Broken

Designer Complicity

I woke up to my cellphone ringing surrounded by the copies of The Surgeon's case files I'd picked up from Ashlyn in Philadelphia. I'm not sure what it said about me that I could drift into dreamless sleep surrounded by those brutal words and images.
"Malcolm?" I answered the phone.
"Lily. I did something stupid and Gabrielle is not happy, to put it mildly. Can you come get me?" He asked.
Gabrielle was Malcolm's therapist.
"What did you do?" I countered.
"So, when I was talking to Professor Brown she said that scents can unlock repressed memories." He said pretending to be innocent.
"I could have told you that. What did you do, Malcolm?" I asked again.
"The memory I'm trying to unlock is what happened directly after my father knocked me out with chloroform."
I sighed.
"Where did you even get chloroform?" I asked.
"How did you know?" He feigned surprise.
"Do not patronize me, Malcolm. I've known you for twenty one years."
"It's not as hard as you'd think to order chloroform online." He explained.
"I should hit you." I sighed again.
"Will you come?" He asked.
"Have I ever not?"
I hung up the phone and got up to get dressed.
I wore dark blue jeans with a dark red V neck tshirt, a black leather jacket and black steel toe boots.
"What happened to your hand?" I asked when Malcolm opened my car door.
"You look nice." Malcolm said climbing into the car.
I turned to glare at him.
"I'm serious, Malcolm. What happened?"
"You're always so pretty when you're mad at me." He smiled at me.
"I hate you. I hope you know that." I sighed.
"No, you don't. While I was talking to Gabrielle I got stressed out and I shattered the water glass I was holding." He smiled again.
"You really shouldn't mess with chloroform, Malcolm. You can't be sure you can trust what you saw. Did you clean it out?" I sighed again.
"Of course I cleaned it out. I'm not completely insane. You don't even know what I saw." He countered.
"That's my point. It doesn't matter what you saw. It's out of context."
"So, you don't want to hear about it?"
"Of course I want to hear about it. I'm just trying to keep you grounded."
"I do have a hard time with that." He admitted.
"I know. Now, tell me what you saw."
"I was in the basement on a night my parents were going to a fundraiser. Mom was wearing a red dress when she found me. She yelled at me and grabbed my arm pulling me away from a trunk. She told me that my father's things were off limits and when I tried to tell her about the girl she said it didn't concern me." He explained.
"Do you think she knew what he was doing?" He asked after I didn't respond.
"I don't know. I know she loves you and Ainsley. I don't think she'd have knowingly let him kill twenty three people." I answered honestly.
He sighed.
"Maybe."
I shook my head gently as my cellphone rang.
"Yeah, Gil." I answered hitting the speaker phone.
"Is Malcolm with you?" He asked.
"I'm here." Malcolm answered himself.
"I'm going to send you two the address for our new crime scene." Gil explained.
"Sure. We'll be right there." I answered.
"Tatiana Moore." JT explained as Malcolm and I walked into the large open space.
"She was a model and a social media influencer and no I don't know what that is so don't ask." Gil added.
I chuckled softly shaking my head.
In the center of the room was a bath tub filled with blue water. The woman in the tub was also blue with gold glitter.
"The killer clearly has an eye for detail and design." Malcolm said walking around the bathtub.
"The scene mirrors an outdoor campaign TT did a while back." JT told us pulling up a picture on his phone and showing it to us.
My phone rang and I looked down at the caller ID:  Evan
"I'm sorry. I have to take this." I excused myself from the scene.
"Hello." I answered stepping out onto the sidewalk.
"Have you heard from mom or dad?" He asked me as I started walking over to lean against my car.
"No. Honestly, you'd hear from them before I would." I answered as Gil and Malcolm walked out of the apartment building.
"Why?" I asked watching their interaction with what I assumed to be the victim's boyfriend.
"They were supposed to call from Egypt yesterday and never did." He explained.
"Evan, you know how they are. They probably just forgot." I sighed.
"Maybe. Doesn't it feel like something's wrong?" He asked.
"No. It feels like normal mom and dad shit. This is what they do. They did it when we were kids too. Disappear for days or weeks at a time with no word." I reminded him.
"I know. Can you meet me for lunch?"
"I don't know Evan. I'm at a crime scene right now."
"They can't spare you for a couple hours?" He pressed.
It wasn't like Evan to push me about my work.
"Okay. Where?" I asked.
"Willow?"
"Okay. I can meet you in thirty." I sighed.
Willow was a chain pasta restaurant with multiple locations in New York but there was one down the street from where Evan went to school at NYU that we'd meet at when he really wanted to talk.
"What's wrong Evan?" I asked upon my arrival.
"I'm not exactly sure. It just feels like someone's been following me." He admitted.
"How long has this been going on?" I asked sipping the complimentary water that was on the table.
"A couple days." He answered.
I pondered this information for a moment.
"So?" Evan pushed.
"I don't know Evan. You're a college senior. You're under a lot of pressure. Maybe your just overreacting?" I suggested.
