masuka was showing Elena where all the assorted forensics equipment was kept in the lab. "Hey, Elena. Dex wants you." I glared at her in betrayal as she grinned and left the lab, passing by Elena as she did.

"You rang, Dex." Elena said mockingly as she hopped onto the edge of the desk where Deb had been sitting before throwing me under the bus and leaving me for dead. I rolled over in my desk chair to close the door, swirling back around to face her. She had picked up an anatomically correct heart shaped stress ball Deb had given me as a gag gift and began toying with it, tossing it up and catching it repeatedly.

"Adam Wallace." I began. I hadn't intended to bring it up, but I was curious and needed to cover for Deb's loud mouth. It seemed I didn't need to elaborate anymore as Elena jumped in to answer.

"Let's just say his office will be needing to look for a new pediatric dentist." Elena said quietly, leaning forward secretively.

"How did you get rid of the body?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Oh, we're sharing trade secrets now? That sounds almost like something partners would do." She replied satirically, crossing her arms over her chest.

"We're definitely not partners." I denied immediately. "I asked because I want to know if my ass is going to get caught up in it if you screwed."
"I didn't screw up. It was a clean dump. No witnesses, no evidence." She claimed, lowering her voice, though it had morphed into a bit of a resentful tone.

"There's always evidence. I need to make sure I'm not linked to a murder suspect."

"Do I need to remind you which one of us was strapped to a table at the mercy of the other's hands last night?" She retaliated. "Besides, I have no ties to Wallace. I knew only what I needed to know, he knew nothing. I told you. I was careful."

"How long have you been doing this? A few years?"

"How long have you been doing this?" She countered, pointing to the well covered cut on her face that I had given her the night before. "Your sister asked me what happened. I told her I was so nervous to start my new job that I slipped in the shower."