A Bitter Pill To Swallow

GRAYBRIDGE, 1 NOV 2023
Episcopal Cathedral of St. Javelina, Basement

"Well, it's good that she feels excited by her new job
Hopefully everything pans out for her there and she continues to try to reconnect... assuming that's something you want." the tangential connection of the sudden reconnection attempt by Tim's sister and the paid mugging didn't sit well with the big man. The nagging feeling that the two were connected was something he couldn't shake but maybe that was just his long association with the clandestine coloring his outlook. "Thanks for being honest with me. Drinks tonight are still on me. I'll see you at the bar." he held up the flyer with the bar's name scrawled on it and stood up to finish putting away the chairs before the other support group arrived.
He slotted the rusty metal folding chairs on the wooden pegs and heard his old flip-phone buzz in the pocket of his jacket. He squinted at the little LCD screen as he fumbled through checking the message, "Neets won't be a problem...Borscht is pretty much on every table in Graybridge. he mumbled. Concentrating on replying he slowly typed out his reply:
sure. doing a little detective work at a bar called The Hop Spot tonight around 9. can meet you there?
He entered the address Tim had given him and pressed SEND as he wandered out into the daylight from the cathedral basement. That left him with a bit of time to kill that could be best spent pruning some of the loose threads he felt dangling around the edges of recent events. A trip downtown to City Hall and the Courthouse seemed in order to check up on his blonde volunteer.

GRAYBRIDGE, 1 NOV 2023
A Random Bar
Eva listens with increasingly wide eyes as Tanya eventually explains, unable to avoid the tall blonde's persistent questions, and in short order she's slouching a bit on her stool, her glass is empty and she's signaling the bartender for another.

"Wyvern Lake," she repeats softly, her eyes reflecting some faraway scene as she remembers more than she wants of the place. "And you're... you're... clones? What makes you so sure I'm the original, rather than one too?"

Then, when there is mention of Belinda Hagman, Eva sits forward again. "I know that name," she says after sipping from her new glass of whiskey.

GRAYBRIDGE, 1 NOV 2023
City Courthouse
Thanks to his work with the church group, Dave has been in contact with the courthouse a few times as he had to offer help to some of his group members when they got confronted by the law, whether they were the victims or the perpetrators. Calling him a regular guest here would be saying too much, but owing to his few visits and his distinctive looks, he does get recognized as he enters the building.

The Graybridge Courthouse was obviously built to be a landmark, far larger than it needs to be, with decorative statues all around the facade and huge halls inside. But after decades of neglect, many of the statues are broken or covered in graffiti, the walls are dirty and discolored and the huge rooms inside are less impressive and more empty...

Stepping off the bus, Dave caught the sharp cool wind that always blew through the brutalist concrete architecture of the city administrative district. The stark, sheer planes of the weathered concrete always seemed to magnify the unpleasantness of the weather almost as if by design. When it rained the water came off the buildings in sheets whipped by the winds, when it was cold the concrete sucked the warmth from your bones and when it was hot the concrete seemed to radiate out even more heat. Today, the weather was clear but chill and the light wind magnified in the concrete canyons to be biting and out of character for this time of year. The whole district was full of the same kind of architecture that made the area seem like it fell out of a 1940s movie set...as if Gregory Peck's Atticus Finch could round the corner at any second and not be a bit out of place.
He stopped at the security station just inside City Hall for the customary wand-down by the city cops guarding the big, echoing foyer before being waved through. Dave wasn't sure exactly what the two would actually do if someone came in with actual intent but thoughts like that weren't unusual for him. He smiled at them nonetheless; their puzzled expression not an uncommon response to Dave's grimacing smile.
A quick trip down the granite stairs took him to the queue for the Court Clerk's office and ultimately the service window of Adoracion "Doris" Manolo, City Court Clerk. "Hey. I run a support group at St. Javelina's and I've had someone come by to volunteer. I need to check whether this court order is legit and to make sure the appellant has a clear record to be around the group and isn't some kind of weirdo..." He looked as pleasantly as possible at the older Filipino lady staring at him across the ballistic glass. Her cubicle behind the ballistic glass was festooned with family photos and what could presumably be funny memes in Tagalog taped or pinned to the felt walls. "Oh, hey. That's Manny. You Manny's mom?".

Doris stopped scanning the paperwork he'd skid through the slot to her, he eyes narrowing, "Grandmother but how you you know Manuel?" her eyes and tone particularly skeptical. And it was then that Dave remembered how he recognized the young man in the picture and inwardly winced. "I think I've seen him around the restaurant I live above..." Dave said, none too convincingly, as the truth played out vividly in his memory. He'd met the kid at one of Big J's dealer houses working as muscle at the door. He remembered the kids name because it has been tattooed in gothic letters on his forearm. At least it had been until the kid had gotten mouthy and Dave had pulled his arm through the mail slot in the door of the house, stripping the skin off the kids forearm like a cheese grater. Dave wanly smiled back at the lady hoping that maybe the story hadn't gotten back to Doris.

ANNESBURG, 1 NOV 2023
The Mill Coffeehouse, Parking Lot

"Sure, why not tonight? I mean ... if you have no other plans. I don't want to impose on your work."

While ignoring his question about trust, she notices his expression change when she mentions the drinks and realizes her doubt is well-founded. She is also very aware of the fact that she is coming across as very needy and that is a cardinal rule among the women she knows. Make them chase you, not the other way around. Here she was practically throwing herself at him. What was wrong with her? She had been doing just fine without him.

