I wrote two chapters in one day! Now I’m back on track for chapters. I’ll be done on Saturday as planned. If I don’t play too much SWTOR. But I’m a bit happier with this chapter than the last one. Now for the real hard part – wrapping up this crazy story. : D

Chapter 8: You and Your Friend

Chapter 9: Fade to Black

I wonder where you are tonight
You’re probably on the rampage somewhere
You have been known to take delight in
Gettin’ in somebody’s hair (I mean)
You always had the knack
Fade to black

I bet you already made a pass
I see a darkened room somewhere
You run your finger round the rim of his glass
Run your fingers through his hair, they
Scratch across his back
Fade to black

Well maybe it’s all for the best, but I
Wish I’d never been lassoed
Maybe it’s some kind of test
I wish I’d never been tattooed
Or been to hell and back
Fade to black

“D-detective?” Nathaniel stammered, as Leliana pinned him down and Elizabeth stood over him, fixing him with a steely, no-nonsense stare.
“The fact is, I’m still on an investigation right now,” Elizabeth said. “I didn’t want to say so with your father present, but you’re about to become a policeman yourself, aren’t you? So I’d like your cooperation.”
“Y-yes, whatever you say,” Nathaniel said, perking up. “What must I do, ma’am?”
Please don’t ask about warrants. “Your father keeps a great deal of company records in this safe, does he not?” Elizabeth said. “We need to search it.”
“Ah, you need the combination. Hang on, I might know it… It might be the same as the one at home.” Leliana let him up, and he crossed to the safe and knelt before it. “Wait.” He looked up at Elizabeth. “Does this mean my father is a suspect?”
Elizabeth sighed wearily. “I’m afraid so. I don’t wish it, but I’m hoping looking at these records will clarify things for me.”
“And that’s why you couldn’t just ask him, because he’d never agree if he truly is guilty.” Nathaniel nodded slowly. “I… look up to my father. He doesn’t want me to become a policeman, but he’s given me order and discipline my whole life long. To go behind his back like this… This is betraying him.” He paused, then spun the combination lock. “But I know what it means to seek justice. This must be done, even if it ends in pain.”
“Thank you, Nathaniel,” she said gently. “You’re a good man. You’re going to be a fine officer.” Which would be poor comfort, she knew, if it turned out that Rendon was a murderer.
The safe clicked open. Nathaniel rose, and gestured her towards it with a bow. “All yours, ma’am.”
He and Leliana retreated to the other end of the office to wait for her.

She was there a long time, sifting through paper after paper, careful to keep them in order, looking for anything with Theirin’s name on it that didn’t have to do directly with business. Nathaniel and Leliana were talking quietly, playing cards – and Leliana was cheating heavily, and Nathaniel was letting her.
An hour passed, two. Would Rendon come back to check on his son? Surely he wouldn’t? There were a lot of documents here.
Finally – a slip of rough artisanal paper in a rough artisanal envelope, unmarked on the outside. But the paper on the inside was marked with a familiar black and red crest, and the wording was in elegant flowing script, but still intelligible.
Five million dollars to kill Theirin. Unbelievable. A fortune enough to buy a small city. And the signatures included not only Howe, but Mac Tyr as well. But not Mrs. Theirin. There was some hope for the company’s leadership, at least.
She slipped the envelope inside her overcoat and began putting things back where she’d found them.
“You found it?” Leliana asked, and Elizabeth looked over at their worried faces.
“Perhaps,” she said. “I may have found something. I think it better that you know as little as possible, Nathaniel. I’m sorry. You will have to lie to him already about what transpired here.”
Nathaniel’s face was downcast and grim. “He’s guilty, isn’t he. If he was innocent, you would have no problem telling me.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” she said. Her professional face was on in force. He’d get no hint from her. She shut the safe.
“There’s one more thing before we leave,” Leliana said. “I don’t think either of you will like it, but… should you be questioned about what went on here tonight, it would be safest for you to tell some part of the truth, Nathaniel. Which is why now you must kiss Elizabeth.” She herself kissed Nathaniel on the cheek, leaving a large red lipstick stain.
Nathaniel frowned and shied away from her, but didn’t flush red again. “It doesn’t seem right.”
Elizabeth took a deep breath and unbuttoned her overcoat, draping it over a chair. “It’s true. You can mumble half-truths and incoherencies if questioned if you like, but experience will make even those more believeable. And Leliana did make me put this ridiculous get-up on.” She raised her chin. “However, rest assured this is the only time I will ask such a thing of you. It’s entirely for the investigation. Nothing more.”
He grimaced, but came closer to her. “If you both insist…”
“We will be unprofessional for the sake of being completely professional, Officer Howe,” she said firmly, and took his face in her hands.
Even as her lips touched his, and his arms went hesitantly around her thinly-clad waist, she couldn’t help feel this was betraying… someone. She would not name his name, not when he’d gone off with…
It was all for the investigation. Never mind that Nathaniel was reasonably attractive, in a strange, fierce, large-nosed way, and never mind that he’d certainly learned to kiss from somebody. Not as good as him, her heart whispered, and she told it to shut up.
When they parted, Leliana was waiting with a hand on the door. Elizabeth hurriedly turned away and grabbed her overcoat again, shrugging it on quickly. “I’m sorry for all the inconvenience, Nathaniel, and I’m extremely grateful for your assistance. Go get some rest, and… well, good luck with your studies.”
“Good luck with your investigation,” Nathaniel said, looking like he wasn’t quite sure what to do with himself right now, or how to feel. She didn’t blame him. It must have been the strangest night of his life so far.

