Josh Lindsey, B.C. [ch.2] PG13
Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2010 4:02 am
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Josh Lindsey, B.C.—Chapter 2
Beth curled up in Mick’s chair while Josh warily took a seat on the couch. He made sure to keep an eye on Josef, who headed straight for the bar.
“I’d offer you something to drink,” Josef said as he poured a glass of scotch, “but you’re here in an official capacity—right? So, no drinking on the job.” He looked over at Josh. Then he took a flask from his pocket and added a shot’s worth of a dark red liquid to his glass. “Pomegranate juice,” he explained, straight-faced. Then he winked at Beth. “Blondie, can I interest you in a drink?”
“No, thanks,” Beth replied, raising a brow at his brazenness. “I’m not a fan of…pomegranate.”
“Not yet, anyway,” Josef said half under his breath as he took a seat in a chair near Beth’s. “You know, I do not believe we have been formally introduced,” he said, staring at Josh. “Didn’t your mother tell you it’s not polite to wave a gun in a stranger’s face?”
“But it’d be polite to wave a gun in the face of someone you know?”
“‘Know your enemy,’” Josef quipped. He stuck out his hand. “Josef Kostan.”
“Assistant District Attorney Josh Lindsey.” Josh emphasized his title, nodding at Josef and making a point of not shaking the other man’s hand.
Josef raised his brows and smirked. “Right,” he nodded knowingly. “So. Back to our little discussion—which is completely off the record, by the way—I’ve known Lola a very long time, and she can be…well, convincing.” He flashed a small smile. “That was how she tricked me out of the money. When I came back to my senses, I sent Mick after Lola to find out what she was doing with the money she had taken from me. I had no idea what she was planning. If it had turned out to be something innocent, like a new wing at the children’s hospital, I would have let her get her name in big gold letters on the wall. But if she was doing anything illegal with it, which Mick discovered she was, I didn’t want it to come back and bite me.”
“So Mick was going to the warehouse not to get rid of any drug evidence, but to get rid of anything that might lead us to investigate you,” Josh surmised.
“I guess so, yeah,” Josef bristled. “But he wasn’t covering anything up, per se. I did nothing illegal, I was a victim! I didn’t care about getting my money back—a million bucks is chump change for me—I just didn’t want to get involved. I’m a very wealthy, high-profile businessman, and if it got out that I had provided some of the seed money for Lola’s little drug operation, however innocently, it would have been very bad for me.”
“So that somehow justified Mick blowing up the entire warehouse?”
“What?” Josef exclaimed.
Josh raised a brow. “Oh, so you didn’t know about that? Yeah, it seems that just as the police were getting ready to make entry, the warehouse exploded. I guess Mick must have found a lot of stuff there that pointed to you. Interesting.”
“Hey, wait a minute—I know lawyers love to jump to conclusions, but I seem to remember some kind of saying—what is it? Oh yeah—‘innocent until proven guilty.’ Do you have any proof that Mick blew up the warehouse?”
“Not yet. But the police are looking into it,” Josh said confidently.
“Did it occur to you that perhaps it was Lola cleaning up her little mess?”
Josh went still.
“I’ll take that as a big fat ‘Uhhh…no,’” Josef glared at him.
Josh frowned in return. “But wait a minute,” he said suddenly, “Beth said that lives were at stake, that she couldn’t talk about the reasons Mick might need to hijack evidence because she was protecting him and others. That doesn’t fit with the story you’ve told me.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Josef muttered inaudibly. He rolled his eyes and glared coldly at the blonde suddenly shrinking in her chair. “Way to not go, Blondie,” he hissed. “I would have thought a reporter could come up with some kind of cover story.” He turned to address Josh again. “Look, Mr. Lindsey, Mick will be home in about, say, oh, 15.35 seconds, so why don’t we just sit silently and twiddle our thumbs until then?”
“That’s awfully exact. How do you know—”
Josef threw up his hands. “Okay, somebody is obviously not very good at the silent game.”
“Must you deflect every—”
Just then the front door opened with a beep and Mick stepped slowly through the frame.
Josh looked from his watch to Josef to his watch again in disbelief. “How did you—”
Josef shrugged. “I’m psychic. I felt his vibrations.”
Josh scrunched up his face, but before he could say anything else, Mick spoke.
“—What’s going on here?”
“St. John,” Josh stood to face him, “would you mind telling me where you just were?”
