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Post by skybright on Jun 10, 2006 0:30:35 GMT -5
Daws nodded. "Yeah, he might at that -- which is why we gotta figure out exactly what game the guy's playing." She grinned. "All right, kid, let's head uptown."
*** The Bredon Apartments was one of a block of high-rise apartment buildings on the edge of the Park; the only thing that distinguished it from its neighbors was its art-deco facade, which stood in sharp contrast to the appearance of the buildings on either side.
Daws squinted up at the building and shrugged. "Guess these guys must've missed the tear-it-out-and-modernize-it part of the century." She glanced at Joey. "All right, Joey, follow me."
With the teenager trailing in her wake, Daws pushed through the lobby doors and approached the front desk.
A rather supercilious clerk looked the two of them over, sniffed slightly, and asked "May I help you?" in a tone of voice which broadly suggested that he'd much rather have his teeth pulled.
"Hope so." Daws pulled a folded slip of yellow invoice paper from within her trenchcoat. "Cole, seventeenth floor -- he in?"
The clerk looked horrified. "No. What do you . . ." he recovered some composure. "What was this concerning?"
Daws waved the invoice impatiently. "Problem with the last delivery. We gotta take it back with us."
The clerk tried -- and failed -- to grab the invoice. "The last delivery to Mister Cole's was a case of bottled water." He informed them. "What could . . ."
"Oh, no." Daws snapped quickly, shoving the invoice back into her coat, "No, the last delivery t'Mister Cole's apartment was a time bomb, mister. You know what aspartyl-phenylalanine-1-methyl ester is, mister?" She took the bewildered look to mean that he didn't, and continued briskly "Well that case is chock full of it. Mixup at the plant. Bad, bad stuff. Gotta recall every case."
The clerk looked horrified. "You . . . I don't suppose that Mister Cole was a target of some sort?"
"I dunno, maybe." Daws shook her head. "All's I know is, we gotta get the stuff back quick. Bad press for a building where that stuff gets consumed, if y'know what I mean." She frowned insinuatingly.
The clerk swallowed convulsively, pressed a few buttons on his desk, and waved toward the elevator. "Go right up, please. I'll have the cleaning staff unlock the door for you."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 10, 2006 0:42:23 GMT -5
Joey managed to repress his stare of dumbfounded amazement until they were on the elevator. Then he turned to Daws with the expression in full force.
"How do you do that?"
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Post by skybright on Jun 10, 2006 0:46:28 GMT -5
Daws shrugged. "I like to flatter myself and say it's practice and skill -- but honestly?" She chuckled. "I think people are so floored by someone who looks like cat in a trench coat they don't bother payin' attention to what I actually say."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 10, 2006 0:48:59 GMT -5
Joey tried not to chuckle, and only partially succeeded.
"So what are we supposed to look for up here?" he asked.
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Post by skybright on Jun 10, 2006 1:04:22 GMT -5
Daws shrugged as they stepped out of the elevator. "You can tell a lot about a guy by the place he lives. People leave things lyin' around their houses they'd never let anyone else see -- I figure we might be able to find something that'll tell us what sort of guy Cole is, and whether or not we should let him go along with Tiernan."
A bored-looking maid stepped away from the door to Cole's apartment as Daws and Joey approached. "You going to take long?" She drawled, frowning, "I'm supposed to be on lunch."
Daws heaved a commiserating sigh. "You and me both, friend." She gave a furtive glance down the hall, then murmured "Look, we ain't gonna be here more than ten minutes, and you might's well get going." She slipped a folded bill into the maid's hand. "We'll lock up."
The maid examined the money for authenticity, then slipped it furtively in her pocket and made hasty tracks down the hallway. Daws grinned at Joey.
"They need to look into their hiring practices." She remarked, pushing back her fedora and stepping into the apartment.
Cole's living quarters were clean and spacious, obviously furnished by someone with a great deal of both money and taste. Daws looked around, nodding approvingly.