She and Leliana safely made it out of the building again, winking and giggling at the security guards. She’d just gotten around the corner and checked her inside pocket for the document.
It wasn’t there.
“Leliana, did you see-”
Leliana was gone.
She froze and listened, all her senses on full alert. In those ridiculous shoes, Leliana couldn’t move silently… unless she’d taken them off, the dangers of moving barefoot in a city be damned.
Two could play at that game, and she pulled off her own horribly glittery heels, placing them neatly on a windowsill before running after the soft, shadowy steps from behind her.
Leliana was quick and quiet, but she did not have the endurance Elizabeth did, and though she tried to hide in the shadows when she ran out of strength and very nearly succeeded, her stifled gasping for air gave her away. “Leliana. I can hear you.”
Leliana squeaked and ran again, and Elizabeth chased her. She was gaining on Leliana when the other woman stumbled and fell with a pained cry.
Elizabeth was at her side immediately, not to capture, but with a knee-jerk reaction of offering assistance. “What happened? Are you hurt?”
“Don’t- don’t come any closer!” Leliana gasped desperately. “I’ll scream!”
“You’ll scream,” Elizabeth said flatly. “At me, your friend and roommate and policewoman. What’s this all about, Leliana?”
“I’ll scream and people will come, and I can talk them into taking you away!” Leliana said, crawling away crabwise. She was keeping her right foot still; she must have injured it.
“I believe you,” Elizabeth said, “but I just want to know why you took the evidence. Why would you help me like that and then betray me?” Her voice filled with anguish. She’d thought Leliana of all people would be true to her.
Leliana stared her down, but after a minute or two, her defiant gaze cracked and she looked away, ashamed. “I… I have my reasons.”
“Did the Crows… did they get to you? They paid you to sabotage me?”
“No! No, it’s not that.”
“Leliana, without that evidence, they will kill me. Justice and my survival go hand in hand right now. I need it.”
“I-I need it too! You don’t know-”
“So tell me,” Elizabeth said gently. “Please, Leliana. I’ll help you if I can.”
“You might have heard me speak of a woman named Marjoleine,” Leliana said slowly, sitting up on the cold, dirty ground a little.
“Yes, I vaguely recall. She was your manager at one point, wasn’t she?”
“Yes… but she was more than that. And… I owe her a great debt. A massive debt. Ever since we met, I’ve been working my very hardest to pay her off, to earn my freedom. This little paper would more than clear me of her.”
“What happens if you don’t earn your freedom?”
“She will send people to force me to return home, to Orlais, where I will be jailed for life for crimes I did not commit. For treason, Elizabeth. In my early career I was young and foolish and in the wrong place at the wrong time, and she saved me from being jailed then, but now she has blackmailed me into paying her off… perhaps forever. It’s the greatest of victories for me to be able to live relatively independently… with you. And I value your friendship, but I… I…” Leliana began to cry.
“I’m sorry,” Elizabeth said, but she didn’t know who to trust anymore. “You could have told me. I would have tried to help.”
“Would you have believed me?” Leliana spat. “No one else has ever believed me.”
“Whether I believe you or not has no bearing on opening an investigation,” Elizabeth said. “I believe you enough for that, and then the evidence would speak for itself, wouldn’t it? You know I’m good at my job. But I can’t help you if I’m dead. Is your freedom right now worth more than my life?”
Leliana paused, her face miserable. “No. No, I don’t want you dead.” She reached into her coat and pulled out the envelope, passed it to Elizabeth.
“Thank you,” Elizabeth said with relief. “Now, you fell because you hurt yourself, right? Where did you hurt yourself? Did you twist your ankle?”
“I think I stepped on a piece of glass,” Leliana said. “I don’t think I can walk…”
“That’s all right,” Elizabeth said. “I’ll hail a taxi and get you to Doctor Wynne’s place.”
“But it’s so late at night, surely she…”
“She won’t be exceptionally pleased, no, but she takes her confidentiality very seriously. You have to pay for it in gossip, but she really does never tell anyone. And her skills are the best.” Elizabeth rolled up her sleeve, showed the stitches in her arm. “She patched me up when Zevran shot me.”
Leliana managed a pained chuckle as Elizabeth put her arm over her shoulders and helped her to her feet, careful not to step on any of the glass herself. “Zevran, eh? That his first name or last name?”
Elizabeth almost dropped her again, but only in surprise that she’d been caught out. “First name. But you needn’t snicker, I’ll probably never see him again. Where did you leave your shoes? I’ll get them for you.”

