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Pandora's Children - Part 7

"When I was 15, I accidentally killed someone in a street fight. My record was sealed & I tried to move on. I became a musician & when I was on my first professional gig, a woman approached me and asked me for an #encore performance, to 'accidentally' kill a bar patron."

***

"Who was she?" I asked.

"She said her name was Grace. I know who and what she is now, but back then she helped me to fit in, to be myself, she gave me a family that understood me. I know she's a #charlatan and not a goddess, but I'm in too deep. I don't have a way out."

***

As Mrs. Marcus talked, I realized that she wasn't trying to #obfuscate the truth. As she said, she knew that she had no way out of her situation. The question I had was why she was being so helpful. Why was she telling us everything instead of just sitting there quietly.

***

"What happened once you joined the cult?" I asked.

"We all had to go through a purification ritual, like a baptism," Mrs. Marcus answered. "There was chanting and water," she added and pulled up her sleeve. "We all got a #unicorn tattoo after that to signify our purity."

***

"How did she recruit new members?" Jaci asked.

Mrs. Marcus sighed. "She knew when people were budding killers or saw something in those with #latent homicidal tendencies, and used it as leverage. Some of us enjoyed what we did, others didn't. They became training aids."

***

"Do you have proof of anything you've told us?" I asked.

"I can tell you the names of every man and woman I've killed."

"We can #disinter the bodies," Jaci said.

"We'd need permission from the families or a court order," I said.

"She's all the probable cause we need."

***

"You'd better call the captain," I said.

Jaci nodded and dialed. "Captain, it's Garcia. Mrs. Marcus is gonna give up all of her victims."

We heard a dog #yip loudly in the background. "BE QUIET, Kojak." he yelled. To us he said, "I'm coming in. Is Thibodeaux with you?"

***

Jaci and I stared at each other for a second before she answered. "Yes sir."

"Put me on speaker," he ordered. 

"You're on speaker, sir."

"Since I expected you to disobey my orders, detective, it will #obviate the need for me to discipline you."

"Yes sir," I replied.

***

While we waited for the captain to arrive, Mrs. Marcus said she had another surprise for us.

"Grace has a daughter...She named her Hope of Mankind, #Usurper of Pandora."

"What kind of name is that?" Jaci asked.

"Do you know the story of Pandora's Box?"

"I do," I said.

***

"Thibodeaux, my office," the captain bellowed as he arrived, stopping me from telling the story.

I thought I was going to get chewed out anyway as I walked into his office. He sat at his desk and tinkered with his #kinetic art sculpture.

"Why did you come in tonight?"

***

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