Heroine ϟ Marvel [3]

10.6

CHAPTER SIX

I'm Falling, Bro

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(minor hawkeye ep 1-3 spoilers below!)

FINANCIAL DISTRICT
NEW YORK
FOUR YEARS AFTER THE SNAP

Ana tugged at the high neckline of her black dress, feeling warm all of a sudden. She wanted to blame it on the overly crowded area. There were people dressed in black in front and behind her. The glass windows were shut with the curtains drawn back, allowing the blazing sun to cook everyone inside the funeral home. Ana's senses weren't kind to her. The casket in the centre of the room was open, and the scent that came off of the corpse made her eyes water and nose sting. She played the part of a griever, and dabbed at her eyes with a folded tissue. The guards standing by every exit let their gaze wander across the people huddled in a line that led to the casket. Ana didn't stand out. She looked the same as everyone else. Hair was pulled back into a neat bun and her conservative long sleeved dress reached below her knees. Unfortunately, Natasha strongly suggested for her to wear a pair of sunglasses indoors. They acted as eyes and ears for the Widow who was live streaming everything on the monitors back at Avengers Compound.

Natasha chewed on something crunchy, making Ana's eye twitch at the sound. "Hey, wipe the camera in the centre of the frame. It's blurry and I can't see." Ana discreetly used her tissue to clean the camera and waited for Natasha's response. "That's great. Now, break into tears. It's your turn to say goodbye."

Ana struggled to hold in a chuckle and covered the sound with a cough when she stepped up to the casket. The smell got worse. Ana wanted so badly to block her nose. The mortician's job at embalming the dead woman had melted away with the heat, giving way to the gaping hole in the centre of her head and the underlying scent of garbage water in her pores. Eadie Moore had been found dumped in a sewer. Normally, mystery murder cases such as these wouldn't jump on their radar. But seeing as the hole in Eadie's head had been made with a specific trick arrow, Natasha had flagged the case and assigned an antsy Ana onto it. There had been rumours floating around that a man in a hood had been targeting a group of port owners along the coast. So far, the local authorities believed it was just a wrong place, wrong time kind of situation. Natasha and Ana thought otherwise.

Ana leaned over to get Natasha a better look at the corpse. "Damn, she looks messed up." Ana muttered. There was bruising along her cheekbones, enough to make her skin look almost grey. Because of what Ana already knew about the person Eadie was, she narrowed her eyes and added, "Or maybe she always looked like that."

One of the funeral home guests had overheard Ana's words, and joined her at the casket where she was still inches away from Eadie's face, giving Natasha the chance to complete her scans. "I'm sorry, who are you?" He asked, holding a bottle of confiscated wine in his hands close to his black and white suit. Apparently Eadie's relatives had strongly advised guests from bringing anything alcoholic to the funeral home.

Ana didn't part from the dead woman and dipped her sunglasses at him. "Kat. And you are?"

He didn't give his name and instead asked, "How did you know Eadie?"

Ana straightened up and faced him. "We owned a yacht together. Went yachting. That sort of thing." The Wine Guy wasn't buying it. His brown eyes squinted at her as she stepped away from the casket and to the side to speak with him. "And how did you know Eadie?"

Wine Guy made contact with a few of the guards at the front. He was meant to be subtle about it but everything about him wasn't very subtle. Ana did a quick analysis. His jacket was unbuttoned. He had an earpiece. He was just another one of the guards posed as a guest. Ana supposed it was to get closer to the other attendants and ask the required questions. Wine Guy didn't really have a decipherable expression on his face. "We worked together." He answered vaguely.