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Post by skyeknight on Jul 29, 2016 3:39:41 GMT
Aqua had been given one of Ralph's flyers by the little blonde sketch artist. Her newest roommate had tried to slip it onto Aqua's desk when she thought the faery wasn't looking but she hadn't been as subtle as she thought. However, curiosity peeked and a promise to keep, Aqua found herself outside of the office. Her hand raised to knock, still attempting to muster the courage to go through with it. It was hard enough talking to Riku about it. Let alone a complete and total stranger. Closing her eyes, giving a sharp inhale, she forced herself to knock. Her knuckles rapped against the wood of the door.
She was going to have to talk about Terra. About what happened that night. About how he went missing after he did such awful things... Her trusted partner and former boyfriend. It felt too soon. It felt like she was moving past this too quickly but it had been months. Terra wasn't coming back but she still had to know what happened to him. She just couldn't let it consume her life anymore. She almost ruined her partner's life, ruined her own life, mourning someone who didn't care what happened to her. It wasn't fair to her or anyone else for that matter.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jul 29, 2016 5:12:13 GMT
At the moment Ralph didn't seem anything like the kind of private investigators you saw on the big screen or even the officer he had once been in the BPD Others Unit. In fact, he was in the middle of taking care of his tomato plants out on the balcony of his apartment when he heard the knocks on his door. He looked up from where he had been mixing fertilizer into the soil of his plants at the door, wondering if the person knocking was a potential client or the Chinese takeout he had ordered for dinner.
Either way, he stepped off the balcony and into the room as he walked across to answer the knock. His apartment was small but comfortable, a bit worn down but all the more charming for it. It contained a single bedroom and bathroom, a small kitchen and slightly larger living room. It was in this area that he did his work. Instead of a couch and some chairs, a TV set and some bookshelves, the space was dominated by a large, old desk with a chair set behind and in front of it. The wall next to the desk held several large filing cabinets and the one bookshelf squeezed into the remaining space held a mixture of criminology texts, law books, maps and other materials that related back to his practice.
He passed his 'study' as he called it and stopped in front of the door before opening it, thinking it would most likely be the delivery guy for his meal. It wasn't. Instead, a young woman with light blue hair and even bluer eyes was standing on the threshold with a conflicted expression on her face. Immediately he knew this had to be a client but he followed the same routine he always followed when he opened the door on a possible client.
"Can I help you?"
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Post by skyeknight on Jul 31, 2016 0:30:51 GMT
Channeling her inner officer Aqua kept place faced and calm. Namine failed to mention the man all but dwarfed either woman. Obviously attributed to his giant blood. Aqua had dealt with bigger criminals before but this guy was supposed to help, if she pled her case right and paid well. She came as a civilian, leaving her gun and badge at home, as a sign of good peace. A lot of people hated officers. From what Namine said, this guy hadn't been too fond either. He had a lot of reason not to be too fond of their methods.
"I was told you do private investigations." She said. "And I was wondering if I could discuss a case with you..."
Her case. Her personal vendetta against her ex partner. The desire to find out what happened to him had all but consumed her life. She had mapped out last known sitings, kept a journal, talked to everyone he had ever spoken to. Anything to find him. But there had to be something she missed, something that she overlooked. She was too close to the case as it was. A second set of eyes would do her good, right? Force herself to let go in small increments.
"Off the books." She added.
She did not want the media getting their hands on this one. As far as they knew, Terrance Nobel had resigned. No one knew he had gone missing, leaving her (his girlfriend) and his family to pick up the pieces he left behind.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Aug 3, 2016 2:35:53 GMT
From one look at the woman, Ralph could tell she wasn't anything like his typical clients. She was clearly Other but that wasn't unusual given that the people who came to him were extremely mixed and diverse. No, the thing that was unusual about this one was her attitude, the way she held herself and her clear attempts to remain emotionally distant from her surroundings. You didn't see too many people seeking out a private investigator and not riding some kind of emotional high, whether it be rage or despair or hope.
