A Bit of Sherlock Holmes

[Goblin]

Goblin Pearson--who still went by Goblin half the time, even professionally, because pretty much any name can be taken more seriously than Sebastian--made his way up the steps to the Manhattan apartment of Risk and Macbeth. He knocked and hoped Alec/Risk would answer, because he was, quite frankly, scared of Macbeth, and had been for years. From the raised voices inside, however, he deduced that she was probably too busy arguing with her niece. Just as well, since he had a case to discuss with Risk, and Beth always gave him dagger eyes when he asked for help with dangerous cases.

[Risk]

"Jo, listen to your Auntie!" shouted Risk as he walked over to the door. They were in the midst of arguing over Jo's new-found independence when he heard a knock that relieved him of his 'fatherly' duties.

"Sebastian," he said in surprise once he opened the door. "Everything alright?"

[Goblin]

((We should decide when this is, haha.))

"More-or-less." He winced as Jo stamped her foot somewhere in the back room. "Didn't mean to interrupt the family drama...speaking of which, Clara's on your fire escape right now. Which I'll explain in a minute. How's your case load looking this week?"

[Risk]

((LOL. Hmmm... let's say a year or so after the Tristan/Nevada incident? )

"She's on the fire escape?!" repeated Risk, his eyes wide as he ran over to the window. Some things never change. "Pretty slow, actually... did you two need something? Bored? Miss us?"

[Goblin]

"Yeah, it's just been so long since Beth threatened to kill me," he said wistfully with a smirk. "Things haven't been boring, actually...thought maybe we could discuss a case of mine."

((The board's being a major pain, so I'm gonna call it a night. <3 See you tomorrow? Maybe for Truth or Dare, even? ;D))

[Risk]

"Yeah, sure," nodded Risk, leading him towards Jo's empty room. He figured Macbeth and Jo would have at it for hours and he wasn't about to let Goblin spill out details in the living room.

((Oooh! Yes, maybe tomorrow! Gnight! <3))

[Goblin]

He sat in the chair by Jo's bed, moving a giant pile of books in order to do so. The room was half-drowned in books, and the kid was, what--eight years old? He wouldn't be surprised to find a switchblade under her pillow, either. "So...Clara's on your fire escape 'cause she wants to make sure no one's following me. She might just be paranoid..." Which both siblings notoriously were. "...but our latest case has been going in all kinds of strange directions."

[Risk]

"Strange, how?" asked Risk, taking a seat on Clara's bed.

[Goblin]

((Hehe--Jo's bed? Unless she and Wraith are roomies. ))

He leaned back and thought about where to start. "Well, first this woman comes in and tells us her daughter's missing. Which is how about half our cases start, and usually, the kid just got mad and ran off for a few days, or eloped with an Irishman or something." Goblin shook his head; he hated boring cases. "But this girl was fourteen, real shy, hardly ever went out. Family's pretty wealthy, but there hasn't been a ransom note or anything. So I asked around the neighborhood where she disappeared. No one had seen her and no one was lying. And then this showed up in our office mailbox..."

He handed Risk a note that said, in the classic letters-cut-from-newspapers style, STOP LOOKING.

"Apparently someone's worried we'll actually solve the case," he said kind of happily, because hey, it meant they were getting a good reputation. "I wouldn't've bothered you with it, but...you know Clara." For his sister, 'cautious' was an understatement.

((I have no idea where this is going. ^_^))

[Risk]

"Got any hunch as to why she'd run away? She doesn't seem like the type unless something happened, y'know?" asked Risk, taking the note and looking at it carefully.

((Haha! No worries! And I totally replied when I was on my way home, meaning... my brain is totally fried))

[Goblin]

"She doesn't," he agreed thoughtfully. "Another strange thing is that we wanted to search the house, obviously--check her room for any clues she might've left--but the mother kept putting it off. Either she's been holding out hope that the girl will come back, or..." He shook his head. "I don't even know. Anyway, she finally said we could go over there tonight, if you want to come along. Dusting for fingerprints and stuff isn't really my thing."

[Risk]

"Yeah, of course," nodded Risk, quite excited by the thought of helping Goblin with another case. "We're just checking, anyway." He paused, trying to listen in on Macbeth and Jo's conversation and whether they'd settled down.

"You think it has something to do with the family? Maybe it's a setup."

[Goblin]

"I was thinking that," he agreed, "but it doesn't seem to fit completely. The mother really is worried. She knows more than she's telling, though." He shrugged. "I'll probably ask Wraith to follow her. She gets antsy when she doesn't have anyone to follow. Starts stalking the neighbors."

At that moment, the door burst open and Jo came storming in. She stopped in mid-storm, surprised to find her room had been invaded. "Uh...hi, Sebastian," she said, giving him a baffled look, and then jumped onto her bed and snuggled under Risk's arm to sulk. "Whatcha doing? A secret meeting?" she asked hopefully.

[Risk]

Risk chuckled at Goblin's statement about Wraith. "I'm not surprised..."

"Yeah, honey," chuckled Risk, putting his arm around her. "How's everything with Auntie Beth?" He glanced at Goblin, shooting him a look as if to say they'd leave right after Jo was settled.

[Goblin]

((I have to post the pic I found for Child!Jo, because it's my favorite thing ever.))



Jo sighed dramatically. "She don't want me running around the neighborhood by m'self, but you know I'm careful, Alec! I've got a real good penknife, and I can beat up all the boys anyway, and she wants me to stop doing that too! But they all got it coming, they throw rocks at the pigeons. And why do I gotta go to school anyway? Aunt Beth hardly went when she was a kid."

Goblin raised an eyebrow. He wasn't touching this.