moment I dropped them forward to point toward her. “So you’re going to be the psychologist now?”
“Psychology is not necessary in order for me to recognize bad acting when I see it. I have already told you that you are not clever enough to play this game with me.”
“Okay then. No games. Why did you ask for this meeting with me?”
“Why don’t you tell me?”
“Who’s playing games now?” I asked with a sigh. “Did you call me here just for your own entertainment?”
“What if I did?”
I took in a deep breath and then exhaled slowly. Leaning back in my chair, I cocked an eyebrow and gave her a half shrug. “If you did, then I think you’re easily amused, and to borrow a phrase, we both know that isn’t true. But what can I say? Go for it. Entertain yourself. And when you’re done, we can talk about the real reason I’m here.”
She arched an eyebrow, slowly glanced over her shoulder at the guard, then turned back to face me. “Have Officer Bardwell remove these handcuffs and leave us alone, and trust me, I will entertain both of us.”
“I doubt we have the same ideas about what we find entertaining,” I replied. “So if it’s all the same to you, I think I’ll pass.”
“I thought as much.” She sneered as she gave her head a haughty shake. “It does not matter. You do not have the time anyway.”
I shrugged at the question. “Time? I’ve got all day.”
She smiled and shook her head. “No. You do not.”
“Sure I do.”
“No,” she replied, the corner of her mouth turning up in a wicked smirk. “You would love for me to believe that, but I know better.”
“Okay,” I conceded. “Then since I’m the dull-witted one here, why don’t you fill me in?”
“Are you certain you really want to keep trying to play a game you are destined to lose?”
I clucked my tongue and paused before answering. “Truthfully, I haven’t really been certain about much of anything where you’ve been concerned, except that you’re an evil bitch.”
She flashed a thin, condescending smile. “Finally… That is the first truly honest thing you have said to me since you arrived.”
I answered with sarcasm. “Glad I could brighten your day.”
“Would you like to continue the trend, or shall I do it for you?” she asked.
“This is your party,” I replied. “Why should I have all the fun?”
“All right then,” she returned. Shifting in her seat she allowed her expressionless gaze to dwell on my face for several heartbeats before speaking once again. “You do not have all day because you would not last that long and you know it. You are exhausted. You have barely slept and your nerves are on edge. Being this close to me is making you worry, and right now you want nothing more than to call your wife to make sure she is safe since you are not there to protect her. But most of all…you are afraid of her.”
“I’m afraid of my wife?”
She furrowed her brow in admonishment. “I really am bored with you playing stupid. I have already pointed out that you are not any good at it.”
I gave in. “Okay… By her I assume you mean Miranda.”
“That is twice now with the honesty… Very good… I am becoming somewhat heartened.”
I splayed my hands out in a small shrug-like gesture as I rephrased her comment and repeated it back to her, “So you think I’m afraid of Miranda.”
“I do not think you are afraid of her,” she replied, shaking her head slowly. “I know you are.”
I sighed then gave her a quick nod of assent. “Okay. I’ll admit that I was once, but not for the reasons you imagine. And, I’m not anymore.”
“How is it you think you know what I imagine?”
“Call it an educated guess.”
She pursed her lips and rolled her eyes. “No, not the lying again. We were just starting to have a meaningful dialogue.”
While I had been maintaining a passable front, on the inside I was going down for the third time. No matter how hard I had been trying to wall myself off from her malignant energies, she was finding a way in. The very core of my being was under assault, and the effects couldn’t be contained much longer. I felt like a bomb, and she was holding the dead man switch that would set me off.
I shifted forward in my seat and growled, “Meaningful to whom? It sounded to me like all you did was state the obvious. Trust me, I’ve seen myself in the mirror today, and I know damn well I look exhausted, so you aren’t telling me anything new. You want honesty, Annalise? Here it is. Everything you just said was a dime store observation anyone could make. Just like you said earlier, no psych degree necessary. So maybe it’s you who isn’t all that clever. Did you ever think of that?”
She leaned in, mimicking my posture. “Come now, be honest. You really do not believe that.”
“No,” I admitted, my voice even but still edgy. I huffed out a heavy breath and then sat back. “No, I don’t. I just think you made a horrible error in judgment. Miranda is the one who isn’t as clever as she thinks she is.”
“Really? How do you know you are not talking to Miranda right now?”
“I don’t.” I shrugged. In point of fact, from her very first words I knew that’s exactly whom I was talking to, but I lied anyway. “I suppose I could say I know who is riding the horse because of your initial comment to me.” I kept close watch on her eyes as I spoke. I had purposely used the phraseology common in Vodoun to describe the act of a Lwa, or ancestral spirit, inhabiting a corporeal body. I knew it was a transparent attempt to provoke a reaction, but I tried it just the same. However, the reference didn’t even garner a twitch, so I continued. “Or, maybe it’s because you didn’t even blink when I called you Annalise. I think we both know Miranda wouldn’t really care for that. But if I gave you any of those reasons, I’d just be lying and you know it. The real truth is, I have no idea which one of you I am talking to at the moment.”
She allowed herself an exaggerated sigh. “And it seemed like we were making such progress, but here you are lying to me again. Come now, telling me the truth did not hurt that much, did it?”
“Only a little,” I replied. “So…before we go any further with this game of yours…”
She cut me off. “This is not my game. It is yours…”
“Fine,” I grumbled. “Have it your way. So, if it’s my game, then we play with my rules. Time to ante up. What are you wagering?”
“What about you?” she asked. “What are you putting on the table?”
“You first.”
“Greedy, aren’t you?” she replied. “Should you not be happy with what you have already won?”
“And what would that be?”
She smirked and cocked her head to the side. “You are alive, are you not?”
“I see. So then I guess that’s what you meant with your comment about not understanding what she sees in me. Miranda has a soft spot for me so she let me live?”
She shook her head. “Of course not. You have Annalise to thank for your continued life.”
I remained silent, eyes locked with hers as she waited for me to react to her purposely-clumsy move. I searched my grey matter for an appropriately biting response but found none. The harsh pain inside my skull had taken its toll and then some. In my mind I tried to blame it on the lack of sleep, but I had been down this road before. It was nothing new, and I had definitely gone longer than just a day without rest and still managed to function. The simple fact of the matter was that I had walked in here unprepared, and Miranda was draining me. In my haste to bring this all to a close I had underestimated her, just as I had done in New Orleans. She had bested me there twice. Now she was doing so here for the trifecta, and it seemed I was handing it to her without much of a fight.
The longer I sat there allowing this to happen, the more my psychic nerves throbbed, raw and bleeding. She knew this and was mercilessly grinding them under her heel while taking delight in every moment of my inadequately hidden agony. In the grand scheme of things, our verbal sparring had only just started, and here I was already face down on the mat. I couldn’t help but wonder if I had made a fatal error by coming here at all.
I silently pondered the idea of trying to rally myself enough to at least finish this round. To somehow drag
