First Confrontation (Part 1)

Hannibal's Thoughts

After Hannibal dropped Will off at Quantico he made his way back to his office. On the drive there he replayed everything that had occurred in his mind. He and Will had investigated the man whose wallet they had found at the crime scene. Regardless of what was officially concluded Hannibal was quite sure the man was involved somehow. However, he had been rather surprised by the second person present. It was the same woman he had encountered twice now. The one he suspects is involved in the killings.

For the most part he had stayed quiet while Will attempt to talk to them, spending most of his time observing them. It wasn't until the girl, Jade, had left the room that he decided to interfere. Of course he had waited a while before following in the direction she had gone. He had half expected to find her gone, but instead he found her in the kitchen, stabbing a cupboard with a chef's knife.

It was then that Hannibal engaged her in conversation, studying her all the while. When he had first seen her in the living room she had been mostly aggressive, picking fights with the man she considered her brother, and taking charge in asking Will exactly what they were doing there.

In the kitchen however, she was a mixture of being a typical girl concerned with an alleyway attack, and being the fiery woman he believed her to actually be. It was a decent act, but it fell apart under an observant eye. He was sure she was better than this. Had he managed to catch her off guard? Therefore, he was quite pleasantly surprised when she dropped most of her act. She had gotten very defensive, and all but got in his face to tell him Liam was innocent. Clearly, she cared for Liam, but how far would she be willing to go for him? How far could he push her?

The only problem was this contradicted his initial analysis of her. When he had suspected there was more than just one person doing the killing, he had figured she was only the lure and her partner committed the actual murder. Not unlike what he suspected of Abigail. But he had a glimpse of the true her now. He had to wonder if this partnership was more balanced than he had originally thought. Was this a case of two killers working alongside one another? Aiding each other? Covering each other's backs?

Either way she was rather interesting, but she could also pose a problem. He would have to do some research on her. Figure out if she and her partner would be in his way or not. But he would have to make sure Will wasn't aware of what he was doing. He wasn't sure why, but for some reason he wanted to keep his theories to himself. To keep the girl to himself, until he knew everything he needed to know.