CC#150 Murder on the Sixth Floor. SOFT 'R'/Lucy

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Lucy
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CC#150 Murder on the Sixth Floor. SOFT 'R'/Lucy

Post by Lucy »

CC #150: Murder on the Sixth Floor

** To make it a bit more challenging, please use all three of the following special words in your entry: anniversary, fountain and premiere. **

As usual, your entry must be inspired by this Challenge prompt, and must be set in the Moonlight universe. It can be any rating, any length, as long as it features at least one Moonlight character. Please post your entry in your office and then reply to this thread with a link to your entry, including the title and rating. If you don't have an office, please pm Allegrita and she'll set one up for you.

This Challenge will run through the end of the month.


Rated soft R for turmoil,sexual innuendo and torment. I own nothing and thank Moonlight for loaning me Mick St John.

= = = = = = =

The rain beat on the fabric roof, fat rain drops that reminded Mick that he needed the Benz’s roof replaced for the 2nd time. Music played inside his head, the dark notes, the minors, were rising to prominence, clashing with the roots and the fifths. It was 1976 and it was a slow month. Stake-outs were the worst, especially those spent in the front seat of his car. It had been slow starting in the PI business. Mick slumped in the backseat, binoculars in his lap, trying not to attract too much attention from the luckless pedestrians, the hoi polloi who trudged the rain swept 8pm sidewalks. It was a helluva way to spend his 6th Anniversary of being on his own.

Josef hadn’t made a killing on the 6th floor of his growing financial firm and Mick’s checking account had been taking a thrashing from the rising cost of gas and electric. It hadn’t helped that he had bitten off a mouthful of debt with a mortgage on a loft. It wasn’t often that his pockets were lonely for a wad of cash, but this contract proved he’d fiddled a bit more than he should have. His life was very strange now….away from Coraline, far enough to not see his pained expressions in the glass house. Mick St John had climbed to the top of the Title Guaranty Building, carved out a loft (all the rage he was told) and struggled to give the undead life a try.

From the start he’d decided to not carry a gun; they attracted too much attention, besides how do you explain bullet holes in clothing that don’t line up to scars on the body? Vamp speed worked better for his purposes, except when you were hidden under an auto blanket in the back seat of an old car on Pico waiting for some douche-bag of a husband to come out of a restaurant with his latest squeeze.

Yes, Mick St John’s undead ‘life’ had fallen that far. He knew the tension overtaking him, knew he’d sublimated most of it into chin ups on the stairs that led to an empty second floor. Wasn’t it a wry metaphor for his life: fashionable stairs leading to an expanse of slate floor, cool and irregular under his bare feet that led to a stoic freezer room?

The restaurant door released the sound of music and an umbrella popped open to rise above a couple, was it the dickhead of a guy who left a pregnant wife at home? It’s not nice to leave the daughter of a major shipping company home alone. When Mick found the husband his orders were simply record the addresses and their timetables. Do not make contact, don’t be noticed. Considering the pay Mick figured some pair of ham-fisted enforcers would finish the job; murder on the 6th floor, leaving any future courts records to reflect a P.I. had merely followed the illicit couple.

Fountains of water sluiced down the glistened black umbrella, obscuring exactly who wielded the high end bumbershoot. From the jacket and trousers it could be a philanderer, just not HIS philanderer. Mick settled back into the caramel leather seating and the mechanized hum of another world he fluctuated between. Where would he be in 10 years? 20 years? Or would he slip, give into his vampire nature and go down in a ‘mad dog’ surrender under a Cleaner’s flame?

Maybe he’d fall back on gig he’d done once after the War, ‘Walking’. Living in L.A. it was easy to slide into a tux and appear on some doyenne’s arm for a premier or a charity event. What was the irony? The women he’d likely ‘walk’ would be his age, in their 50’s. The flashing camera bulbs revealing a blurred pretty boy next to a 40’s starlet with no harm no foul to ‘the tribe.’

Light and music signaled more diners departing the steak house. Flipping his wrist he caught the time, 9:28, if he had smoked he’d have already been on the sidewalk working the filter end of the cigarette between his thumb and third finger like he did between trumpet sets in the 40’s. That was before fire was such a personal hazard.

