Repose

[It gets picked up in the papers. A small (ish) crime, raiding the home of a wealthy individual who is rumored to be involved in money-laundering and other crime on the scale between 'serious' and 'petty'. The individual had art, most significantly a loan from one of the major galleries but this wasn't the target. What went missing was some freshly-washed cash from the safe, and a small but precious sketch rumored to be a Rodin but provenance dubious. What gets reported? The line up of good luck that got the crime in place, a chain of guards off sick, missing clocking-in times, a faulty alarm system and a mess-up in routine from the individual's maid. And of course, the leap when the window alarms started to work, from one building to the next to get out of trouble. Law enforcement aren't expecting the money to surface any time soon, and the individual is answering everything with 'no comment' given the spotlight on her own shady business practices.]

[Locked to Felicity H]
[After this.]

Let's talk, kitten.

[Slip-sliding over bare floors in socks a little threadbare around the toes but who's looking? Who's counting? Not me, sir, Jude was padding toward the smell of oil-paint and turps, carbon and chalk that resonated against the olofactory part of his memory and hind-brain that called this home, and good and safe. Because he wasn't exactly all pieces together, a jigsaw puzzle on which the picture was coherent but pieces were lost, under a carpet or filched to demonstrate a talent. He leaned into the door-jamb of the room-within-a-house that Jude would have been entirely happy to live out of, please and thank you, and slid in with a throat-clear for permission.]

Hi sunshine. How's the drawing?

[Claire J.]

I am worried about something.

[Jude C.]

Black tea, white sugar, the cat food in the cups, and new books.

[Sasha J.]

How's business?

[Sam A.]

[He sends over a loose-leaf mint tea and tiny sugared lemon drops ordered online.]

[Destiny S.]

You are [...] well?

[Public.]

Firecrackers should be reserved for the fourth, and not the days leading up to it.