Chapter Text
Beep,beep,beep.
7:30a.m
Clarke groaned annoyed at the ear-piercing sound coming from her alarm clock on the bedside table next to her. She always hated waking up early in the mornings, that’s why she was glad she had found a job that suited her sluggish lifestyle and allowed her to have the freedom to work at any time and any place. Without having to worry about being late or out of schedule. Today though, it wasn’t her lucky day.
Lately Nylah, the editor of the magazine where she worked at had her on the ball constantly and frankly Clarke didn’t know why. Only yesterday her boss had sent her an email requesting her presence at 9 a.m. sharp, downtown at the ‘Arcadia’ magazine’s headquarters for an emergency meeting.
Clarke loved being a freelance journalist for ‘Arcadia’ magazine. She loved having the freedom to be able to write for whatever she wanted without too many restrictions, even though in the past it had turned around against her a few times. Only recently a couple of months ago, she had attempted to expose one of the largest corporations in D.C ‘Azgeda tech industries’ for being caught up in a financial scandal which involved embezzling money from their investors and spying on their consumers through their mobile security system programs.
To say the situation had been a huge cluster fuck would be an understatement. Azgeda sued the magazine and Clarke for publishing her deprecated article accusing her for lack of substantial evidence and the magazine for condoning such behaviors from one of their employees.
This had created a big problem for the magazine and an even bigger one for Clarke. The media caught up at lightning speed to the scandal which brought Clarke to a tight spot. Reporters and paparazzi were constantly following her wherever she went and publish all kind of awful things about her.
On top of that, the amount of money she had to pay to the company during the lawsuit against her, for supposedly ‘falsely accusing them for fraud’ and ‘her allegations not being based on substantial proof’ was almost everything she had. Nylah had helped her out during this tough time as much as she could, and Clarke was forever grateful to the kind woman.
Many would say that Nylah had a soft spot for Clarke. Letting her publish anything she wanted and, in this case, the ‘incriminating’ article. The flexible schedules where Clarke would drop by the office once or twice a week only to present her final articles or to seek guidance from the more experienced blonde.
There were already a few speculations going around the office, about the two women sleeping together besides the fact Nylah being married for three years now. And it was true. They were in fact having an affair but only because Nylah was in an open marriage with her wife Luna Rivers, a successful yoga instructor and business owner who was successfully running more than two hundred yoga studios throughout the U.S. Both women were comfortable enough with the fact that they both liked the occasional company of others but only to a physical level. They loved and trusted each other too much to be able to do this without having to worry about any third parties being a problem for their relationship. And since Luna was often away on business trips Nylah often grabbed the opportunity to meet up with Clarke.
Clarke knew right from the beginning that the driven, successful editor had a thing for her just as much as Clarke did for her, but it was purely physical and sexual sided. They both had a great dynamic while working together and a lot of respect for one another and they both knew that a romantic relationship with each other would never work out. Especially, since Nylah could never leave her beautiful wife who she loved dearly just for a fling and Clarke wasn’t interested in dating another person either after what had happened with her previous relationship.
Clarke turned around facing the offensive sound machine and pressed the off button on the top turning it off. She sat up on her queen sized bed with eyes barely open and started stretching her sleepy limbs hearing the satisfying pops of her spine. After, she reached for her phone unplugging it from the charger and spend some time going through her social media accounts emails and messages.
She shrugged duvet off her legs and got up from the bed, her bare feet touched the cold wooden floor of her bedroom which made Clarke flinch and shiver slightly at the cool sensation.
The blonde girl walked towards her window pulling back the blinds letting the sunlight get inside the room. Momentarily getting a bit blinded by the sudden light change, Clarke’s eyes took a couple of seconds adjusting to the imagine of the snow-covered city below her. The last days of November had greeted Washington with the first snow of the year. The blonde had always loved snow and winter in general. The chill weather, the cozy clothes, Christmas being right around the corner. Winter was Clarkes favorite season since she was a child. She had the fondest memories of her father then. Every year on Christmas eve she and her parents would go to their cabin in the woods her father had built for them just outside of D.C to spend the holydays all together. Jake was always working during the year in multiple projects in and out of state so Clarke didn’t really get to see him often and Christmas was the only time where young Clarke would get to spend some quality time with her father.
