Chapter 616

Inside the prison, Moira glanced at the exhausted little girl sitting beside her in an orange jumpsuit before turning her attention back to the phone.

"I ran a full series of tests on the girl. MRI, EEG, the works. There are abnormal fluctuations in her brain activity. It looks very much like the aftermath of some kind of mind control."

Evenson rubbed at his brow, thinking through the situation. He needed to steer this investigation in a direction that benefited him, and preferably before anyone else realized what was really going on.

"Were you able to get anything useful out of her? Anything about the person controlling her mind? What he looks like, for example?"

"Kilgrave," Moira replied. "According to Hope, that’s the name he’s using. At least, it’s the name he uses now."

"Kilgrave?" Evenson repeated. "Who names themselves that? Is he Russian?"

There was a certain logic to it in Evenson’s mind. If a name ended in -grave, it sounded vaguely European enough that he was willing to gamble on Russia.

"He’s British," Moira corrected. "Hope says he has a very strong British accent."

"I see..."

Evenson frowned. Russian-accented English and proper British English sounded nothing alike. Most people could tell the difference immediately.

"What about his appearance?" he asked. "Is he bald? Paralyzed from the waist down? Maybe in a wheelchair?"

Moira paused.

She had absolutely no idea why her boss had asked that.

"No. He’s healthy. At least physically. Hope says he looks about twenty-five or twenty-six. Tall, thin, and dressed in an elegant purple suit. The police are helping us put together a sketch now."

Evenson nodded slowly.

"Can you verify that information?"

"Not with any real confidence." Moira sounded hesitant. "The girl’s mental state is... questionable."

"Fair enough. Even if she were perfectly sane, we shouldn’t trust the description too easily."

Evenson thought for a moment before continuing.

"We’re dealing with a mind controller. Someone who can take over another person’s brain and make them do whatever he wants. If he can control what people do, there’s no reason to assume he can’t control what they see, too."

He leaned back.

"A tall, skinny British guy with an odd name and a purple suit might be nothing more than an illusion. For all we know, the real Kilgrave is a bald Russian grandfather with tubes running into his body and some weird symbol painted on his forehead."

"...I suppose that’s not impossible."

Moira found herself wondering why her boss always imagined mind controllers as bald men.

Was baldness somehow connected to psychic power?

Or did psychic power cause hair loss?

She decided some mysteries were better left unsolved.

"Anything else?" Evenson asked.

"Nothing from Hope. But I found someone else who seems to be heavily involved."

"Who?"

"Jessica Jones."

Moira continued before he could ask.

"She’s the private investigator who found Hope. You once described her as a female, budget-version Captain America."

Evenson remembered that much.

"She seems unusually invested in the girl. She believes Hope almost without question. She even convinced a friend of hers who hosts a talk show to bring Hope onto the program and drum up public sympathy. On top of that, she arranged an excellent defense attorney for her. Jeri. You should know her very well."

"Know her? If she were a mouse, then yes, I’d probably know her pretty well."

Evenson sounded genuinely confused.

"But if she’s a person, and a lawyer at that, then no. Sorry. I don’t know her. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever dealt with a lawyer in my life."

There was a long silence on the other end of the call.

Then Moira sighed.

"She’s our company’s chief legal counsel."

Evenson blinked.

"Jeri’s entire law firm works for us."

"Oh."

He scratched his cheek, looking faintly embarrassed.

"I don’t usually deal with that side of things. Besides, given my current situation, you know it’s better for me not to know too much about the company’s inner workings."

Moira said nothing.

She simply shook her head on the other end of the line.

Evenson cleared his throat and continued.

"Do you want the company to put some pressure on this lawyer? Get her to cooperate fully and answer questions she normally wouldn’t?"

"No."

Moira rejected the idea immediately.

"If her professional ethics are compromised, the company wouldn’t have hired her in the first place. And if I need to use unconventional methods to get information out of her, I can handle that myself. There’s no reason to drag the company into it."

"Always thinking about the company. I appreciate that."

Evenson gave her a small compliment, then asked, "So why bring Jeri up?"

"Because the company hired her for a reason. She’s one of the best lawyers in New York, and she has an exceptional record in court. That means her fees aren’t cheap."

Moira laid out her reasoning piece by piece.

"Jessica Jones probably can’t afford someone like her. And taking a case this hopeless could seriously hurt Jeri’s professional reputation. Even if Jessica is her friend, getting her involved would have required a substantial personal favor."

Evenson considered everything Jessica had done.

She had gone on television.

She had found a lawyer.

She had called in a personal favor.

All of that for a girl she barely knew.

"That’s a hell of a lot of effort for someone she’s barely met," he said. "Her concern for Hope is bizarre. She’s treating the girl like family."

"Which is why I looked into Jessica Jones."

Moira’s voice hardened slightly.

"Her history is ugly. Very ugly. She’s not exactly a model citizen. The easiest way to put it is that she’s an unpleasant person."

Evenson listened without interrupting.

"So if someone like that suddenly becomes deeply concerned about a girl she hardly knows, there are only a few possibilities. Either she’s developed a miraculous conscience overnight, or..."

"Or?"

"She’s been through the same thing."

Evenson’s expression sharpened.

"Mind control."

"Exactly. Jessica may have been subjected to the same kind of control, and that could explain why she’s so determined to protect Hope. She may also be hoping to get more information from her."

"That makes Jessica considerably more important than Hope."

Evenson reached his conclusion almost immediately.

"Go talk to her. Find out whether she knows anything else. And while you’re at it, investigate those superhuman abilities of hers."

"No problem, boss."

Moira was about to end the call when she suddenly remembered something.

"One more thing."

Evenson looked up.

"What?"

"Luther sent over a request to merge the cases."

"Merge?"

Evenson frowned.

"Why would we merge them? Your targets are different."

"Luther’s assignment is to investigate Luke Cage in Harlem. Apparently, there’s a man there who’s supposed to be bulletproof."

"That has nothing to do with us."

"It didn’t."

Moira sighed.

"Originally, our investigations never would have crossed. But somehow, Luke Cage and Jessica Jones have gotten involved with each other."

Evenson was silent for a moment.

Then he exhaled.

"So now the cases are tied together."

"Exactly."

The call ended.

Evenson stared ahead, his expression thoughtful.

Kilgrave.

Hope.

Jessica Jones.

Luke Cage.

The investigation was getting crowded.

And crowded investigations had a nasty habit of becoming complicated.