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Post by skybright on Aug 12, 2007 21:45:40 GMT -5
Daws made a derisive noise. "I bet a face-to-face with a real ghost would turn Tony white as a sheet." She remarked.
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 12, 2007 22:12:17 GMT -5
"There ain't no ghosts in my joint," Sid retorted. "I got troubles enough with the livin', without bein' bothered by no ghouls."
Grace raised an eyebrow. "You believe in ghosts, Miss Dawson?"
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Post by skybright on Aug 12, 2007 22:24:48 GMT -5
Daws shrugged. "I dunno if I'd say that, exactly. I, mean, I don't really buy the idea of dead people sticking around and knocking over furniture, or anything like that. But the idea of weird stuff that doesn't have an explanation," She grinned crookedly. "I've been a mutant private eye for too long not to buy into that.
"I've always figured whatever people are seein' when they see 'ghosts' is just something we don't have a good explanation for yet -- like people who used to call mutants 'demons' before we found out about DNA."
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 12, 2007 22:35:40 GMT -5
"That's my way a' thinkin'," Sid agreed, frowning as he wedged the chisel into the crevice he had chipped out and wiggled it back and forth. Slowly, the brick began to work loose.
"Now were gettin' somewhere." He glanced at Grace. "Say, Gracie, before we start pullin' the whole works down, I'd like ta know if the wall's holdin' anything up. Ya think ya could tell if ya went through an' felt around?"
Grace shifted somewhat uneasily. "Well, I can try, Boss."
"Okay..." Sid applied a last bit of leverage to the chisel, and the brick eased halfway out of its place. He pried it out with his fingers and set it aside, then dusted off his hands and picked up a flashlight.
"I don't see anythin'," he announced, after peering through the hole with the light. "But it's a bad angle. Wanna look, Daws?"
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Post by skybright on Aug 12, 2007 22:40:38 GMT -5
Daws shrugged and stepped up to the wall, taking the flashlight from Sid and craning her neck to glance into the hole. "All I can see is a lot of dust and cobwebs." She remarked after a moment, handing the light back to Sid, "And what looks like the wall on the other side of the gap. Nothing that exciting."
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 12, 2007 22:51:28 GMT -5
Sid glanced at Grace. "Well, I guess you'll havta check it out before we start knockin' more bricks out. Anytime you're ready, kid."
Grace nodded, and with a fatalistic shrug, she dissolved into a vaporous white cloud. That cloud slithered up the wall and through the hole.
"I gotta admit, I still get the creeps watchin' her do that," Sid murmured quietly. "If anybody wanted ta make somebody believe in ghosts, she could do it."
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Post by skybright on Aug 12, 2007 22:54:26 GMT -5
"No kidding." Daws agreed. "She's definitely getting better at it, too."
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 13, 2007 21:41:03 GMT -5
There was a long and silent interval, until at last Grace oozed back out of the hole and solidified.
"Find anythin' interestin'?" Sid inquired.
The dancer shrugged. "All I can tell you is what I felt by touch. I don't think the wall is holding anything up... but there is something in there. It's way over in the corner, so you couldn't see it with the flashlight. I couldn't tell what it was--just that it wasn't part of the wall."
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Post by skybright on Aug 13, 2007 23:20:28 GMT -5
"Maybe a stash of Prohibition hooch." Daws remarked. "Guess we won't know until we pull out some more of the wall, though."
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 14, 2007 21:40:36 GMT -5
Sid shrugged, and picked up a sledgehammer from among his tools on top of a packing crate. "Well... here goes nothin'."
For the next few minutes, Sid whacked at the edges of the hole with the hammer, breaking loose the surrounding bricks and enlarging the hole. The wall was so solidly built that it was rather slow going, but he finally succeeded in creating a gap two feet wide.
Giving the others an apprehensive glance, he exchanged the hammer for the flashlight, and put his head through the hole to look into the space beyond.
He was still for a moment as his eyes sorted out what he was seeing. Then he gave an abrupt flinch, almost hitting the back of his head on the bricks, and withdrew quickly. His face had turned ashen.