I half expected him to get angry at the accusation but he thought on my words for a moment and sighed.
"Maybe you're right. I don't know Lily. I just have this terrible feeling that something is wrong."
"Stress can do that. I'm sure it doesn't help that you're constantly in the middle of the family arguments. You should be focusing on your schooling not on our shit." I sighed.
"We both know they're wrong but we also both know they aren't going to change."
"I wish it was easy to let it go. I wish I could tell you everything I've been through that they covered up or that I covered up so they wouldn't find out and blame me for it." 
"You can, Lily. You can tell me. I want you to tell me." He pushed.
"No. you don't." I shook my head.
"They love you and you love them and if I tell you everything it'll tarnish your view of them."
"You're my sister. I'm here for you."
"I know that." I looked into his grey/blue eyes that were the same as mine.
"Mom knew that Bryce had a history of domestic violence before she introduced us. Gil found phone records and text messages between them where he tells her that he'd put other girlfriends in the hospital. When mom was pregnant with you they hired a nanny that took care of me for five years. During that five years she also molested me and when mom and dad found out they paid her off and we moved to New York. When I was fifteen and you were away with mom and dad in Europe I was attacked in the house and raped. I called Malcolm who called Gil who helped us gather evidence and get me treated while also buying a new set of matching sheets so mom and dad wouldn't find out what happened because after how they reacted to how I was abused before I couldn't handle being blamed for another attack that I had no control over." I explained to him.
"You never told me any of that." He whispered.
"I know. I've done everything I can for the entirety of the last twenty seven years to protect you from who they are with me. To protect you from what they've done or let happen to me."
"But who protects you?" He asked.
"For a long time, Malcolm did, then no one. Malcolm and I are trying to get back to where we were but that's going to take time. I only told him about Bryce last week." 
"I want to protect you."
"I know you do. You did remember? When you bought that ring that looked so similar to mine so Bryce didn't find out I still wear the ring that the love of my life bought me?" I pointed out.
"I didn't trust him. Even then. I felt like if I didn't make up the lie that he'd hurt you. Turns out he hurt you anyway." He sighed.
"That's not on you. That's on him and that's on me. I should have left the first time he hit me and I didn't. That part is on me. I shouldn't have to believe that I was responsible for the abuse like mom says, but I also should have left long before it got as bad as it was."
"How did we even get started on this?" He laughed.
"God, I have no idea." I smiled at him.
"I have to get to my next class but I'll call you later, okay?" He asked.
"Of course. I should go check on the case." 
He paid for our meal and I drove him back to the school so he wouldn't be late for class and drove back to the precinct.
"What is he doing?" I asked Gil when I walked into the viewing room where he was watching Malcolm and JT interview a suspect.
"I believe he's demonstrating how annoying it is to have your picture constantly taken without your permission." He shrugged.
"Naturally." I chuckled.
"He's not the guy." Malcolm announced walking into the room after creepy photographer guy lawyered up.
"He's a stalker but he's completely incompetent. He knew there was no way Tatiana could love him."  
"That's a little harsh there, Malcolm." I teased.
He smiled at me.
"Edrisa's report came in while you are with Rodger. Tatiana was strangled and there were no signs of defensive wounds on her hands or arms." Gil told us.
"Go home guys. We'll pick this up in the morning."
Malcolm followed Gil into his office while I packed up the files on the table.
"Hey, Lily.  Can I talk to you?" JT asked standing in the doorway.
"Well, that depends. Are you going to make me want to kill you again?" I asked with a sigh motioning him in.
"Actually, I want to apologize. That trick Bright used on the snake at the penthouse and just now with the photographer was pretty genius." He said sitting down across from me.
"He is pretty genius most of the time. If you'd speak to him for more than five seconds with something other than judgment in your eyes maybe you'd know that." I smiled sadly at him.
"It's hard hearing that someone you're going to be working with is the son of the worst serial killer in the United States." He sighed looking at me.
"You have to understand that Malcolm has been through an extraordinary amount of stress and pain from the time he was eleven years old. He's managing it the best he can. He's a good man. His father's crimes shouldn't reflect negatively on him. That's not fair to him." I explained.
He nodded.
"I'm going to try to give him more credit." He promised.
"He's just a man. He's quirky, sure, but he's just a man trying his best to distance himself from his father and his past. He doesn't need people pushing him into that box."
"How long did you say you've know him?"
"Twenty one years. I met him in the fall of 1998. We were ten almost eleven. It wasn't more than a month or two before his father was arrested."
"That truly is lifelong friendship." He muttered.
"She's stuck by me through a lot. On numerous occasions I've thought for sure she'd had enough of my shit but she always comes back. Even when I didn't deserve it." Malcolm smiled at me from the doorway.
"Sometimes you're too hard on yourself." I reminded him.
"That's true." He nodded.
"However, most women wouldn't want anything to do with a man who walked out on them after five years but you showed up here, pulled me right back out of my head all over again." He remarked.
