RVA: Shadow of Doubt, Truths Be Told
May. 9th, 2016 07:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalCivil Protection arrived, again, within a few minutes of Zaker’s call. Detective Lt. Lightfoot arrived with them, and took statements from Zaker, Salli, Fin, Razi and Karra, as well as downloading the damning audio log from the parlor’s com. He completed his tasks with ill grace, looking decidedly disgruntled at having his investigation short-circuited by an amateur.
“If you had gotten yourself shot by that vixen,” he jammed a thumb at Nari, still unconscious and being strapped to a stretcher for transport to the CP station, “I’d be having a very unpleasant conversation with your lady mother right now.”
“Well I didn’t, so it worked out,” Salli told him. “Don’t worry, I’m certain my mother will repeat the same points that you and Officer Fin have made to me. Repeatedly.”
“Just don’t get the idea of taking up detecting as a hobby,” he grumbled.
“No worries there, Detective. I will be returning to my duties as Governor of Greenholme as soon as…” Salli frowned, thinking of Ali still lying in her hospital bed. “Well, as soon as I am able.”
“Are we done here?” Razi asked. “I want to see Ali before we have to go home.”
“I think so,” Lightfoot said. “I need to follow up to HQ and interrogate our suspect once she wakes up.”
“And I need to talk to my parents so they have a chance to chastise me,” Salli said. “Razi, Karra, I’ll follow along when I can.” She exchanged hugs with the two vixens, then took her leave and headed up to her parent’s office.
To her surprise, she not only found Mother and Father, along with Zaker, but also Count Longear, dressed in his formal house uniform, obviously having flown in from attending some duty related to his authority as Minister of Justice.
“Count Longear,” she greeted. “I’m very surprised to find you here.” She spared a glance at Zaker, who was doing poor job at trying to look innocent.
Longear gave her a brief bow. “When I heard that Miss Blacksailor’s attacker had been apprehended, I decided it would be prudent to come here, so I could reiterate my word of support for your House’s safety.” He gestured to Zaker briefly. “I was just explaining to your parents our agent’s role in the investigation of the late Countess Highglider and her conspiracy against your House.”
“Ah, so I was right,” Salli said, smiling grimly in satisfaction.
“Indeed. Now that you are here, I can also inform them of your sister-in-law, Lady Melanie’s, extracurricular activities, such as they are.”
Now it was Salli’s turn to try and look innocent. “I… don’t know what you are talking about,” she said weakly.
“Nor do I,” her mother said, frowning. “Lady Melanie has been a great aid to our House, and a great comfort to my son Rolas. I can not believe she is involved in anything questionable.”
“Less ‘involved’ and more ‘up to her neck,” Longear said dryly. “Do you recall when Lady Melanie came to you with that loan offer to rescue Lord Rolas?”
“Of course,” her father said. “She never even asked us to pay it back.”
“Well, there was little need,” Longear gestured to Salli. “Would you like to inform them of the truth, Lady Sallivera?”
“Oh, please,” Salli said fervently, a smile growing on her face. “I’ve been waiting for over a year to get this off my chest!”
“Salli, whatever to you mean?” her mother demanded. “What is going on?”
“The reason Melanie came so miraculously out of the blue with that loan offer is because she already knew about it. Mostly because she was the Red Vixen.” Salli smiled, for one brief moment enjoying the look of absolute crogglement on her parents’ faces. “You see Melanie, aside from being greedy, was also bored. I gather from talking to Rolas that she came into the pirate thing when she rescued her brother from some financial difficulty.”
“Yes, we were aware of that,” Longear put in. “Marl Lovejoy is not exactly the most shining example of Noble administrative capacity. I believe his current tasks are more congruent with his displayed abilities.”
“All he does nowadays is get drunk,” her father pointed out.
“Precisely.”
“Countess Highglider needed to hire a pirate to take our family’s freighter,” she continued. “Fortunately, and I use that term without irony, that pirate turned out to be the Red Vixen. When she found out the reasons why Rolas was captaining a freighter with such a valuable cargo, she actually felt quite remorseful. For once. That’s also why the Red Vixen started attacking House Highglider’s trading ships after Rolas was successfully returned to us.”
“You knew about this, and you never told us?” Mother demanded.
“I didn’t hear the whole story until much later, after Melanie had rescued Ali and myself from Bloody Margo. Rolas figured it out the night she’d been wounded in Hotclaw’s assassination attempt against me however.”
“So you see,” Count Longear put in to her parents, “Lady Sallivera is not the first member of your family to fall in love with a pirate.”
“But how do you know all about this, Longear?” her father asked.
