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Post by skybright on Aug 8, 2007 22:50:45 GMT -5
The evening after Nathan Vance's arrival in New York, Daws made her way to the Paragon club. She made certain, as usual, that she wasn't being followed as she slipped into the alley behind the club and knocked on the service door that opened onto the hallway near Sid's office.
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 8, 2007 23:06:56 GMT -5
It was Grace who opened the door to Daws' knock.
"Hi, Miss Dawson! Sid said you called to let him know you were coming. He asked me to let you in, because he's got a... a problem going on in the basement. You're a detective--maybe you can figure it out."
Before Daws could protest, Grace whisked her down the hall, and then down a flight of spiral stairs to the basement of the building. What would have been a spacious area was crowded with boxes of old costumes and dishes, damaged tables, shelves of canned food, and other dusty junk cast off from the glittering world above.
Sid was standing by an exposed section of brick wall in rolled-up shirtsleeves, scowling at the ancient red bricks. Alex stood beside him, frowning and knocking on the bricks with his knuckles.
"Hiya, Daws," Sid greeted the detective morosely.
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Post by skybright on Aug 8, 2007 23:12:04 GMT -5
"Hi, Sid. Alex." Daws raised an eyebrow and nodded quizzically at the wall. "We looking for buried treasure?"
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 8, 2007 23:20:11 GMT -5
Sid grimaced and waggled a hand. "Eh. We've been hearin' some knockin' noises from behind this wall lately. Just sometimes, ya know--but it's addin' ta the old rumors this place is haunted."
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Post by skybright on Aug 8, 2007 23:28:43 GMT -5
"Haunted?" Daws cocked her head. "Well, the knocking noise is probably a steam pipe or something . . . but you never mentioned 'haunted' before, Sid."
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 9, 2007 20:53:03 GMT -5
Sid rolled his shoulders in a shrug. "Yeah, well... It's not the kinda thing I'm crazy ta get publicity for."
"I keep telling Sid he'd double his business with people wanting to catch a glimpse of a dead gangster," Alex put in. "He's just not real comfortable with the subject."
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Post by skybright on Aug 9, 2007 21:20:08 GMT -5
"I don't guess he'd be all that comfortable with customers running around down here, either." Daws chuckled dryly.
Casting a look around, she caught sight of an empty packing crate that looked reasonably safe from collapse and settled herself onto it, pushing her hat back and crossing her arms. "Suppose someone tells me the whole story, huh?"
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 9, 2007 22:13:38 GMT -5
"Not much ta tell," Sid replied. "This down here was a speakeasy back in the Roarin' Twenties, an' it was owned by the same gang boss that stocked it with liquor. Guy by the name a' Sam Rizzo--'Fats' Rizzo, they called him, but not to his face.
"Business fer the joint was great--'til sometime about June in 1928, when Fats just up an' disappeared. One of his underlings took the place over, but he wasn't so slick, an' the Feds started crackin' down after the Saint Val's Massacre a few months later. The guy went ta prison fer some other murders, an' everybody assumed he killed Fats Rizzo ta take over the racket--but he went to his grave swearin' he had nothin' ta do with it.
"Anyhow, the buildin' upstairs was all sorts a' things after that, 'til I finally bought it an' made it over inta the Paragon Club. But I don't guess anybody's messed around much down here fer almost eighty years. Just been usin' it for storage."
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Post by skybright on Aug 9, 2007 22:21:27 GMT -5
Daws cast a speculative glance at the brick wall Alex had been examining. "And word has it that Fats Rizzo has been hanging around ever since and rapping on the masonry, huh?"
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 9, 2007 22:28:14 GMT -5
Alex shook his head. "Not really that. I mean, the ghost stories have been around for decades--people seeing things they think are ghosts, stuff getting moved around behind people's backs, all that kinda bunk. But this rattling or whatever it is has only been going on for a few months." He shrugged. "Like you said--probably just a pipe or something."
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Post by skybright on Aug 9, 2007 22:33:48 GMT -5
"Probably." Daws grinned crookedly, "But that doesn't make for near as good a story, now does it?"
She shifted to her feet with a shrug. "Well, I've got better hearing than any of you do -- I'd be glad to help listen for whatever-it-is, if it'd help."
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 10, 2007 20:37:16 GMT -5
"Actually, we were about ta see if we couldn't pull out a coupla bricks an' get a look back there," Sid replied. "But if ya can hear anything, maybe that'll tell us where ta open it up."
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Post by skybright on Aug 10, 2007 21:04:31 GMT -5
"Sure." Daws set her fedora aside and shrugged out of her coat, then stepped up to the wall and lay one pointed ear against the brickwork, rapping the wall with her knuckles.
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 10, 2007 22:14:00 GMT -5
"Like I said, the noise just happens sometimes," Sid pointed out. "There's hours or days it's totally quiet--least ta us inferior ears. You hear anything?"
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Post by skybright on Aug 10, 2007 22:17:44 GMT -5
"Nothing that sounds like knocking or tapping." Daws said, stepping back with a shrug. "Sounds like there's a space behind the wall, but that's no surprise -- there'd have to be, for plumbing and things."
She glanced curiously at Sid. "Didn't they give you blueprints when you bought the place?"
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 10, 2007 22:35:20 GMT -5
Sid folded his arms and shrugged. "Sure, they gave me copies a' the old original blueprints--from around 1900. You know how much this place's been taken apart an' put back tagether since then? The remodelin' fer that speakeasy alone did things ta the joint that nobody's found out about yet."
"I've found a few secret closets myself," Grace put in. "The one thing I'm getting good at with my powers is feeling out hidden panels."
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Post by skybright on Aug 11, 2007 3:40:14 GMT -5
Daws nodded. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised -- most of the old buildings in the City are the same way. Especially since the place had Prohibition gangsters hanging around in it." She shrugged and glanced at the wall again. "Did you try usin' your powers down here, Grace? Doesn't seem like a very likely wall for a secret panel -- but that'd be the best place to put one, I guess."
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 11, 2007 22:50:50 GMT -5
Grace nodded. "I've felt all the way across the wall, from one corner to the other. It's totally airtight."
"Whoever put the wall here must not have been worried about ever having to fix the pipes behind it," Alex mused.
Sid sighed. "But I'm figurin' on upgradin' the pipes--so the wall was prob'ly gonna come down soon anyway. 'Sides, it's takin' up valuable storage space. So we might as well see if we can take a gander at what's behind it, before I get any ham-fisted contractors down here."
With that, he picked up a hammer and chisel from the top of a packing crate, and began to chip away at the mortar between two bricks.
"First I just wanna pull out a couple bricks--if the whole thing don't fall down on us."
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Post by skybright on Aug 11, 2007 23:34:03 GMT -5
Daws stepped back with a somewhat nervous chuckle. "You guys ever read that Edgar Allan Poe story -- the cask of whatever-it-was?"
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 12, 2007 21:20:55 GMT -5
Sid grinned weakly as he worked the chisel into the old mortar. "Don't spook me, Daws. I got no heart fer that kinda stuff."
"At least Tony doesn't know about the tricks to this place," Alex remarked. "It's bad enough having him come around to hold meetings down here or in back rooms sometimes--the last thing we'd need is him wanting to hide things down here."
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