They had the best relationship until his death. When Clarke found out of Jake’s passing, she felt her world crumbling down on her, she became depressed and indifferent to everything around her and even her relationship with her mother became strained.
There was even a time where Clarke had completely cut off Abby from her life because her being too overbearing and controlling of Clarke’s life that made the blonde loose contact with her mother after moving out to college.
After Jake’s death Abby was never pleased or supporting with the majority Clarkes decisions in her life and even was against of Clarke studying journalism. Coming from a family of doctors Abby could not picture her only daughter not following in her footsteps and studying medicine. She and Clarke had a lot of fights about the matter and Jake was always the mediator, the bridge between them often telling his wife to let their daughter live her life as she chose to. But after his death that bridge collapsed, and their relationship was never the same.
Clarke sighted.
She headed towards the bathroom stall opening the glass door and stepping inside turning on the faucet, letting the warm water to poor out. She exhaled softly when she felt the warm water hit her head and back and grabbed the shampoo from the bathroom self next to her, squeezing a generous amount on her hand and started washing her hair.
When she was done, she exited the shower and grabbed a white fluffy towel to cover herself while she blow-dried her hair.
After a couple of minutes, she left the bathroom still clad in her white towel, and walked inside her ensuite closet deciding what outfit she would wear today. Any other time Clarke would have chosen Something simple, business casual maybe.
Clarke loved comfort and if she could escape wearing tight, uncomfortable office clothes for more than just a couple of hours at the time, then that’s exactly what she would do. But today the circumstance didn’t allow for her to so. Clarke was certain that Nylah wouldn’t take kindly to her showing up in jeans, a jacket and her white chucks.
So, instead she chose a simple pale blue cashmere sweater and some comfortable tailored black trousers, pairing them with a flat pair of black ankle boots and an equally tailored suit jacket, comfortable to the touch.
When she was finished picking out her outfit, the young journalist moved out of her closet back to the bathroom to do her light make up routine.
When she was done with everything, she grabbed her cell phone from on top of her bed and proceeded going downstairs to get the coffee machine started.
After a couple of minutes, the machine started making sounds indicating that the coffee was being prepared and the smell of freshly brewed beans filled up the kitchen.
She also popped 2 pieces of toast in the toaster to go with her coffee and took out the raspberry jam and butter of the fridge.
While waiting for her food to be prepared Clarke decided to step into the living room space that was connected to the kitchen and turn on the TV in order to fill in the quiet atmosphere of the room.
It had been such a long time since Clarke shared a home with someone. In a way she was used to being alone, except from the times where Nylah or someone else would stop by for a casual one night thing of course. But the next day they were always gone.
And Clarke would be left all alone once again in her huge penthouse apartment. Not that she minded really, she loved the silence and most times she was the one sending her one-night companions away the next morning.
Clarke had been weary of relationships ever since Finn Collins her now ex-husband happened. She was glad that that lying, cheating bastard was out of her life for good.
Clarke preferred as to never think of that chapter in her life again.
She always considered of adopting a pet to make the house livelier, her program allowed her to do so but she never got to actually follow through with her plan of adopting a little dog or cat.
“Maybe I should” she thought and poured the hot coffee in her mint green cup, while also taking the freshly toasted pieces of bread off the toaster, yawning clearly still sleepy from having woken up so early.
When the clock on her kitchen wall showed 8:25 Clarke put the dishes inside the washer, turned off the TV that was aimlessly playing some morning talk show and grabbed her car keys and coat and was out of the door on her way to the office.
Clarke arrived at Arcadia 5 minutes past 9, she hoped that Nylah wouldn’t be too hard on her for being late, but traffic was a pain in the ass in downtown D.C.
She took the elevator up to the 28th floor where her Boss’s office was located at. When she reached the top floor the elevator doors opened and Clarke walked out to the large corridor heading to the offices.
“Nylah is about to go through the fucking roof” Octavia said clearly stressed as she approached her colleague and dear friend. Typing something on her tablet.
Octavia was one of Nylah’s closest Assistants and her own office cubicle was located right next to Clarke’s. Her and Clarke had been friends since the old college days, being dorm roommates and later own renting an apartment together, sharing large parts of their lives with each other both the good and the bad, the successes and the mishaps. Made them create such a strong bond that they viewed themselves almost as sisters. They both were always ready to help one another no matter what.
'Shit' Can you please notify her that I’m here?”