Mick eyed the black Continental in the valet area, it was the last car under the scope of the security light if only it’s driver and his tart would down their coffee and cordials and drag their happy asses out the door. Mick would follow the chromed beauty to whatever bungalow the tart called home and he’d type up his notes at the loft in the mostly empty room he called his ‘office’. Mick’s eyes slid closed as if to blink into another era when he heard the rain stop. The sudden silence of Mother Nature’s onslaught amplified the neon restaurant sign and aggravated Mick’s vampire nature. Just when he was about to reach for a bag of A+ the door released a woman’s sensual laughter. More than words, her throaty glee would entice any swinging dick to drive her home and drive her crazy.

Employing a bit of back to front seat gymnastics Mick slipped into the driver’s seat and keyed the ignition. That voice, that lilt. It stopped Mick before he could slide the gear shift into drive. The couple dallied at the rear fender, damned if the car was slick with water, and dropped their decorum. One high-heeled leg curled around the back of the guy’s knees but before the swell grabbed her around the waist her porcelain chin rested on the guy’s square shoulder.

Could they feel him watching? Was that why she paused now, for the dramatic effect? Mick shook his head at recognizing her, his client wouldn’t need to know how to get a message to this idiot. Coraline would do the job for free.

Mick threw the Benz into drive and beat a path to the beach, at this time and in this weather he would be alone. A solitary man with his thoughts, and that woman back on his mind.

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BlueEyedMonster
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Re: CC#150 Murder on the Sixth Floor. SOFT 'R'/Lucy

Post by BlueEyedMonster »

So good Lucy I really love your way with words.

And there she was again Coraline always haunting him.
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cassysj
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Re: CC#150 Murder on the Sixth Floor. SOFT 'R'/Lucy

Post by cassysj »

Coraline is always in his shadows, even when he is desperately trying to avoid her. Well done.
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Re: CC#150 Murder on the Sixth Floor. SOFT 'R'/Lucy

Post by Shadow »

Poor Mick! Everywhere he goes, there is Coraline, as if she's haunting him. Was this planned on her part, I wonder, or interesting coincidence?

I love this look into a Mick who is finding his way on his own, and not necessarily finding it an easy thing. The payments on that loft have got to be frightening . . . but it's his place now, and it is interesting to find out just when he made it his.

Lovely mood and atmosphere . . . so very appropriately noir.
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Re: CC#150 Murder on the Sixth Floor. SOFT 'R'/Lucy

Post by Lucy »

Thanks, ladies for visiting.... She is always on his mind in some way (sad to say)
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Re: CC#150 Murder on the Sixth Floor. SOFT 'R'/Lucy

Post by francis »

This is so great. Love the whole Noir feel and the way you worked in the challenge words.
Coraline took care of the adulterer but that won't help his wife much. At least she's rich and won't be on the streets as an unwed mother. I hope Mick still gets paid and won't be the one framed for murder because he watched and must have been noticed with his fancy car.
Poor Mick will never really get rid of Coraline, huh?
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Re: CC#150 Murder on the Sixth Floor. SOFT 'R'/Lucy

Post by Lucy »

francis wrote:This is so great. Love the whole Noir feel and the way you worked in the challenge words.
Coraline took care of the adulterer but that won't help his wife much. At least she's rich and won't be on the streets as an unwed mother. I hope Mick still gets paid and won't be the one framed for murder because he watched and must have been noticed with his fancy car.
Poor Mick will never really get rid of Coraline, huh?
Thanks, Francis!
With a bit of luck he won't be blamed, I'll bet Coraline has a monthly account with the Cleaners!
Then - yes the wife can clean up her life and make better choices in the future!
Meanwhile, Mick can share what he knows and hopefully not be called in as a witness for the man's disappearance ...... But that could be a whole nother story !
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Re: CC#150 Murder on the Sixth Floor. SOFT 'R'/Lucy

Post by darkstarrising »

