[For Druitt, Will] Jan 14th: there's gonna be a hand to wipe that smile off your face

[girlsolo]

Kate's glad when Auggie leaves with Annie. She's blonde. Pretty. Flirty. Civilian. Druitt-bait and her boyfriend's hell-bent on pinning a rap on him. Kate still thinks he did it or he knows something, but the way Druitt's acting... it doesn't track. And Kate's tired. It's pointless and a waste of time.

She's just about to give up and go search the caves when she sees Will. Crap. She really didn't want him to get involved. If there's anyone Druitt wants to hurt on the island, it's got to be Will.

"Come on, Baldy. Stop fucking around." Even from here, she can feel Magnus scowling at her language. "If you didn't do anything, tell me what you know!" He's lying about something.


*

Title lyrics from Thea Gilmore's Heads Will Roll

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[inabmovie]

He takes all this in while he's studying the both of them, but mostly Druitt, taking in their body language and anything else that might give him more information than he's currently getting. When Kate finishes, he looks at Druitt and says, "Is that true?" Not that he doubts Kate, of course, but if Druitt has an explanation for something that currently looks pretty bad, he wants to hear it.

[iliketodruitt]

"All but her implication are true," John said without a hint of worry. Kate was hell bent on blaming him for this and nothing would change that. He doubted even if Joan showed up suddenly and explained that she had just been relaxing by the ocean for the last several hours would convince Kate that he had nothing to do with her disappearance.

"Joan is a friend. We went for a stroll yesterday and that evening had tea in a cafe. She had slipped on the ice outside and scratched my arm. The earring must have come off during and fallen into my pocket."

[inabmovie]

"Can I see your arm?" Will asks. There's a difference in scratches and cuts made in self-defense and the kind of scratches that come from a fall like Druitt's describing; he's seen these kinds of things hundreds of times when he worked in forsenics. It won't be conclusive, but it'll be enough for Will to have an idea who needs to be involved next.

[iliketodruitt]

"Of course, I have nothing to hide," John said, rolling back his sleeve. He carefully undid the bandages from his arm, showing them to Will. The cuts weren't too serious, but they were more than just minor scratches, having been deep enough to draw blood.

"As I said, I received them when she fell and grabbed on to me."

[inabmovie]

Will studies Druitt's arm and does a little mental calculating. Depending on Joan's size and strength, it could go either way with wound depth, but from the angle... they look more like they were inflicted by someone pulling him towards her, not trying to push him away. The direction's wrong.

Still, Will's not going to make any assumptions yet. He doesn't think there's any such thing as too careful where Druitt's concerned. "And the handkerchief?"

[iliketodruitt]

"Here," he said, handing Will the folded up handkerchief from his pocket. It still had the blood on it, he had yet to find a place to get it laundered properly. He wasn't sure what Will was hoping to see, John wouldn't be so foolish as to keep such an item on his person if he had killed anyone, not even to throw off suspicion.

"I hope that satisfies your suspicions."

[girlsolo]

Kate's already exhausted with this. Between Archie just letting him go and him upsetting Auggie, she's on edge and impatient. Plus, the longer Will has to stand here and do this the more it's going to hurt him and Magnus. There's no way any of this is going to work out well, and she wanted to keep him out of it. Of all people, she'd wanted to keep Will out of it.

She glares at Druitt and steps closer to Will. "He's trying to help you," she says, the knife's edge in her tone just flaying. "Don't you get it? Just give him the fucking earring and stop making a production out of this. You're the one who claims to want to hurry and go find Joan."

[inabmovie]

This feels wrong, to Will, somehow. He's not totally convinced Druitt's innocent, something's not sitting right with him, but it's not enough to make him think anyone else is in danger, it's not enough that would get someone arrested back home. "Hey, hey," he says, looking back and forth between Druitt and Kate, a hand on her arm saying hey, back off a little for now. "I think maybe the best thing to do right now is look for Joan. Let's find her, make sure she's okay, and then we can go from there."

[iliketodruitt]

"How intriguing, the very thing I was attempting to do and suggest we carry on with," John said, giving Kate a rather smug look. He knew that Will wasn't siding with him but it certainly felt close enough to that for him to at least get some satisfaction over it.

"I hope that we find her safely, because I would hate to find out someone's delay caused Joan hard. Of course, you would probably be more upset that it meant I wasn't a killer, wouldn't you Kate? I bet you're actually hoping Joan is dead."

[inabmovie]

"You know that's not what she wants, Druitt," Will says, tightening his hand on Kate's arm before she gets the chance to stab Druitt in the face, because he knows that kind of talk is just like throwing gasoline on a fire for her. "Let's just all behave like grownups here, okay, and do what's best for Joan."

[girlsolo]

Kate gives Will a look like really? and rolls her eyes. Maybe it's the island or maybe it's Declan, but she's not even rising to the bait on that one. "Yeah. You're right. That's exactly what I want. Joan to be dead. My friends to be miserable. Magnus to be heartbroken. All so I get the satisfaction of watching them lock you up forever."

Okay, maybe rising a little, but she's more scathingly sarcastic than pissed. She is pissed, no mistake, and Druitt's cruising for it, but she's not going haul off and punch him in front of Will. It's just putting him in a bad position. The less he knows, the less he has to explain to Magnus.

"Come on, Will. Let's go find Declan. He can help us search." She jerks her chin sharply at Druitt and adds a calm, "If you find her, please let one of us know." There. See. She can use her words.

[iliketodruitt]

John just smiled at Kate as she spoke, resisting the urge to picture what she would look like with her throat slit. As pleasant as that may be, it wasn't a road he was going to walk down even as a fantasy for people he hated.

"I will be sure that you are one of the first who knows," he said to her before turning to Will. "And I look forward to discussing all this at our next session, Dr. Zimmerman."

[inabmovie]

"That's probably a good idea," Will says, hoping like hell that that next session would be conducted in the psych office instead of inside an IPD cell. "We'll talk then." Just because he doesn't trust him doesn't mean he hopes he's guilty--mostly because it means maybe this Joan person is okay, and second because it would tear Magnus up to know Druitt was up to his old ways, and third, because as much as he hates the guy, Will would actually like for him to finally be okay.

"Kate, let's go."

[girlsolo]

UGH. That sets Kate off all over again, worse than before. Her fists clench at her sides, and then one slips up into her pocket to wrap around her knife. The truth is, she doesn't think he did it. There's something off, Druitt's off, but he hasn't slipped at all. He's hardly even raised his voice at her.

But that... making Will do his therapy. Kate grits her teeth and shakes her head like a punch-stung fighter as they move off "Damn I hate that guy."