Chapter 11 - The Manticore

"Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot."

Frankie Gonzales sits in her car, clearly ill-at-ease. She looks out the car window at the VFW building and then starts cutting characters into her forearm with a knife.

Inside the building, Russell "Rush" Hunter is at a bar chatting about work with Buddy. Once Buddy leaves to use the bathroom, Frankie sits herself down at Rush's table. At first, he doesn't recognize her, but turning her direction he soon realizes who she is. A waitress comes over to take Frankie's order, but Russell snaps that she's leaving soon. Furious about something she can't put behind her, she rolls up one of her sleeves to show Russell the cuts she had made, imprinting the blood on a napkin and tossing it at him. Russell flinches away and stands up to leave, with Frankie telling him "I'm not going away until you admit what you did."


At the spice shop, Monroe finds a letter from Rosalee's mother, Gloria. He's surprised, given that she and Rosalee haven't spoken for seven years. Her mother wants Rosalee to come to Medford for dinner as it is the anniversary of Rosalee's father's death. Rosalee is reluctant at first but asks if Monroe would come with her, and he agrees.

Back at his house, Rush rages into a phone, telling someone that Frankie is in Portland. Just then, he notices a car pull up in front of his house and goes to check it out. It's Frankie again. He confronts and overpowers her, throwing her off his property. He tells her if she comes back, he will have her arrested. When she doesn't leave, he returns to the house to get his gun, but Frankie is gone by the time he comes out. Relieved, he goes back inside, only to hear a noise. He looks around with his gun drawn and then hears glass shattering. He finds his framed war medals smashed. He ready's his gun, but is ambushed by a Wesen similar to a Löwen, except it has a scorpion-like tail which it uses to stab him in the chest, killing him.


The next morning, Nick, Hank, and Wu investigate Ron's death. They deduce that he wasn't killed by a bullet, and his gun was never fired, but he was clearly prepared for an attack. The detectives notice that the framed war medals remain shattered on the ground, albeit missing the actual medals. Outside, they question Rush's colleague, Troy Dodge. He isn't of much help, and when he receives a phone call, the detectives give him privacy to answer it. Hank figures out that Russell must've let his killer into the house, but without a murder weapon or motive, the detectives don't have anything to work on. Meanwhile, Troy continues talking on the phone. The man on the other end, Jim McCabe, informs him that Rush called him last night to tell him that Frankie is in Portland, and Jim tells Troy to watch his back, which leaves him shaken.

Snappy and nervous at the prospect of seeing her family, Rosalee is not having a good morning. She tells Monroe that her sister, DeEtta, with whom she certainly is not on good terms, will also be at the dinner.

At the precinct, Nick and Hank track Russell's credit card and cellphone, finding out that just before his death, he had been at a bar, and after that made three phone calls to Jim McCabe.

Troy returns home to find Frankie chatting with his wife, who leaves to get refreshments. In their curt exchange, Frankie hints that the two of them may have had a sexual relationship before. Troy tells her to get out, which she does, but not before threatening him again.

Hank and Nick arrive at the bar that Russell was at the night before. The woman asks them if they're there for the dance class, but they manage to locate the waitress, Candy, who was working the night before. She remembers Frankie, describing her to the detectives, adding that she had found the bloodied napkin. The detectives find the napkin in the trash but can't figure out what the symbols mean.


Rosalee stares at her mother's house while sitting in the car. Monroe finally talks her into getting out, and when she reaches the door, she almost stops herself at the doorbell, but she manages to push on with Monroe's help. Her mother answers the door and seems genuinely glad to see her, but DeEtta comes to the door with a cold, snippy welcome.

Nick and Hank arrive to Jim McCabe's office. He seems eager to help the detectives, even putting together a file for them. Nick asks Jim about Russell calling him, but he lies and says they only talked about work. Hank notices a photo on the wall with Jim, Russell, Troy, and another man, Robert Hammonds, and Jim says it's okay that they make a copy of the photo before leaving. Nick shows Jim the bloody napkin that was left by a woman on Rush's table, but Jim pretends not to know what it means, further denying that Russell spoke to him about anything other than business in Portland.

Back at the precinct, Nick and Hank do research on Robert, but they find out that he was killed in a similar way to Russell, a week ago in Phoenix.


Meanwhile in Vienna, Adalind works on some papers. She's not making much progress, since Meisner is sitting at the other side of the café and unabashedly staring straight at her. Adalind tries to ignore this and reaches for her coffee cup, but it moves away from her. Her shock quickly turns to joy, as she makes the cup fly into her hand. Just then, as she suffers from a sudden bout of pregnancy pain, the lights in the café explode, as a bewildered Meisner watches.

Juliette has the day off so she decides that she's going to go out shopping. Locking the door on her way out, she takes Rhett with her, buckling him up before getting into her car and driving off to the store.

Troy confronts Jim, saying that he told his wife about what happened and that he's going to confess. Jim attempts to convince him to think about things and do otherwise, but Troy says he has thought about it for the last four years and leaves, determined.

Captain Renard listens to Meisner's report about what happened with Adalind grimly, telling him to be prepared and that it won't be long now that she's getting her powers back. Nick and Hank enter, and they discuss the strange circumstances of Robert and Russell's deaths. Renard suggests they check with the men's Commanding Officer, Adam Desai.


