Why is it any of your business who I pick? Jacob thought. Yeah, I feel more comfortable around the quiet one. It's not like this whole mission was my choice. And making such a scene over it, now who's being unproffesional. "Well, um, sorry then," he mumbled, then flushed. God, why was talking to women so freakin hard? "It was... Random really." Yeah, lie away. No wonder you're a Golem if that's how you speak.
"Stop hassling him Tinkerbell." Ella commanded, broadening her stance and folding her arms. "And it's more the fact I have a compulsion to cause indirect deaths that causes the problem." She finished, before turning to Jacob. "Clayboy, with me." Afterwards she went outside, asking around in the neighbouring buildings and doing the standard questions.
Jessamine giggled and shook her head, waving a hand at Ella and Jacob as she turned and pranced away. Ella was a killer, apparently. Or was it 'indirect killer'? Isn't it the same difference, in the end? That fact helped Jessamine get over worrying about her. Fairy Godmothers simply were not concerned with guiding villains to their Happily Ever Afters. If Ella was evil incarnate, or whatever kind of ME she was, it was not Jessamine's duty to help her. She would just have to push down the urge to save this girl and focus on the mission. Jacob's not bad, though, Jessamine thought absently. I mean, he seems really shy, but he doesn't give me a Bad Guy vibe. I wonder if he'll end up with Ella...or if Ella will get him killed first. She reached up and let down her hair without thinking about it. The thick black waves fell to her knees and she shook it out, running her fingers through the silky tresses. I just need to keep an eye on her. If she hurts any innocents on my watch...well...she'll have more to worry about than Mr Boss. Jessamine knocked on the first door she came to. "Hey!" she chirped, beaming her usual sunny smile. "My name is Jessamine Longbranch! I'm here to ask about the incident...if you have any information, could you please share it with me?" She didn't have a notepad, but she did have a pen stuck in her boot, so she took that out and pulled back her shawl to expose her upper arm. She held the writing instrument poised over her smooth brown skin, ready to take notes.
Fenric pinched the bridge of his nose to fend off a migraine as Rabinowitz left with the two more seasoned agents. Maybe--just maybe--the combination of Schmidt's icy competence and Longbranch's unprofessional friendliness would add up to an efficient whole. "See if you can find any ledgers, files, notes--anything about who Redmond might've been seeing," he said to Feiss. For his part, Fenric began began scanning the scene with his nose, walling off that part of himself which was utterly revolted by the slaughterhouse stench as he catalogued the scents he collected. Blood. Offal. Terror. Redmond's aftershave. Leather. Wood. Polish. Lavender floor cleaner. Gingerbread. Old coffee. Feiss, her soap and perfume. Rabinowitz's earthy scent. Schmidt and Longbranch. A litany of fragrances trailed in by the police. There was just so much.... Head spinning, he leaned against the wall as he pulled his consciousness out of his nose. He pretty certain he had committed the olfactory landscape to memory. Most of the information could probably be discarded, but if someone's scent pinged on his mental radar, he'd have them. He went to the window and opened it, leaning out to get a good whiff of fresh air. He took a moment to let his brain settle, just watching the crows hopping around the small vegetable garden Redmond had in his back yard. *** The woman who opened the door to Jessamine regarded her dubiously. "I'm sorry," she said, "I'd really rather not speak to any reporters." *** Ella and Jacob were met at the door by an old man, who ushered them inside. He told them how he liked having Redmond for a neighbor. He was quiet, kept his home tidy, and was friendly without being intrusive. He'd had reservations, at first, about having crazy people coming and going next door, but none of the patients who came to see Redmond ever struck him as being dangerously nuts. Plus, Redmond was a whiz at getting the social security and insurance people to do what he wanted without actually breaking the law. On the day in question, the old man, Mr Hodges, said he heard a car arrive at Redmond's house around 12:30 in the afternoon, but didn't hear anyone leave, because he took a nap. But he was awake again by 1:30, and didn't hear anyone else arrive.