This woman wasn't.
"You aren't a regular citizen, are you?"
Ralph leaned against the frame of his doorway, somehow made bigger by forced perspective. He looked down at the blue-haired stranger in silence for a moment, seizing her up for a few tense seconds before speaking once more.
"I've never been much for keeping books on everything that goes on in an investigation, but hear this. If you want this off the books, you be upfront with me right now about who you are and what your case is about. Otherwise, you can go and find another P.I."
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Post by skyeknight on Aug 4, 2016 3:15:50 GMT
"Depends on what you mean by regular," Aqua said.
However, all traces of her humor were lost once he started asking questions. She could get in trouble for pushing a 'closed' case so hard. But no one knew what her partner meant to her or how worried his family was. She was their only connection they had to the missing man. It nearly killed her to tell them she was going to stop looking. That did not mean she couldn't pay someone else to look for her. She had to get her life back. Terra was gone.
"Terrance Nobel," she said. "He's an ex-cop who went missing. No one in this city believes me. I can't- I've-"
She took a deep breath. This was so much harder to talk about than she first realized. Her hands clenched at her her sides as she tried to harden her resolve. She could not allow herself to get emotional over this again. She kept telling herself she was letting go, that she was moving on but this certainly didn't feel like healing.
"Around the time he went missing there were some... allegations brought up against him." she explained. "I want to prove once and for all whether he did it or not. So I don't want the media getting their hands on this. Can you help me or not?"
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Aug 4, 2016 4:57:40 GMT
Ralph remained as stone-faced as before when the woman began to speak, the change in her body language and tone of voice making it clear enough that this was very personal. However, as soon as she mentioned the name of the person she was here about, the Giant couldn't help but curse internally. Outwardly, he remained calm and indifferent but inside he couldn't help and feel pissed off and worried at the same time.
Terrance Noble. He knew who that was. Yes, he knew.
He continued to lean in the doorway even as the woman finished speaking, ending her explanation with a question. Could he help her? For a long time he didn't say or do anything, he only stood in the doorway of his apartment and looked down at her. It was impossible to read his expression in that moment, but after what seemed half an hour he pushed away from the door and into the apartment.
He didn't look back but motioned for her to come in.
"Lets talk inside."
He continued towards his workspace and didn't turn to face the woman again until he had sat himself down behind his massive desk, his brown eyes thoughtful.
"If you came here to see me, then you must know something of my past. And since you're so interested in this topic and clearly aren't just an average citizen, I'm gonna take a wild guess and say you're BPD. Probably Others Unit."
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Post by skyeknight on Aug 4, 2016 20:25:05 GMT
He was silent for a while. Aqua was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable. She could feel her resolve starting to waver just a little. It was one thing to demand something as an officer, but when it came for something she needed or wanted, she was a pushover. Just when she was starting to think he wasn’t going to say anything at all, he invited her inside. He started in without her, but she slowly followed, pausing only to close the door. She remained standing as he took a seat. She would probably gracelessly collapse if she did. She wrapped her arms around herself. She was able to keep a neutral expression all throughout the exchange. “I know enough,” she said. She had read a little bit of his file. Enough to know he was an ex-officer and discharged. She stopped reading after that, deciding that she would rather not know more. It felt like an invasion of privacy to just look people up like that and use her badge to get the information she wanted on people (all expect one). “I am an officer,” she confirmed. “But I left my badge at home. It… scares people.”
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Aug 5, 2016 2:43:06 GMT
The woman slowly followed him inside after closing the door behind her but didn't sit down. Rather, she stood in front of the desk with the same neutral expression she had worn upon first knocking on his door. Ralph didn't care and knew perfectly well people did different things to help calm there nerves. This might just be her style.
He kept his own face expressionless as she began to speak once more, admitting she knew enough about his past in the BPD and that she was an officer.
She must have joined the BPD not too long after I left. Heck, I know most of the officers still working the Others Unit but they would have wanted to bring in fresh blood for the job.
