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Post by skybright on Aug 15, 2007 22:48:39 GMT -5
"Wednesday morning." Daws replied. "The short version of the story is that the kid talked to Vance's ex-wife, and she spilled the beans on us -- so he jumped the first ship here to try and find Vance. Tiernan found out about it and we had to grab him before Tiernan could."
She shrugged. "It's too dangerous for him to go back to active duty now, with Tiernan keepin' an eye out for him. And being related to Jerod Vance, he's got no interest in lying low 'til this is all over. So," she spread her hands, "He's in for the long haul with the rest of us."
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 16, 2007 20:14:43 GMT -5
Sid whistled. "Oh, boy. So ya mean we're gonna have two Vances runnin' around the city makin' mayhem now?"
"I think insurance rates are gonna go up," Alex quipped.
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Post by skybright on Aug 16, 2007 20:59:21 GMT -5
Daws chuckled. "Yeah, that was more or less my reaction, too. Jerod says he's going to make sure Nate stays out of trouble, but," she grinned wickedly, "That's the fox guarding the henhouse, right there."
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 17, 2007 21:02:33 GMT -5
"You said it." Sid shook his head and sighed. "Okay, well... just lemme know when the meeting is, an' we'll be there."
He glanced back toward the hole in the wall. "An' now... I guess we gotta clean up this mess."
Grace looked at Daws with uneasy but eager interest. "So if you're going to try to find out who killed the guy, does that mean you'll have to do a CSI kind of thing back there before we get rid of the... you know?"
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Post by skybright on Aug 17, 2007 22:01:23 GMT -5
"Nothing quite as high-tech as you see on television." Daws replied, shrugging one shoulder. "After all this time I'm not even sure how much evidence there'll be left -- if any. But yeah, I'll poke around and see what I can pick up on. Maybe see if I can get some DNA samples and stuff to have Caddy take a look at."
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 17, 2007 22:14:50 GMT -5
Sid paused in the task of knocking out more bricks, and grimaced. "If ya need a tooth or a bone or somethin' fer that... I don't guess he'd mind, so long's it might help. An' I got an old Polaroid in the office if ya wanna take any pictures. Anythin' ta get him outta here quick."
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Post by skybright on Aug 17, 2007 22:22:50 GMT -5
Daws nodded. "Photographs would be a really good idea." She noted, "It'd give me a chance to go back over 'em later and look for anything I might miss now."
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 17, 2007 22:53:12 GMT -5
"Sure." Sid nodded. "Gracie, will ya go get the camera outta my office?"
The dancer nodded in turn and scurried away. Sid continued chipping away the wall, and by the time Grace had returned, the hole was wide enough to step through.
Sid dusted off his hands and picked up the flashlight. "Well, let's see what else we can see."
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Post by skybright on Aug 17, 2007 23:01:33 GMT -5
Daws nodded and shrugged out of her trenchcoat. Setting it and her fedora aside and rolling up her sleeves, she stepped up to the wall and -- after a moment's hesitation -- stepped through the ragged hole in the brickwork.
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 17, 2007 23:05:05 GMT -5
Sid declined to step into the space behind the wall, which was about as wide as a walk-in closet. Instead, he leaned around the edge of the hole to shine the light into the secret crypt.
"That a broken bottle?" he asked, as the light glinted dully off a scattering of dust-covered fragments on the floor.
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Post by skybright on Aug 17, 2007 23:12:42 GMT -5
Daws crouched down and examined the scattering of glass shards. "Looks like, yeah." She cocked her head and peered at the dust-covered concrete beneath her feet. "Looks like it might've had something in it before it broke -- some stains on the floor, here, under the dust."
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 18, 2007 20:45:26 GMT -5
"Prob'ly bootleg hooch... Fats Rizzo was pretty natorious fer his swill, but with Prohobition, he cashed in on it anyway." Sid raised an eyebrow. "Ya figure there might be any fingerprints left under all the dust on that glass?"
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Post by skybright on Aug 18, 2007 21:07:34 GMT -5
"Might be. Things like that can last an awful long time, sometimes -- though I dunno if the cops hang on to the records from that far back. Suppose the Feds probably do." She glanced over her shoulder. "Have Gracie hand over that camera, willya? I don't want to move anything without snapping it first."
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 18, 2007 22:11:17 GMT -5
Sid withdrew his shoulders from the hole, and momentarily leaned back in with the camera, holding it out to Daws.
"If ya wanna wait a minute, Foxy an' I can bring down one a' the big movable lights we use upstairs on the stage. Might be better takin' pictures if we get more light in there."
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Post by skybright on Aug 18, 2007 22:14:24 GMT -5
Daws glanced speculatively at the old polaroid camera and nodded. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea. I can see just fine back here, but most film isn't as good in the dark as my eyes are."
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 18, 2007 22:40:01 GMT -5
"Okay." Sid retreated again, taking Alex with him. A few minutes later, they noisily returned to the basement, carrying between them an unwieldy light stand with a portable spotlight.
"Here we go..." The two men hefted it into place, and Alex aimed it into the space behind the wall as Sid lumbered to an outlet to plug it in. In another moment, bright light was flooding into the space, illuminating the drearily macabre tableau.
Sid grunted. "He don't look any better in the light."
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Post by skybright on Aug 18, 2007 22:48:37 GMT -5
Daws shrugged. "At his age, who would?" She raised the camera and began snapping pictures of the scattered glass and stains from the broken bottle, then handed the photos to Sid. "Would you find someplace out there to lay these out and let 'em develop?"
Daws straightened from her crouch, sneezing at the dust her feet stirred up, and eyed the hanging corpse in the corner. "What a rotten way to end up." She remarked quietly.
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 18, 2007 22:54:17 GMT -5
Alex watched Sid lumber off with the photos, then eyed the skeleton rather glumly. "I wonder if he was... you know... before they walled him up in there."
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Post by skybright on Aug 18, 2007 23:01:50 GMT -5
Daws shook her head, shuddering. "There's a nightmare I wouldn't wish on anybody."
She raised the camera and took several photographs of the corpse from various angles, handing them through the wall as well. "I'm not sure I'm going to be able to tell, considering the state of everything. Corpses aren't exactly my specialty, anyway." She flinched. "Guess Henry might know how to tell that, from the body."
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Post by Jordanna on Aug 19, 2007 20:58:32 GMT -5
"Uh-huh..." Sid rubbed the back of his neck. "Guess I'll go call 'im."
As Sid retreated, Alex finally, hesitantly edged up to the hole and peered inside. The entertainer turned pale at the sight of the dangling figure which might almost have looked like a prankish Halloween decoration--if one didn't know better.
"Oh, my..." He gulped slightly. "Sort of reminds me of a story I heard somewhere about a Wild West outlaw who got mummified, and ended up hanging in a haunted house with glow-in-the-dark paint on him."
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