“on it!”
Octavia was about to call her boss but before she could even raise her hand to put her phone next to her ear, Nylah strode out of her office with a frustrated look on her face.
Clarke saw her boss angrily glaring at her from distance as she approached her.
“You’re late” Nylah sharply pointed out.
“sorry, traffic was a bitch this morning” Clarke answered with a guilty smile.
“I don’t have time for this, quickly follow me Clarke” Nylah responded and turned around, walking to the direction where the big conference room was.
“Yes ma’am” Clarke mumbled and took off almost running in order to catch up to Nylah who was walking in a fast pace.
Clarke always wondered how the older girl could almost run in high heels (that also happened to compliment her long legs) without breaking one.
Nylah seemed to have sensed that Clarkes attention lingered longer than it should and abruptly stopped dead on her tracks, turning around aggressively to face Clarke making the younger girl stumble a few steps behind.
“Eyes up here Griffin” she pointed her pointer and middle finger close to her eye level.
“I need you to focus and listen to me Clarke, this is important do you understand?” Nylah said almost patronizingly which Clarke didn’t take too well and frowned.
As Nylah turned around once again and started walking towards the meeting room Clarke grabbed her by the arm, not tingly or as to hurt the woman but more like to capture her attention.
“Will please tell me what the fuck is going on Nylah? I really don’t appreciate being woken up in the crack of fucking dawn without knowing the reason and being welled at on top of that” Clarke declared irritably and let go of the woman’s slim arm.
Nylah gave a big exhale and took of her expensive glasses, rubbing the spot on her nose between her eyes always careful as to not smudge her make up.
After she re-wore them, Nylah stepped inside Clarke’s personal space and place both of her hands on Clarke’s arms gripping them lightly from the sides.
“Listen Clarke, there is someone here who wants to speak with you about a job” “Unfortunately I cannot disclose any information as he wishes to talk to you personally”
Clarke frowned “A job?”
Nylah nodded.
“Who are they?” Clarke asked confused. This shit was way to secretive for her liking. “And why do they want me?”
“Clarke I promise you’ll understand everything once we get there ok?” Nylah assured her. “Come… Please” her boss almost pleaded and help open the door of the meeting room for Clarke.
The blonde girl slipped inside the room and was greeted by a bald man probably in his 50’s, sitting in the large cherrywood conference room table, wearing an expensive suit, looking at some papers in front of him.
When he sensed that he was no longer alone on inside the spacious room he looked up, and smiles as his eyes fell upon the two women.
“Ah, you must be Clarke. Pleased to meet you” He got up from his comfortable leather chair and extend his hand towards Clarke, smiling slightly waiting for the younger girl to shake it.
Clarke walked over to where the well-dressed man and shook his hand.
“That’s right. Nice to meet you too mr…?”
“Muller”, “Karl Lorenz Muller” He answered. “But you can call me however you prefer”
“Please, take a sit” He said gesturing in one of the empty chairs in front of him.
“Right. So, Mr. Muller may I ask why I’m here today?” Clarke asked as she tried to find a comfortable position.
“I suppose I shall cut right to the chase then Miss Griffin” He chuckled.
Clarke really didn’t know what to make of the man.
“My client specifically asked for your assistance Miss Griffin in an extremely sensitive matter so to say” Muller said whilst looking at his papers fixing his glasses.
“And who is your client excaclty?”
“Mrs. Becca Franko” he replied placing his hands on the desk, tangling his finger together.
“The CEO?” Clarke asked baffled.
Becca Franko was an industrialist and manufacturer of A.L.L.I.E artificial intelligence owning a very large portion of both the US and European market when it came to A.I technology and equipment. Becca was also a well known competitor of Azgeda. ‘why would Franko ever need my help?’
“Precisely” The lawyer said.
“Clarke” The man uttered to get her attention while he got up and switched the tinted mode on the electrochromic glass windows of the office so no outsider could see what was going on inside the room.
‘weird’ Clarke thought.
He later proceeded to open a brown folder containing several pictures and started laying them on the table.
Clarke took ahold of one of the printed photos and almost threw up.
All of them were depicting a horribly mutilated body of a woman. Clarke wasn’t able to determine the age of the victim due to the awful state the head was in and the facial features were barely distinguishable. The cause of death was most likely multiple stab wounds all over the body, the young journalist estimated.