Mick looked from Josh, who looked angry; to Beth, who looked worried and didn’t quite meet his eyes; to Josef, who looked furious; and back to Josh again. “Out. Errands.”
“Judging by the state and smell of your apparel, I imagine one of those errands was setting fire to a warehouse at Fifth and Alameda,” Josh posited.
Mick stared stonily at Josh, who met his eyes. Josef began speaking to Mick in levels too low for the humans to hear. “Mick, he knows you were at the warehouse. He overheard Blondie’s phone call telling you to get over there and get rid of anything you didn’t want the cops to find. I admitted to him about Lola and the stolen money and that you were just trying to keep my name out of it. But Buzzwire here had the bright idea to tell him before they arrived here that you were just trying to save more lives than they would and she couldn’t talk about it. So now our stories don’t match up.” He nearly crushed the glass in his hand. “I knew you shouldn’t have told a human!”
Mick turned away so Josh wouldn’t see his mouth moving and responded to Josef, “I didn’t tell her; she discovered me, remember? It happens sometimes. And overall, her knowing turned out to be a good thing.”
“Yeah, except for maybe right now,” Josef spat.
“Her intentions were good, she was trying to help us. You yourself told me what would happen if the cops discovered Lola. And you were right—you should’ve seen what was going on in that warehouse. I blew it up just in time. Now we only have one curious human to deal with, instead of twenty.”
“Mick St. John, looking at the bright side of things? Did I step out of the elevator and into the twilight zone?”
Mick emitted a low growl that only Josef would pick up and paced a few steps. Then he stopped behind a chair, sighed, and gripped its back hard. “Josef, I think we have to tell him,” he said aloud.
“Oh, sure,” Josef said, looking down his front and brushing off the lapels of his suit, “but then we’d have to kill him, and I’ve already met my tar pit quota for the week.”
After hearing Mick suggest that they come clean, Josh had turned to look at Josef. He saw him scowling and his mouth moving, but heard nothing. “Did you just say something?”
Josef looked up. “Did you hear me say something?” he challenged.
Josh furrowed his brow. “No, but your mouth was moving, and I thought you’d have something to say to what Mick just said.”
“If I did, I probably would have said something along the lines of, ‘if we told him, then we’d have to kill him.’”
“Excuse me?!”
“You heard me.” Josef replied smoothly. “—This time, anyway.”
“How could you possibly justify killing an assistant district attorney?” Josh demanded.
“Lots of ways,” Josef said easily, “Besides the obvious being a lawyer thing, if you knew the secret we’re trying to protect, you’d be a danger to the community.”
“My job is to serve and protect the community. How can I be a danger to them if I’m fully informed?”
“I thought you weren’t a cop,” Josef quipped, then added quite seriously to a very confused Josh, “And if I were you, I would have already gathered from all the ‘other lives at stake’ and the secrecy thing that we aren’t talking about the same community.”
“Josef,” Mick said suddenly, “He has a point—about being fully informed. As an ADA, he is in a position to help our community. Just as Beth spins stories when necessary, he could—”
Josh held up a hand. “Whoa—you’re saying you get Beth, who is all about getting the story, to omit or alter information from her reports?”
“That’s how important it is, Josh,” Beth finally spoke up. “If ‘our’ community became aware of theirs, the world would never, ever be the same again. My world was radically changed, but plenty of people would not handle the news as well as me.”
“How melodramatic of you, Blondie,” Josef bowed to her. She pursed her lips at him.
“Why did you tell Beth this secret?”
“She sort of…stumbled…upon it,” Mick said, “I had no choice but to tell her. And I thought I could trust her.”
“And up until tonight, he was right,” Josef growled.
Beth glared at him, but addressed her boyfriend. “Josh, think of it as classified information. The government keeps lots of information about potential terrorist threats from the public because there’s no sense in starting mass panic over events that may never actually occur.”
“And would the revelation of their ‘secret community’ to the world cause mass panic?”
“Ohhhhhh, yeah.” Mick said. “Big time. Worse than terrorist threats.”
“Worse?!”
“I guess we kind of have to tell him now, Mick, after all this buildup,” Josef began casually, valiantly holding back a grin, “If only to see the look on his face when he finds out that vampires exist.”
Silence.
