Lei Campbell (paper_orchid) wrote in astor_ridge, @ 2011-01-14 11:21:00 |
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Entry tags: | carver, carver and lei, lei |
Who: Lei Campbell, Carver Ellington, Det. Brady (NPC)
What: Lei is taken in for questioning regarding the missing dog
Where: Destiny Falls PD
When: Wednesday evening
Rating: PG-13 for pretty colorful language
Status: Complete
Carver’s stomach was somewhere near his throat as he stood in the elevator, not the same one he’d stood in a week ago in preparation of saving Lei before she could walk into the pit, but with the same feeling of anxious foreboding eating at his insides. Lei was being called into question concerning the dog that had gone missing, and it was dumb. Every member of security personnel knew what had really happened to the dog, but no one was saying anything. No one could say anything. Not even him.
So here he was, on his way to snag his friend’s little sister from her apartment and feed her to the sharks just to keep that hag Richards from making too much of a fuss. It had been a direct order from Astor himself, but thankfully the old bastard was keeping himself quiet tonight. Carver was too far inside his own mind as it was. Then again, having Carver sent to retrieve her out of the many people that could’ve done it - her own brother included - was statement enough.
He tried to think of how to tell Lei what to expect without letting the old man in on it. She was innocent and he knew she had no more reason to steal an old, persnickity, yippy dog then he had to walk around all day in stiletto heels, but whatever. She’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and all there was left to do was damage control.
When he was at her door he pulled out his phone instead of knocking, texting that he was there.
It’d been crazy lately, with the weather and the heat and the blackout: one might think a place as fucking fancy as Astor would be immune to things of that nature, but being on the receiving end of such events was probably more of an eye-opener for the people in the higher apartments than Lei. She wasn’t a stranger to horrible weather or really, really bad timing. Growing up in blue-collar Boston had that effect.
So, despite being annoyed at having to buy a space heater to keep Chip (and herself) from freezing from Saturday to Sunday, the spindly maid wasn’t too worse for wear. She was bellied up to the tiny counter by her kitchen sink, washing the dinner dishes when the front pocket of her jeans started to vibrate. One paper-towel crumpled on the counter later, she plucked the smartphone from it’s place on her hip and checked the screen... then checked it again. Then looked over her shoulder at her front door.
The smile on her face was a little lopsided when she opened it, pushing her hair out of her face (which seemed to be a habit of hers, whenever she first saw Carver). He wasn’t the last person she expected at her door, but the surprise was easily written on her face. It evaporated quickly, however, when she saw the look on his.
“What’s wrong?” Lei signed and spoke, a courtesy to Carver, more than anything else.
His mouth thinned despite himself and he nodded at her. “Got get a coat and some shoes, Lei,” he said softly, attempting to keep it to the point. His mind raced with ways to get her out of this and ended up at nothing each and every time. She was new, she was convenient, and if they really decided to go ahead and pin this on her, that would be that.
Fuck, he hated this fucking place.
“Mrs. Richards dog came up missing,” he continued. “Earlier, when you were in her apartment cleanin’. She made ‘em call the cops and they just wanna talk to ya, now. Just tell ‘em the truth. I know ya didn’t take the fuckin’ dog, but ya know how these types can be.”
Wait... what?
Get your shoes... Lei processed that pretty easy, even if it was a little cryptic, but the more Carver delved into the explanation as to why she was apparently leaving her apartment went so far beyond ludicrous that... well--Lei’s face went from worried, to confused, to pretty obviously angry. Not at him, of course. He was, unfortunately, closest to the outlash.
“Wait... her dog went missing, and they want to talk to me about it?” Lei didn’t even sign that, and she put a pretty remarkable amount of emphasis on the word ‘me’ for someone who couldn’t hear it. The vibrations in her throat felt sandy and harsh as she left the door open with Carver standing beneath the jamb, as what he said started to really sink in.
They were accusing her. Maybe not officially, but already, her mind was centered squarely on her job--and how it now seemed to balance precariously on a knife’s edge.
The anger was gone, replaced by a very prominent worry line over her brows--they pushed up high in the middle, pleading with her brother’s friend by expression alone. “But... you told them that, right?” The fact that he was there answered her own question. Lei was starting to feel her left-over fried chicken start to turn in her stomach.
“Course I told them,” Carver said gently, and he had. Fat lot of good it had done, though. He sighed deeply, the look on her face turning his stomach as he put his hands in his pockets. “Just tell ‘em the truth, Lei. Think real hard about anything you would’ve seen when you were in the apartment. Was the dog there when you were?”
The only evidence they had against her was video footage of her and only her entering and leaving the apartment while Richards was gone. Of course, when she left there obviously wasn’t a dog with her, but there were all sorts of theories they could concoct from that bit. Carver felt sick and uneasy, but he nodded at her again. “C’mon. I’ll help ya get your things.”
Lei was getting flustered, and she was nervous. This was not a good combination for someone who was trying to sort things out in her head, and was reliant on piecing together the movement of someone else’s lips in order to communicate. Despite Carver’s effort, her nervous habit of putting a hand on her brow and pacing around the studio apartment (presumably looking for her things) made his sentences only half-understood.
Truth. In the apartment. When you were. These were the abridged bits of statements the Deaf girl was able to catch, all of which left unanswered--and the mounting tension, confusion, and nervousness started to weave uncomfortable wire in her muscles, making it surprisingly difficult to lace her tennis shoes.
“Are you going with me?” She looked up from the curtain of sleek, dark hair falling from behind her ears; a bit of unhidden desperation glinted in equally dark eyes, focused on his lips.
His lips thinned as he thought about that. “I can try,” he said honestly, and he would. It would’ve helped if he’d known sign language, as he could’ve volunteered himself to go along as an interpreter, but he didn’t.
Christ.
“We’ll figure somethin’ out,” he tried to assure her, putting his hands on her shoulders. “Ya didn’t do anything, Lei. It’ll be okay.”
It occurred to him that he was quite possibly lying to her and his stomach heaved again, but he stood still and kept his face schooled.