Participants:
Scene Title | Tell Me Again |
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Synopsis | I still can't figure out what it is you know that's so important. |
Date | Feb 13, 2010 |
Safehouse where Lola's holed up.
RING RING RING BANANAPHONE
A nice little message was left for Elisabeth, in a southern drawl. Pretty simple to understand - come and meet me.
And where is that, you may ask? Why in a crappy little apartment in Red Hook, where Lola's still stashed. Although she knows to expect company, she doesn't seem particularly worried about it. In jeans, a stained old tank top and a towel over her shoulders, Lola is - at the moment - straddling a stool in the bathroom as she works on dying her roots red. The tank top reveals needle marks on her arms - old ones, at least - and the gunshot wound on her shoulder. She only expects Elisabeth, so she doesn't seem to care.
The TV is blaring old reruns of Laurel and Hardy.
"So now that I'm on what they're calling 24/7 duty, I'll be staying at the base at least some nights." Elisabeth grimaces as she walks up the stairs with Claire. "As few as I can possibly manage. Just keep a beeper on me or something. Considering the rest of my life, staying on the base all the time is just going to be a major inconvenience. When we're active on running, I'll probably stay there, but… I kind of like my privacy."
When they reach the door, Elisabeth bangs on the door and waits for the Cajun woman to answer. "I don't know if you've met Lola before, but she's… a character."
"I feel like I should be immune to characters…" Claire returns blandly, a small smile tugging up the corner of her mouth. "I've been stuck with Bones a lot lately." There is more amusement now. "He's like.. constantly on the move… eating… and just.. odd." In a strangely endearing way. "But… no. I don't think I have met any Lola."
She answeres.
"What?!" Her voice is a shriek, and the woman stands, walking to the door and pulling underwear out of her rear - luckily none of them can see that. After a brief look through the little peep hole, a series of locks and chains can be heard as they are undone, and the door pulls open to display Lola, scars, towel, bare feet and wet fresh-dyed faux red hair, all as described.
One look at Claire and Elisabeth, and Lola yeilds a grimmace. "Ah thought they didn' make 'em any blonder'n you, sugar," Lola says to Elisabeth, turning and heading back to the bathroom. Apparently, leaving the door open is an invitation into the apartment.
There's a snicker from Liz. "Somehow, kiddo, I have a feeling you're going to be a enjoying all that motion in the not-so-distant future." And then the ex-cop merely sighs and waits for Lola to open the door. As she and Claire make their way in, she says, "Lola, Claire. Claire, Lola. Nice shade of red you got there," she comments. "So what'd you find out?"
Mouth opening to fire something back at her friend, the door opens and Claire is stopped by the sight of Lola. A blonde brow lifts in silent amusement before following Liz into the apartment. "Hey…" is all she really offers to the redhead. Her head tilts a bit in thought. Maybe she should go red. Hmm..
"Ah hate it," Lola says in response to the comment about her hair. "One day Ah'll go back ta mah own hair an Ah'll never let it go. But Ah also like breathin' an livin, an livin's a bit more important than mah hair. So red Ah go," she sighs, moving back into the bathroom to continue to work on her roots. To Claire? She says nothing directly, yet.
"Well, Ah didn' get shot," she explains, seeming almost proud of it. "Seems ol Dicky Cardinal had it in fer Mistah Daniel. Sure as shit explains why he made it so Ah'm still 'round, don' it? Don' think ya'll are likely ta find anyone as ready as Ah am ta give that puppy-fucker a peice a somethin'." Wow, isn't she so…pleasant.
Closing the door behind them, Elisabeth automatically encases the entire room in a silence bubble. It won't help if the place were bugged, but it stymies directional mikes or what have you … and Elisabeth's paranoia is rampant right now. "How so?" she asks of Lola. "As in … what the hell do you have on Linderman that will be of use to me now that Cardinal's dead?" Her tone is grim.
There is something like amusement on Claire's face as she watches the redhead, staying just behind Elisabeth. A glance does go to the other blonde and she murmurs. "Your right." For her friends ears only. Good thing they didn't bet on it. This was someone to keep far from her mother.. Dear lord.
"Well," Lola says thoughtfully, as she muses up her hair to get the dye worked through. Her forearms rest on her knees as she looks up at the two blondes. "Ah got bullets, fer one two an three, but Ah figure ya already banked on that one. Ah still got connections through his place. More importantly, Ah still got all mah old friends down in Nawlins for when Ah was workin' for him through a couple a casinos. Then a course there's mah dubious friends that're lookin' to do roughly the same ta Mistah Daniel as Ah am…." She trails off, musing up her hair again. She flips the wet locks away, looking up at them.
"Course Cardinal's golden boy Zarek's in the throwes of a boozefit. Ah think Ah kin get him outta it though."
"One," Elisabeth says mildly, blue eyes hard on Lola, "Don't worry about Cardinal's golden boy. I've got that angle covered. Two, nothing that you just listed is of any real use to anyone. Your bullets can't be traced to him, I'm reasonably sure, and 'connections' to his place and friends who want to get back at him? Unless they have something substantial to go on, you're basically blowing smoke, Lola."