"Okay then." She glanced down at Joey's hands and frowned. "I shoulda thought to bring you a pair of gloves, but here," she fished a handkerchief out of her pocket and held it out to the teenager. "Don't touch anythin' without that. I doubt Mister Tiernan wants to bail us out of jail on a Watergate charge this week."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 10, 2006 1:14:37 GMT -5
Wincing, Joey took the handkerchief and began to look around, although he wasn't sure exactly what he was supposed to be looking for.
As he began to poke around in the papers on top of the desk, he noticed a framed photo of a man who must have been Cole himself, with a smiling older couple that Joey guessed were the politician's parents. The picture of the happy family made him pause, feeling momentarily wistful.
However, the realization of what wasn't in the picture suddenly occurred to him.
"Hey, Daws," he mused, using the handkerchief to pick up the frame. "That campaign manager guy said Cole was pretty close to his sister, didn't he? So... why isn't she here?" He turned the picture around for Daws' inspection.
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Post by skybright on Jun 10, 2006 1:23:44 GMT -5
Daws took the photo from Joey and examined it. "Good question." She narrowed her eyes. "This whole thing with the sister . . . it's weird." She carefully replaced the photo where Joey had found it.
"The Coles -- his folks, I mean -- were pretty famous years ago. Popular actors, happily married, beautiful children -- that sorta thing." She rifled through a few papers. "The Cole kids grew up with their pictures in the movie magazines. Then all of a sudden, in their mid-teens, the sister stopped showing up."
She shrugged and slid open a desk drawer. "Maybe it's a Rosemary Kennedy kind of thing -- the family had her put away or somethin'."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 10, 2006 1:30:40 GMT -5
Joey frowned.
"Daws, suppose the sister was a mutant, too? I mean, one who... who showed?" He shrugged. "Maybe that would explain why nobody ever sees her."
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Post by skybright on Jun 10, 2006 1:36:21 GMT -5
Daws nodded slowly. "Yeah, that'd make sense." She paused, turning the theory over in her mind. "Especially if she did show. It'd explain why her brother's so big on mutant rights -- even though he can pass for human."
She turned her attention back to the drawer, fishing out what looked like a canceled prescription. "Hey, you still got your notepad?"
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 10, 2006 1:41:16 GMT -5
"Yup." Joey fished the notepad and pencil out of his pocket. "Find something interesting?"
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Post by skybright on Jun 10, 2006 1:51:47 GMT -5
"Yeah, maybe." Daws squinted at the paper. "Write down pro . . . pro . . . dang, and I thought Caddy's handwriting was bad." She switched on the desk lamp and examined the handwriting again.
"Propranolol, I think." She spelled the word. "We can ask Caddy what it's prescribed for. Probably just a migraine drug, but you never know."
She dropped the paper back into the desk drawer and turned her attention to the wastebasket. "Hey, here's something." She picked out a crumpled ball of stationery and smoothed it out on the desktop.
"Dear Marla," She glanced at Joey. "That's the sister. Dear Marla, Had a meeting today with the fellow I told you about in last letter. -- That must be Tiernan, if this date is right. Didn't go very well. He's . . ."
She sighed and re-crumpled the paper. "And that's all he wrote. I suppose it was too much to ask that he'd write something helpful for us to find."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 10, 2006 2:01:05 GMT -5
"If he says it didn't go well, maybe he doesn't want to deal with Mister Tiernan," Joey mused. "I still don't understand that. I don't know much about Mister Tiernan and politics, but... I know people who make nice with him get what they want. Or at least they think they do. Cole must've really got a bad impression if he didn't want that kind of a deal."
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Post by skybright on Jun 10, 2006 2:05:48 GMT -5
"Yeah, that's got me just as confused as you, kid." Daws tossed the crumpled letter back into the wastebasket. "Especially since Cole's a politician. Even if he doesn't wanna play by Tiernan's rules, why didn't he just say he would -- and then plan on changing his tune later?"
She shrugged. "Unless of course the guy's honest, which -- him being a politician -- I really highly doubt."
The detective reached out to pull open another desk drawer -- and suddenly froze, her tail twitching in agitation.
"Kid," she hissed through her teeth, "There's someone comin' down the corridor. . ."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 10, 2006 2:09:30 GMT -5
Joey's breath caught in his throat, and he cast a panicked glance around the room.
