"Do and say everything i tell you" Melissa's faint voice said.
Kirstin couldn't have been more happy to hear Melissa's whispers in her head. Alan's open mouth and wide eyes were the same expression she'd seen whenever he was outraged at a suspects' confessions. This time it was aimed at her. She needed someone to guide her as she mentally checked out. Being caught with her pants off was something she could not explain, not that she ever could before.
"Kirstin..are you okay?" Alan asked. "What did they do to you?"
"I...I..." she stammered, backing away as she folded both hands over her groin. "Alan...I"
"i received a tip that someone saw some strange men moving a body in here a night ago." Melissa's voice got louder, less of a whisper and more stern.
"I received a tip that someone saw strange men moving a body in here a night ago." Kirstin couldn't look up at Alan at this point.
"Then why didn't you call me!? Please tell me you weren't stupid enough to pursue them on your own." Alan said.
Kirstin had to swallow not to cry, not out of fear but rage. She no one talked to her like this. "Breathe Kirstin. Tell him you didn't want to wait and you thought you could handle them." It was like Melissa was Kirstin's coach, not raising her voice as she kept redirecting Kirstin from spilling the truth.
"I didn't want to wait." Tears stung Kirstin's eyes as she heard the words escape her lips, sealing her fate as being incompetent and irrational. "I thought i could handle them."
Alan's eyes widened again as he tightened his lips. "Kirstin what the fuck?! I know this isn't you. You're way too smart to rush in like this. This is something I'd expect Hillier to do." his eyes lowered to his partner's bare legs. "What did they try to do to you?"
Kirstin's mouth moved rapidly, moving up and down as it waited for words to explain her humiliating dilemma. It would've been easy to blame it on the two men who Melissa had bested, but Kirstin was unsure if they would corroborate a story in which they tried to strip her.
"Don't say anything! we can't rely on those men to take the blame for why you're half naked. Ugh, I can't believe I'm suggesting this. Tell him it turns you on to be naked while in danger. That's why you wanted to go in alone." Melissa said, her words slower as it sounded like she questioned the validity of such a story.
A gasp escaped Kirstins' mouth, the excuse so outrageous she didn't want to own it. But Alan's eyes bore through her own and it was something she had no choice but to accept. "I went in alone because I get turned on being naked when I'm in danger."
"Turned on?" Alan's nostrils flared.
She wrapped an arm around her stomach, "Yes! I'm turned on by being caught naked." her voice cracked as it escaped. Her face was burning, as if it would do whatever it could to throw off Kirstin's focus and not say the absurd excuse she just gave.
"SO YOU DO IT WHILE YOU'RE PURSUING A FUCKING LEAD?!" Alan's scream echoed throughout the warehouse and Kirstin jumped back. "Were there suspects here?"
"Yes." Kirstin blurted out, turning her head towards where the two brainwashed men were laying.
"Stop answering without me telling you! Tell him you managed to knock them out, they were distracted by seeing you naked." This time Melissa's voice sounded as angry as Alan's.
"I knocked them out!" Kirstin said, "They saw me naked and it gave me the chance to get the drop on them.
By now, Alan's anger was so great he couldn't answer. Every time his mouth opened he turned away, shaking his head as he clutched his fists. This gave Melissa the chance to feed Kirstin more lines.
"If he asks. Tell him you have to pleasure yourself as you strip down when in a gun fight. You only do it when you're sure you're in a safe spot. Tell him it started happening after you were first found naked the night you met me. BREATHE AND STOP CRYING!" The last commands from Melissa felt like whiplash, the force of her yell jarring Kirstin's mind from the inside.
"Jesus fucking Christ Kirstin. You realize you could've been killed?" Alan continued, "You never did anything like this before!"
"I don't know it just happened after that suspect stripped me the night we found the Matthew Varnes. I just couldn't help myself." Kirstin tried to cover her mouth with her hand but she knew the words had to come out in order to protect herself, not from losing her job, but from losing her life at the hands of vampires who wished her to be discrete.
Alan pinched the bridge of his nose before looking around the warehouse, shaking his head as he fought to contain his outrage.
"It's working, he's starting to believe it. Don't say anything else about it unless he asks." Melissa seemed to calm down and it seemed like she had the best read on Alan given that she could read his thoughts also.
"So you knocked two of them out. Where are they?" Alan asked, his voice hoarse from shouting.
With one hand kept over her lower half, Kirstin pointed to where the two others were tied up. "I managed to tie them up Jacob Varnes is-" the sight of watching him die without making any attempts to protect him flooded back into her memories. "-dead." She let out a weak cry and
Alan approached her, taking off his jacket and handing it to her. "I'm sorry. I'm glad you're okay. Show me where Varnes is. I called backup so make sure this is tight around you. We'll say you got a tip but that when you went in they got the drop on you and tried to strip you."