Jessamine gave a tinkling laugh when the woman said she was a reporter. "Oh, no!" she said at last. "You've got it all wrong, honey. I'm a detective." She flashed her LIBRIS badge, using a little magic to make it look more like a police badge. "I know I don't look like your traditional, run-of-the-mill detective, but I'm good at what I do, trust me. I've guided plenty of people to their Happily Ever..." She trailed off and cleared her throat. "I mean, I've solved plenty of cases. Found missing children, saved abused stepchildren, caught homicidal witches...I mean 'witches' as in, you know, horrible women. Eh hem. So...could you please share any information you may have? The lives of many, many people are hanging in the balance." She assumed a sad expression, her eyes wide and her head tilted to the side, eyebrows drawn together. It was the face she had used many times on her missions to convince MEs to trust her and listen to her sage advice. She also let a small amount of light magic trickle from her finger tips into the woman's body while maintaining steady eye contact, so she wouldn't look down and see the tiny sparkles floating into her torso. When Jessamine healed people with her magic, they were filled with warm, fuzzy feelings. (Oftentimes, they were reminded of sunny childhood memories or when they first fell in love.) Jessamine hoped this small dose of "fairy dust" was enough to loosen up this woman's defenses and make her talk.
Ella asked if he could give the brand or colour of the car, or even potentially the license plate number. It was always good to get as much information as possible.
Jacob waited behind Ella, waiting for the man's answer. He looked at the guy's face intently, to notice if he was lying. Liers always annoyed him, for some reason. To a level that sometimes shocked him. It didn't help when he was the lier either
Jessamine's glamourie fuzzing over the woman's objections, Mrs Gable invited the LIBRIS agent inside. She gave Jessamine much the same information Mr Hodges gave Ella and Jacob. Redmond was a nice man, even though her husband didn't like him all that much. He didn't like the idea of mental patients next door. But until today, there had never been an incident. Mrs Gable tells Jessamine how disturbing it is that she was hosting her kids' playgroup when the police said it happened. *** Hodges says he couldn't make out a license plate--damn bifocals--but he does give a description of the car: a silver four-door sedan, probably only a few years old. *** Fenric turns away from the window and the crows watching him, and looked to Feiss. "Any luck on those records?"
Feiss ran her fingers along the desk’s smooth surface, careful not to touch the blood splatter. Fenric told her to find the doctor’s ledger. She interpreted that as a license to touch anything she pleased, so long as she didn’t disturb the crime scene. She daintily stepped behind the desk, getting closer to the corpse than any sane person would. “Excuse me, sir. Do you mind?” she said to the headless body lying slumped in its chair. Feiss leaned in, cupping a hand to her ear, and awaited a reply. “What was that? No, you don’t mind? Well, I’ll help myself.” Despite having Fenric’s permission, she still didn’t want to disturb the scene, so, she opened the main drawer very carefully, making sure not to stir its contents. Meh, nothing of interest there. Writing utensils, a blank notepad, stationery. Boring. Feiss shut it as carefully as she’d opened it and moved on to the side drawer. Ah, jackpot! Files upon files upon files. The much deeper side drawer was overflowing with papers, overstuffed manila folders, and a thick leather-bound ledger. Data. Knowledge. She was like a kid in a candy store. No, that’s too innocent. She was like a starving dingo in a nursery. All it took was one touch. She didn’t have to remove or disturb anything. Feiss barely grazed the papers, but her mind was flooded with their entire contents. The experience was… delicious. Orgasmic, almost. It made her weak in the knees. Her other hand gripped the edge of the desk and she looked to Fenric with a fierce, focused gaze. “Pen, now! I need to write this down,” she said, snapping her fingers impatiently. “Fetch, doggie, I don’t have all day,” she added in a voice that did not seem to be her own.
Fenric handed Feiss a pen, and watched her work. It was a pretty good trick, this knowledge-by-osmosis. He couldn't shake the feeling, though, that if there had been helpful, the killer might have taken it. As Feiss copied everything down, Fenric allowed his attention to drift back to the crows in the back yard. Something itched in his brain, but he couldn't identify it. What Feiss had discovered was a stack of case files. Not all of them were ME's, though most of the level-0's had had their lives touched by the Narrative. As Feiss wrote down what she felt were pertinent details, she discovered that though most of the patients were referred by LIBRIS, none of the patients were regular visitors with severe problems. Indeed, most of those cases were garden-variety anxieties, relationship troubles, phobias and depression. Also, all the patients in these files had started seeing Redmond no more recently than one year ago, but had also not been patients for longer than ten years ago. Feiss would have spotted the holes in information she'd found.
