Who: Leonard Drury, and OPEN to anyone (maybe some of the patrons of The Wynn?) Where: The Wynn, main floor, where else would you find him? What: Leonard's just doing his "thing" after he receives a call from his British parents, shockingly learning that his old nanny was found dead somewhere near Las Vegas When: Today, Tuesday November 27 around mid-afternoon Rating/Warnings: Mention of Elizabeth's death, but nothing graphic
Things had become far too easy, far too routine, for Leonard lately. He was growing accustomed to the hectic life in Las Vegas. It was very natural for him to slip into the role of manager. Training, teaching and working were all things that Leonard fully enjoyed, things that he really recognized as part of his skill-set. One of his newest concierges, training before the rush of the Christmas season, was doing well despite a few blunders here and there. Leonard frequently needed to hover around the concierge desk to answer questions of the new employee to make sure that he really understood what was happening and what he needed to do to fix whatever mistakes he'd made.
And Leo was about to correct a mistake when he heard his own cell phone ring. It was a very unusual occurrence, to hear the faint Nokia ringtone through the pocket of his pants. He wanted to ignore it, guessing that whomever it was would realize that he wasn't answering and would either leave a message or leave him alone. But after the first minute of the upscale tone ringing constantly and growing louder, it continued to the point where it attracted the attention of his other coworkers. Annoyed at the disturbance, Leo put up a finger to let his fellow colleagues know he'd be back in a moment, then indicated to the senior concierge with a nod to say that he was in charge until Leo returned from the phone call.
He flipped open the phone irritably, then frowned when he recognized the international phone number. Heading to the back room, Leo pushed the answer button to cease the seemingly endless noise of the phone and spoke into it with his familiar British accent, "Hello?" He almost immediately pulled the phone away from his ear as the dulcet sounds of his mother's voice screeching into the other end tried to break an ear drum.
"It's been nearly a year, Leo darling! We had no means of reaching you! Where have you been? You are lucky your father's connections were able to track this number to you..." And she continued. Leonard sighed. His father's connections? With the university? It was almost laughable. It had probably taken them this long to pay someone in the police money to track him down, but he guessed his mother was making the phone call from some coffee house or some other public place, perhaps the market, so she wanted to attract attention to herself by doing this. Oh, wait, she was still rambling into his ear without a break in her rant. "And how are those Americans, dear? Just bloody awful, I imagine! How can you stand to..."
"Mother," he interrupted with a hint of amusement in his tone, "I'm quite well, I assure you. Have you learnt that the Duke of Cumberland himself is here? I've made quite good friends with Lord Percy." That ought to shut her up, and it did quite effectively, at that. He could hear gasps of surprise coming from other females nearby. Honestly, his mother never changed. Leo rolled his eyes and barely suppressed a sigh. So he was on speaker phone so they could all hear his comments. Fantastic.
"The Lord Percy is in that rubbish place with you? What is he like? He must be quite charming, and I imagine very dashing..." And she was off again. Leonard sighed heavily this time.
"Mother, did you just call so you could share this news with your friends, or was there another reason for you to phone me?" Leonard interrupted again, hearing her surprised tone on the other end of the phone.
"Oh, darling, no, I just missed you. Can't a mother miss her son? Or is that something those Americans don't know how to do yet? They're so far behind, honestly. Why, I bet they don't even know how to prepare a proper cup of tea. They prefer coffee, can you believe it? Anyway, Leo, darling, I thought you should know that the young woman who we'd hired in as a nanny...what was her name again?...oh yes, Elizabeth, was it? Yes, yes. It was reported in the news this morning that something awful terrible happened to her. I thought it might be best you heard from me, love, rather than some bloody, rotten American. She wasn't found far from where you are, actually. Las Vegas, is it? Yes, I think that was the place."
Leonard froze in his footsteps. His Elizabeth, the nanny whom he'd come searching for halfway across the country, turned up dead? He abruptly sat down on a chair nearby, his heart pounding against his chest. He couldn't say he was completely surprised, of course, but still...he'd been hoping to at least track her down..."Yes, thank you for the news, Mother. If you'll excuse me, I am at work..."
"Oh, yes of course, my dear. How terrible that you must work for those Amer...." She probably would have gone on for hours, but Leo politely snapped his phone shut and shoved it back into his pocket. He left the break room, his hand shaking a bit. So he would never track her down. He'd probably have to let at least Andrew know that they didn't need to search for Elizabeth any more. He had so many questions, so many things to wonder about, but...this was Vegas. So many possibilities, so many things that could have happened to her here. Something so minor that it probably wasn't even reported on television or anything, because murder and crime was such a popular thing in this crazy town.