Talking Things Over With Alex Ander, P.I.

[misslucysleeches]

Going from a weird cafe that seems to service multiple realities to Lucy's apartment is fortunately an easy trip -- it involves little more than walking through an appropriate door into Lucy's apartment building. She leads the way up to her little apartment on the third floor. "It's not much, but it's home," she says, unlocking the front door and leading Alex inside.

The apartment isn't very big, consisting of a little living room, a small office, a kitchenette, a tiny bathroom, and a bedroom. The living room is mostly done in white, with an off-white couch against the far wall and a small TV tucked into one corner. There's a very colorful rug on the floor, though, and lots and lots of plants. Lucy likes plants. There's open archways leading to the kitchen (again, done mostly in white, with a black-and-white checked floor) and the office (that room in beige, with a computer on a desk, a violin in a stand against one wall, a radio, and a few other pieces of music equipment). The bathroom and the bedroom both have proper doors, though. Lucy indicates the couch. "You want anything to eat or drink?" Only polite to offer.

Comments

[pickingmybrain.livejournal.com]

Alex sits on the small couch and finds it quite comfortable. She felt she could sink into the fabric and not come out for hours. The apartment she observed was a bit similar to her partner Jack's studio loft, not so much as in appearances, but as in the general homey feel to it.

She smiled at Lucy, "I'll take a diet soda if you have one stowed away somewhere. If not, glass of ice water would do me just fine." She watched as Lucy appeared more comfortable here than anywhere else, and she felt promise that the girl would open up to her.

[mslucysleeches.livejournal.com]

Hey, one's home is their castle, right? Even if it is just a tiny little apartment. Lucy grins back. "Let's see what we've got." She heads into the kitchen and opens up the fridge. "I've got canned diet root beer, if that'll do."

[pickingmybrain.livejournal.com]

"That will do just fine. Thanks hon. I can see why you find peace here. The apartment suits you very well." Alex smiled up at Lucy as she delivered the diet root beer into her hands. She opened the can, avoiding the fizz, and took a nice, deep sip of the cool beverage. She needed to find a way to start that wouldn't scare Lucy too much, too fast. She decided to take the direct approach with her, as she felt her client was honest enough to answer her frankly.

"Lucy, in order to catch this stalker we are going to have to dig a bit deeper into your past, and things might get a bit painful to recall, but I need you to face this head on with me, and give me as much detail as you can regarding anything I may ask you. There is a connection somewhere, we just have to find it. It might strike you as odd to need to do this for me, but trust my process, okay?" She took another sip.

"Lets start with where you were at when you got the last message from your stalker, anything and everything you can recall about the message itself, how you received it and where. Then we'll work backwards from there, focusing on the other threats in reverse order, continuing back to where you and when you got the very first one. We need to figure out just how long they've been tracking you." Alex shut her mouth then, and allowed Lucy to hopefully fill in as much details as she could remember about the last incident when it had occurred. She was determined to get to the bottom of this difficult puzzle.

[mslucysleeches.livejournal.com]

"Thanks," Lucy says, sitting down next to her with her own can. "That's what I thought when I found it. It felt right." She sips at her root beer, looking around. Yeah -- it's small, but it's home.

She nods understandingly. "Yeah, okay." She looks a little nervous about this, but she really wants this guy or girl caught, and the sooner the better. Life under someone's microscope doesn't suit her in the least.

"First message came about four -- actually, four and a half months ago, I think," Lucy says. "Back then, I thought it might have been a prank -- one of my friends is way into that. But after they started getting nasty, I realized Trevor would have never taken it that far. The last message I got was just three days ago. It's basically your typical creepy-person message -- cut out letters pasted onto a sheet of paper, spelling out 'Bad girl, your sins betray you.'" She sighs and takes a swig of root beer. "It was mixed into the rest of my mail in the mailbox in the lobby. Folded up into an envelope -- no postage, though. Envelope was completely blank, in fact. The other ones arrived in similar envelopes, but they typically ended up in my dressing room." She looks disgusted for a moment. "That's pleasant, coming back from doing a show and discovering someone wrote you a hate note."

[pickingmybrain.livejournal.com]

Alex truly felt for the girl, and took her hand. "Did you save them? May I see them?" She awaited her response.

