Silence and Stilettoes, Pt. 8 (Decided)

(Here it is, Silence and Stilettoes Part 8! Check it out now, vote below, and Daring+ fans pick up the accompanying Wallpaper here too! Be sure to check out the full story so far here at the Master Post!)

“I wake to the sounds of my own snoring, a gravelly sound almost like a cement mixer polishing stones, my body lying flat on its back across the couch. My head is still in a state from the wrench assault, pounding on one side while I slowly regain consciousness. The sunlight creeps in under the edge of the pulled down blinds across the room, the only thing illuminating the cramped little live-in office aside from the lamp over by the ‘kitchen’.

My inhalation turns to a sullen sigh out of pure habit before I even realised the aroma of bitterly sweet roast coffee beans tickles the inside of my nose. Pausing to consider for a moment why that delicious siren smell wafts my way, the unfamiliar sound of soft bare feet across my floor join the subtle symphony touching my senses. Tilting my head to the side I see her standing there, reaching for two mugs to pour our coffee.

I almost say something that’s best left unheard by her, as Asana’s beautiful body is the first real thing I see this morning. What a way to wake up. She has found a way out of that wet stylish dress she came to me in, my guess is it lies in a heap at the foot of my bed right now. Instead, one of my budget dress shirts hangs from her shoulders, loosely embracing her tanned body and only part of her round butt as she grasps at the high up cups. I can’t help but watch her wiggle a little until she helps herself. She hums over the wet sound of hot coffee splashing into the ceramics, then turns on one foot to face me, her chest swinging wildly as she does… Wow. The open shirt plunges down to below her navel, where a single button holds it closed, just enough that most of her stunning nipples are hidden behind the fabric… Sadly her party dress’ tiny thong still clings to that space between her legs.

‘Good morning’, she says with a thin smile, handing me a mug with one hand as she sips from her own. She either doesn’t notice or doesn’t mind my lurid glaring of her almost naked body. For that, I’ll forgive her for helping herself to a cup of my special liquid gold. She takes a seat on the arm of the sofa near me as I sit up and join her, my back cracking loudly as I finally move. She eyes me with a slight concern, but I simply act like it’s nothing. 

‘You seem to be in a good mood…?’ My words are a little more pointed than I intended, not yet having acclimated to the day. My question is a serious one however, it’s barely been 36 hours since her lover was brutally murdered.

‘I saw the Sun come up, it really is a new day. I don’t want to waste a moment of it now.’

---

We pass a few free minutes with our coffee and our small talk. It takes a couple of skilful dodges to avoid saying anything of substance about myself, while Asana is as much an open book as my shirt on her body is. She holds the warm mug between her two clasped hands the whole time, talking while I’m busy drinking, the moment at which I swallow that last gulp of bitterness my cup lands on the floor and I am ready to get to business.

‘Asana…’, I say with a firm but nonaggressive tone, ‘… We really need to talk about the case. Are you ready?’.

She hesitates, then she timidly nods. Alright, that’s the best I’m going to get here. Let’s get into it then.

‘So… I followed up on my hunch yesterday… Not everything went to plan, but even so, I got some answers and some leads. I’m still in the dark about the most important part of the story, the timeline. I need you tell me about that night again, this time in detail, can you do that for me Asana?’

I can see the memories flooding back to her by the look on her face… The fragile, fearful look. She hides behind her fringe until I delicately tuck a strand behind her ear and meet her gaze. ‘I’ll try…’ , she squeaks.

‘Mark and I were out on a date the night before last. We’ve been seeing each other for a few months now, ever since we met. Back then, I was new to this city, hoping to find a place of my own in big beautiful world, far away from the dingy little fishing town among the tribal islands of my home… He found me among the entertainment at Elder Miller’s Summer Banquet… He was the only one there who spoke to me by name…’ 

I listen politely, waiting for her to reach something pertinent, eventually pressing her to curtail her rambling with a subtle tilt to my head.

‘… Sorry, I got a little wistful there, didn’t I? *Sigh* So, we were on a date… We arranged to meet on the corner of Easy Street and Carlton Abbey, where we usually met. That was about 6:30pm. When I got there, he had already arrived, standing there alone near the open alleyway…’

‘Easy Street and Carlton? That’s where his body was found… some 6 hours later? You’re sure?’

‘Yes, very.’

A tear forms in her eye, but this is only just beginning, it’s going to get harder. I do my best not to intimidate her, she’s not the type to respond well to that kind of questioning. From experience, I get the feeling it’s best to let her speak on her own.

