Citadel Noir (Alpha and Candy_demon21)

[AlphaZero]

How long had it been since the discharge? How many years since he had ended up in the wards, taking missing persons cases and following husbands for paranoid wives who thought their husbands where spending too much time at Cora's.

Too damned long was far as Max was concerned, he had done what he had to to get the job done and instead of a commendation he had been booted from the service and managed to just avoid the court marshal. He should be thankful for the lack of prison time. But that didn't make his current situation any easier.

The pounding at his office door awoke him from his stooper and a groan passed though his dry cracked lips as he pushed his head from the desk top, knocking over the empty bottle that had been acting as his ashtray and it rolled from the edge of the desk and hit the office floor with a thud. A rough, calloused hand ran over carpet of stubble that coated his jaw before pushed himself to his feet. He paused when he caught site of his own reflection in one of the windows that ran along the left wall, looking out across the bright neon lights of the ward. He looked like death warmed over, his sandy colored hair had grown beyond regulation military length and sleeping on his desk had left is disheveled and sticking up at odd angels. His clothes where just as bad, grey slacks and rumpled shirt, sleeves rolled up, revealing arms of hard, flat muscle and an old service tattoo on one arm.

Hardly the look of a professional but he didn't care too much. He keyed the doorpad, unlocking it before it hissed open, "Sorry, hope you weren't waiting too long." he said to the woman waiting outside, his voice gruff and dry.

 

[Candy_demon21]

Bethany Fisher was the sort of woman who didn't like to wait for extended periods of time, let alone in the wards with so many people knowing what they did about her. She was exposed, damn she didn't like it! Her heeled foot anxiously tapped as she waited for the door to open, 'Hurry up,' she hissed inwardly,crossing her arms beneath her bust, glaring darkly at the door.

When it finally did slide open, she looked at the stranger that greeted her, "Glad to see you're in," she beamed falsely, "And no not too terribly long." She didn't wait for him to invite her in, rather she slipped past him and went straight for his desk. Sitting down against the desk, she sighed, "I need your help, as you can assume from my urgent message I sent the other day?"

Again she didn't wait for him to continue, "I need your help retrieving something that was stolen from my husband after he died." Taking a deep breath then letting it out shakily, she looked around the office and continued, "While I was attending my late husband's funeral, a locket was taken from my home. I know it sounds silly, but the locket meant the world to us. It was the very first thing that I ever got from him, and it had pictures of our families." Opening up the small clutch she had brought with her, Beth pulled out a silken hanky and tabbed her eyes, "Please, you're the only one I could possibly trust with this."

A locket wasn't exactly what he would collecting, not entirely of course. It was the box that the locket had come in that was important, but what little information he knew, the better. "I can pay you up front, whatever you require, credits are no object to me."

 

[AlphaZero]

He hadn't revived any message from this woman, or anyone for that matter in over a week. His Extra Net terminal had died and he didn't have the funds to get it repaired. But there was no need to a prospective client to know that. Steely eyes remained locked on the woman for several moments as he crossed back to his desk, picking up the crumpled pack of cigarettes that had been resting next to the empty glass and fired one, "Do you have any leads as to who might have taken it? Family? Some former lover of your husbands who never moved on."

He fumbled his way through the desk drawers, eventually finding a bottle of painkillers and downing two of them dry to fight back the headache he felt coming on before settling into his chair.

 

[Candy_demon21]

watching him circle the desk and take his place behind it, she wanted to roll her eyes when he took the pack of cigarettes out that had been simply laying there. One hung from his lips and he lit it up. She wanted to smack him for this disgusting habit, but she needed him to listen to her first before she started to impose her demands. "There are a few possible people, someone who was close to my late husband, a possible business associate."

Standing slowly, Bethany smoothed the form fitting dress over her curves before she sank down into the chair opposite him, "I believe that it would be an individual by the name of Ace, he is a Terian. I've been hearing rumor that he hangs around the Wards, looking for a partner of his. Who this other partner is, and why his locket is so important to him, I don't know. Either way-"she looked up at him through hooded eyes, hoping he would buy her lie.

 

[AlphaZero]

Under normal circumstances he would have picked up on something being off. He would have pushed harder for more information on who this Ace was, why he would break into his late business associate's house and steal a pendant from his widow. But the hangover was leaving him feeling fuzzy and out of sorts.

Max took a lengthy drag off his cigarette, blowing a shapeless cloud of smoke from the corner of his mouth, "You got a holo of this guy? I got a contact with C-Sec that I can hit up to see if we can find the guy."

 

[Candy_demon21]

Watching him take a long drag of the cigarette, relief instantly washed over her when he didn't begin to pry about why a locket was so important to her. After all, it was just a trinket and easily replaceable. Looking over the rough looking PI, Beth reasoned that he wasn't asking all the questions he should have been because of the bottle that lay on the floor forgotten.
Was it Whiskey, or perhaps something else, something that the aliens preferred? It didn't really matter, the bottle was empty and she assumed that her 'knight in shinning armor' had been the one to drain it.

With a sigh, the clutch that the raven haired woman had been holding so tightly to her lap was opening. She began to frantically dig around in the abyss, only after several minutes, she retrieved said holo and handed it to him, "That's him," she murmured, reaching across the desk and taking the cigarette from his lips, taking a drag herself before she stuck it between his lips again. "I suppose we should talk credits. I'm going to pay you before we begin. If you run away with my money, you can I'll get it back. Consider me paying it forward insurance." She cooed, before she blew the lingering smoke she had in her lungs in his general direction.

 

[AlphaZero]

He could taste he lips when she returned the cigarette to him and promptly discarded it into an overflowing ashtray, lighting a fresh one. The empty bottle of Turian brandy laying next to the desk caught his attention and he attempted to subtly sweep it under the desk with the toe of his shoe. Empty bottle of booze laying around the office could be a fast way to scare away potential clients.

"Regular rate is fifty credits an hour plus expenses" he explained as he studied the holo, "Any and all information regarding the case stays strictly between you and me unless something comes up that needs to be taken to C-SEC."

He fired a fresh cigarette, rolling it between his fingers as he thought for several moments before asking, "Is there anything else you think might be of use for me to know?"

 

[Candy_demon21]

To say that she wasn't impressed with the empty body would only scratch the surface of her distaste, however Bethany sighed and flicked her hair over her shoulder, gazing at him through her lashes. Apparently he didn't like to share, and it made her giggle as he lit another cigarette.

"Money is no object to me. Good, so, when do we begin to search for my property?" She was growing impatient at this point, "No, nothing else. How about you there Ace. Anything I should know?