"Wait just a minute. You two were a thing?" JT asked looking between us.
Malcolm nodded.
"We were." I answered.
JT shook his head for a moment.
"Dude, why would you leave a woman like this?" He looked back at Malcolm gesturing to me.
"I have no idea." He admitted gazing at me.
I dropped Malcolm off at home and returned to my loft to continue going through The Surgeon's case files.
I went through the police reports from the night of his arrest what felt like a million times but couldn't find anything about the girl in the box except what Malcolm told Gil that night. There wasn't any marks on the floor in any of the photos that would indicate that there had been a large trunk there.
I sighed out loud.
I trusted Malcolm and if he said it was there and this girl existed then it was and she did but what happened to her and why was there no record of her. I racked my brain trying to remember him telling me anything about the girl but there was nothing there. If he told me I couldn't remember. It made me wonder if there might be some time that he was missing. I remember over Thanksgiving weekend he and his father went away but he never told me where or what happened and it was the first week of December that Dr. Whitly was arrested.
I thought more about what Malcolm questioned about his mother's possible involvement in his father's crimes. Jessica could be cold but I couldn't see her as complicit in twenty three murders.
I looked back through the interviews with Malcolm and Jessica as well as Martin and couldn't find anything that lead me to believe that she was in anyway involved. I, of course, didn't have the actual videos of the interviews, just the transcripts.
"Lily." Gil called my name as I walked into the precinct the next morning. 
"Yeah, Gil."
"Do you know that he thinks his mom was involved in his father's crimes?" He asked.
"I do know that." I sighed.
"What gave him that idea?"
"Honestly, he's lost. He thinks he's lost a stretch of time and he can't remember what happened. He's just looking for answers." 
"He wants to watch Jessica's interview tape."
"So, let him. Unless it show's something he shouldn't see? I've read the transcript and she sounds believable even on paper."
"She thought he was having an affair." He sighed.
"Let him see it. You know how he is. He'll obsess until he knows the truth.
"Yeah, I know. Will you watch it with him?"
"If he asks me to, yes. Malcolm is very much his own person." I sighed.
"I know he is."
"My profile is all wrong." Malcolm explained rushing into the room.
"The killer isn't obsessed with Tatiana, he's obsessed with Axel. He's trying to please him." 
"Axel is?" I asked Gil quietly.
"The boyfriend." He whispered back.
Part of me truly hated being pulled in twenty different directions at the same time. Made it hard to follow the case I was supposed to be working.
"I'm sure it's a member of Axel's entourage but I'm not sure who."
"There's a launch party tonight." JT added.
"We have to go." I could feel Malcolm's excitement.
"No. We don't have any solid evidence." Gil answered.
I looked at him and he looked at me and sighed.
We both knew that Malcolm was going to go regardless and it was probably best to make sure he's safe.
After much convincing, Gil allowed me to put a wire on Malcolm and send him into the club while I waited outside. I stood at the ready underneath an iron staircase in the back alley when Malcolm and Axel burst out of the door at the base of the stairs making their way into the alley.
Not more than a minute later another man walked out of the club and up to Malcolm and Axel. I watched silently as Axel started to walk away from them.
"If you leave me here with him you're an accessory." Malcolm called as Axel closed the club door.
"Axel doesn't have anything to worry about." The man with his back to me said.
"I always take care of his problems."
"Like you took care of Tatiana?" Malcolm asked as I approached them with my pistol in front of me.
"Yeah. I took care of her like I'm going to take care of you."
"Well, unfortunately for you I have someone who takes care of my problems too." 
I pressed the barrel of my pistol against the back of his head.
"Drop your weapon." I said steadily.
Our killer, Joey, shook his head and dropped his gun. Dani, Gil, and JT ran up from the other side of the alley and we placed him under arrest.
"Someone who takes care of your problems?" I teased Malcolm as I removed the wire from his chest.
"It's been a long time since your hands have been there." He joked.
I shook my head.
"Bright? Let me drive you home tonight?" Gil called.
Malcolm looked at me and I nodded at him.
"I'm exhausted anyway, love." I told him.
Gil looked at me from behind Malcolm and winked at me.
I was glad Malcolm could get the answers he was looking for but his mother's interview wouldn't solve everything. It wouldn't tell him who the girl in the box was or what happened to her. There were still plenty of mysteries to solve surrounding his past and The Surgeon.
"Yeah?" I answered my phone half asleep later that night.
"Gil gave me the video tape of my mother's interview after my father's arrest. She thought he was having an affair. Her only concern the whole time was me and Ainsley." His voice broke with emotion.
"Can you take me to find her?" He asked.
"Of course I can. I'll be right there."
Malcolm and I found Jessica at a homeless shelter she was helping build. I stayed in the car while Malcolm walked over to her. They talked for a moment before Jessica noticed me in my car and waved at me. I smiled and waved back. Finally, she touched his arm almost lovingly and walked to her awaiting car. I wanted desperately for her to hug him but sometimes you have to take what you can get.