Once Eleanor was inside his office, her eyes were immediately drawn to the posters on the wall. She recognized Sunset Boulevard almost immediately, though the other one was less familiar to her. An oddly comforting and personal touch to his office. To Spence's office.
She liked that, for a nickname. Spence. It made her feel more comfortable with him, and she wondered if that was the intended affect when it came to his clients. It also made her instantly develop an ache in the pit of her stomach, remembering how if Aaron were here he would have already called her 'Nora' at least twice. She missed him so much it was like a constant pain in her gut that she wondered if Aaron could feel too, wherever he was. Sometimes it was so strong she thought she was going to die and other times it was faint, like a phantom pain, always reminding her that something was still missing. Aaron was her missing limb.
Having taken a seat in the offered chair across from his desk, Eleanor was still looking at the posters and was therefore momentarily distracted enough with her own thoughts that when he started talking to her again his words caught her off guard. Her loss? Aaron wasn't dead. He was... Frowning slightly, realization only dawned on her a moment later. He must be talking about her father. Or her mother, if he was among the people who believed she'd only abandoned them to find a quiet place to kill herself. But no, in all likelihood, he was referring to her father.
In that moment, Eleanor felt horribly guilty. It'd only been five months since his death, and of course she'd been devastated. Still devastated, it didn't matter to her what kind of shady dealings he'd had over the years he was still her dad, and losing him had been horrible. Their mom's mysterious disappearance had only made it worse, as much as Eleanor had always struggled in her relationship with their mother, that had affected her greatly too. It's just that... the minute Aaron had disappeared, everything else had become background noise for Eleanor.
Was that awful? That was probably awful and not something she should tell the detective with the kind face sitting in front of her. He might not understand, most people didn't understand. It wasn't that she didn't care as much about what had happened to their parents, it's just that Aaron was and would always be her person. There was no replacing him, and while she'd always been able to get through anything as long as she had Aaron, she found herself floundering horribly now without him.
"Thank you," Eleanor responded softly, unsure of what else to say. She never knew what to say when people said things like 'sorry for your loss', but at least with him, it actually sounded something approaching genuine. So many people just said it like it was something they were supposed to say, their father's funeral had been full of those types of people. Sinking back a little in her chair, Eleanor didn't exactly relax in her posture, but she did finally go still. Something about Spence's gentle demeanor and having spent the last three hours a giant ball of anxiety waiting for exactly this moment left her temporarily exhausted, so when she spoke it was without the abrupt urgency from before.
"If you've looked into my family already then you know as much as I know about my dad's murder. And our mom's disappearance," Eleanor added with a tinge of bitterness. "But Aaron..." She exhaled harshly. "He couldn't believe that mom had anything to do with it, and he was trying to prove it. Then two days before our birthday, he never called me back. He never not calls me back. I don't know what but I know something's happened to him because he would never leave me if he had any other choice."
Eleanor's voice wavered as she brushed something hastily out of the corner of her eye, her expression turning pleading again as she looked at Spence. "He's my twin. We've always been close, and he's never gone this long without letting me know that he's okay. I know in my gut that something's wrong. Can you please find him?"