Nightshade

[Eonas]

9 PM. The moonlight would be streaming through the window of my office if the window weren't caked with grime and if the rain hadn't forced the moon into hiding. Lauren's out of the office again, probably throwing what money she has left on booze or cards. So it's just me. Me and the cigarette stubs and the rent bills and the grime and Barton's face smiling at me through the picture frame - and the wind screaming outside.

I'm about to close down the office - only a lunatic or a desperado'd come down at this hour, on a night like this. And then, like an omen of death, the slow creak of the front door opening. The door from the office to the waiting room's ajar so I can't see the visitor, but if there's any provenance in the world they're not a lunatic or a desperado.

Probably they're a lunatic or a desperado.

[Plerumque]

The man walks in looks like a one-man circus act, all ten freaks rolled into one plus a fire-eater who's not too good at his job. A contorted figure, a jumble of parts in a container too small for them. He's got a gaze sharp as glass, though, eyes made for adding up numbers or lives. Doesn't say a word as he walks in—if he can; his throat is a mass of scar tissue and he breathes like he's sharpening a knife. Doesn't sit, either, just stands there for a moment with eyes rolling like green marbles over your desk, before he drops a crumpled envelope on your desk and a few bills on top of it.

[Eonas]

A lunatic and a desperado. This is going to be one of those nights I see, where everything starts out bleak, gets bleaker, and then all of a sudden you're standing on top of a corpse and the cops are pounding on the door asking to be let in and you're fresh out of cigarettes.

I count the bills first - that's the first rule of investigation, always count the bills first. Then I pick up the envelope and fish inside it.

[Plerumque]

You smooth the bills—four or five aces; not enough to be worth getting shot at, but enough to convince you to open the envelope. You slide your finger under the flap and catch a whiff of lilac, and that's enough for you to know where this is going. But when you slide the letter out, it's no curliqued lover's letter, but a mimeographed invitation, one out of a run of dozens if not hundreds. Written with all the elegance of a professor whose tenure has lasted well into senility, it's a rambling summons to some conference of entomology a few miles to the east. At the bottom, though, just below the typewritten valediction—a name signed with a flourish. And the scent of lilac.

Your client clears his throat like a pebble caught in a thresher, and speaks, eloquently enough despite his burn-victim voice. "I have reason to believe that my business partner may be engaged in a few dealings that, shall we say, she would prefer to remain unbeknownst by me. This letter was recently dropped off at our place of business, and as she was out, I was able to intercept it. I should like you to attend, and see what this piece of correspondence means. It would be a comfort to me, even just to know that it was a mere three days of discussing wings and carapaces. And I am sure that I could find some more faces to keep those Washingtons company," he says, gesturing to the bills on the table. "Say... five hundred for five days?"

[Eonas]

I think that must be the Plerumqueishest thing ever written since the dawn of the universe. Love it."So you think she might be playing games with you, huh. I can see how that might bug you." I say. "Well, alright, doc, I got you covered. But I need more than just Washingtons - you gotta tell me, who's your partner to you? What are you so scared of?"

Rolling Understanding+Observation to figure out if this guy's business-antsy, or in love, or what. [roll0]
Dunno if he's trying to hide something or not, so I don't know if the roll's contested and what I'm rolling against. You'll have to do that bit.

Also, clear yer inbox. JJ wants to chat.

[Plerumque]

[roll0]

Thanks. And yeah, I cleared my inbox like half an hour after I got the email saying it was full, but I guess Janus had no way of knowing that. PMed him back.

[Plerumque]

"Oh, there's not much I'm scared of, particularly not nosy PIs," the sideshow man says. "But I suppose, if she's willing to go behind my back, her secrets should mean little enough to me. My partner has not always been on my side of my affairs, if you understand. She is, in fact, the sister of one of my major competitors. When she came to me, it took a long time before I was willing to trust her, and I am... concerned, that she seems willing to throw that away. Thus, your employment. This is satisfactory background?" He's not lying, or if he is, he's got a carny's tongue.