After she dropped Leliana off at Wynne’s place and the long-suffering doctor had taken her in, Elizabeth made it to a payphone and called Alistair. “Sorry for waking you, but I need your help with something. Meet me by the docks. Thank you, Alistair.”
After she did, she went home, changed out of her glitter outfit, and slept finally.
She woke late the next day, having forgotten she had no alarm clock in her new, temporary apartment. When she called HQ in a panic, Duncan answered and told her to rest and recover and lie low.
She did for most of the day, but by evening she was ready to pace down the walls with nervous energy. Her arm hurt. Leliana had returned in the morning, her foot bandaged, but she kept to her own room, unable to face Elizabeth after the previous night.
It was a bad idea, but the only thing she could think of right now was alcohol. She’d smoked an entire pack of cigarettes through the day and it had done nothing for her nerves. Drinking on top of that would only turn her into an emotional wreck.
Well, damn it all. They couldn’t touch her now. And she needed to get drunk and morose for a bit.
Thus she ended up at the Gnawed Noble again. Sten Hildreth was still there, as if he’d never moved. Oghren Kondrat was not there, and she wondered where he was, if he’d found some new woman to futilely chase after, or just sampling the alcohol in a different bar for once.
After the third G&T, she put her head down on the bar, thoroughly dizzy. What was she actually doing here? Why had she ever thought this was a good idea?
Because she was lonely. She was so terribly lonely. Leliana was not speaking to her from mortification, Alistair was a good work friend but no more than that, and Zevran…
She shouldn’t even think of him. He’d walked out on her. He’d gone with Taliesin. He was probably still in love with Taliesin, had probably just been using her as an emotional bandaid while he figured out what he was doing with his life.
He wasn’t, her heart whispered to her, but it was awfully difficult to hear it over the alcohol-fueled depression. And maybe it was just thinking wishfully, telling her comforting lies in ignorance.
Or maybe he was dead. Taliesin probably betrayed him, or the Crows caught up to him. Even someone as clever and quick as him couldn’t run forever.
So she should never think about him again, was the best thing to do. Whether he was dead or returned to the Crows, it was better for her, anyway. She wouldn’t have to fight through mountains of red tape and legal opposition to get him informant status, and she’d got her evidence largely without his help anyway.
You wouldn’t have known where to look if he didn’t find out for you, her mind reminded her. You still owe him.
“Shut up!” she said aloud to herself, then pushed her glass towards Edwina. “’Nother.”
“Difficult case, huh?” Edwina said sympathetically, and pushed the glass back.
She wouldn’t think about him. Not about his beautiful elven face, or his lean, muscular body, the way he’d caught her when she jumped, the way he smiled charmingly or smugly or proudly, the way his amber eyes made her heart jump in her chest. Not about the way he’d held her close to him, not about the way he’d kissed her like she’d never been kissed, as if she was the only person in the world he could trust.
She wouldn’t. After the next glass.
“Here, you’re coming with us,” said a man’s voice, over Edwina’s rising protests, and then something thumped her in the back of the head and everything went black.

Chapter 10: Heavy Fuel