"We could go out to that place Belinda told me about and then have a drink after. I'm ... I'm ..." Melissa is struggling with a lot of things. Her neediness. Her betrayal of Augusta. And Belinda. What the heck was wrong with her?

"Speaking of Belinda, yeah, she's in the TANC and something is very off. It's almost as if she likes it there."

GRAYBRIDGE, 1 NOV 2023
A Random Bar
Eva winces a little at Tanya's initial response -- calling them clones seems a little... okay, a lot... insensitive. But that wince turns to a frown when the smaller woman talks more about the process, and about how many of them didn't make it.

"I'm not... like... perfect," Eva says a little defensively. "At all. And I didn't know they were doing any of that. Literally any of that. That shit just sounds fucking evil.

Another big slug of whiskey, then more questions.

"Who are we talking about? The freaks over at Wyvern Lake?"

A pause, a deep breath. Her eyes are steely as she meets Tanya's gaze.

"Are they still doing it?"

GRAYBRIDGE, 1 NOV 2023
City Courthouse
Doris eyes Dave uncomfortably thoroughly for a moment, trying to figure out how she feels about this big, scary-looking man. "You work for the church?" she asks skeptically. But despite her doubts, she doesn't seem to connect Dave with the unfortunate story of her grandson's accident that the young man had told her. She asks Dave a couple of questions about his position, but then agrees to check the database for him. "What is this volunteer's name?" she asks resigned.

Once Dave has given it to her, Tanya Gable, she enters it into her ancient looking computer, then turns the screen to show it to Dave. There is a court order on file for Tanya, dated just days before last Wednesday when she came to the meeting, for public intoxication and vandalism. "Looks like everything's in order with your girl," Doris says. "Well, unless you mind having someone like that volunteering. Though I can't imagine you get a big selection to choose from." She shrugs, then blinks as she notices something on the scan on her screen. "That's odd," she says. "This court order isn't signed, just stamped. It is probably an oversight, but strange." It could be an oversight, or a sign that someone other than a judge filed the order to give a veneer of legitimacy to Tanya's claim.

When Dave continues pushing, asking if there's anything else on file for Tanya - just to make sure she can be trusted with the support group of course - Doris, now seemingly just wanting the man to leave, quickly complies, putting the name through a couple more databases. "There doesn't seem to be anything on her in the system other than that court order," Doris says. "No priors, no birth certificate or home address. She's not registered in Graybridge, so she must live in another jurisdiction. Maybe she's from Annesburg." She opens the court order again. "But the address listed here is in Graybridge." Doris considers this for a moment, then shrugs and says, "Must be a filing error. Not my problem. But that's all I can help you with, Mister."

ANNESBURG, 1 NOV 2023
The Mill Coffeehouse, Parking Lot

Is he for real? He's almost being too nice now.

As much as this revival of her infatuation, or was it love for the man, had bowled her over, she wasn't so taken by him that her brain had stopped functioning entirely. Little alarm bells jangled for her attention which she duly noted and then brushed aside. To say that her emotions were being buffeted about like a plastic jug in stormy ocean waves would have been an understatement. And it wasn't just Brian. It was Belinda and Augusta and the matter of her x-ray vision too. It was a lot.

Her ears perked up when Brian stopped talking in the middle of a sentence.

"That she would what, Brian? Do you know something? What do you know? I'll never trust you if you hold things back from me."

ANNESBURG, 1 NOV 2023
The Mill Coffeehouse, Parking Lot

"What?" Melissa doesn't know whether to get angry or be surprised. Maybe both. "What kind of thing? Isn't it obvious that I don't know why Belinda is in the TANC? And then your swipe at Augusta. What the hell, Brian? Are you actually listening to me or thinking ahead about having me in your bed again?"

Melissa slams the seatbelt buckle home. The loud snap compliments her mood entirely. Suddenly she isn't so sure that she wants to go to out to dinner or to Brian's after, at all. He's not so nice now. His condescending attitude coupled with his arrogance has begun to grate on her nerves. The mood, if there had been one was broken. Sighing and staring at the back of the cabbie's head she just sits and glares.

GRAYBRIDGE, 1 NOV 2023
City Courthouse

"Thanks, Doris. You've been a peach." he retrieved the documents through the metal slot as she pushed them back to him. "Oh, hey. Who was the judge who signed off on the order? Maybe I can swing by their office and get the order signed instead of stamped."

GRAYBRIDGE, 1 NOV 2023
A Random Bar
Eva is quiet for a moment as the whiskey warms her throat, eases the tension in her powerful frame, and steadies her breathing. She's hearing so much... there is just a lot to take in. Wrapping her mind around it all, she leans forward, closer to... her sister.

"You... you still live there? At Wyvern Lake? They let you leave?"

GRAYBRIDGE, 1 NOV 2023
The Hop Spot
After confirming the vite from Dave, she plugs the address into the Nav and makes her way there. Her idea to search Brian's place is likely dead with the delay, unless Melissa and he go for drinks, dinner, or dancing. Unlikely with the damage to his car. Stupid!

But there are other nights, too. She needs an angle, or at least someone who knows about getting inside locked doors.

When she arrives, she checks the time. It's early. It's also not the kind of place she would normally go to. Loud but implacable music emanates and when the door opens, it's some soulless rock anthem from fifteen years ago. She winces at every off key note. Soulless! At least have the courtesy to tune your guitar!

She sighs, and goes inside. Hey, maybe I'll be attacked and can let the goblin out! She shakes her head. Why does she have so many bad ideas?

She orders something awful from the bar, a "double rice India pale ale" whatever that means, and holds it with a thumb over the hole of the glass bottle - she's been roofied enough for one year, even if she's wasn't.