"What're we gonna do? Can we hide?"
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Post by skybright on Jun 10, 2006 2:14:29 GMT -5
Daws glanced around the apartment quickly, and gestured frantically to the half-open door that led to the bedroom. "You hide in the bathroom," she hissed, "I'll try an' con whoever it is with the bottled-water story."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 10, 2006 2:21:38 GMT -5
Joey rushed for the bathroom, almost tripping on the plush carpet on the way there. He ducked through the bedroom and behind the bathroom door just as he heard someone come through the front door of the apartment.
If it's that guy Cole, and he's a mutant, the teen thought anxiously, I really, really hope he's not a dangerous one.
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Post by skybright on Jun 10, 2006 2:32:49 GMT -5
As Joey dashed for the bedroom, Daws ducked into the apartment's kitchen and initiated a none-too-orderly search for the erstwhile bottled water.
Oh, Ace, you better come up with somethin' good this time, she thought desperately, Because it ain't just your tail on the line anymore.
There was the rattle of a key in the lock, the sound of the apartment door opening and closing, and footsteps crossing the distance to the kitchen. Daws finally managed to find a few bottles of water -- not in a case, but beggars couldn't be choosers -- and wheeled around, holding the 'evidence' in plain view.
A blonde head poked into the kitchen, and the face of James Marcus Cole regarded her calmly. He raised an eyebrow at her appearance, then stepped into the doorway and gestured with infuriating casualness to the bottled waters.
"I understand someone contaminated my last case of that with aspertame."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 10, 2006 22:08:41 GMT -5
From his hiding place in the bathroom, Joey listened to the voice in the kitchen. He couldn't make out the man's words, but at least there wasn't any shouting going on.
What if he can tell I'm here? What if he's able to smell me or something? Joey looked around anxiously for some means of silent exit from the scene, but the only path to retreat lay through the living room, in clear view of the kitchen doorway. There was nothing for him to do but wait.
His heart thumping in his chest, he held his breath, trying to hear how Daws would respond to the man.
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Post by skybright on Jun 10, 2006 22:37:23 GMT -5
Daws was momentarily surprised by Cole's calm demeanor; she set the bottled waters aside and shrugged. "Serves me right for not learnin' the fancy name for something that's actually dangerous, I guess."
"I guess." Cole frowned, not moving from the doorway. "Would it be terribly rude of me to ask what you're doing in my apartment?"
Several lies of increasingly baroque pattern washed through her mind; eventually, though, she shrugged. "Snooping around. Looking for information."
"I see." Cole's frown deepened, and he tipped his head slightly towards the bedroom. "You can call your accomplice out of the bathroom, if you don't mind."
Oh, no. The last thing Daws wanted was Joey getting caught up in the mess she'd just made. "I'll do that, yeah," She said calmly, "But you'll keep lookin' right at me while my buddy walks out of here."
"Will I?" He seemed amused. "And why will I do that?"
"Because," Daws yanked her gun from its holster and leveled it at Cole, "Right now, I'm a lot more interesting to look at."
The politician blinked gravely at the gun, then at her -- and then he laughed. "I don't think so." He turned and stepped towards the bedroom.
"Hey!" Daws frowned, half-puzzled and half-aggravated, "Have we skipped the part where I've got a gun, here?"
"No," The politician didn't turn, "Nor did we skip the part where you won't use it." He glanced back at Daws with a knowing look, and she lowered the gun in sudden comprehension.
"You're a telepath."
Cole just smiled grimly. "Get your accomplice out here and let's sort this out."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 10, 2006 22:47:37 GMT -5
A lot of the conversation was difficult to hear, but Joey caught the word telepath, and felt his stomach do a backflip. He'd had dealings with all kinds of mutants, running an outrageous range of powers, but he'd never encountered a telepath before.
As far as he knew, there had never been any in the orbit of Nicholas Tiernan--and now he was starting to figure out why.
Sheepishly, Joey emerged from behind the door and shuffled into the living room, his hands raised placatingly. If nothing else, he didn't want this guy Cole to get mad and make him think he was a gerbil or something.
"Hello, sir," he murmured faintly.
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