Breathe

chapter twenty: always and forever

'What did she say?" Lydia asked my dad as he came out of his office.

 "Hard to tell. There were words. I'm not sure there were actual sentences. Nothing." He said.

"I think we need a psychologist... " Lydia said.

"Or a medium." I said.

"Is she even competent enough to be charged with something?" Lydia asked.

"If Meredith is The Benefactor, then that means she was competent enough to trick Kate into opening the Hale Vault, competent enough to blackmail Brunski into helping her, and competent enough to create a hit list and pay out money for its completion. This girl's practically a criminal mastermind." My dad whispered.

 "There's gotta be a reason why she would do this." I said.

"I'm only interested in the "why," if it tells me the "how."" My dad said.

"You mean how to stop it?" Lydia asked.

"After what happened to Scott tonight, this thing's still going. The payments could be automatic. And as long as the killers are getting paid, and paid very well, that list is gonna keep getting smaller." My dad said.

"We don't just need to stop the dead pool." I said.

"We need to stop the money," My dad said.

Lydia and I sat on the bench as my dad went back in his office, Parrish gave us some jackets and before we knew it we were asleep.

~

Morning came quicker than I would have liked, but I also would have liked sleeping in my bed and not on a bench but hey.

"I thought I told you to go home." My dad said, sitting beside Lydia.

"I thought I told you I wasn't going anywhere. Did they get anything out of her?" Lydia asked about Meredith.

"Should have gone with the medium." My dad said.

"We went through everything in Brunski's office, and so far everything amounts to pretty much nothing. Did you not go home yet?" Parrish asked the two of us as he approached.

"Not until Meredith starts talking." I said.

"Lydia, I promise she'll talk, and when she does, I'll let you know. Trust me on this. Everybody talks eventually." My dad said.

"Then let me try." Lydia said.

"No, we've already discussed this." My dad said.

 "I've gotten through to her before. Just let me try." Lydia argued.

"Dad." I said and he sighed in defeat.

"Everything I do is illegal now," He said opening the door to let us in.

Lydia and I went and she started asking Meredith all these questions.

"I think I'm getting an idea of how all this happened. You used Brunski, right? You knew he'd killed people, and that he would do it again. He used my grandmother's code for the dead pool. He put it online. He took the money from the Hale Vault, then turned the bearer bonds into cash. He made the payments. Was it Brunski's idea to fake your death? Did he get nervous because you helped us with one of the cipher keys?" Lydia asked.

"I wanted to help. " Meredith said.

"All you ever wanted to do was help. Is that why you're here? I know you wouldn't want to be here if you didn't want to talk." Lydia said.

"I do. But only to one person." Meredith said.

"Who?" I asked.

"Peter." She responded. "Peter Hale."