Lola laughs, flipping her hair back, eyes gleaming mischeviously. "Well are ya gonna stand there like queen bitch or ya gonna let me do some work on it?" She shakes her head, looking down again a moment, then back up. HEr arms cross and she leans back against the wall. "By 'substantial,' ya gimme somethin' ta find an Ah'll see what Ah kin do ta find it. But if ya don' want me ta find this shit fer ya? Yer welcome ta leave."
Pursing her lips, Elisabeth studies Lola. "Any chance you have enough contacts in Linderman's group to get hold of intel on his campaign contributions?" she finally asks. "What contacts do you have? Even Al Capone went down — and it was for tax evasion. I have a technopath already working on it, but if you know someone who can get me better intel…. well, hell, I'm not going to turn it down."
Lola shrugs noncommitally. She seems more aloof after the last few exchanges than she was earlier. "Ah kin look," she says easily. "An Ah'm still keepin' mah eyes on Zarek. Ah got mah reasons." She has a laundry list of them too, but she doesn't look like she's going to share them. "Now is there anythin' else ya want me ta look inta, or are ya done here?" As she asks, the girl lights a cigarette with a shiny silver lighter.
"Actually, there is," Elisabeth says quietly. She moves to sit down. "Why's he want you dead, Lola? Linderman, I mean." She smiles faintly. "And don't gimme shit about being a bitch, okay? I've got fucking Vanguard people breathing down my neck and targeting people I care about, so I'm just not in the mood to be exactly friendly-like today."
"Hey, ya got mah number. If ya got names a folks ya need out a the way, ya know what to do." Lola glances at Claire once, just to make sure she hasn't freaked the girl out yet with this sort of talk. She's blonde, after all. They never appear very sturdy.
"Why's it matter? Truth is old Mistah Daniel found out Ah was made workin' somethin' undercover fer him. Funniest part was Ah was sold out - Ah actually did pretty well, considerin' Ah ain' the type ta be sleepin' with a fellah just ta get information outta him. Things mighta been different if Ah had but," she sighs, exhaling a cloud of smoke. "Ah ain' that kinda girl. That give ya all the insight ya ever coulda wanted on lil old me?"
"And Linderman has a long memory," Elisabeth replies with a faint smile. "I just wondered what you'd managed to do to get under the bastard's skin." Not that Lola doesn't get under everyone's skin from time to time. "All right…. I'm back in town on a more permanent basis. If you need me, you have the number. And Claire's. I wanted you two to meet because there could be times that you'll need to go through her to get information or what have you. One of the things I'm doing in my oh-so-spare time is working on a FRONTLINE squad." She looks squarely at Lola. "Do not get on their radar. And if you know people on Staten who need to get out? Tell them to do it quickly." She pauses. "And I guess there is one other thing — Put your ear to the ground on Refrain. Anything you can find out about them or Humanis First cells in action, I want to know about personally." May as well put Lola to work for real.
Claire listens the conversation quietly, arms moving to fold across her chest. Eyes wander the immediate room, thoughtfully. Unlike the older blonde, she doesn't sit, preferring to stay on her feet. Blue eyes meet Lola's and there is definitely no freaking out there. Just calm almost lacking emotions. Not too much freaks this blonde anymore.
Lola raises ehr hands in innocence. "Sugar, believe me when Ah say Ah don' want their radar. What happens ta ya'll if he finds me is the least a mah problems, an it will be too. He'll kindly fix it so Ah won' have no problems no more. An no head, neither," See, Lola's not stupid. Though, for a change, the mention of keeping an eye out for refrain does give her pause, and she seems almost…startled. For a moment that shell of strengtha nd sarchasem is gone, but only a moment. "Ah'll do some diggin, sug. Just outta curiosity, there a reason Ah can't just…ya know…" she raises her hands to make a gun shape and then makes a soft crack sound with her lips. "Seems a lot quicker way, an more fair, fer dear Mistah Daniel."
Elisabeth tilts her head, looking startled herself. "You're willing to take a piece out of Daniel Linderman's head if I ask you to?"
Now it's Lola's turn to laugh.
"Really sugar? Ya watched me pop a fellah fer a stranger, an ya think Ah ain' dreamed wet dreams a blowin' Mistah Daniel's head ta peices ever since he tried ta off me? Only reason Ah ain' done it on mah damn own is cause Ah been healin', an then Ah been waitin' on Cardinal." She shakes her head in disbelief. "Really, he'd be the first fellah Ah'd kill who Ah'd actually wanna kill."
Elisabeth stands up and grins slightly. "Be a waste of a good bullet," she comments mildly. "He's got a healing power of some kind. Would royally suck to try to take a piece of him and just have him heal it up, don't you think? But if I find out that he can't heal up his own wounds? There just may come a day when that order comes out of my mouth, Lola." The blonde looks dead serious. "Linderman can't go down until I've got everything lined up. Cardinal was working on a plan, and I'm having to play a little catch-up now that he's gone to get up to speed." She studies Lola. "Get back to me with what you can find out on the Refrain trade. You might also enlist the aid of Mortimer Jack. If I understand it right, you two are already acquainted. He might have resources you can use." She moves to head for the door. "Anything you need from me in the meantime?" she asks.
"Naw sug, getter gone."