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Post by skybright on Sept 20, 2007 22:34:40 GMT -5
Daws chuckled and shook her head. "Nah -- someone did try to hire me to go see if there really were alligators in the sewers once, but I turned him down. I wasn't that desperate for somethin' to do."
She glanced thoughtfully at one of the sewer grates set into the sidewalk. "The alligators are just an urban legend. I've heard stories about mutants living down in the old tunnels, though -- and those I just might believe."
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Post by Jordanna on Sept 20, 2007 22:52:24 GMT -5
"Yeah, I think I know some guys at the Bunker that crawled out of the sewers," Joey murmured wryly.
In due course, they arrived at the Paragon Club. Cars in the parking lot showed that some of the staff were already there, preparing for the night's usual cavalcade of food and entertainment--but Grace discreetly met Daws and Joey at the back door.
"Hi, guys. Sid's had me waiting for you."
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Post by skybright on Sept 20, 2007 22:58:37 GMT -5
Daws smiled as she slipped past Grace into the hallway. "Thanks, Gracie. I hope we didn't keep you standing out here too long."
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Post by Jordanna on Sept 20, 2007 23:11:34 GMT -5
"Nah. Gives me time to work out some new steps." Grace turned a gratuitous pirouette as she turned to lead them to Sid's office. "Sid told everybody not to bother him while he's doing paperwork, so nobody'll come along back here."
She knocked before opening the door of Sid's office, and the club owner looked up from a stack of papers on his desk, smiling. "Oh, hey, Daws. Joey."
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Post by skybright on Sept 20, 2007 23:21:53 GMT -5
"Hiya, Sid." Daws slipped off her fedora with a grin. "How's things?"
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Post by Jordanna on Sept 21, 2007 22:55:27 GMT -5
Sid shrugged. "Not too bad--yet. But there's gonna be three birthdays out front tanight, an' we're overdue a visit from that mook Fearney." He rolled his eyes. "I can hardly wait."
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Post by skybright on Sept 22, 2007 0:15:44 GMT -5
Daws grimaced. "Better you than me -- no offense."
She shrugged. "Well, me and Joey spent the day holed up in the library. We learned a thing or two, but nothing that makes our particular mystery any clearer. Mostly we just picked up a new suspect -- guy by the name of Stiglione, a contemporary of Rizzo's. Don't suppose the name rings any bells with you?"
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Post by Jordanna on Sept 22, 2007 22:28:08 GMT -5
Sid's forehead wrinkled in thought, and then he shook his head. "Nope. Name sounds familiar, but I don't remember anythin' particular. Guess his name mighta come up a few times in the old stories a' Tony's crowd I told ya about."
He pushed back from his desk and stood up. "Guess ya wanna see the junk in the safe. C'mere..." Gesturing, he led Daws and Joey over to a large and beautiful antique radio against one wall.
"It came with the place," he said, rather proudly. "Been here since 1936 at least. Still works like a beauty--an' it's got another trick to it. You guys're gettin' a privilege here; only me an' Alex an' Marty know about this."
With that, he pressed a hidden catch at the side of the radio, and the hidden shelf it rested on swung outward like a door. Behind it, an equally antique safe was recessed into the wall.
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Post by skybright on Sept 22, 2007 22:34:37 GMT -5
Daws gave a low, impressed whistle. "Wow. That's one nice setup, Sid." She grinned crookedly. "An' don't worry -- the secret's safe with us, right kid?"
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Post by Jordanna on Sept 22, 2007 22:49:13 GMT -5
Joey grinned. "Sure."
Sid bent down in front of the safe and opened it with quick, practiced movements. He swung open the heavy door, and Joey flinched back as the ex-enforcer gently lifted out a glossy black automatic.
He grinned at the teenager. "Don't worry, kid, the safety's on. It just makes sense keepin' a gun here, but I don't leave it where anybody that wanders inta the office can get at it."
He set the gun on the desk, then took out his own belongings from the safe--a stack of documents and envelopes, and a pair of small metal lock boxes. Finally, he glanced at Daws and gestured to the safe with a flourish. "It's all yours, Daws."
