girlsolo | [For Druitt, Archie] Jan. 14: Every finger in the room is pointing at me

As soon as Kate ditches Auggie, she stops by the clothes box to swap out shorts for something with more coverage. She gets lucky or maybe the box knows she'll set fire to it or who the fuck knows but it coughs up a pair of cargos.

She thinks about stopping by the Psych Office to ask Will where he thinks Druitt would be right now, first day on the island as an island and all that profiler hoodoo Will's so good at. But it's a waste of time. She's the one who's been tracking him. So she's the one who knows his movements best. Chances are, he'll do like most of the new people. Come here to the Compound, get food, get oriented. If not, she'll get Declan and start a search.

It's amazing how fast she can find someone she's been avoiding since he got to the island when she puts her mind to it. It's not ten minutes before she finds him in the hall by the men's bathroom. Gaze narrowed and eyes flat mean, Kate stalks up to him. "We need to talk." The now is very much implied. So's the, and that's not a request.

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"If you would like. Do you have any place in particular in mind?"

John could be polite as well. In fact, polite was his default. Victorian sensibilities did not disappear with the arrival of London anymore than they had over the last hundred years or so. If he could keep a raging, homicidal creature partially in check then he could manage to not get his ire up because of Kate Freelander.

She knew the island best and would like find a nice secluded spot to have a chat. He doubted she had come to him just to ask him to tea.

"If we're going on what I'd like, it wouldn't have anything to do with taking a walk with you." As bitchy as the comment is, it's still pretty much within normal tolerances for Sanctuary working relationships. She's way more of an asshole to Tesla and they're like friends now or something.

The ability to use force weighs against the possibility of getting in over her head and right now she's got nothing to go on that makes that a good or necessary strategy. Look at me, Magnus, learning to use my words first.

She just keeps walking until they get away from the highly trafficked areas toward a dead end of a hall, then stops and spins. "Want to tell me what you were doing from say six last night to six this morning? No. Scratch 'want to'. I don't care what you want. Tell me."

Druitt walked in silence, having no desire to make small talk with her other than he knew that it would annoy her. Since that would just be petty though, he could avoid doing that if necessary. He doubted that Kate would ever see him as anything but a monster, but there was no need to antagonize her.

"I was exploring London until the evening, then I went to bed. I woke up near six and have been exploring the island as it apparently meant to be since then."

"And, since the only person you want to sleep with is married to my best friend, I'm sure there's no one who can back that up." Oh yeah, this may be about Auggie's missing friend but it's never not going to be about the way he terrorized Magnus for years and doesn't have the decency to leave her alone to be happy with Will now. Never not going to be about the way he's making Will miserable, either.

"Lucky or unlucky for you, I know where you were until around five." When she saw them heading toward the cafe, though, she peeled off to do some other things. "Where did you and Joan go after the cafe?" She's watching him carefully, but Will's better at reading lies that she is. She's just one con looking at another. Watching his body movements and his tells.

"If I was with someone in that capacity, I wouldn't feel at liberty to tell you," John said. He didn't care how serious Kate was about this, she had no right to demand answers from him about that aspect of his personal life. She was also right though, that there was only one woman he wanted to be with.

"We went our separate ways if you must know. She did not share with me exactly what she planned to do next, though she did mention more sight seeing. Why do you ask?"

John crossed his arms, willing to stonewall her from now on for whatever answers she wanted. The motion pulled at the wound on his arm, his sleeves pulling back just enough to reveal the bandage.

"If you were with someone 'in that capacity', I wouldn't want to--"

Kate's gaze narrows, zeroing in on his arm. A bandage, on his forearm. One of the most common places for attackers to get defensive wounds. Yeah, she knows it. She's scored some hits like that herself. On both sides of it.

"What does that cover?" She's not fucking around. Whatever game of cat and mouse he thinks they're playing here, this just went from Q&A to show and tell.

"The bandage? Why I imagine it covers a wound," John said, feigning genuine surprise. If she was going to ask stupid questions, he was going to respond with stupid answers. He imagined that he had far more patience than she did.

"When Joan was entering the cafe she slipped on black ice and grabbed my arm. Her nails dug into me and caused several cuts."

He's a good liar. Smooth and cool. She'll give him that. Almost as good as she is. Maybe better. He does have more than a century of practice. But Kate's lips curl into a snarl when he mentions Joan.

"Convenient. I guess that'll be your explanation when your DNA turns up under her fingernails. If they can even test that shit here." Kate takes another step forward into his space and the threat in her tone is obvious when she growls, "Where is she?"

"I doubt that Joan is the type of woman to go long without cleaning her nails when she's scratched someone," John said, not at all bothered by her proximity. His height might not intimidate her, but it made it rather difficult for her to intimidate him.

"And I have no idea where she is. It's likely that she got lost when the island switched from London to this."

Without saying how she knows, Kate demurs. "She's not lost. She's missing and I think you know where she is." It's hard to be make a physical threat without a weapon at her height, but if it is possible, Kate's doing it. Her hand slips to the knife she is carrying and her head cocks, snarl turning nasty. "No, I know you know where she is. What happened, she remind you a little too much of Magnus all poised and polite like that? Or did she see you doing someone else? Where is she?"

Yeah, Kate knows. If Druitt knows where she is, Joan's dead. She can't let that affect her right now, or her sympathy for Auggie, or the guilt she'll feel when she tells him. The only thing she can do for Auggie and the island right now is find the body.

"You don't need to bother with the knife, Miss Freelander," John said, eyes locking with hers. He probably wouldn't have noticed the motion except for the fact that the blade was his preferred weapon of choice and he knew the signs to look for.

"And if you are so convinced that I am guilty, then let's go to the authorities. Preferably without delay. Because I have done nothing to Joan and if she is indeed missing, then it's best we not waste time on this crusade of yours to see me punished."

Never look away from a predator. It's one of the first things she learned on the streets, and it's a lesson she'll never forget. Ingrained, as deep as the instincts for when to run and when to fight. It only takes seconds to weigh it and press her lips together in as much of a nod as he's getting.

"The IPD office is that way," she says and gestures with the knife she's not surprised he saw her pulling. If she'd wanted to stab him, she would've stabbed him. Torture's bad for getting answers. If the IPD can't get any, she'll find Will and Declan and they'll figure out a better way. Or Will will use his profiler hoodoo and figure out where Joan's body is. If he killed her. "Don't be so shocked. I'd rather be wrong."

For Auggie's sake, and for Joan's obviously, Kate really hopes she's wrong.

"You are wrong," John said, heading in the direction that she indicated. Normally he wouldn't have trusted someone at his back with a knife, but oddly he trusted Kate. As angry as she was, she was not an irrational woman and he knew she wasn't going to stab him in the back.

"But the sooner my innocence is proven the sooner we can start looking for Joan."

[For Druitt, Archie] Jan. 14: Every finger in the room is pointing at me

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