[Case File Not Set]

[Voice1]: Please state your name for the dictaphone?

[silence]

[Voice1]: Your name?

[silence]

[Voice1]: Mattie, are you okay? I know your head got hit pretty hard when Marshal 19 intersected those homunculi.

[silence]

[Voice1]: Matilda, I don’t know what happened, what he put you through, but I’m on your side. And you need me on your side. The other marshal wants to arrest you and he has a good argument to do so. But I can’t help you if you don’t work with me.

[Voice2]: Matilda Walstead.

[Voice1]: Huh. So it is true. He gave you her voice. So the animals attacking us were-

[Voice2]: Ordered on his request, not mine. I had to play nice with him or I wouldn’t have survived.

[Voice1]: Is that why you didn’t activate the emergency beacon?

[silence]

[Voice2]: It broke when we were fleeing Henshaw. Without a way to contact you, I decided to work with him in exchange for medical care, in the hopes that I could discover his long-term plans.

[Voice1]: And did you?

[Voice2]: Scraps. I know his goal was East but not much else.

[Voice1]: I see. So, why you didn’t activate the emergency beacon?

[Voice2]: Marshal, I just…I just told you, it broke! The beacon broke and-

[Voice1]: We collected your personal effects, Matilda. Including your intact, untouched beacon. I can’t help you if you won’t tell me the truth.

[silence]

[laughter]

[Voice2]: Oh is this what it’s come to? Have I ruined myself to the point where I can’t even lie properly?

[Voice1]: Mattie, please-

[Voice2]: I know why Bean’s off his rocker now. You never expect it from anybody, much less a Negro. You see the part of them that they show you for so long that you think that’s just it, and then they let you in or you force your way through and you see them in truth and it’s so much larger, and that one, and his family, they’re cavernous! They’ve got history inside of them! But you never really forget the first part. Bean will never stop seeing Victor’s mother as his own, and I’ll never stop seeing that man as a judgmental son of a, god, you have no idea how frustrating it is to deal with him after he decides to blossom in front of you like a goddamn rose, opening up his chest until his heart’s right where you can stab it.

[silence]

[Voice1]: But you didn’t.

[Voice2]: Would you? People under suspicion don’t drop their guard for the investigators. I’m still looking for the trap.

[Voice1]: So this is the limits of your bravery and shamelessness.

[silence]

[Voice1]: No, that’s untoward of me, I-

[Voice2]: I know. You’re upset. You should be. And I’m trying. I was trying. I was trying to come up with a lie that wouldn’t make you look like a fool for trusting me. Most of it was even true. He did save my life, from the man you’re currently employing, I might add. I had my reasons to cooperate.

[Voice1]: I would replace Pastor Bean in my retinue with you in a heartbeat, but he’s gained the trust of my people and you’ve lost it, and I might lose it next at this point. If you want to try, to help me help you, I need truth.

[Voice2]: You want truth? I got to correspond with Lilith.

[Voice1]: …How?

[Voice2]: Did Bean not tell you about the skull trick? So much for him being the trustful one. She’s in hiding somewhere in the East with someone named Hicks.

[Voice1]: Hicks, Hicks…Oscar Hicks, one of Francois’s employees. That’s the most solid link we’ve gotten between him and Freestone!

[Voice2]: See? I can be helpful. Listen, getting Victor to cooperate with you will be difficult, and Gigi will balk if she thinks she’s getting sent back home, and Lilith has a vicious streak, but I can handle this. Let me talk to them and I bet we can tie this whole thing by sunrise.

[Voice1]: We don’t…have them. The homunculi captured Freestone and Geraldine…disappeared, along with what I believe were the bones Bean was hiding.

[Voice2]: Are you serious? What are you doing here then?

[Voice1]: Matilda, I know you owe Freestone his life and have…sympathies towards Geraldine. I know you are concerned. But I can assure that I have my people-

[Voice2]: No, forget…whatever I have with them. The focus of your investigation is in the hands of rebel wizards and his accomplice is completely missing. No wonder your assistants are suspicious of you! You should be out there instead of here! They need you! You…you know they’ll kill him, if they haven’t already.

[Voice1]: I…I needed to know if you were still with me or not.

[silence]

[Voice2]: Why do you need me so badly?

[silence]

[sigh]

[Voice1]: Never in my life had I seen someone live and breathe and love with such pride. I suppose I admired it.

[Voice2]: Then, are you also-

[Voice1]: But you are right. I have my obligations. I cannot protect you for my sake. I will not file this recording or advise on your case; Marshal 19’s judgment will stand.

[Voice2]: Don’t you dare! I spent six weeks keeping those two alive, you will not stop me from-

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