‘We met like we usually do… err, did, I’m sorry… We had dinner together in a nearby restaurant, had a few drinks, laughed and played… he was so attentive I forgot all about this place we live in and my normal life. It was a magical night. He told me he loved me, that being with me was the one time he could leave his business work behind him too.’

‘By the time we finished, it must have been closer to 9pm, the moon had risen but the night was still balmy and warm. He wrapped his arm around me, and we took a stroll in the night air. We walked in the direction of Downtown, I suspected and hoped we would find ourselves at his apartment building door before long… It really was a night for lovers like us. You understand, don’t you?’

Oh, I understand alright, all too well. I know the guy died, but what a lucky bastard he truly was besides that, maybe on balance he’s just about even? Her story is genuinely humane and tender, but with her sitting before me, her exotic voice warming my inner ear through her whispers, I can’t help but mentally picture her beneath the covers. Her wild black hair dishevelled as her toned and tight young body writhes between silk sheets, the sweat pouring down her sugary brown skin because of the heat created by all she’s done upon that bed… It’s so hard… so hard to keep paying attention to her story, but I must.

‘I don’t know how long we walked, maybe 20 minutes? We passed through ‘Little Toscana’, the Italian Quarter, and I was surprised to feel his body fall out of step with mine. We were in front of a restaurant, La Belle Donne, I think. Mark wanted to go inside, he said there was somebody he wanted to meet…’

‘It was strange, but I couldn’t say no, and so we entered. I was there for about 10 minutes, but we never sat down. Instead Mark went straight to the back tables, almost like he knew where he was going all along. I saw a woman back there, a beautiful woman, with eye as sparkling as diamonds. She was breath-taking…’

‘Sitting with her was a blonde man, I think he must have been her husband by the way they held each other, though Mark has never held me like that ever before. I… I was afraid… scared they would see me watching them and say something to me. I never felt like that before. Mark seemed fine with them though… in fact, the whole time we were inside that place he seemed… different.’

‘Before Mark met with them I decided to wait by the bar. He gave me some money to buy a glass of wine because he was going to be awhile. I spent the next few minutes talking with the bartender… what was her name again? Oh shoot… I can’t remember… It’ll come to me.’

She spends the next minute or so desperately trying to remember the bartender’s name in vain, until I tell her to forget it and move on. I can see those mental cogs still turn as she tries to dig up that name in the back of her mind, even as she recounts the events of that night.

‘Mark came back over to me a few minutes later… only he wasn’t ready to take me home. He asked me to leave. I was surprised, truly. He told me to go back to his home, to wait for him, he promised he’d come and finish what we started… But he didn’t. Oh, that’s where you come in!’

What? Me? This has suddenly taken a turn I wasn’t expecting. Before I know it, Asana has scooched over from the arm of the sofa and taken a seat troublingly close to me without warning. Her palm lands on my knees, groping me gently as her face stops but an inch from my own. My God, she smells like a floral idol, even now.

‘He leaned in close to me, and so slowly, he kissed my cheek… like this. *Kiss*’

She kisses my cheek, her soft lips gliding over the flesh just above my beard’s top line. Her touch lingers, allowing me to fully enjoy the closeness, until she finally pulls back.

‘… Then he whispered to me. “Remember that name I told you before?” . I nodded at told him yes, “Royce O’Donnell”. He just smiled and patted my knee, then handed me cab fare and pointed me towards the door. Roy… I am wrong to wish I never left him then?’

How do I answer that question? What good is playing the “What if” game now? The best way I can exercise the tragic waver in her voice right there is to solve this case and bring justice to those who deserve it… and not the kind that comes from the end of a barrel of a gun… I hope.

‘I did go home… and the next part of the story is a little personal… Do I have to tell you all about it? Skip it? Ok then… so that would mean… right, yeah. Ok, so it was about 11:30pm then, and I was… um… lying naked on Mark’s bed waiting for him to come home. That’s when his phone rang. I don’t know why I answered it, but I did. It was… It was Mark… he was gasping for air, in so much pain… he could only say ‘The usual spot’, and then the line went… dead…’

She starts to blubber and cry now, understandably so given the circumstances. Without thinking I wrap my arm around her and hold her close to my chest where she can weep all she likes. Taking her coffee from her hand in case she suddenly drops it, I drain the last of the black gold myself while it’s still hot… she’s not going to be in a state to finish it anytime soon and it’s a tragedy to waste it.

