The female black widow spider, scientifically known as the Latrodectus, is well known for it's habit of killing and eating it's mate right after mating.
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When Rukelle died, the first person she wanted to meet in the afterlife —if it even existed— was the architect who designed the Boston Police Headquarters. She wanted to give that man —or woman— a piece of her mind. Who in their right senses designed stairs so steep, windows so high and a ceiling so low? It was good that another headquarters was being constructed because they were working on borrowed time with this place.

Rukelle checked her watch: 9:15 a.m. She was late. And it was not the fashionable kind of late. It was the kind where your car broke down and you ended up taking a cab and then the cab broke down and so you had to walk the rest of the distance. Rukelle didn't bother going to her office first. She went straight to the conference room for the morning debrief.

The conference room of the Boston Police Headquarters was a huge white room with a water spotted ceiling and cracked linoleum floors. Currently, it was filled with a number of overworked cops from the Boston Police Department. Most of them were chatting amongst themselves, no doubt commenting on Rukelle's tardiness. The few wise ones were getting in a few extra minutes of shut-eye.

Rukelle pushed the door open with so much force that it hit the wall, waking up the sleeping cops. Everyone in the room looked at Rukelle and scowled. They were most certainly pissed that Rukelle, the primary investigator of the case, was late.

Rukelle raised her hands to quiet down the noise. "I know I am late but I am not going to glorify y'all with an apology. My partner, on the other hand, sends his apologies. He is currently chasing down an important lead so he won't be able to make it. That being said, let's get down to business."

"Yeah let's do that." Detective Chris Levinson, the golden boy of the police force, shouted. Rukelle eyed him. He was an attractive man no doubt about that, with his chiseled jaw and golden hair. The form-fitting uniform he wore accentuated his muscles, giving him a brawny appearance. His appearance wasn't the problem. His character was. Chris noticed Rukelle glaring at him and smirked. Cocky bastard.

Rukelle cleared her throat. "In our midst, we have two members from the Federal Bureau of Investigation —Special Agents Vince Gilligan and Quinn Coppola. They have been tasked with dealing with the mass grave that was discovered in the forest.  Let's hear from them first."

Vince stood up from his seat and cleared his throat before saying, "Owing to the fire in the forest, we don't have much to report. But on a preliminary basis, the grave is a shallow one. About one and a half feet deep as opposed to the required six feet of a standard grave. We suspect that there are more graves scattered around the forest. So right after this meeting we shall be heading back to the forest to do more investigating. We cannot comment on the number of bodies discovered as of yet but you will be notified as soon as we have an accurate number. Thank you." Vince sat.

"Alright. Anyone of you with anything to report regarding Thelma?" Rukelle spread out her hands, indicating that the floor was open.

Detective Arthur, an old sinewy cop with a soft paunch and thinning grey hair, stood up. He looked nervous and he kept fumbling with his belt like he was trying to decide whether to be a cowboy or not.

"Last night, I responded to a call from a woman who claimed to have seen Thelma Louise in one of the toilets in the subway station. When I reached there, the woman who called was as high as a kite and she couldn't even pronounce her own name correctly. We are keeping her in one of the cells and we shall have a go at her again after this meeting."

"Anyone else?" Rukelle crossed her arms over her chest. "No one? Fine. This is what we are going to do. We shall have Detectives Lopez, Dupree and Miller accompanying the FBI agents to the forest. They are gonna need all the help they can get."

"Isn't that a little too much oestrogen for the job?" Detective Chris spoke.

Rukelle bit her lower lip. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"I was just saying that all the officers you have chosen to help the FBI are women. I personally think that men would be better suited for the job since they are stronger and generally more experienced when it comes to these kinds of things. "

"Your thoughts don't matter to this case because you are not in charge. And if you have a big problem with my feminist ways." Rukelle leaned forward, getting in the detective's face. "Come fight me."

Chris stood up from his seat, getting so close to Rukelle that their lips almost touched. Their eyes were narrowed into slits, fists clenched and lips pursed into thin white lines —it was a Mexican standoff of sorts.

"Forgive my tardiness. Oh! Am I interrupting something?" Archer said from his position at the door.

Both Chris and Rukelle turned to Archer.

Chris swallowed. "I was just getting back to work." He walked out of the conference room, slamming the door so hard that the echo reverberated through the room.

Rukelle sighed. "Alright. For all those that I didn't assign jobs, be on the lookout for Thelma. She is our only viable lead in this case. Get back to work. Detective Moore please stay behind."

The cops —mostly the men— made a deliberate show of scraping their chairs against the floor as they stood up to leave the room. Mysoginistic bitches.

Archer walked towards Rukelle. "Uhm before I forget, I should inform you that Alea and Gabriel are currently en route to the Woodstock military school in California. They should be able to get access to Matthias' military records."

"Hope they find something worthwhile." Rukelle's hands were shaking as she ran them through her auburn hair. "Do you think I took it too far with Chris? I didn't really want to fight him but his comment on women really got on my nerves. I am not a feminist. Okay, I am. But I am not the kind of feminist who goes around chanting fuck the patriarchy and intentionally picks fights with men to satisfy her ego." Rukelle plopped down on a nearby chair.

Benjamin knelt infront of her and held her hands. "Hey, don't beat yourself up. This case is fucking with everyone's minds. Don't let it get to you."

Emilia and Callie entered the conference room and Rukelle quickly withdrew her hands from Benjamin's.

"Sorry we took long to get here. The door to the bathroom jammed so we had to wait for the custodian to help." Emilia said.

"Told you this building wasn't going to last the next big storm." Rukelle mumbled.

"Why did you call us here?" Archer inquired.