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Post by skybright on Sept 22, 2007 22:55:26 GMT -5
Daws grinned. "Thanks, Sid."
She shrugged out of her trenchcoat and set it and her hat aside, then pushed up her sleeves and reached into the safe. "Sorta like Christmas -- you never know what you'll get." She remarked, pulling out an age-yellowed manila folder. She flipped it open and skimmed through the contents, shaking her head. "1973. Too recent for our purposes, unfortunately."
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Post by Jordanna on Sept 22, 2007 23:05:22 GMT -5
"Well, do whatever ya like with that stuff. It don't mean nothin' ta me." Sid shrugged. "If ya don't mind, I'm gonna get back ta my work here."
He returned to his desk, leaving the detective and her assistant to go through the collection.
"Let's take the whole pile out and put it on the floor," Joey suggested. "That'll make it easier to go through."
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Post by skybright on Sept 22, 2007 23:12:21 GMT -5
"Sounds like a good plan to me." Daws agreed. She reached back into the safe and withdrew the small stack of assorted papers and folders, stirring up a small puff of dust that made her sneeze.
She grinned teasingly at Joey as she settled cross-legged on the floor and spread out the contents of the safe. "Somehow or another we always end up going through dusty old paperwork. Ever notice that?"
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Post by Jordanna on Sept 23, 2007 22:00:46 GMT -5
Joey rolled his eyes slightly. "Uh, yeah... I have."
He picked through a stack of documents that was three decades deep. "What is all this, anyway?... Insurance papers, receipts... It's amazing anybody'd leave stuff like that in here when they moved out."
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Post by skybright on Sept 24, 2007 19:29:24 GMT -5
Daws nodded thoughtfully, thumbing through a paperclipped stack of invoices from the 1960's. "I guess it'd depend on just how much of a hurry they were in to clear out." She mused.
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Post by Jordanna on Sept 24, 2007 21:55:55 GMT -5
"An' from what I hear, plenty a' people woulda been in that kinda hurry," Sid remarked from the desk, looking up. "This buildin's got a pretty wild history, even after Prohibition."
Joey had by now dug down to a group of papers from the mid-1920s. His eyebrows rose as he pulled out a small booklet bound in age-discolored black leather, such as might have been used to keep addresses. The initials SJR were printed in faded gold letters on the cover.
"Hey, SJR--would that be Rizzo?" Joey carefully thumbed through the pages of the little black book, and his expression screwed into a frown.
"Daws, look at this." He held it out for her to see. "Names of girls, names of guys... and dollar amounts."
Sid's attention was immediately captured, and he came from his desk to peer at the ominous little volume himself. Leaning over Joey's shoulder to look at the open pages, he let out a long, low whistle.
"I don't think I gotta tell ya what that is."
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Post by skybright on Sept 24, 2007 23:44:26 GMT -5
Daws scowled. "No . . . it's pretty self-evident. The more we find out about our guy Rizzo, the less I like him." She craned her neck sideways to examine the handwritten entries. "Don't suppose there's much chance of us knowing any of these names."
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Post by Jordanna on Sept 25, 2007 21:26:55 GMT -5
"Not the girls, I guess, but..." Sid took the book from Daws and thumbed through it, then whistled again. "Some a' the guys here--oh boy. People even remember some a' these names today. What a bombshell this woulda been!"
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Post by skybright on Sept 25, 2007 21:40:34 GMT -5
"Yeah. And no doubt Fats Rizzo put that little bombshell to good use, or threatened to. Guys like him don't keep records like that for no reason -- they use 'em for leverage."
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Post by Jordanna on Sept 25, 2007 22:10:46 GMT -5
A troubled frown spread itself across Joey's face.
"I wonder if the girls in that book were... you know." He winced. "I've tried not to know about it, but I know there was kinda an underground business with normal guys who'd--uh--visit with the girls at Lusus Naturae. Creeps who thought being with a mutant was something... well, freaky."
He ended with an uncomfortable shrug. "Maybe there were jerks like that back then, too."
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