He thought this in silence as the woman finished speaking but made no comment on how people were frightened by her badge. That was a topic he would avoid, especially given his own past with the BPD and his....methods of work.
"First things first, introductions. My name is Ralph Lacouer, private investigator for the residences of Bellerouge. I'll avoid the crap about my past with the BPD and move straight to the point. This guy, Terrance Noble? I knew him while I worked for the Others Unit and I heard about what supposedly happened to him after I started my own business. I didn't look into it cause it wasn't my problem but if you want me to open up that can of worms, you gotta give me something to work with."
He stopped and leaned back in his chair, waiting. This woman was personally involved with this case and he needed to know what it was she wanted. Not what society wanted or the police department or even her coworkers. If he was going to help her, he had to know what she wanted from this investigation.
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Post by skyeknight on Aug 5, 2016 16:17:19 GMT
Straight and to the point. Aqua found she liked that. She had to peel this away like a bandaid. Quick. Painless. Right? She closed her eyes. A deep breath was all the preparation she gave her nerves, otherwise she would back out.
"My name is Aqua Malone. Terra was my partner when I was a rookie. And we were seeing each other... Romantically." She explained, rushing through the last bit as she was a little embarrassed to be telling a stranger all of this. No one else knew. Not even her new partner or the station chef. "And... He was accused of taking bribes from known criminals and making others pay him so he'd let them off. When the allegations came up, he just vanished. I was his partner! I should have-"
She should have known something was going on. No one knew Terrance like she did. He had always been so easy to read up until the accident with the fire. To have these allegations brought up, literally smacked her out of the blue. Like a punch to the gut. For a while she had been so stunned she didn't do anything. Now she wished she would have acted.
She felt very strongly over the case. She was Terra's girlfriend and partner. She feared the girlfriend factor might have made her blind to his wrong doings because she saw him behind rose tinted glasses. Or she feared he had played her emotionally. She felt guilty. She was the last person to even see him. It had been six months. Terra hadn't called her. Hadn't called his family. He hadn't even used his bank account. Aqua and his family were worried sick.
"I have to find him. To clear his name or bring him to justice but I just can't... Not know what happened."
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Aug 6, 2016 1:15:51 GMT
Ralph moved forward in his seat when the woman began to speak and his attention never wavered from her the whole time she spoke. He merely stared at her with his brown eyes, his arms lying across the desk as she revealed her true reasons for coming to him a out Terrance Noble.
"You want the truth."
Ralph suddenly let out a low sigh before straightening in his chair. The truth was always a sticky matter in cases like this simply because people often overestimated how much of the truth they could really take. Sometimes it was better to just not know and at other times it was best to keep the answer as simple as possible and avoid the details. There was only so much people could take..... or were willing to accept.
However, the woman, Aqua, was a detective herself and from the BPD no less. If anyone knew about what they were asking for when they wanted 'the truth' he supposed it would be officers like her. Still, he wasn't exactly eager about this case because he had known the person they would be investigating and he had learned a long time ago you didn't let your personal ties get mixed up in this type of work if it was avoidable.
"Well, first things first is to look over the old case files Terrance and what the charges were. You can learn a lot about the validity of a case just by looking at the accused's life before the charges."
With that said, Ralph turned in his chair towards a computer that sat at one corner. He quickly turned on the screen and opened up several tabs before typing away like a maniac. After a while he began to speak to Aqua as he continued to type.
"I'm not BPD anymore so some of the documents are 'off record' to me. However, since I'm still a licensed P.I. the vast majority of cases, files and documents by law have to remain open to me."
With that said, he clicked on a single file floating in a sea of tabs and a police report opened up with a single picture of Terrance on the top right corner.
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Post by skyeknight on Aug 6, 2016 2:40:56 GMT
She nodded slowly. She had to know what happened to Terra. Not knowing was killing her. Not to mention with his family still asking her for answers, it was difficult. She bit her lip and anxiously shifted her weight from one foot to the other. It was either that or she would start pacing the room. Asking for help like this was not Aqua's style. It left her feeling a little helpless.