After filling nearly ten pages, Feiss sighed and removed her glasses to wipe them on the tail of her shirt."Waste of time," she muttered as she returned them to her face. "Waste. Of. Time." She tore off the handful of pages she'd written on and returned the notepad to Redmon'd desk. So much for not disturbing the scene. Oh well, a couple of missing pages from a blank notepad wouldn't go amiss. Feiss neatly creased the papers and tucked them into her breast pocket before heading over to Fenric. "Too many gaps. I wrote down his patient list, but, unless the good doctor has been out of work for a year, a lot of the records are missing." Feiss folded her arms. "The scent of gingerbread remains a dangling thread, so I went into greater detail on the ones whose types are related to Hansel and Gretel, the Gingerbread Man, candy, sweets..." she gestured vaguely, "that sort of thing." Feiss moved to the window to think and expand her mind, in much the same way Fenric had a moment ago. "Sorry about the fetch thing. That was uncalled for," she said. "I wish I could say it won't happen again but... well, I am what I am."
Fenric shrugged a bowling-ball shoulder. "Don't worry about it," he said. "Let's take a look around the rest of the house, while they do their job," he said, nodding towards the LIBRIS forensic team, coming to collect the body.
Jacob waited for Ella to continue her investigation. As he did, he took a quick survey around, looking for anything suspicious.
With that Ella continued her questioning, going round to as many people as possible before returning back to the group. "Silver Sedan around two years old. No known license plate, or view of the person that came in or out." She stated, finding a wall and leaning against it. She went into her pocket and dug out a packet of gum, chewing on a piece as she watched the others go around. She was a professional. She knew that her job was more or less talking to people, and when she was done, others would do her work.
"You really are cold, aren't you?" Feiss said, following Fenric into the next room as she forensics team flowed back into the office. "I'll fix that, soon enough. I am a doctor, after all. I can solve this case with both hands tied behind my back," she said with ane expansive gesture to everything around them, Redmond's home, his possessions, his life. "The more interesting mystery here is you, Agent Fenric. What do you do for fun, Humbert? Do you even grasp the meaning of the word?"
"We can compare all your notes with those of the police," Fenric said to Ella. "Not that it has any bearing on anything," he said to Feiss, "but I have several hobbies and interests. There was even a time when I ran about and laughed. I even smiled," he said in perfect deadpan. As he began to examine the psychiatrist's kitchen, he turned to Jacob and Ella. "Wasn't Longbranch with you?"
"Yeah, she was," said Jacob. "She went talking wth some of the other neigbors." Probably went inside for some coffee as well. I could do with some coffee myself.
"Did someone say coffee?" Feiss said with a devilish grin at Jacob. "No?" she laughed. "Third cupboard on the left, next to the half-empty box of buscuits." She gestured to the cupboad with a showmanlike flourish, as if he was on a gameshsow and she was about to reveal what was behind door number three. Then she dramatically opened it, revealing... exactly what she said was inside. "By the way, I meant 'biscuits' in the British sense," she said, taking the box from inside, "as in cookies. Sorry, Fennie-darling, but no dog biscuits for you. Better luck next time." she glanced at the wolf-man before sauntering over to Jacob and offering the box of cookies. Oatmeal raisin. How droll. "Here, Jakey, have one. You've earned it."
Fenric rolled his eyes. "We're supposed to be looking for clues, not snacks," he said, and plucked the packet of cookies away from the doctor. He put them back into the cupboard--and paused. The cupboard doors were all painted with fanciful images of foxes frolicking amongst orchards and gardens, usually accompanied by other animals. Reynard was a Clever Fox, and foxes were known for caching food... "Feiss, do you remember carvings like these in Redmond's office?"
Jacob entally rolled his eyes in is head as he accepted the biscuit. He almost asked wether it was kosher, reflex really. He quietly ate the biscuits. Their interrogation wasn't really going anywhere, it seemed. He wondered if I was always this slow. "Sir," he said to Humbert. "Did you manage to figure out anything?"
