It was quite obvious when Detective Charlot arrived, because he immediately began questioning the curator of the museum. Tara just shook her head and continued to study the items herself. He also arrived with the ever annoying Ramirez, who seemed to not be able to leave this case alone because Eliza is close to death. The curator walked off quickly and Tara just shook her head.
“If you’re going to be a part of this operation, you needn’t scare off one of our leading experts on these artifacts,” Tara said loud enough for Detective Charlot to hear. Tara turned and cocked an eyebrow at Matthias. “So what exactly are you doing here? We have enough detectives at the precinct to work this case on our own… Daddy’s privilege, hmmm?”
“Tara,” Melissa hissed at her, but Tara just shook her head and continued to walk around, searching for weak spots. She eyed the small windows surrounding the basement. They would be just above the ground at this height, which means if she were to get through this way, she would need to wiggle along the ground and slip through. But they could only be unlocked from the inside. Narrowing her eyes, she turned and walked back toward the steps.
“If you’ll excuse me,” Tara said, roughly bumping passed Matthias to get to the stairs, “I have some real detective work to get done.” She stalked back up the stairs and went back out into the open exhibits. Melissa, giving a small smile to the young man as she followed her friend him, hurried up quickly after her and caught up with her.
“Well that was quite rude of you,” Melissa said, grabbing Tara’s coat covered arm and yanking her back to a stop. “You could at least try to be nice to the poor kid.”
Tara jerked her arm out of Melissa’s grasp and snapped, “I don’t give a damn on what you think, Melissa. This is my case. It should be my case. Ghostess is… the reason I became a detective. I wanted to stop people like her and I don’t need any rookies messing it up!”
“May I remind you that Ghostess was a stem off from the work your father did?” Tara stared at Melissa and Melissa then realized she had gone too far. Her slim pink mouth shut quickly and she frantically searched her brain. “Tara, I didn’t mean…”
“Tell the Captain I went home and I’ll be back in the morning,” Tara said blunting, tucking a piece of black hair back behind her ear. “The storm is getting worse and I don’t think anyone wants to be caught in the rain out here.” Melissa tried to reach for her arm, but Tara dodged around it and made her way back outside, holding up an arm to block any rain from running into her eyes. It would just mix with the tears. Tara took a deep, shaky breath before ducking into her car, soaking wet, and driving off down the street.
Her knuckles were white as she gripped the dark steering wheel. She was almost half tempted to flip on her siren so she could get to her apartment faster, but that would be wrong of her. Instead, to pulled steadily to a stop at a stoplight, with no one else around. She pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead, taking a deep breath, and pressed her forehead to the top of her steering wheel. This was just the “best” day so far. She couldn’t believe that she was babysitting a private detective.
The red light stayed for a long time and she blinked open her eyes. What came into view was her laptop bag, with the Ghostess uniform stowed away neatly inside in it. She stared through the front window. It was still raining, fairly hard in fact. But she knew if it was Eliza in this position and she had seen what Tara had seen, she would go for it. Tara swore under her breath and yanked her car into reverse. She did a U turn and sped back down the street.
There was a small diner just off of Third Street, only a few blocks away from the museum. It would take only five minutes to get there and it would take only a few minutes to change… She drove into the diner parking lot and parked in the back, away from the streets to where no one would be able to see the unit. She slipped in through the back door, and then disappeared into the restroom. This wouldn’t take too long.
Locking in one of the stalls, she plopped her laptop bag down and began slipping out of her drenched clothing. She pulled out the black yoga pants and black tight fitting sweatshirt. Tara didn’t understand why Eliza needed to look like a ninja, but she did always have those damn katanas on her back whenever she went out, so it was obviously a look thing. She slipped into the tight clothing, pulling the hood up over her head and slipping the mask up over her face. She pulled her sister’s black boots on before flipping out a makeup mirror and painting a cat eye liner on both of her eyes. It was one of her sister’s signature characteristics. She then pulled on her slim black gloves and tucked the lock picks into her boots.
The door to the bathroom suddenly opened and someone walked in. Tara froze, waiting for the person to leave. It took the person five minutes of possibly staring at the mirror before they walked back out again and Tara quickly threw her wet clothing into her bag and slung in back over her shoulder. Her Glock was still on her waist and she had Eliza’s katanas in her truck for later. She hurried back outside quickly, making sure to stay out of sight from any form of person. She knew there wasn’t security cameras on this diner, which made it an easy mark to change.
Heading to her car again, she opened up the trunk and pulled her sister’s katanas out and slung them onto her back, throwing the laptop bag in the back. She tucked the signature onyx swans into a pocket on her side. She hooked her keys onto a belt loop and hurried down the street. She ducked into the alleyway and found a low enough fire escape to climb up to the rooftops. She climbed up quickly, ducking through the rain. Her boots slipped, and she nearly fell, but she flipped up onto the roof before she could fall.
She began sprinting across the rooftops, jumping from roof to roof. Almost each time she had to drop and roll and then pop back up to sprint again. She managed to get all the way to the apartment building across the way from the museum. She crouched down at the edge and pulled out a binocular. She looked to the street and saw that there was only one car still there. Melissa must’ve left after her. She kneeled down, and pulled the mask up around her mouth. She would need to wait for that last car to leave before she could dodge in.