“Wha…What is this?..” Clarke uttered with difficulty turning her head to look at Nylah wide eyed placing the photograph back down on the table.
Nylah opened her mouth ready to explain the situation when she got interrupted by Mr. Muller who yet again sat in his seat opposite of a discombobulated Clarke.
“This was Miss Franco’s niece. She got abducted in a small town in Vermont, Polis”
“Her body was found a week after her abduction, washed up in the sores of the local river” He explained and took even more photos of different women out of the folder displaying them for Clarke to see “These were also women found in a similar situation all dead within a week of their abduction” “These events took place almost 20 years ago”
“But last Friday 2 bodies were discovered in similar circumstances as 20 years ago” “These are the bodies of Bella Walters and Stefany Chi, both students at Polis high school”
He placed 2 more photos of the victims in front of Clarke. Who couldn’t help but close her eyes briefly at the gut churning images in front of her.
“Why are you telling me all this?” She asked weakly.
“Miss Griffin my employer wishes for your assistance to help and find the murderer of her niece as well as of these poor souls”
Clarke was finding it difficult to even utter a single word.
“Why me? Why not go to the police? How could I ever help you, I’m not a detective I’m journalist”
“You are a highly intelligent and charismatic investigator; my boss has great faith in you, especially after the whole Azgeda scandal”
“You’ll also receive full support from the police department of Polis, so there is no need to fear for your wellbeing… and of course your payment will be more than generous ” He reassured her.
“Pff” Clarke chuckled dryly clearly unamused with the memories “That was a disaster, if your boss is taking as an example that cluster fuck then you clearly have the wrong person for this job” Clarke answered and stood up abruptly ready to exit the room.
“My Employer seems to disagree, miss Griffin please before you go?” He searched for something in the inside pocket of his suit jacket and took out a white slim envelope. “These are plane tickets to Vermont. Mrs. Franco has requested a personal visit from you and sh…”
“What do you want from meMr. Muller? Fly over to Vermont, visit your boss and help her solve a murder that happened almost a2 decades ago?” “Do you know how crazy that sounds?” Clarke was extremely irritated as much as she tried to conceal her emotions and try to stay professional.
“Miss Griffin I urge you to rethink of your decision” he placed the white envelop on the desk and started gathering his things. “please consider visiting Mrs. Franco and talking to her personally” “And if you decide to change your mind, I’ll send a direct copy with all the information I have gathered so far” he stated and left the room saying his goodbyes both to her and Nylah.
When he left, the two blonde girls were left alone inside the room. The silence between them was becoming deafening by the second until Clarke decided to speak up.
“What the fuck Nylah?!” What the fuck was that ?” Clarke almost yelled. “Did you agree with this?”
“Clarke you are the most capable person to handle this case as discreetly and efficiently as possible, if there is someone that can help its you.” Nylah explained trying to convince Clarke of taking on the case.
“I don’t solve murders Nylah! I’m a fucking journalist, I… I uncover corporate scandals and fraud, not fucking murder!” Clarke exhaled frustratedly.
“I know Clarke but if I knew that you wouldn’t cope then I wouldn’t have said yes” “I think you’re a great investigator, intelligent and goal-oriented, you’re perfect for this and you’ll have my full support throughout this whole ordeal” The older woman promised.
“On top of that your career will skyrocket, you’ll finally be able to clear out your name. People will forget all about Nia, I’m telling you Clarke this is at your advantage.
“i…” Nylah didn’t get to finish her statement when a knock came from the glass door of the room.
“Who is it?” Nylah asked.
“It’s Octavia Mrs. Foster, Your eleven o’clock is here” Octavia’s voice sounded muffled through the door but still clear enough that both women heard it.
“I’ll be out in a minute, thank you Octavia” She spoke loudly from the other side of the door.
“Listen Clarke” Nylah addressed her while reaching for her bag taking out a pair of keys. “I have to go, please come by my place tonight, Luna Is away on a business trip. We’ll talk some more” She extended her hand holding the keys to Clarke.
The younger girl took them reluctantly. “Fine” She grumbled.
Nylah gave her a lingering kiss on the cheek and stroked her neck gently. “Thank you, I’ll see you later” Nylah voiced, gathered her things and left.
After a while Clarke did the same after saying her goodbyes to her best friend. She drove her car out of the huge skyscraper.