Participants:
| Scene Title | What Did Forensics Turn Up? |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | A discussion of Deckard and the events he witnessed. |
| Date | March 8, 2009 |
The Nite Owl is a survivor from ages past - one of those ancient diners with huge plate glass windows, checkerboard linoleum floor, and a neon owl over the entrance that blinks at those entering. Inside, there's an L-shaped main counter, complete with vintage soda fountain and worn steel stools. All of the cooking is done on the ranges ranked against the rear wall. The outer wall is lined with booths upholstered in cracked scarlet vinyl, tables trimmed with polished chrome. Despite its age, it's been lovingly maintained. The air is redolent with the scent of fresh coffee, vanilla, and frying food.
Elisabeth made the call this morning before she had to head in to work, and she asked Cat to meet her out for coffee. She didn't sound terribly great, and by the time the other woman arrives at the Nite Owl, Elisabeth has clearly been there for a little bit. She's halfway through her first cup of coffee. There's an uneaten cinnamon roll sitting on the table as well, though she's picked it apart a bit.
There's a Cat, and a Nite Owl. Not long after getting that call from Elisabeth, there's a Cat at the Nite Owl. She walks over to the table Elisabeth staked out and settles into a chair opposite her. The guitar case and backpack are placed next to it, with the neck of that case leaning against the table. Eyes come to rest on the blonde. Cat looks and sounds concerned.
"Are you okay, Elisabeth?" she asks quietly. "It sounded like the blues are feasting on you hard."
Rolling her eyes, Elisabeth raises the silence bubble around their table — she chose the Nite Owl because they're used to her peculiarities when it comes to table bubbles. "The blues? Oh yeah, you could call it that." She sighs heavily. "I fucked up royally. I went after Deckard myself — took Felix. I didn't know that he and Deckard had bad blood. So Deckard's now sitting in lockup, and Teo ripped me a new ass last night."
Okay, that was unexpected. "I see," Cat replies after a long moment of contemplation. She doesn't seem angry in the least. Just surprised, mildly. "How did this come to be? The arrest."
Elisabeth shakes her head and says, "Honestly? I have barely half a fucking clue. I didn't know Felix and Deckard had history…" She blushes slightly. "And I hadn't been paying attention to the fact that Deckard was still considered an ally. So it went downhill from the start, thanks to bad blood. They fed it off one another, and by the time they were done pissing, he was under arrest."
"Men," she mutters under her breath. Cat's eyes roll. "So, basically, while you just wanted some questions answered, questions I was going to ask him myself if I had contact, I told Teo this, they decided to compare cock sizes, and Deckard's was bigger, so to prove his manhood Felix put him on ice?" She goes quiet, not giving voice to the thought that Felix could be all dick and felt the need to prove it.
She considers the description and Elisabeth says, "Not sure that's entirely accurate, but …. basically, yeah. Something like that." She sighs. "Deckard's the one who actually *said* to bring him in. Something he knows, something he saw… I don't know. SOMETHING has him running scared out there, and he seemed to think jail was the lesser of the evils, if you can believe that in this climate."
Her eyes rest on Elisabeth's face, her demeanor speculative, as the previous conversation about this case plays out in Cat's mind.
The knock on the door comes just as Liz is dressing to go out. She opens the door, tucking a black V-necked blouse into a comfortable pair of jeans, and looks only half-surprised at Cat's presence on the other side. "Hi," she greets mildly. "C'mon in." She walks through the apartment, leaving Cat to close the door behind herself, clearly a little not really agitated, just perhaps a bit off-kilter. She moves to pull her hair up into a clip in the bathroom mirror and discards that quickly, making a face of disgust. This is stupid. Heading back out into the living room carrying her sneakers, she says, "Okay I'm ready. Whatcha got?"
The door does in fact close behind Cat, and the blonde is observed briefly, a slight smile forming on her features. "It seems you've a date. Elisabeth. Me, I only have questions. What was it," she queries, "Flint Deckard may have witnessed? Teo says he's either hiding from people who want to arrest or kill him, and if he isn't he should be."
Sliding her feet into her sneakers, Elisabeth walks around her apartment gathering up the stuff she'll need for tonight. Most importantly, her backup piece, which she put in an inner pants holster at the small of her back while she talks to Cat. "There've been a string of murders that appear to be tied together by one person's presence. Now frankly, I don't much care if the guy's running around killing off Triad members too much, but the fact of the matter is, he appears to be Evolved, and there's been at least one civilian death. According to the intel I've got, Deckard saw the last one where some poor bastard was literally liquiefied. I *really* need to know what he saw, if he saw anything that can help me." She pulls her blouse down over the weapon. Only then does she hesitate. "It's. sort of a date, sort of. I'm not sure what it is," she admits. "Certainly not what I expected."
She listens in silence, and a speculative expression forms. "Liquified?" Cat asks, "Liquified how? You suspect there's been a string of murders where someone used an Evolved ability to melt the human body?" She doesn't appear squeamish, however, not after the info dump Peter gave her months before which amounted to a ringside seat at the Nuking of York minus the whole bit of getting blown up or radiation poisoned in the process. Or after helping put those parts of Rickham which had gotten out back on the inside while Abby healed the man.
Shaking her head, Elisabeth says, "No apparently the guy has some kind of shapeshifting ability. The people who've seen him describe him as almost literally looking like the devil himself red eyes, crap like that. We believe that he's got claws of some kind, and that there's some kind of major electrical discharge when he shifts. The first body was gored, the second electrocuted, and the third is the one Deckard got caught on a traffic camera near that's where the liquiefied body came in. I'm not sure exactly how it fits, except that this person we're trying to track down was there AND there was gunfire exchanged. So I just need to talk to him, Cat."
