Mind Games

Chapter Two: Empty Threats

Whitley's funeral was held on Friday 13th in one of Seattle's cathedral churches with half of the university community showing up to give condolences to Whitley's widowed mother and the closed casket that held Whitley. Lucca noticed that most of the students had shown up for one of two reasons: to either catch a glimpse of Whitley's body, to fulfil some morbid curiosity, or to gain their fifteen-minutes of fame with the news crews and camera vans that waited outside.

Lucca, and that of the DeMarco family, attended to give their condolences. For the most part, they had been raised as Catholics and it was the right thing to do on any front, given the circumstance, regardless of religion.

Though Lucca's reasons for attending weren't so much about condolences as they were about providing her with a chance to survey the congregation of grievers. She didn't need the fame, or to see the body.

She wanted to know if the killers had been brave enough to show their faces to what was a close approximate to the scene of the crime. Killers often enjoyed seeing the result of their handiwork.

Nate, of course, wasn't happy about Lucca putting herself in possible danger, believing in Murphy's Law of combat: that if the enemy was in sight, then so was she. The result of which now had the former black-ops soldier breaching their personal space rule and standing within kicking distance to Lucca's left.

He should have been counting his lucky stars that the skirt of her dress didn't allow her to kick her legs that high.

She'd mentioned his insubordination - this, a perfect example.

Jake had raised his eyebrows when he'd joined her in the pews, spotting the man he knew only as her personal driver a few feet away. Lucca had informed him that he was there only as a means of crowd control. Victor, himself, had been thankful.

Someone for crowd control was what they had needed. The church was packed.

"There are rumours, you know," Jake says partway through the ceremony, interrupting the Priest as he led the church in a prayer.

They were several rows from the front, closer to the outer edge and a few feet from a nearby exit in case of a need for escape. From the angle Lucca was sitting on, she could see the shaking shoulders of Whitley's mother as she tried to contain her sobs. She could also see Detective Garrison and the high ponytail of his partner. The bowed head of Amelia as she fazed in and out of consciousness thanks to heavy sedation.

What exactly had she seen?

Jake was sitting with the DeMarcos. On Lucca's right, one arm stretched on the chair behind her, the rest of his body sitting in a lazy, too-relaxed posture. Giada, one of Lucca's cousins, was sitting on Jake's right with the same disrespectful slouch to her posture, but became more attentive when Jake started talking.

"About Whitley," he continued. "Owing some debts to the mob. They came to collect."

Lucca grimaced, wondered what people found so interesting about rumours, especially when they were ill and unconfirmed. But perhaps it served as a gateway to the truth, to the crime family that had killed him. The mob.

But...

"It's ill-mannered to speak of the dead," she berated him in a low tone.

"What about the rumours about a shrink being brought into the school for counselling," Giada tells them, turning herself to better face them. "That's not about the dead."

The university had been closed down for the remainder of the week, while the police gathered any necessary evidence and spoke to witnesses. Class credit was given to end results as a means of justification for the students. Giada and Jake had both proven during that time that the rumour mill of Washington University didn't need the school to be open to still be churning out a story.