“Does anybody have a pin to drop?” Josef whispered. “Not that I’d have a problem hearing it under normal circumstances, but—”
To be continued…
Josh Lindsey, B.C.—Chapter 2
Beth curled up in Mick’s chair while Josh warily took a seat on the couch. He made sure to keep an eye on Josef, who headed straight for the bar.
“I’d offer you something to drink,” Josef said as he poured a glass of scotch, “but you’re here in an official capacity—right? So, no drinking on the job.” He looked over at Josh. Then he took a flask from his pocket and added a shot’s worth of a dark red liquid to his glass. “Pomegranate juice,” he explained, straight-faced. Then he winked at Beth. “Blondie, can I interest you in a drink?”
“No, thanks,” Beth replied, raising a brow at his brazenness. “I’m not a fan of…pomegranate.”
“Not yet, anyway,” Josef said half under his breath as he took a seat in a chair near Beth’s. “You know, I do not believe we have been formally introduced,” he said, staring at Josh. “Didn’t your mother tell you it’s not polite to wave a gun in a stranger’s face?”
“But it’d be polite to wave a gun in the face of someone you know?”
“‘Know your enemy,’” Josef quipped. He stuck out his hand. “Josef Kostan.”
“Assistant District Attorney Josh Lindsey.” Josh emphasized his title, nodding at Josef and making a point of not shaking the other man’s hand.
Josef raised his brows and smirked. “Right,” he nodded knowingly. “So. Back to our little discussion—which is completely off the record, by the way—I’ve known Lola a very long time, and she can be…well, convincing.” He flashed a small smile. “That was how she tricked me out of the money. When I came back to my senses, I sent Mick after Lola to find out what she was doing with the money she had taken from me. I had no idea what she was planning. If it had turned out to be something innocent, like a new wing at the children’s hospital, I would have let her get her name in big gold letters on the wall. But if she was doing anything illegal with it, which Mick discovered she was, I didn’t want it to come back and bite me.”
“So Mick was going to the warehouse not to get rid of any drug evidence, but to get rid of anything that might lead us to investigate you,” Josh surmised.
“I guess so, yeah,” Josef bristled. “But he wasn’t covering anything up, per se. I did nothing illegal, I was a victim! I didn’t care about getting my money back—a million bucks is chump change for me—I just didn’t want to get involved. I’m a very wealthy, high-profile businessman, and if it got out that I had provided some of the seed money for Lola’s little drug operation, however innocently, it would have been very bad for me.”
“So that somehow justified Mick blowing up the entire warehouse?”
“What?” Josef exclaimed.
Josh raised a brow. “Oh, so you didn’t know about that? Yeah, it seems that just as the police were getting ready to make entry, the warehouse exploded. I guess Mick must have found a lot of stuff there that pointed to you. Interesting.”
“Hey, wait a minute—I know lawyers love to jump to conclusions, but I seem to remember some kind of saying—what is it? Oh yeah—‘innocent until proven guilty.’ Do you have any proof that Mick blew up the warehouse?”
“Not yet. But the police are looking into it,” Josh said confidently.
“Did it occur to you that perhaps it was Lola cleaning up her little mess?”
Josh went still.
“I’ll take that as a big fat ‘Uhhh…no,’” Josef glared at him.
Josh frowned in return. “But wait a minute,” he said suddenly, “Beth said that lives were at stake, that she couldn’t talk about the reasons Mick might need to hijack evidence because she was protecting him and others. That doesn’t fit with the story you’ve told me.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Josef muttered inaudibly. He rolled his eyes and glared coldly at the blonde suddenly shrinking in her chair. “Way to not go, Blondie,” he hissed. “I would have thought a reporter could come up with some kind of cover story.” He turned to address Josh again. “Look, Mr. Lindsey, Mick will be home in about, say, oh, 15.35 seconds, so why don’t we just sit silently and twiddle our thumbs until then?”
“That’s awfully exact. How do you know—”
Josef threw up his hands. “Okay, somebody is obviously not very good at the silent game.”
“Must you deflect every—”
Just then the front door opened with a beep and Mick stepped slowly through the frame.
Josh looked from his watch to Josef to his watch again in disbelief. “How did you—”
Josef shrugged. “I’m psychic. I felt his vibrations.”
Josh scrunched up his face, but before he could say anything else, Mick spoke.
“—What’s going on here?”
“St. John,” Josh stood to face him, “would you mind telling me where you just were?”