She nods slowly. "I'll go back to Teo and we'll see if we can locate him, pass the word about this, Elisabeth," Cat assures. The details of what she was told are processed in her head. Shapeshifter with an electrical discharge, one body gored, one juiced to death, the third melted. That one causes her mental wheels to freeze and almost start to rewind. No, she decides, without replaying events or conversations in her mind's eye. It couldn't be that. They resolved that problem.
"Where did the murders take place?" Cat asks, after she emerges from that recollection. "You said something before about Triad members killing each other. Could there have been Triad involvement, and Deckard is scared if he talks and is free they'll get to him? Or…" Cat ponders, "believes that since you found him and you know he saw something, the Triad people can too, and they'd elect to kill him just to make sure he doesn't talk?"
Elisabeth shrugs a bit, not answering as the waitress comes with a new cup to give Cat coffee and refilling Liz's cup as well. After that, she says, "It's possible, I suppose. Although for Christ's sake, why someone hasn't already offered the man a new face is beyond me. They're willing to do it for me and every other member of Phoenix, why's Deckard different? And considering what Teo said he's done for Abby? Well… seems to me it's the least he deserves." She grimaces.
"I don't know," Cat answers quietly. "I've not talked to him, I really wish I'd been able to, but things are what they are. Best I can do now is brainstorm ideas as to why he acted that way. Maybe…" The voice trails off while she takes time to speculate again.
"Could have been the Triad involvement. Or maybe he knew who got melted."
She takes another pause, breaking the silence with a question borne of curiosity. "What did Forensics turn up? Were they able to identify the melted person?"
"Forensics turned up the name of a Company agent… Veronica Sawyer. I read the report yesterday. In addition, the goo they found is apparently *real* similar to amniotic fluid or something. The kid liquiefied an Agent and apparently has fought off at least two Triad members. My big concern here is whether he's doing it on purpose or whether he's just scared to death and loses control when cornered. So the quicker I can find him, the quicker things can happen that need to."
She listens, and Cat's features become puzzled by what she hears. "So… Agent Sawyer was melted, but… the the melted remains of her they found aren't normal human remains, but the kind of thing babies are surrounded by, in utero?" And she's musing again.
"One body was gored, the second was electrocuted, the third melted. Who were the first two? And… you've got all these Homeland Satan people underfoot at work. An agent of the Company died. Are they all over you about this? Why haven't they totally taken over the investigation? Maybe… maybe Deckard had run across the agent before, somehow knew she was an agent, and is scared because of that in addition to the Triad?"
Elisabeth shakes her head and says, "Cat, you've got me. Seriously. If I could figure this out? They'd give me Lau's job or something. You're tossing out possibilities here that … to be blunt, the sheer volume of possibilities doesn't help my stress levels. So if you think of something that actually makes it link together, feel free to share — and don't stop thinking it over, but … " She grins a bit. "Don't keep tossing me possibles. I've got enough of them in my OWN head. And right now, I'm on assignment from Teo to go offer Deckard a get-out-of-jail-free card — that he spit on when *I* offered, but Teo thinks it should be done. Not sure I disagree."
She nods once. "I'm curious, this case is so odd, and with the Company being involved, I'd really like to know as much as I can. That bunch can't be trusted any farther than they can be thrown. I have to wonder, also, if the death in this last one happened because the Company agent was present. Maybe she tried to take someone in for the deep dark hole, he or she fought back, and Agent Sawyer died as a result. Hell, it could've been the same in all three murders for all we know."
Cat asks "Could you get me a copy of the case file, Elisabeth? Anything about this you can."
"Sure, I can probably get you something," Elisabeth agrees quietly. "In truth, your street sources may turn up more than mine can. Right now, we're thinking that the deaths are related to the boy — he either augments other people's abilities and makes them go out of control, or he has a bodymorph ability that is preceded by some kind of electrical discharge, or…. Hell, I don't know. The people who've been nearby all comment on a sound like the crack of thunder right after a lightning bolt. For what that's worth. I'll see what I can do about getting paperwork to you. Could take a couple days."
A nod. A slow one. "I've seen people interact with an augmentor and go out of control, we've both been around Gillian Childs," Cat reminds quietly. "I wasn't present at these situations, so I can't say if what happened was anything like that. But I know there weren't any thunderclaps involved. Not even the first time Gillian and Stormy were in the same place."
There's a shake of her head. "I've never been around Gillian. But I read about her. So yeah… we don't even know what this kid's powers *are*. All we know is that the first two dead people were Triad-related and he owed money. The rest? All speculation at this point. So if something clicks for you, I'm grateful for the help."
Nodding again. There's a pattern forming in her mind. Self-defense. Attacked by Triads, squeezed for money, attacked by a Company agent (they're all the Devil to Cat). "I'll look over the file if you can get it to me and see if anything clicks. About Deckard… The whole thing just bites. I can't speak about Felix, other than to agree he might've been wanting to drag him in anyway and just looking for an excuse, but… it's hard to help someone who won't help himself. Best I can offer in explanation of him wanting to be locked up is safety. Or insanity. Maybe both."
Elisabeth snickers and comments, "Now that…. that I can believe." She sighs and finishes her coffee. "Coffee's on me this morning. I gotta go, Cat… thanks for meeting me. I just needed the company."
"Anytime, Elisabeth," she answers with a chuckle of her own. "Be safe out there, and don't let the bastards grind you down."
 March 8th: Company Deposit |
Previously in this storyline… Next in this storyline… |
 March 8th: Say The Word |