17-02-2020, 02:18 AM
(This post was last modified: 17-02-2020, 02:19 AM by Ramesh_Rocky. Edited 1 time in total. Edited 1 time in total.)
They pulled into the Autorimessa. Mander got out and opened the door for Helen.
"You're right about blowing it all up." He said. "He's hopefully used up all the C-4 now. If he used four sticks like he did for the one bomb with the other two, that's fourteen gone by my count. It also means it's his last trick before scarpering."
"It looks like it's up to The Sword to find him for us now. We should probably get back to what we were doing before: Figuring out what the hell this is all about."
They walked back to her Study, where Eliot's computer had been returned and the photos sat around it, arranged like they'd been when she first found them in his apartment. She sat at it and pictured the apartment again. Helen closed her eyes. Mander watched quizzically.
"You and Susan ain't learned more psychic stuff ya haven't told me about?" He asked.
"Nothing like that; I'm visualizing, here. Trying to figure out what was in his head. He was at the computer, having his SpaghettiOs... and looking at the photos."
In her head, Helen reached for a bowl of SpaghettiOs and took a bite. She looked up at the Duel and Last Crusade posters she remembered, then back at a computer that, in her mind, had a screen filled with a big question mark. Then she remembered Luc's report of what Eliot had been looking up. Deciding that Indiana Jones action figures weren't the solution, she turned her head and remembered the other thing Eliot was looking at. She said again what she said the first time she saw the Close Encounters poster, but knew she was doing it this time.
"This... MEANS something! He was having lunch while he went over the photos and looked at the Wiesenthal Center's site." She opened her eyes and looked down at the headshots of the actors and the real people they'd been cast to portray. She went through the printout of his history as another thought was coming into her mind. She reached for the information from Scott's computer as well. "Whoever set Dietz up with Scott set things in motion a couple weeks back. Eliot's interest in the Wiesenthal Center started..." She flipped through the report. "Three days before his death."
Mander thought on what she was telling him as well.
"Then it's not connected. Not directly, if the plan to kill him started two weeks ago."
"True..." Helen mused. "It can't be a complete coincidence; there's too much to it." She looked at the shooting schedule Scott had sent to Dietz. Further digging had shown that he'd gotten others for the days leading up to his death.
Helen called for Nunzio, who brought her a cocoa and Mander a pint. They thought and drank for a moment while Nunzio waited to see if they needed anything else. Mander took a sip and shared his thoughts.
"Seems Dietz's fallen into the same trap others have when trying to cross Your Countessness. He made one really good try to stop ya, that didn't work, so he tried something bigger. And when that don't work either, he takes it to the next level."
"A cowboy hit." Nunzio muttered agreement. Then he remembered that in his training, he'd been warned against speaking above his station. Then he remembered that La Contessa had told him on the first day to ignore that shit and if he had something to tell her, to damn well tell her.
Mander wasn't familiar with the term. Helen was. She turned to Nunzio.
"There's an old person in your life who sat you down and watched old gangster movies with you too, isn't there?" She asked Nunzio. He nodded. She then turned to Mander. "A cowboy hit is a deliberately sloppy hit, like Dutch Schultz. Kill some bystanders, leave lots of witnesses, break shit, make it messy! You want this in the papers. You want it to go into the history books like The Valentine's Day Massacre!"
"I was here at the castle when the first two incidents occurred, Contessa." Nunzio continued "When you got the news about the director and when they attacked Lady Maria. And then, from what I've heard on the news today, they've only now attacked the production itself. The director was alone at home when he was killed, and the set was closed when they attacked her."
Mander caught where Nunzio was heading.
"So, hitting the set was Plan C. He tried to kill the director and that didn't stop ya. So, he tried to kill either Your Countessness or Her Princessness and that didn't stop either of ya. Apart from the staff here, that plan didn't involve any bystanders until they chased her into the streets. They didn't kill the guy with the clipboard today, but Allaine said that from his story, LeGrasse's good timing was the only thing that saved him. Targeting the film and killing actors was a last resort when it should've been the first. One or two people die making movies all the time and they keep going. If they'd succeeded today, you'd've had no choice."
Helen took it in and looked at the photos again. Then she looked at the shooting schedule.
"You're both right. When he killed Eliot, it was away from the set and everyone else. Filming was off the day they attacked Maria. And there's something else here. Something I'm seeing now."
She flipped through the schedule to be certain, then looked at the one for the day of Eliot's murder. The one for the day after simply said that shooting was on hold for mourning. And today's showed Compton's crew was set to film the Battle in the Caverns.
"There's another common thread: Who's NOT there! Who ISN'T in the scene! Vincenzo wasn't in the battle. La Resistance got him out before it started. It was between the Ultimados and Schell's SS troops. But neither of THEM were there! And the last two people on Eliot's mind were Gino Giovanni and Tad Chase, the guy playing Schell. I've got an idea, but I need to get cleaned up first. You probably should too, Mander. I want to show some respect where we're going."
She gathered up the pictures and turned to Nunzio. "Nunzio, go to the cellar and bring me a bottle of something good."
The page nodded and left. Helen went to the passage to her bedroom to go wash the dust out of her hair and get changed.
"We're going out again after all that?" Mander asked.
She stepped through to the passage and turned back to Mander.
"The answer to all of this is buried in history. We need to talk to someone who was there!"
