[Sodium_noir] Saturday Evening at Dusk

[Hope Zagorski]

[Perfect Choice!!  
Well, I felt it best tied the two other pieces together]

Hope Zagorski, Leon Wolf
Dusk Towers


>"I am pleased that you gave me the opportunity to speak to you again detective, I can be far more charming when not in the act of breaking and entering!" 

>"Really?" Wolf said with a raised eyebrow. "I had expected him to keep that confidence. Revealing it to you make him seem weak and I wouldn't have pegged him as being comfortable with that. But we live and learn!"

Hope studies Mr. Wolf.  On the other hand, revealing that little bit to her was perhaps his way of telling her that she wouldn't have been released if not for outside help, that Gordon was powerless against IA, which evidently he was, since he hadn't been the one that had influenced Millet's decision.  But she chooses to favor him with a smile rather than her insights.  

A small smile lit up his face before he carried on.

"I have no doubt that you would have been cleared eventually Detective Zagorski, by all accounts you acted with exemplary conduct. But Gotham is not a city in which things happen slowly and I was in a position to speed things to their inevitable conclusion. That is what I do Detective, I grease the wheels and smooth the ruffles. My employers ..." he waves a hand to indicate the Dusk complex. " ... require certain problems to be less dramatic than they would otherwise be. They yearn for a certain harmony in our fractious city, and while it is unlikely I will ever experience that dream, I enjoy working towards it."

Hope had done a bit of research on Dusk.  She'd done research on most of Gotham's major employers, because she had learned far too well in Chicago that a city's major employers often called the shots, and held positions on the Citizen's Board that oversaw police affairs.  They had a number of divisions, and were well known for their philanthropic endeavors.  So why did they employ a thug, albeit a very well-dressed one?     

He leaned down and opens a drawer in his desk, fishing inside and coming back with Hope's possessions. Placing them on the desk he slides them forward and then takes a step back.

Hope looks at them, but for the moment, does not touch them.  "Did you enjoy the book?"  She figured he probably hadn't read it all the way through.  Perhaps she would lend it to Brannigan, and hopefully never see it again.  The gun, well, she wasn't going to get rid of it.  The sentiment outweighed the taint.  

"You've seen my work at its most intrusive detective. A necessary result of my tactics and schedule. I hope you will get the chance to see the positive aspects of what I do!"

In the end, she didn't want to see him again.  Ever.  But it was obvious he didn't want this to be their last meeting.  So many questions.  Why did he invite her here?  Why would he intervene with the Rat Squad? Why were his employers interested in her?  She should try to get some answers, try to make some sense of why her life had been so suddenly disrupted.  

"So..."  Hope says, pausing a moment.  She still was under a mental block, it seemed.  "Why exactly do I have the...pleasure...of speaking with you?"  Hope finally asks, keeping eye contact.  The cop skills were starting to kick in.  "You already had an easy shot at killing me, and you invited me here instead."  Setting down the tea cup, she leans in just a bit closer to Mr. Wolf, trying to invade his personal space, just as he had done to her.  "So what exactly do you and your employer want from me?"  

(Interrogation 2, Sense Deception 2, Manipulation 2) 
   
[Tag in Blue]


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