‘I put my dress back on as quickly as I could and ran to get a taxi. I think it was about midnight I got to the corner of Easy Street and Carlton Abbey again, the big bell chimed just as I arrived. I was alone out there Roy… all alone… he wasn’t there. I was so worried. That’s when I heard the sound of heels running away in the alley. I didn’t even think about it before I ran back there myself… and… and… he…’

‘Alright Asana, that’s enough, I’ve heard enough. You don’t need to continue… I know some of the timeline now at least… You can take a few minutes and ease up now, alright?’

‘No, I can’t Roy, I can’t! I’m so scared!... They killed him… so horribly… I… I want to go home Roy, I want to go back to the islands and forget I ever came to this awful city! I hate this place Roy, I hate it so much!’

‘Me too Asana, me too…’

She cries in my arms for so long. I don’t know how long. All that she’s been holding back comes flooding out now. Between tears she spouts off about the ills of this city and how much she longs for the home she once fled in search a live worth living… It makes me feel like the Tin Man, so rigidly sitting here without a heart left to bleed anymore, it almost hurts me to think I’ve become so desensitised to this horrid place. I can now see it from her eyes, if just a little…

… Eventually she calms, whether it’s because she has no tears left to shed or she’s finally got it all out of her system, who can say? I give her a little shake to see if she’s still with me, and that when, between sniffles, she drops a bomb on me she might never have told…

‘They are going to kill me too, aren’t they Roy?’

‘What? No… Don’t be foolish, if they wanted you dead, you wouldn’t be with me right now. That’s a guarantee.’

‘…But I know it too… Mark told me never to tell… But I know what he was up to.’

‘Huh?’

‘He once had to step away from a night with me to take a phone call, it was only a few weeks ago. I heard him talk about it… That’s when he first told me about you actually.’

‘Asana, what are you talking about?’

‘The Rat’s Nest… Mark was trying to stir up a riot in the Rat’s Nest. He had a business partner… a man I think, I’m not sure because I never met him… he was always out of town for some reason. Together they were going to get the gangs to fight each other until they were all gone… He said it would make this city a better place at last…’

Fuck… What kind of a powder keg am I sitting on here? A riot in the Rat’s Nest? Seriously… maybe it’s not such a bad thing Mark was stopped in his tracks… But I can’t tell Asana that.

‘Why would they kill him for that? Or you for knowing’ I press on her, something’s not adding up quite right here.

‘I… But… Because… I don’t know… But that’s why they hurt him, isn’t it?’

‘I don’t know yet, but I’ll find out. It’s what I do.’

‘Thank you, Roy. You’re my hero…’

As nice as it feels to have this woman on my arm, she’s in no fit state right now, and I’m starting to feel a little awkward with her friendly pawing at my chest. Her warmth will have to wait, and I let her regain herself on the couch alone. I pace across the room and drop myself in to my desk chair, determined to wrap my head round what I’ve got so far, leaving Asana lying back on the sofa, muttering to herself.

‘What was it…? I know I can remember it…’

I don’t what she’s talking about… This is more important anyway. So… We have a wealthy victim who was poisoned and had his throat cut, all in the space of a night. His actions for a two-hour window are unaccounted for… and he’s been leading some plan to destabilize the city’s gangs. Along with a partner…

… We’ve also got some mysterious powerbroker pulling strings around the murder too, burning the body for one, but it’s also takes such connections to get a hold of CCT it seems. Then there’s Selina’s part in all this. She says somebody tipped her off to be in that alley, and she ended up holding the murder weapon… I’d love to get my hands on her but she’s up and vanished now too. We’ve also got this shadowy couple from the Italian Quarter who Mark spent his last hours with. That seems like a solid lead, but also an obvious one, I’ll get nowhere hitting them head on if they really are involved in all this…

… And then I’ve got just a smattering of clues. Mark himself pointed Asana at me like a gun, getting me involved in all this, and even still he had a note specifically for me on him when he was killed. He seemed to know it was coming. The murder weapon is missing, and so is the woman who had it last, and if that turns out to be as it seems… we might have a serious psychopathic element to all this. And then there is the sound of women’s footsteps at the scene and the time of death, Asana is determined that she heard them…

… I don’t know. It’s not making sense to me yet. I have to do some more gumshoe footwork, pull in more sources of information if any of this is going to have any context. I need to know more about my suspects, or find some better ones, the clues alone aren’t pointing me anywhere… But where to start? I’ve no direct moves I can make, and waiting around… that never ends well when murderers are in play… My best bet might be the Italian Quarter, but I need a way in or I’ll blow it…

‘Oh that’s what it was! Roy, I just remembered that bartender’s name! It was Misty! Misty? Oh, wait, no… Mystique! That was it. I knew I’d get it.’

Mystique, huh? Unique name… Sounds as good as any other lead…”

Be hard boiled and beWilder!