Monroe and Gloria try to make small talk at dinner, but all attempts are curtly shot down by DeEtta, who does everything in her power, including insulting Monroe's line of work and Wesen heritage, to make dinner as awful as possible. Gloria tells her to stop, but Rosalee lashes out, and DeEtta yells "Why weren't you at our father's funeral?" Rosalee explains saying "I was in jail at the time for shoplifting. I didn't find out that our father died until I got out of prison. Besides, neither you or mother were speaking to me, so I didn't know what to do". DeEtta suggests she should have apologized, but Rosalee tells her with tears in her eyes that "Not being able to say goodbye to dad has haunted me for years." Tears run down her cheeks, and she rushes out of the house, with Monroe following closely. Outside, an upset Rosalee rambles about how badly the meeting went, but Monroe manages to calm her down. He asks what she stole, and she admits it was a watch, which gets him excited, and he asks her what kind, which in turn cheers her up, and the two embrace.

Betsy, Troy's wife, reads his written confession and is appalled. She, however, tears it up and tells him to burn it. Troy is just about to light the fire when he hears a crash from the other room. Betsy has been stabbed just like Ron, and dies in his arms. Seconds later, Troy is stabbed by a long, scorpion-like tail as well.

Monroe and Rosalee make their way back to the house, and Gloria hugs Rosalee tightly. Monroe watches, smiling, when he hears a snarl from behind him and woges in defense. It's DeEtta, who is also woged and threatens to kill him if he breaks Rosalee's heart. She walks back to the house, leaving a flabbergasted Monroe on the lawn.


The detectives organize a webcam meeting with Colonel Adam Desai, who is apparently stuck in a hospital with terminal cancer. The colonel has no fond memories of the four soldiers, they were untouchable by the law. Explaining further to the detectives that the four men had raped Frankie, but they got away with it due to their positions. The day Frankie was attacked was 11/11/10, which Nick realizes is what is on the bloodied napkin. Desai excuses himself, saying that nurses were calling him. He then hangs up, only to get up and take a swig of alcohol, revealing that he's not in a hospital at all, but in a Portland hotel room.

Later at the precinct, Wu approaches the detectives with the news of a double murder, Troy and Betsy Dodge. They arrive at the scene and deduce that they have the same kind of stab wound as Ron, but they are still at a loss for how Frankie, whom they suspect, killed them. Hank receives a call from Wu, when Nick notices ripped up paper in the fireplace. Wu informs them that the medical report from the wounds are ready; the poison is something uncommon, but the closest match is scorpion venom. Wu jokes that they're dealing with a six-foot tall scorpion, but Nick and Hank exchange glances.

Arriving home from shopping with Rhett, Juliette finds Nick and Hank inside the house. "Nick, help me unpack the groceries first before we discuss anything ok?" Nick proceeds to help unpack and put the groceries away. "Ok, done. What is it that you two need?" "Want to help us look for something in the books in the trailer?" "Wesen problem Nick?" "Yup, stab wound, with scorpion venom." Picking Rhett up, who's still in the baby carriage, motions for them to move along, and follows them.

In the trailer, Juliette and Hank browse through the Grimm Diaries to find out what could have caused the stab wounds with scorpion venom, while Nick attempts to piece together the paper he found in Troy's fireplace. They find an entry on a Manticore, which fits the description they were looking for. The diaries describe it as part Löwen and part scorpion. They have a venomous tail and no fear of death. Nick finally pieces together the paper and realizes it's Troy's confession.

Frankie throws herself against Jim's car, screaming threats. Jim reaches for his gun but puts it back when police cars arrive and surround Frankie. Nick and Hank quickly arrest her.


In an interrogation room, Frankie denies that she killed anyone. She tells them about what happened when she was raped and that she just wanted the men to confess. Nick pushes on, revealing that he's a Grimm and that they know she's a Manticore. She's stunned, but she woges to prove them wrong, revealing she's a Steinadler instead.

With several officers tracing the call, Frankie phones the colonel, who is in the VFW bar. He knows that she's with the police and lets them track his location before hanging up.

The door opens at the bar, and Jim enters. Desai shows him the last copy of the restricted complaint that was filed against the soldiers. He tells him that if it goes away, so do his problems. Jim snatches the document, but as he goes to leave, he stops when Desai discloses "I killed Russell and Robert but not Troy and Betsy. Drop the act Jim, I know you must be the one who murdered the other two". Jim responds "I guess it's between you and me now." They woge and have a close fight. Both are immensely powerful, but neither are more so than the other. Jim knocks Desai to the ground, and he reverts back to his human form. Pulling out a knife from his boot, he stabs Jim in the tail before the detectives arrive, causing Jim to roar in pain and woge back into his human form. Just as Nick and Hank burst through the door with Nick ordering Jim to back away, Jim picks up the knife and stabs Desai. Hank arrests Jim, who flatly states he stabbed Desai in self-defense, but Hank replies, "Not what we saw." Nick checks on Desai, who tells him that although they couldn't arrest Jim for raping Frankie, they could now arrest him for what he just did. Desai dies.

Nick and Hank debrief Frankie, who looks at Troy Dodge's pieced-together confession, telling her what Desai had done. With justice doled out to her assaulters, Frankie leaves the precinct, finally having obtained closure she needed.

Nick arrives home, to find Juliette playing with Rhett. "No Carly today?" "No, I gave her the day off to spend quality time with Rhett, beside I had the day off anyway." Nick proceeds to take his jacket off and walks over to play with Rhett as well.

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