"Yes." Helen replied, pressing the button. "I'm getting ideas about what this could be about, but I need to pay a visit to a special someone to be sure."
"You're right about blowing it all up." He said. "He's hopefully used up all the C-4 now. If he used four sticks like he did for the one bomb with the other two, that's fourteen gone by my count. It also means it's his last trick before scarpering."
"It looks like it's up to The Sword to find him for us now. We should probably get back to what we were doing before: Figuring out what the hell this is all about."
They walked back to her Study, where Eliot's computer had been returned and the photos sat around it, arranged like they'd been when she first found them in his apartment. She sat at it and pictured the apartment again. Helen closed her eyes. Mander watched quizzically.
"You and Susan ain't learned more psychic stuff ya haven't told me about?" He asked.
"Nothing like that; I'm visualizing, here. Trying to figure out what was in his head. He was at the computer, having his SpaghettiOs... and looking at the photos."
In her head, Helen reached for a bowl of SpaghettiOs and took a bite. She looked up at the Duel and Last Crusade posters she remembered, then back at a computer that, in her mind, had a screen filled with a big question mark. Then she remembered Luc's report of what Eliot had been looking up. Deciding that Indiana Jones action figures weren't the solution, she turned her head and remembered the other thing Eliot was looking at. She said again what she said the first time she saw the Close Encounters poster, but knew she was doing it this time.
"This... MEANS something! He was having lunch while he went over the photos and looked at the Wiesenthal Center's site." She opened her eyes and looked down at the headshots of the actors and the real people they'd been cast to portray. She went through the printout of his history as another thought was coming into her mind. She reached for the information from Scott's computer as well. "Whoever set Dietz up with Scott set things in motion a couple weeks back. Eliot's interest in the Wiesenthal Center started..." She flipped through the report. "Three days before his death."
Mander thought on what she was telling him as well.
"Then it's not connected. Not directly, if the plan to kill him started two weeks ago."
"True..." Helen mused. "It can't be a complete coincidence; there's too much to it." She looked at the shooting schedule Scott had sent to Dietz. Further digging had shown that he'd gotten others for the days leading up to his death.
Helen called for Nunzio, who brought her a cocoa and Mander a pint. They thought and drank for a moment while Nunzio waited to see if they needed anything else. Mander took a sip and shared his thoughts.
"Seems Dietz's fallen into the same trap others have when trying to cross Your Countessness. He made one really good try to stop ya, that didn't work, so he tried something bigger. And when that don't work either, he takes it to the next level."
"A cowboy hit." Nunzio muttered agreement. Then he remembered that in his training, he'd been warned against speaking above his station. Then he remembered that La Contessa had told him on the first day to ignore that shit and if he had something to tell her, to damn well tell her.
Mander wasn't familiar with the term. Helen was. She turned to Nunzio.
"There's an old person in your life who sat you down and watched old gangster movies with you too, isn't there?" She asked Nunzio. He nodded. She then turned to Mander. "A cowboy hit is a deliberately sloppy hit, like Dutch Schultz. Kill some bystanders, leave lots of witnesses, break shit, make it messy! You want this in the papers. You want it to go into the history books like The Valentine's Day Massacre!"
"I was here at the castle when the first two incidents occurred, Contessa." Nunzio continued "When you got the news about the director and when they attacked Lady Maria. And then, from what I've heard on the news today, they've only now attacked the production itself. The director was alone at home when he was killed, and the set was closed when they attacked her."
Mander caught where Nunzio was heading.
"So, hitting the set was Plan C. He tried to kill the director and that didn't stop ya. So, he tried to kill either Your Countessness or Her Princessness and that didn't stop either of ya. Apart from the staff here, that plan didn't involve any bystanders until they chased her into the streets. They didn't kill the guy with the clipboard today, but Allaine said that from his story, LeGrasse's good timing was the only thing that saved him. Targeting the film and killing actors was a last resort when it should've been the first. One or two people die making movies all the time and they keep going. If they'd succeeded today, you'd've had no choice."
Helen took it in and looked at the photos again. Then she looked at the shooting schedule.
"You're both right. When he killed Eliot, it was away from the set and everyone else. Filming was off the day they attacked Maria. And there's something else here. Something I'm seeing now."
She flipped through the schedule to be certain, then looked at the one for the day of Eliot's murder. The one for the day after simply said that shooting was on hold for mourning. And today's showed Compton's crew was set to film the Battle in the Caverns.
"There's another common thread: Who's NOT there! Who ISN'T in the scene! Vincenzo wasn't in the battle. La Resistance got him out before it started. It was between the Ultimados and Schell's SS troops. But neither of THEM were there! And the last two people on Eliot's mind were Gino Giovanni and Tad Chase, the guy playing Schell. I've got an idea, but I need to get cleaned up first. You probably should too, Mander. I want to show some respect where we're going."
She gathered up the pictures and turned to Nunzio. "Nunzio, go to the cellar and bring me a bottle of something good."
The page nodded and left. Helen went to the passage to her bedroom to go wash the dust out of her hair and get changed.
"We're going out again after all that?" Mander asked.
She stepped through to the passage and turned back to Mander.
"The answer to all of this is buried in history. We need to talk to someone who was there!"
"Yes." Helen replied, pressing the button. "I'm getting ideas about what this could be about, but I need to pay a visit to a special someone to be sure."
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