Mick looked from Josh, who looked angry; to Beth, who looked worried and didn’t quite meet his eyes; to Josef, who looked furious; and back to Josh again. “Out. Errands.”
“Judging by the state and smell of your apparel, I imagine one of those errands was setting fire to a warehouse at Fifth and Alameda,” Josh posited.
Mick stared stonily at Josh, who met his eyes. Josef began speaking to Mick in levels too low for the humans to hear. “Mick, he knows you were at the warehouse. He overheard Blondie’s phone call telling you to get over there and get rid of anything you didn’t want the cops to find. I admitted to him about Lola and the stolen money and that you were just trying to keep my name out of it. But Buzzwire here had the bright idea to tell him before they arrived here that you were just trying to save more lives than they would and she couldn’t talk about it. So now our stories don’t match up.” He nearly crushed the glass in his hand. “I knew you shouldn’t have told a human!”
Mick turned away so Josh wouldn’t see his mouth moving and responded to Josef, “I didn’t tell her; she discovered me, remember? It happens sometimes. And overall, her knowing turned out to be a good thing.”
“Yeah, except for maybe right now,” Josef spat.
“Her intentions were good, she was trying to help us. You yourself told me what would happen if the cops discovered Lola. And you were right—you should’ve seen what was going on in that warehouse. I blew it up just in time. Now we only have one curious human to deal with, instead of twenty.”
“Mick St. John, looking at the bright side of things? Did I step out of the elevator and into the twilight zone?”
Mick emitted a low growl that only Josef would pick up and paced a few steps. Then he stopped behind a chair, sighed, and gripped its back hard. “Josef, I think we have to tell him,” he said aloud.
“Oh, sure,” Josef said, looking down his front and brushing off the lapels of his suit, “but then we’d have to kill him, and I’ve already met my tar pit quota for the week.”
After hearing Mick suggest that they come clean, Josh had turned to look at Josef. He saw him scowling and his mouth moving, but heard nothing. “Did you just say something?”
Josef looked up. “Did you hear me say something?” he challenged.
Josh furrowed his brow. “No, but your mouth was moving, and I thought you’d have something to say to what Mick just said.”
“If I did, I probably would have said something along the lines of, ‘if we told him, then we’d have to kill him.’”
“Excuse me?!”
“You heard me.” Josef replied smoothly. “—This time, anyway.”
“How could you possibly justify killing an assistant district attorney?” Josh demanded.
“Lots of ways,” Josef said easily, “Besides the obvious being a lawyer thing, if you knew the secret we’re trying to protect, you’d be a danger to the community.”
“My job is to serve and protect the community. How can I be a danger to them if I’m fully informed?”
“I thought you weren’t a cop,” Josef quipped, then added quite seriously to a very confused Josh, “And if I were you, I would have already gathered from all the ‘other lives at stake’ and the secrecy thing that we aren’t talking about the same community.”
“Josef,” Mick said suddenly, “He has a point—about being fully informed. As an ADA, he is in a position to help our community. Just as Beth spins stories when necessary, he could—”
Josh held up a hand. “Whoa—you’re saying you get Beth, who is all about getting the story, to omit or alter information from her reports?”
“That’s how important it is, Josh,” Beth finally spoke up. “If ‘our’ community became aware of theirs, the world would never, ever be the same again. My world was radically changed, but plenty of people would not handle the news as well as me.”
“How melodramatic of you, Blondie,” Josef bowed to her. She pursed her lips at him.
“Why did you tell Beth this secret?”
“She sort of…stumbled…upon it,” Mick said, “I had no choice but to tell her. And I thought I could trust her.”
“And up until tonight, he was right,” Josef growled.
Beth glared at him, but addressed her boyfriend. “Josh, think of it as classified information. The government keeps lots of information about potential terrorist threats from the public because there’s no sense in starting mass panic over events that may never actually occur.”
“And would the revelation of their ‘secret community’ to the world cause mass panic?”
“Ohhhhhh, yeah.” Mick said. “Big time. Worse than terrorist threats.”
“Worse?!”
“I guess we kind of have to tell him now, Mick, after all this buildup,” Josef began casually, valiantly holding back a grin, “If only to see the look on his face when he finds out that vampires exist.”
Silence.
“Does anybody have a pin to drop?” Josef whispered. “Not that I’d have a problem hearing it under normal circumstances, but—”
To be continued…