mobius & sharon
day 7, Toon Town | Hollywood | Teen
⚠ S for solving the case
The evidence had piled up.
Oh, there had been a brief moment where Sharon had wondered if maybe it wasn't Lola Dark after all. But it had been a brief moment. After all, what she'd discovered when she'd gone to talk to Herbert, was that he quite willing to let someone onto the set for a pretty face and the hint of a possibility of a drink later, and if he was that willing - well she suspected someone like Lola could have gotten on with no difficulty at all if she'd put her mind to it.
And now there was just the need to ask her a few questions.
Neither Herbert or Willie had been on security detail when she and Mobius had shown their passes at the gate. Several members of the LAPD were going to join them, but for now they walked across the back set towards the sound stage where Lola was finishing up the day's work.
It was going to put a dent in the production, probably. Sharon could only hope that they were mostly done with Lola's scenes. Although who knew - this sort of scandal - could be the sort of thing that sent the film into huge money making territory when the news broke.
"Ready?" She turned her face up to Mobius as they reached the door: Sound Stage 3.
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” was Mobius’s casual, confident response - with a wink at Sharon to boot. This whole thing had been fun, he had to admit - usually the weeks spent at Derleth, caught in whatever trap they were flung into, was them trying to survive and outrunning whatever was attempting to maim or otherwise eat them. But a real murder mystery to solve? Being detectives? It was right up Mobius’s alley. Cornering a starlet like Lola was the final step to his and Sharon’s case, before they could slam that figurative folder shut.
And what a step it was because geez. If looks could kill.
What was the phrase, exactly? If looks could kill, you’d be dead on the tile? Yeah, Mobius was definitely getting that vibe from Lola Dark as soon as he and Sharon strolled through the sound stage door as if they owned the place - but that was the thing, right? Fake it til you make it.
Still. He caught sight of Lola right away and had to hand it to her - she really fit the vibe of the era, and her particular style as a toon, the way she carried herself if that was the correct way to phrase such a thing (he honestly had no idea). She glared at them through the fringes of thick mascara, raven’s wing curls tumbling to the low cut of her neckline; her lips were as red as her dress, and she had a cigarette pinned between those two maraschino-painted lips too. Needless to say, she looked less than pleased to see them.
“Not you two again,” the actress scoffed, as everything came to a standstill around them.
Had Sharon taken a moment to perfect her lipstick before she came in? She had, although she had to admit that it was difficult to match the perfection of a toon, and Lola's lips pretty much topped the list of perfection that she'd seen recently. That said, Sharon easily matched the actress's confidence. After all, she wasn't trying to pretend to be something she wasn't, and whatever you could say of Lola, she was making a career out of trying to be something she wasn't.
"Hello again Miss Dark," she said smoothly, allowing a little of her Virginia birthplace to roll into her inflection. "It is indeed us again, we just had a few things we wanted to follow-up with you on. Is this a good time?"
"Does it look like a good time?"
Yes, if looks could kill, Lola would definitely have slain them both dead.
The actress sighed dramatically, and touched her fingers to her forehead, closing her eyes as if she were trying to summon courage. "Very well, I'm sure you won't take long with your follow-up."
"No, I'm sure it won't take very long at all," Sharon offered a mild smile. "We had the opportunity to speak with Herbert, he spoke very fondly of you."
"Herbert?" Lola looked between them both and Sharon had to hand it to her, if she hadn't just forgotten the man's name already, which seemed possible, she really was doing a good job of playing as if she didn't know who they were talking about.
Oh, Lola Dark knew exactly who Herbert was - but if she was going to keep playing dumb (really flexing those acting skills and all), then Mobius would be happy to remind her. “You know, you talked to him just before you came onto the movie set when you weren’t scheduled?” he chimed in casually, adjusting the cufflinks of his suit (he hoped he could keep it, it was a rather nice suit and a pleasant switch from the boring brown he always reset in - the clothes this week had been pretty amazing and he made sure to do some shopping when he could).
“Promised him a drink. That way he let you in without the proper protocol - no need to sign anything,” Mobius added. “It’s convenient, right? And clever. To not have a paper record of your presence the day the water bucket was switched for dip.”
Lola narrowed those heavily-lined eyes. “I don’t know what you’re insinuating, but I do not appreciate it at all, sir!”
Except she knew exactly what they were insinuating and was she starting to panic? Just a little?
Toons weren’t quite the same as people in their tics. This was something Sharon had realized earlier in the week as they’d been talking to people, and interviewing them. In some ways it was easier to tell when they were lying, and in some ways it was more difficult, but once you knew some of the things that shifted - well. And Lola definitely had that slightly wider whites of her eyes thing going on.
“Let you in, and he said you hurried right off, but you were going to meet later at the Goose & Gander, and you do seem to have done so, which good on you, Miss Dark,” Sharon nodded. “Herbert let you in just prior to lunch, and he said you slipped out about thirty minutes later. Do you want to tell us what you were doing that you didn’t want to go through security proper?”
“I had just left a birthday present for a friend in my trailer,” Lola was suddenly all smiles. “Herbert and I are friends, we talked, I didn’t even realize he didn’t put me on the check-in.”
“Did you now?” Mobius asked, his tone indicating that he didn’t believe a word of this. “Funny that you didn’t mention this before. Like when we asked you about your actions that day.”
Was there even a point in questioning her about the birthday present? Admittedly, he was sort of curious about what she’d come up with off the top of her head. Because this shitstorm was rolling downhill fast and becoming an avalanche - the police were right outside and they’d be able to tie this up with a pretty little bow soon.
