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It's a cold January afternoon, and Ralph and Vince are sitting around in the office of the Black and Associates Detective Agency. The place is heavy with stale smoke, stale booze, and stale dreams as they leaf through the form guide.
The local kids are making a racket out in the street -- probably throwing chunks of hard dirty snow at each other. There's a pause in the yelling, and the phone starts buzzing. The bulb for the internal line is flickering in time with the buzzing, and that means your secretary Aggie wants something. Hopefully it's not her back pay.
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Kevin Erskine
United States
Alexandria
Kentucky
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Re: [IC] A Dame Scorned (Table 2)
Vince rocked back in his chair, smoking a cigarette, looking over the form. Things was slow and they needed something to get this agency going. Hearing Aggie in the other room, made him smile as he thought about a couple of rounds with the buxom secretary. Looking over at Ralph, he wondered if his boss and Aggie had a thing.
He looked over at Ralph as the phone rang, letting his chair legs return to the ground.
If instead of a buxom beauty, she's an 80 year old woman, let me know and I'll edit 
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Gastel Etswane
Spain
Peterborough
Ontario
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Re: [IC] A Dame Scorned (Table 2)
Ralph considered the buzzing light. Should we just ignore it he thought. A day like today isn't for working, but money was tight and he couldn't pay his bills. Try as he might, he couldn't ignore the world. Ralph notices that Vince keeps looking at him and the flashing light. He wonders if Vince has been having rounds with Aggie. That certainly woulld fit his personality, but Ralph wondered if it would be a problem.
Ralph stubs out his cigarette and picks up the receiver, the form never leaves his other hand and he is still considering the 5th race at Pimlico. "What is it Ag?" he says, saying her name like egg. She never said anything about it, but he knew it always put her off a bit.
I am assuming this happens in California. If that makes a difference I will edit.
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Re: [IC] A Dame Scorned (Table 2)
"There's a client here to see you, Mr Black. She looks pretty rich... do you want me to send her in?"
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Gastel Etswane
Spain
Peterborough
Ontario
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GM does Aggie's voice sound normal to Ralph? (I assume that she has spoken enough to Ralph on the phone that he could make this determination.)
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Aggie's voice contains a mixture of excitement at the prospect of getting paid, and trepidation at the thought of showing the rich dame into Ralph's filthy office. Perfectly normal.
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Gastel Etswane
Spain
Peterborough
Ontario
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Wow, Ralph really knows Aggie's voice
"Give me a minute and then show her in please."
Ralph turns to Vince and suggests he takes a seat by the door, out of instant visual range of a person entering the room. Ralph also takes a quick look at his desk and decides against cleaning it. "She's either going to buy us or she's not," he says quietly to Vince. He does however, move the any exposed booze and glasses into his desk drawer, along with the racing form he had in his hand. After he is done that he makes sure he is seated behind his desk facing the door, ready to get up when she enters the room.
Bob, I wonder how we would normally introduce ourselves to new clients, whether we would keep your identity secret. I also wonder if you should spend time looking out the window to see if there is anything going on outside during our discussion with the dame.
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Forgive the identity change. It's still me.
"A client? Dat's good. Was gettin' boring around here." he said as he got up, putting out his cigarette. Vince moved to the corne, sitting back down in a chair. On his way by the window, he looked out to make sure they weren't being surrounded. Paranoia had kept him alive so far and he figured it wasn't something he'd give up easily.
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Through the window Vince can see the neighbourhood kids clowning around, and a taxi waiting outside the building. Nothing looks suspicious.
The office door opens and a woman enters. Ralph gets a good look at her as she helps herself to a seat. Late twenties, fur coat, long legs, and dark eyes. Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.
"Mrs Lana McCoy", she says, taking out a cigarette.
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Gastel Etswane
Spain
Peterborough
Ontario
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Ralph stands slowly and gestures to a chair opposite. "Please sit." He waits for Agg to close the door and sits himself, "What's on your mind, Mrs. McCoy?"
Ralph leans back into his chair knowing the dame is trouble from the beginning. He's been down this road before and knows that the ride is going to be filled with potholes. Ralph knows that these first few moments can define the whole game and is careful to take in the language of her body.
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While his boss was thinking about making her a client and figuring out whether she was worth the money, Vince was a much simpler creature. While watching the sway of her hips his thoughts veered in a very different direction.
*Classy looking dame.* he thought. Not exactly the kind of broad that Vince associated with, or more correctly, not the kind of dame that associated with Vince.
If Ralph met his eyes, he gave his boss a small nod to say that things looked clear outside.
Not sure, how you show a character's thoughts, but I always used to put them inside ** instead of "". Let me know if different.
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She glances over her shoulder to make sure the door is closed. If she's surprised when she sees Vince, she doesn't show it. A real cool customer.
"I need you to be discreet about this."
She nods ever so slightly towards Vince.
"You too, bruiser."
She takes a drag on her cigarette.
"My husband Nick was involved in an automobile accident. They took him to hospital, and I wanted to keep busy, to take my mind off it. So I got to work on the auto insurance, but they wouldn't pay out. They said it was Nick's fault."
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Gastel Etswane
Spain
Peterborough
Ontario
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Ralph finds himself instantly impatient with the dance. She didn't come here to talk about her auto insurance. Well if the dame wanted to dance, she was the customer and there was little he could do about, but that didn't mean that he had to like it.
Ralph nods. "Go on." Keep it brief he reminds himself.
