"You want to hear my side of the story?" He shrugged. "Fine. Let's pretend you weren't there. Not that you were much use anyway."
Matthews' fingers twitched slightly, but she didn't take the bait. Ace, however, was just getting started.
"It was a fine night, I was enjoying it despite being held against my will by a crazy middle-aged woman," he began, settling into his chair like he was telling a bedtime story. "I had just won a sky-tier innate curse tool at the auction—it wasn't cheap, you know? So, feeling happy, I decided to treat my friends and, well, acquaintances to a nice dinner." He gestured vaguely as if setting the scene.
"But just when we were truly beginning to enjoy our meal, the uptight, crazed, middle-aged woman—you know who—barged in and killed the vibe," His eyes flicked to her pointedly before he continued.
"And then—" he clapped his hands together softly as if emphasizing a twist in the plot "—a madman decided to blow up the congressman, the city mayor, and the police commissioner. Boom." He mimicked an explosion with his hands.
"And as if that wasn't enough excitement for one evening, that same madman then came charging at me." He sighed, shaking his head. "If not for my quick thinking and timely action, you probably would've gotten away with framing me for those murders."
His smirk widened just a fraction. Matthews clenched her jaw wondering if Ace had absolutely no fear. That made him dangerous in her eyes.
"Thank you for your cooperation. I'll get back to you soon," Matthews said, her voice clipped and controlled. Without waiting for a response, she turned on her heel and strode out of the interview room. If she had stayed even a second longer, she knew she would have punched that smug look off Ace's face.
The moment the door clicked shut behind her, Ace casually waved at the large two-way mirror in the room. According to Dame Wasp, there were two people on the other side—an older woman and a middle-aged man. Neither of whom he recognized. They had been observing the whole thing.
A moment later, Dame Wasp reported that Matthews had just entered the monitoring room. Unfortunately, due to the room's excellent insulation, she couldn't eavesdrop on their conversation. And since the two agents were facing away from the mirror, lip-reading wasn't an option either. They were sitting ducks.
Inside the monitoring room, Matthews wasted no time. "Agent True Seer, was anything that dipshit said true?" she demanded, folding her arms.
The middle-aged man, Agent True Seer, barely hesitated before responding, "Ma'am, aside from him being held against his will by a crazed middle-aged woman, everything else can be ruled out as false."
Matthews stiffened. A crazed middle-aged woman? She narrowed her eyes at the agent, who suddenly realized his mistake. Ace hadn't been talking about some random woman—he had been talking about her.
Smart enough to shut up before making things worse, True Seer focused on his report. Matthews, meanwhile, let out a slow, deep breath before turning to Bishop, the older woman in the room.
"We have to let him go," Bishop stated flatly. "We've got nothing on him except for Beyton's testimony."
The way she said it made it clear: They all knew Ace was responsible for the three high-profile murders. They just had no way to prove it.
"No—" Matthews shot back instantly, rejecting the idea outright. She needed to use this situation to force Ace into signing that employment contract. Even now, with all the pressure on him, he wasn't showing the slightest sign of caving.
But before she could push her argument, Bishop cut in, handing her a cursed pad.
"This isn't up for discussion," she said firmly. "Aurelian Eyes is making a huge fuss over Beyton's arrest, and it's getting harder to stall her. Everyone sees the kid as one of Beyton's victims. And we have bigger problems."
Matthews frowned, scanning the cursed pad as Bishop continued, "The C.I.B.'s official email address on the Curse Web received this threat—timed exactly with the bombing. They're threatening to leak everything about Operation 9Ks headed by Beyton if we don't shut it down and punish everyone responsible within the next 24 hours. We've tried tracing the source, but so far—nothing."
Matthews' grip on the pad tightened as she read through the attached file. Her stomach twisted.
"This… this is way more detailed than what Beyton submitted," she muttered under her breath. "Shit… This is nothing like the reports that old bastard gave me."
Her pulse pounded in her ears as she uttered, "If the president or the opposition gets their hands on this we are—" she trailed off, shaking her head and correcting herself, "No, I'm done for."
"Inform Special Agent-in-Charge Sugarmite to take over Operation 9Ks. Instruct her to tie up the loose ends and make the Operation 9Ks squeaky clean on our end at least. Also, Double the personnel tracing the origin of that email," she ordered sharply, pointing toward the one person who was sitting in the interview room, completely unbothered by the harsh lighting—Ace, she instructed, "Start with all of the devices on his person, in his home, in his school, and town. If it is a electronic device he can access I want it double checked. Also, he has a storage-type curse tool on him. So, see if Senior Special Agent Man Hunter can persuade him to cooperate."
Bishop arched an eyebrow, looking at her like she had lost it. "Him? Aren't you giving the kid way too much credit?" she scoffed. She could believe Matthews seriously thought he was capable of evading their cybersecurity team.
Matthews' eyes stayed locked on Ace, watching the way he lounged in his chair, completely at ease.
"He is behind the untraceable messages linked to the Weasly Winery incident and he killed five Sky-tier Curse Masters just this evening," she reminded Bishop. "Don't be fooled by his age or his tier. That kid is one of the craftiest curse criminals out there."
She signaled Special Agent-in-Charge True Seer to get to work. She had bigger things to deal with right now but she was not done with Ace she was just waiting for the special team to complete their investigation of this incident to put her leash around his neck.
"Bishop, take a day's leave. I will tie this shitshow up in the next 24hrs and hand over a spotless office to you," Matthews informed Bishop who nodded in agreement before asking, "What about your daughter? Won't she be waiting?" After all, she took the office ahead of time cutting her break short so the latter could meet her daughter sooner.
"She is used to me letting her down," Matthews said grimly staring at Ace in the interview room yawing in boredom without a care in the world.