"I think I just found Fats Rizzo."
In the narrow space behind the wall, a dark, dusty shape hung from a makeshift noose of electrical cord. There was not much to see, really... except for an expensive, oversized suit that sagged limply from a bony, mummified frame, a long-dried carnation still adorning its lapel.
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Post by skybright on Aug 14, 2007 21:54:49 GMT -5
Daws stepped around Sid and -- after removing her hat -- stuck her own head into the hole. After a moment, she stepped back with a grimace.
"Now I'm sorry for makin' that Poe crack." She remarked, settling her fedora back on her head.
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 14, 2007 22:13:33 GMT -5
Grace tentatively leaned forward to look--and quickly drew back with a high-pitched "Eeee!" For his own part, Alex had apparently decided not to look at all, and was surreptitiously edging away from the wall.
Sid looked at Daws anxiously. "What are we s'posed ta do?"
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Post by skybright on Aug 14, 2007 22:24:24 GMT -5
Daws frowned. "Well, if you want to get really technical about it, we're supposed to call the cops. We're dealing with a potential murder scene here, even if it's an eighty-year-old one." She shrugged. "Of course, you guys know my feelings as far as New York's Finest are concerned."
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 14, 2007 22:31:52 GMT -5
Sid winced. "Yeah, an' they know what family I was married to--and the kinda old job I usedta have. Not that they could blame me or even Tony fer bumpin' off a guy eighty years ago, but they'd love an excuse ta have some fun hasslin' me.
"In the old days, the thing for it'd be a concrete mixer an' a drive ta the river--but I don't much like that idea now. Maybe Henry can do somethin' with 'im, I guess."
He looked back toward the hole in the wall, and sighed thoughtfully. "Doesn't seem right somehow, knowin' now that he was offed, an' never findin' out who done it..."
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Post by skybright on Aug 14, 2007 22:38:04 GMT -5
Daws gave him a lopsided, somewhat humorless grin. "Well, I can't promise anything, especially given the eighty-year factor . . . but I work pro-bono for friends, y'know."
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 15, 2007 21:43:02 GMT -5
Sid returned a feeble grin of his own. "If ya don't mind spendin' a little spare time on it, Daws, I'd appreciate it. After all," his expression became a trifle more nervous, "if there was a ghost knockin' around here waitin' fer justice, I wouldn't want it ta get mad over us not doin' anything."
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Post by skybright on Aug 15, 2007 22:11:35 GMT -5
"No, I don't guess you would -- I mean, if there were a ghost around." Daws shrugged. "Besides -- I hate an unsolved mystery just about as much as anybody does. Comes with the job."
She glanced at the ragged hole in the wall. "I guess the first order of business is to poke around behind the brickwork and see if there's anything left back there besides . . . well, besides that."
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 15, 2007 22:15:13 GMT -5
"Yeah... I'll get these bricks torn down so ya can get back there." Sid picked up his hammer again, then frowned at Daws. "But say--I know ya don't come uptown fer no reason. Maybe ya better tell me what brought ya, before we get inta any more of a mess with all this."
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Post by skybright on Aug 15, 2007 22:24:23 GMT -5
Daws stared at him blankly for a moment, then dropped back onto her packing crate with a laugh. "You're right -- it went clean out of my head, what with all this." She nodded at the wall.
"I came around to let you all know we've got a meeting coming up at the parish, Saturday night after dark. See if we can't drum up some new angles for bothering the bat. Vance'd like to have a word or two about Lusus, too -- Proteus might turn up, if he gets the message. Mostly just logistics over which Spooks you can trust to work for ya, that sort of thing."
Daws grinned and ducked her head. "Ah . . . Vance also wants the chance to introduce his son to the rest of the resistance."
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 15, 2007 22:40:50 GMT -5
Sid goggled slightly, and Alex piped up, "His son? I thought he was in Iraq or something!"
"An' I thought Vance was lettin' him think he was dead," Sid put in. "When'd all this happen?"
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