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He just nodded to her discreet comment and remained standing silently. Obviously she wanted them to find out about the accident. Sounded like something for the coppers, but what did he know. He was kind of hoping Ralph would ask him to wait outside. He wouldn't mind chasing Aggie around the desk a few times.
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"This is hard for me to talk about, but I'll come to the point. Nick died in hospital pretty soon after. You're going to think I'm cold, but I'm here about his life insurance. If the accident was Nick's fault, well, they don't want to cough up the money either. It's the difference between misadventure and negligence in the policy, something like that."
She stubs out her cigarette.
"I've become accustomed to a certain way of life. Nick, well, he wasn't always good to me, but he wanted me to be happy. I need you to prove it was an accident and that my husband wasn't to blame."
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Gastel Etswane
Spain
Peterborough
Ontario
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"You've come to point quickly Mrs. McCoy, let me be equally blunt. Our fee is weekly to be paid in advance." Ralph stands and turns to the window lighting a cigarette. He looks down at the taxi (which he just notices) and quickly gets the cab number and company.
"These cases are never quick you know. Insurance never wants to pay and they will need some definate proof. I do find however that people's memories are improved when greased with dough. And discretion has never been a cheap commodity. The retainer is $500." The figure was high of course, but he wanted to see her reaction, push her puttons if she had any.
He took a long drag on his cigarette and let his eyes wander across the street. He had a cold feeling about this one. She was too icy and detached, talking about this like it was a business, or an item in a forum. He was certain there was more to this. Was Nick's death even related to the accident? He'd need to get the medical records and that was going to take some cash and smooth talking. He'd need to get his hands on the police report as well, insurance would have asked for it, but he wanted to talk to his source in the force... if only he could remember the name. He also wanted to see the two insurance policies, but that was a problem for a later, perhaps.
He turned to her, expelling the smoke from his lungs. "Well, Mrs. McCoy. Are you interested in Black and Associates services or not?"
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His eyebrows shot up at the mention of the $500. An actor, Vince was not. Fortunately, the dame had her back to him.
He didn't trust no insurance companies. He hoped, he'd be able to shake down some pencil necked geek. He could imagine this broad properly thanking them when they got her money.
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"That's some price, Mr Black. I'm willing to pay top dollar, but I expect results to match. If you can't handle this quickly, I won't have much more left to give you."
She takes five crisp hundreds out of her pocketbook and slides them across the table. She adds a card to the pile.
"Here's a number where you can reach me. In the meantime, I've got some arrangements to attend to. I'll show myself out."
Another glance at Vince as she heads for the door.
"So long, Bruiser."
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"Later Doll," he said, still surprised that she had forked over the $500. After she left, he sat back down across from Ralph.
"Chilly broad. Guess we're helping her boss? Where you want me to start? Go talk to the insurance boys?" he said cracking his stubby knuckles.
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Gastel Etswane
Spain
Peterborough
Ontario
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Ralph remains stoic, but the situation had just taken a turn for the worse. Ralph puts out his cigarette.
"We'll be in touch, soon," Ralph said to the back of Mrs. McCoy as he escorted her to the door, and then to the outer door past Aggie's desk.
After the door was closed, Ralph returns to the desk and takes the $500. He quickly gives $200 of it to Vince.
"I've got a bad feeling about this. We've just been check-raised and we aren't holding very strong cards, but I'm certain there is a ton of menace on the other end of these bills."
He gives a meaningful look at Vince. There is no fear in his eyes, but years of experience have told him that his bluff threw them into a mess that had face. He immediately thought about the bottle in the drawer and the racing forum. It would be a fine day at Tanforan with $500, but there was no way that he would be allowed to do that.
"Vince, watch the cab and see which way it leaves. I'm certain we aren't her only stop today."
Ralph goes out to Aggie. "Aggie, you got any friends who work as a clerk in the insurance industry?"
Do we own a car or any weapons? The character sheets left this out.
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Gastel Etswane
Spain
Peterborough
Ontario
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BobRole wrote: "Later Doll," he said, still surprised that she had forked over the $500. After she left, he sat back down across from Ralph.
"Chilly broad. Guess we're helping her boss? Where you want me to start? Go talk to the insurance boys?" he said cracking his stubby knuckles.
"I think Aggie might be good for the insurance first. We'll see, but I think we need to get the medical report first. I want to know exactly how this guy died, and I'm sure it wasn't from smoking."
Ralph appreciated Vince's zeal to dive into this, but things were going out of control so quickly, a plan was needed. Ralph was intrigued. He was interested like he hadn't been for so many months floating at the bottom of a bottle. He sure hoped the bills were real.
Are there many hospitals in the city?
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Vince pocketed the bills, then got up to watch the cab. He couldn't do much however except watch it go around the corner out of sight.
"No other stops as far as I could see boss" he said in all seriousness.
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Gastel Etswane
Spain
Peterborough
Ontario
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Ralph got Vince's point immediately. He had been rattled. More rattled than he realized and he was panicing. Take a breath, work with purpose and try to put the icy chill that dame left on his spine out of his mind.
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Gastel wrote: Do we own a car or any weapons? The character sheets left this out.
Whatever you want to include in the story that befits a downtrodden detective. How about a banged up old sedan and a couple of revolvers?
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Gastel Etswane
Spain
Peterborough
Ontario
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Certainly what I was thinking of. Maybe the car is unreliable as well.
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Posted Wed Jan 25, 2012 3:36 am