"Sure," she said. "If you don't know the person you're looking into."
It was a good first move. The police did like making people do paperwork. Reports over everything, especially to make sure no one was going a little screwy in the field. That's why this came out of nowhere. It wasn't in any report and no signals were given. She probably had more files at home than she had personal effects. If he had problems getting any of them, she could hand them over, albeit reluctantly. It was her past, her history with her partner she would be letting him have. At least the documented parts of it.
She sighed before reaching into her jacket pocket. She pulled out the small notebook which had become like a shield. She carried it with her always and if it wasn't with her, it was under lock and key. She set it down on the corner of his desk. She pulled her hand away as if she were burned to keep herself from taking it back.
"I... These are the notes I've taken." she murmured. "People he harassed... The people he arrested. I talked to everyone."
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Aug 6, 2016 3:05:48 GMT
"Not to be rude, but you might be looking at one tree when you need to see the entire forest."
Ralph was reading off the monitor about the charges that had be brought against Terrance and when he had disappeared. The two were so close together in timing that they might as well have occurred simultaneously and the charges weren't what one would call uncommon. Bribery. Extortion. Perjury.
Plenty of cops went to the bad when temptation caught them in its sticky web, but there was almost always some indicator of when this transition occurred. A change in behavior, the loss or addition of a habit, shifts in personality. However, such changes didn't necessarily mean that Terrance was guilty. No, they needed to find the point at which something in his normal lifestyle changed because that might be the only thing to reveal if he had become corrupt or if he had been set up. It would be the starting point of this investigation.
"Aqua, you might be focusing on his behavior at the wrong time when this happened. I need you to think back further than you have been, think back as far as you can. Even to when you first met him."
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Post by skyeknight on Aug 6, 2016 3:40:18 GMT
Aqua wasn't so sure. She felt like she had considered everything. But then again, she had looked at the files until her eyes hurt, hunted down every lead until exhaustion crept in, and let this consume her entirely. She was too close to the case to see this clearly. Terra was still viewed through rose-tinted glasses and up on a pedestal. It hadn't been her intention, but she had let that impact how she saw Riku (her new partner).
"He was... distant," she recalled. "His last partner was shot during one of their patrols. A werewolf and a silver bullet to the head. They quickly assigned me to him after I graduated the academy."
They hit a rough start. But after that things smoothed out. She just attributed it to normal work stress and his legitimate fear that she would die in the field just like his last partner. It was a good reason to be afraid. She had thought he had been afraid of her because she was an Other and he was human. But it hadn't been the case.
"I thought it was just work stress."
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Aug 6, 2016 4:03:29 GMT
Ralph's expression darkened slightly but he didn't mention to Aqua how he had known Terrance's deceased partner. They had been on friendly terms but he hadn't really known him well. Still, his death had come as a terrible shock at that time to the entire Others Unit and Terrance had seemed to be the most effected by it. At least, outwardly he had been....
"Anything else?"
His voice was low but calm. He knew this must be very difficult for Aqua to talk about, especially with a man she had just met. Still, he needed her to cooperate if he was going to be able to crack this case open and find the truth at its core.
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Post by skyeknight on Aug 6, 2016 14:48:52 GMT
Aqua looked away, a distant look in her eyes, wracking her mind to find something that struck her as odd. She hadn't been around Terra in a while. Something that struck her as odd when their work consisted of working with Others? Even she in herself was an oddity. She was weird and unusual compared to her human partner. But she had to have noticed something that didn't add up.
"There was... a fire," she said. "We were evacuating the building next to it. I got hurt and I don't remember much but after that, Terra was on pins and needles for a while. The doctors said he set off some sort of security spell by one of the people living in the building. It changed his hair and his eyes. They were gold not blue. He got over it eventually."
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