[mslucysleeches.livejournal.com]

"Saved most of them -- the first one I tossed because I thought it was just a stupid joke," Lucy says, looking slightly embarrassed. "Hang on, I've got them in my desk. Along with the envelopes, though I dunno if they'll be any good. . . ." She gets up and heads into the office, coming back with a stack of slightly-wrinkled papers. She spreads them out on the coffee table in front of them. They are your standard creepy ransom-note type letters, spelling out different messages: "Off the stage, freak," "You've done horrid things," "Sinner sinner sinner," "I know you're not human." "First one was just the one word 'Liar,'" she adds, grimacing as she looks through the notes. "Crazy asshole."

[pickingmybrain.livejournal.com]

"Lets see..." Alex switched her gaze intently between the various notes, studying each and every minute similarity, or difference. She noticed that each single glued on letter was done with precisely the same slant, and that there was no trace of glue stains on the paper whatsoever. Who ever made these was extremely meticulous. That took intelligence, and that scared Alex for two reasons.

"Lucy...do you have many exes, or just a few...?" She apologized for being so brazen in asking, but she had to know.

((OH SO sorrry for that long ass pause...my aunt called me long distance and was talking my ear off so much i simply couldn't concentrate on two things at once. Hope you're still here to respond. If not we'll continue this soon as we get together again))

[mslucysleeches.livejournal.com]

"Uh -- my fair share, including my fair share of bad break-ups, but they've all been pretty level-headed people," Lucy replies, thinking it over. "I can't think of any of them wanting to do this. If you need a specific number, about six from serious relationships."

(No problem, I've had way longer pauses in threads.)

[pickingmybrain.livejournal.com]

"I hope you don't get offended at this, but what is your sexual preference? Men, women, both? I know this may seem weird to be asking this just regarding your notes...but here's what I'm getting at. I don't know if you can personally see this, but the owner of these threats has taken their time with each and every one, as if it were a personal gift. But their also taking great lengths to disguise who they really are...they seem ashamed and in fear that you might discover their true identity. And they are directing some of the threats towards themselves, and how they see their true self as being." She paused in her ramblings, trying to make a point. "This is definitely someone you've shared deep feelings for, some one you know, or knew...and they want to do more than just expose you, they want the gratification of knowing that they were the one who caused your demise. It's like a power trip for them. Can you narrow it down to three in particular that might just have cause and motive to let something like this happen to you? I need you to think hard, and choose wisely...we're only gonna get one chance at this."

((OOC: Now I need you to choose two male suspects, and one female suspect...your own characters that you've had past relationships with deep meanings...you can only choose three and those will be the three suspects I interrogate in the 4th or 5th chapter. One of them will be the one who is stalking you. I just haven't decided who it is going to be yet. Maybe you could ooc make that suggestion for me.))

[mslucysleeches.livejournal.com]

"Bisexual," Lucy says frankly. "Been leaning more toward lesbian lately, but I really can go either way." She leans forward as Alex lays it out for her, frowning deeply. "Shit, that sounds -- pleasant," she says, sarcasm dripping off every word. "Man, I never really thought any of my exes could do something like this, but. . . ."

She considers her options for a long moment. "The guy I had the worst break-up with was Jerry Trucklebend. We were pretty close up until the end. He could really go off sometimes, so I suppose he could be a suspect. Maybe Amy Northcup too. She's mostly okay, but she does like to go on about how she'd run the world differently, putting power into new hands, the fish rots from the head. . . ." She pauses here mostly to quietly revise her definition of "level-headed," because it seems to need revising. "And -- he's a longshot, but Tim Trotter. Nice guy, but he read the creepiest books. He's the only other one I can think of who might want to do something like this." She glances toward the "not human" note. "He's the one I'd suspect of writing that one -- kinda into the occult. The rest of them -- we had our bad moments, but I can't see them getting this crazy."

(OOC: Three exes served up hot and fresh. Jerry, as indicated, has a temper and probably will get all frustrated as hell with Alex during interrogation; Amy will probably babble on at least for a while about how she'd overhaul the police system, and Tim I imagine will do a lot of mildly-creepy staring. I'm leaning toward it being Jerry, with Tim as a red herring sort.)

[pickingmybrain.livejournal.com]

Alex nodded firmly, scribbling their names and demeanor's into her note book with fervor. "Now I can't stress this enough, you have to be absolutely sure about this. Once I bring them to NYC for interrogation, that will definitely tip your stalker off that he or she is being watched themselves, and things could get worse very quickly...especially when they know finally where you are. Things could get violent...and I need your permission for Jack to put nightly surveillance on you wherever you might be located. You may possibly have to use him as your own personal escort to and from your performances, so we can have constant tabs on you."