Mick has come full circle in this wonderfully noire story, Lucy :hug: He finally has pulled away from Coraline to start a 'life' of his own, but it's tough. He's in debt, he's working jobs that are long and boring, but he's also alone. Still, he's trying, but karma's a b!tch - not only is his target the last one out of the club, but Coraline is with him. The woman he lost his life and heart to is never really out of his thoughts.
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Re: CC#150 Murder on the Sixth Floor. SOFT 'R'/Lucy

Post by Lucy »

darkstarrising wrote:Mick has come full circle in this wonderfully noire story, Lucy :hug: He finally has pulled away from Coraline to start a 'life' of his own, but it's tough. He's in debt, he's working jobs that are long and boring, but he's also alone. Still, he's trying, but karma's a b!tch - not only is his target the last one out of the club, but Coraline is with him. The woman he lost his life and heart to is never really out of his thoughts.

As a favorite or dreaded song reminds us: it's a small world after all :snicker:

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Re: CC#150 Murder on the Sixth Floor. SOFT 'R'/Lucy

Post by jen »

Lucy

I love the ambiance and pace of this piece.

The reader gets the feeling that Mick is between major events--the firey passion that accompanied the end of his mortal existence and introduced him to life among the undead and...he doesn't really know...

At the time events of this story unfold, he's starting to envision a future of some sort. Coraline still beckons, and the memory of what they shared is still very much in his mind but the tide is going out on that.

This stage is truly Mick's becoming.

Fabulous.

Thank you!

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Re: CC#150 Murder on the Sixth Floor. SOFT 'R'/Lucy

Post by Lucy »

jen wrote:Lucy

I love the ambiance and pace of this piece.

The reader gets the feeling that Mick is between major events--the firey passion that accompanied the end of his mortal existence and introduced him to life among the undead and...he doesn't really know...

At the time events of this story unfold, he's starting to envision a future of some sort. Coraline still beckons, and the memory of what they shared is still very much in his mind but the tide is going out on that.

This stage is truly Mick's becoming.

Fabulous.

Thank you!

Jenna

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Wow, you are always so kind with your comments.. :highfive: ...words or emoticons can't express my gratitude! So glad you saw so much in the story! :notworthy:
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Re: CC#150 Murder on the Sixth Floor. SOFT 'R'/Lucy

Post by allegrita »

Ah, somebody's been listening to Steely Dan. :teeth: Love the lyrics snippets, they tie in well with the time period. And I can absolutely see Mick loving Fagen and Becker's wry, sophisticated take on life, not to mention their jazzy roots.

Mick's got to be wondering if somehow, Coraline got him this job--if she's still manipulating him, even though he's done his best to get away from her influence. It's hard to escape a sire's net, especially when that sire is your wife. One hopes that Coraline will have the courtesy to let Mick follow them to an address so he can write up his report and collect his fee, before she has her snack. The poor guy's got a hefty mortgage to pay, after all. :brow:
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Re: CC#150 Murder on the Sixth Floor. SOFT 'R'/Lucy

Post by Lucy »

allegrita wrote:Ah, somebody's been listening to Steely Dan. :teeth: Love the lyrics snippets, they tie in well with the time period. And I can absolutely see Mick loving Fagen and Becker's wry, sophisticated take on life, not to mention their jazzy roots.

Mick's got to be wondering if somehow, Coraline got him this job--if she's still manipulating him, even though he's done his best to get away from her influence. It's hard to escape a sire's net, especially when that sire is your wife. One hopes that Coraline will have the courtesy to let Mick follow them to an address so he can write up his report and collect his fee, before she has her snack. The poor guy's got a hefty mortgage to pay, after all. :brow:
I consume a heavy diet of Steely Dan whenever possible. I agree that MSJ has a vibe that runs parallel to theirs ( always preferred that Mick played coronet to guitar with those divine lips)

I wonder how many times this PI got a job due to Cora's schemes. Ah. All's well that ends up with Mick getting the job done!

You have been so busy, Thanks for flying in! :notworthy:
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Re: CC#150 Murder on the Sixth Floor. SOFT 'R'/Lucy

Post by nutmegger911 »

Wow! I just came across this, and wow!

What a fantastic noir piece. You really capture the feel. Well done.
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Re: CC#150 Murder on the Sixth Floor. SOFT 'R'/Lucy

Post by cassysj »

Wanted to give this a bump
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