Soon.
He just had to push a bit more. Maybe get her to snap.
“You want to know what I think though?” he leaned a tad closer, speaking all conspiratorial-like. “I think you were jealous of Dorothy’s success. It’s every toon for themselves in this town, right? You were going to do what you had to do in order to climb to the top of the ladder?”
"Oh that's nonsense!" Lola took a step backwards, and shook her head emphatically. "Dorothy and I were friends, oh we had our things, our disagreements, but I would never -"
"You were friends, so that argument that you had a week ago?" Sharon asked, tilting her head and raising her eyebrow. Nobody in the entire history of their conversations this week had intimated that Lola and Dorothy were friends, frankly, not even Lola herself the first time they'd talked to her.
"Oh, that was just!" Lola's eyes darkened and did her eyebrows literally get thicker as they came in over her eyes? It felt as if they had. "She was so smug about getting this role, and she didn't even have to try, she was a friend of the writers, the part was written for her, it wasn't as if she did anything special, but she just wouldn't shut up about it! Of course I told her to erase herself! But that doesn't mean I did it! You don't have any proof at all! It's all circumstantial evidence. The door was unlocked, anyone could have gotten in there."
Well, now she had just gone and shot herself in the foot. Because Mobius had worked this case, with Sharon, and they both were the types to pay attention to details - oftentimes, it wasn’t just a simple part of their jobs. It was more like their lives depended on it.
“The only way you would have known if the door was unlocked was if you actually tried the door,” he pointed out. “Which you did. To get to the bucket, so you could switch them. You did it quickly though, and quietly, I’ll give you that.”
Now Lola Dark looked like a smokestack about to blow - likely he was about to see steam coming from her ears, because her composure was unraveling faster than a ball of yarn caught in the claws of a cat.
Sharon couldn't help but wonder if it was even possible to hurt a toon considering she'd seen some of the Derlethian Toons posting about having anvils hit on their head, but fortunately Lola looked angry but she was frustrated enough that she was beginning to chatter.
"You have no idea how smug she was and how utterly undeserving! She didn't even look right for the part! And she'd sashay in nearly thirty minutes late and no one said anything to her, and I was always here on time. Always! I deserved this part, and I would have gotten away with it if you two hadn't come in here sticking your noses around where -"
"Miss Dark, you're under arrest for the murder of Miss Dorothy Darling," because there were the LAPD, two humans, and one toon that looked like he could have been a close relation to Goofy, except that he wore a badge on his blue suit, and Sharon suspected upon second glance, you probably didn't want to assume he wasn't competent. He looked easy going, but his eyes had a sharpness that suggested he didn't miss things. Not so goofy really.
She took a step back, letting the police step in to put handcuffs on Miss Dark, and Sharon stepped in beside Mobius, not saying anything, but there wasn't any point really because even the reminder that anything she said could be used against her didn't seem to have stopped Lola Dark's rampage, in fact, if Sharon wasn't mistaken, there was actual steam coming from her ears.
"Well…" she turned to look at Mobius. He really was an attractive detective. She hoped he kept the look.
Good thing the police showed up when they did, because it appeared as if Lola was about to grab the nearest weapon (the nearest something that wasn’t nailed down) and use it to brain either Sharon or Mobius upside the head - she did try, in fact. It was one of those old-fashioned telephones, the kind with the clunky receiver and the rotary dial - Mobius was fully prepared to deflect the blow from a raging cartoon when the police came right in, and did their thing with the handcuffs so luckily it didn’t escalate.
Handcuffing a toon. He supposed stranger things had happened - half of them he’d seen with the TVA and the other half? Definitely thanks to Derleth. Whether it was another version of himself, or dinosaurs - he filed most experiences under ‘what the hell, this may as well happen.’
Feeling more than slightly satisfied, he moved next to Sharon and grinned slightly. “Case closed, I guess?” he chuckled. “Just in time to end the week too.” On a high note.
She stepped away, keeping the smile away from Lola. Not that it seemed likely that the toon was going to notice much. She was irate, but being taken away and half the set had gathered for this performance. Ah well, she wanted to be the center of attention. She had gotten it, for now anyway.
“I was going to say we should go out to celebrate, but on second thought, how about we get some good food, some good wine, and stay in?” She suggested, reaching a hand up to play at his collar. “I would fully like to appreciate this look a little while longer.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Mobius agreed, and he felt a flush rising to his cheeks - not sure why, maybe it was the adrenaline of the whole experience. Or maybe it was the fact that he still sometimes couldn’t fathom what Sharon saw in him, he really wasn’t anything special in terms of looks (he was modest, what could he say) - not compared to her. But whenever she looked at him like that, it just did things to him.
Needless to say, he tended to return those looks whenever possible - he felt as if she was fully deserving. “We’re so close to the end of the week and I’d say we’ve earned the wine part especially.” His arm slipped around her waist and he tugged her close to him, pressing a kiss to her temple before letting go.
They could find something to do while staying in. Some time spent with the two of them - which he always loved.
It wasn’t professional to do what she wanted to do just then, so Sharon slipped her hand down to his, and pulled him away. They’d already given all of their paperwork and evidence to Valiant & Valliant, and they would follow-up with the judges and prosecutors and everyone else. Obviously, since it was unlikely that she and Mobius would be there next week.
“We still need to fill up that bar cart too,” she remarked. “So first things first.”
And then Mobius and silk sheets. After all, you never knew what the next week would bring at Derleth. And you should take advantage of peace when it was there.