Alex sighed, she hated so much invading another one's privacy so deeply, but it was what had to be done in order to keep them protected. Lucy had to be prepared to expect the worst, even if it was a bitter pill to swallow. "Are you ready to share with me where I might locate each suspect, and how I might be able best to reach them for questioning?"

[mslucysleeches.livejournal.com]

Lucy shivers. "Yeah, surveillance is good," she agrees near-immediately. "I'd really prefer for things not to get violent. Or worse." All of them know about her fear of fire, and if one of them is the stalker. . .well, she wouldn't be surprised if they tried to use that against her.

"Amy actually lives in this area -- I met her on another trip here," Lucy says. "Not sure of her current address, but she should be in the phonebook. Jerry lives in Chicago, Illinois -- again, not sure on the current address. He sells stuff on eBay though, if that helps. jstuff4you. Tim's in Cranston, Rhode Island. He has a webpage called The Spooks Around You, so you should be able to get him through that if he hasn't abandoned it or anything." She shivers again. "Dunno what else I could tell you beyond that."

(OOC: Aaand now I go sleep. See ya later!)

[pickingmybrain.livejournal.com]

"Thank you, Lucy. I must be heading back now. I need to consult with my partner and get some surveillance on you as quickly as possible...while I go hunt down these new leads. We contract our surveillance out, so Jack will only personally be there by phone should you need him immediately. However, otherwise you'll be with one of three guards that Hardy employes. They are skilled in what they do, and any of them would be more than capable of handling any situation needed. They rotate shifts, so you will have to learn which one will be where you need them most, and at what times. I implore you not to worry over this. We're going to take care of you, come hell or high water."

Alex patted Lucy's hand, and then popped the doozy on her, "I'm going to need those records you have stored about your stay with the Asylum, and the incident records that occurred while you were there, and after you left. I'm sorry to have to dig that deeply into your life, but I need all the ammunition I can get if we're gonna catch this one. They probably lucked out with their own research, but I want to be as accurate as possible. I'll be taking them with me when I leave you today, don't worry, no one else will have access to this information, not even Jack."

After Alex collected the items she needed she took her leave with one final note, "If you get any more threatening notes, you call me right away. It's important if we want to stay one step ahead of this perp. Take care of yourself Lucy. I'll be in touch."

((OOC: don't worry, all the records I need from the Asylum I already have taken from your Glossary..won't need any extra info unless you feel the need to share something else with me. Sleep well, and I'm gonna go start writing chapter 3 to have it ready for posting. I'll keep you updated.))

[mslucysleeches.livejournal.com]

Lucy nods. "Yeah, I gotcha. I can't thank you enough for this. Knowing that there's somebody out there that's got my back. . .it makes all the difference in the world, believe me."

She grimaces, but nods again. "I know. There should be an official file on the whole thing over at Blake Asylum -- I can't imagine you'd have much trouble getting it, what with the badge and all. If you need my written permission, that's not a problem. Basically what I've got is my admission record -- Mom and Dad got a copy, and they gave it to me in case I needed it for whatever reason." She searches that out in the office too, and hands it over. "Thanks for keeping it under wraps -- it's -- well, it's more than 'embarrassing,' but that's the best I can come up with for the moment. Just -- don't think too badly about sixteen year old me, okay? I was pretty testy at that age." Then again, who wouldn't be if they were told they were nuts and locked up at that age?

"You've got it," Lucy nods. "I will, and you too. I'll talk to you later."

(OOC: *nodnod*)

[pickingmybrain.livejournal.com]

((bouncies)) ((yay you're awake! I'm currently working on chapter three for a bit before I head to school. Just wanted you to know I'm making some progress. How you doing this morning?))

[mslucysleeches.livejournal.com]

(OOC: Okiedokie! I'm fine, just catching up on the web and suchlike.)

[pickingmybrain.livejournal.com]

((Check out Alex's updated Glossary that I posted earlier this morning in charloft. I wasn't satisfied with the first one I did, and in this one you can actually read the actual list of 13 notorious cases that Alex had posted on that page Lucy looked at before they had met. Its just...interesting info))

[mslucysleeches.livejournal.com]

(Indeed -- I see you fleshed out the world a little more. And I remembered that egg case from a previous post of yours.

Liked this: "It's NEVER okay to brazenly break a few rules while hunting for evidence, you MUST break them all and see exactly where it leads you." XD)

[pickingmybrain.livejournal.com]

((lol I was inspired to write that new one from RPing with Elwood a bit. Glad you liked it. Notice I added more characters in there too? You'll see them show up within Lucy's story chapters in the near future.))

[mslucysleeches.livejournal.com]

(Yeah, I did. Nice! :D)