Rukelle glanced at the door. "We are waiting for Ricco to get here. He said he had something important to show us. There he is."

Ricco, the IT guy of the station, stumbled into the room. He was panting and there were sweat stains on his white dress shirt. His khaki pants were riding low on his waist and his hair was a mess.

"Editing the video took longer than expected. Anyway gather around. Y'all need to see this." Ricco opened his laptop and inserted a flash drive into it.

Everyone in the conference room gathered around the laptop and watched anxiously as the video loaded.

Ricco pressed the pause button immediately it started. "This is the security footage of the bank from the day Marty was killed." He hit play.

As expected, the footage was grainy and low quality. The robbery seemed pretty straightforward. A black Volkswagen parked outside the bank, three masked men walked out holding guns and stormed into the bank. Twenty minutes later, they stormed out of the bank with two sacks of money, got into the car and left. Nothing strange. Nothing out of the ordinary.

"We already know all this." Archer spoke up.

Ricco raised his hands. "Calm your tits. Sheesh. I also missed it at first but after watching the footage a million times, I figured out the missing link. I'm going to rewind the video but this time, focus on the car, okay?"

Archer nodded. Ricco rewound the video and they watched it again. This time Archer looked only at the car.

Ricco paused the video at just the moment when the three masked men got into the car. They all saw it.

"There is a woman in the backseat." Emilia spoke.

"Yeah. Archer, by any chance, do you recognize that woman?" Ricco asked.

"That hair. I remember it from somewhere. I mean it's common. But that hairstyle feels....familiar."

The colour drained from Callie's face. "Your m-mother."

Archer turned to her, incredulous. "What?"

"She did it. She did it. I knew it. She did it." Callie was speaking like she was mumbling a prayer.

"Are you insinuating that my mother orchestrated the murder of the man she loved? That's just sick. Even for her."

Callie scoffed. "Is that what she told you?"

"No, it's what Alea told me. She said that both my father and Marty were in love with mom but mom chose Marty and then dad got pissed and–"

"All that is true except for one thing. The woman your dad and Marty were in love with was me. Not your mother. Your mom lied because she never came to terms with the fact that both Marcos and Marty rejected her and fell in love with a poor single mother." Tears flowed from Callie's face.

"Huh?" Archer collapsed into a chair.

"I'm really sorry you had to find out this way." Callie said

"Wait. You said you were a single mother. So where is your child?" Benjamin, ever the rational thinker, asked.

Callie glanced longingly at the door like she wanted to flee.

"Does my mother have your child?" Archer's voice was barely a whisper.

Callie hesitated. And that was all the answer Archer needed.

"Don't worry, Callie, if Abigail has her, we'll find her." Benjamin encouraged.

Callie sighed,her whole body slumping in defeat. "It's not as easy as you think. I have tried to find her. I have hired detectives and private investigators to help but they have not found anything. That is why I have worked for your mother for all these years. I thought that maybe —just maybe— if I worked hard enough or if I behaved well, I would see my daughter, even if it was just once. But yesterday, all my hopes were dashed when I heard your mother on the phone with Matthias."

Benjamin handed Callie a pack of tissues. She grabbed a handful of them and dabbed her eyes and face. Crumpling the tissues in her hands, she continued. "You know what I found out yesterday? I found out that your mother married my daughter off to Matthias. There is no hope."

"Things are different now. We have the support of the media and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They will help us find your daughter." Archer tried.

"Forgive me if I don't believe you. I'm not naive. Not anymore." Callie turned towards Benjamin. "If you don't mind, I would like to leave now."

Callie didn't wait for a reply before she stormed out of the room.

"Fuck!" Archer screamed and threw a chair to the floor.

"I know this is a very geeky thing to say but your mom is a true black widow. She killed both her husbands and she's not stepped foot in a jail cell. Like woah. If that's not a perfect crime, I don't know what is." Ricco said, amazed.

"Speaking of which, we need to bring your mother in–"Rukelle began to say just as a large African American woman with an afro the size of a small bush barged in.

"Sorry to interrupt. I'm a dispatch officer and I came here to personally inform you of a peculiar tip that I think may be relevant to your case."

Rukelle began to object but the dispatch officer pressed on. "I know this is not the right way to do things but I have a hunch. I checked the location of the house from where the tip came from. The house borders the forest where those mass graves were found. This means something. I know this means something."

Benjamin stood up, gathering his things. "Alright I will go check it out. It's not like we have many leads in this case. Give me all the details you got from the caller."

The dispatch officer handed Benjamin a file and headed out. Benjamin followed her.

Rukelle sighed. "Like I was saying before I was interrupted. We need to bring your mother in for further questioning. It's clear she has been in contact with Matthias. Any information we can get from her is going to be useful. Are you coming with me, Archer?"

"Of course I'm coming." Archer replied. "You coming too, Emilia?"

Emilia looked up from her phone with a lost expression. She clearly hadn't been paying attention. "Coming where exactly?"

"With us to bring in my mother for questioning. Damn that's so weird to say."

Emilia glanced at her phone and then glanced at Archer. She uttered the first lie that came to her head. "I don't think I will come. I'm having lunch with Margaret in an hour."

Archer looked deep into her eyes. She forced herself to look into his eyes. She didn't want him to see through her lie. "Are you going to tell her about us?"

Emilia caressed Archer's cheek. "She is the closest thing I have to a mother. Of course, I am going to tell her about us."

"Alright then we'll be on our way." Rukelle, Ricco and Archer walked out of the room.

Emilia stared at Rosalia's text again.

I need to see you. It's urgent. Can we meet at Shack's Bar?

Emilia texted back.

On my way. See u in 20.

Emilia gathered her things and left to meet up with Rosalia.

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