“Well, when the Red Vixen first started her career some ten years back, it was of course a matter of concern to the Ministry of Justice. A rogue foxen with the resources to command a pirate vessel pointed to either a Noble, a highly placed Military caste officer, or perhaps even a very rich Commoner,” Longear explained. “Once we figured that out, it was merely a matter of tracking the movements of likely suspects, and comparing moments when they dropped out of sight to appearances of the Red Vixen. After the field was narrowed down, we managed to obtain a DNA sample of the Red Vixen’s fur; not very hard given her normal mode of dress; and compared it to Lady Melanie’s medical records.”
“If that’s true, and you knew about it,” Mother said darkly, “why isn’t she in prison?”
Count Longear gave her a nod of respect for the point. “Lady Melanie is, as my colleague the Minister of Intelligence would put it, a ‘useful idiot’. She’s not as clever as she thinks she is, but she has access to resources and contacts that would not normally be available to our government. So long as she kept her predations confined to non-foxen targets, and maintained an aversion to civilian casualties, we saw no reason to interfere with her. Though she is retired from piracy now, there may come a time when we wish for her to activate her Red Vixen persona again for our own purposes. Having a list of charges to bring against her should she prove reluctant to help,” he smiled briefly, “is just a nice bonus.”
“What about Alinadar?” Mother demanded. “Did she know any of this?”
“Ali only knew Melanie in her persona as the Red Vixen,” Salli explained. “She found out about her double life at the same time I did.”
“Miss Blacksailor said she was the Red Vixen’s slave,” her father said, looking very troubled.
“And so she was. A slave deeply in love with Melanie, and grateful for being rescued from her life under Bloody Margo. Once Melanie decided to retire, she had enough brains to realize she couldn’t just dump Ali into the street. She needed to find someone to hand her off to. When I announced my intentions to go on my Grand Tour, she arranged for Ali to be hired as my bodyguard, with the intention of throwing us together.”
“Wait a moment, I thought the Red… Mel…” her mother stumbled, looking utterly flummoxed now. “I thought she was trying to kidnap you, and Alinadar had rebelled against that idea.”
“She was, and Ali did,” Salli said, trying not to enjoy her mother’s discomfort too much. “As Count Longear noted, Melanie isn’t quite as clever as she thinks she is. Countess Highglider’s separate conspiracy sidetracked that overly convoluted plan. It was sheer luck that Melanie was already aboard the Scarlet Claw and ready to swoop in and ‘kidnap’ me when Bloody Margo attacked the liner we were traveling on.”
“Kidnap… her sister-in-law… because she wanted to find a lover for Alinadar,” Mother repeated slowly, looking like she was going to choke.
“Yes,” Longear said helpfully. He looked like he was doing his best not to enjoy the Countess’ discomfort as well. “I thought you might like to know.”
“Sallivera…” her mother began to speak, then stopped, seeming to think better of it.
“I believe you’ve given us a lot to think about,” her father said smoothly into the gap. “Salli, could you please escort the Count and Miss Zaker to their skimmer?”
“Of course, Father.” Salli bowed to him, still smiling, and began walking Zaker and Count Longear towards the front portico. “Thank you, Count. That relieves me of some secrets I’d been holding onto for a while.”
“From some of the reports I’d received from Zaker, I thought you deserved some assistance in your situation with your parents,” Longear said. “They can hardly argue against your relationship with Miss Blacksailor when your brother has done the exact same thing. Especially given that your lover had no choice in the matter, but Lady Melanie got involved in piracy because she was bored.”
“Indeed,” Salli agreed. She frowned briefly. “What do you think will happen to Nari?”
Longear seemed to consider the matter seriously. “Conspiracy to undermine a Noble House, conspiracy to murder, and attempted murder are all very serious charges, Lady Sallivera. I wouldn’t count on her getting much mercy, especially after you managed to get that confession out of her.”
“Ali was given mercy,” Salli pointed out.
“Miss Blacksailor had little agency when she committed her most serious crimes. I’m afraid the same cannot be said for young Miss Nari.”
“And if mercy was offered by my House?” she asked.
Longear gave Salli a provisional nod. “Perhaps a lesser sentence of indenture, rather than imprisonment, could be arranged. Would you wish that?”
“I will consult with my mother on the matter,” Salli said. She let out a long suffering sigh. “I am tired of vengeance.”
“Vengeance without possibility of Mercy cannot be Justice, as the Mother Goddess teaches us,” Longear agreed.
“Hmm, with that in mind, has the Ministry ever found anything to indicate that Evelina and Kevinaugh’s deaths in the facility were anything other than self-inflicted?”
“None whatsoever,” Longear assured her. “Did you think otherwise?”
She grimaced. “My mother voiced some suspicions about Ali being involved, given her criminal background and the depth of our love.”
“Let me reassure you, Lady Sallivera. Your Alinadar had nothing to do with the deaths of the Highgliders.”
“And I suppose I can’t really blame it on the mythical Ministry of Assassination,” Salli said. She paused as they stepped out onto the portico where their skimmer sat parked. “There isn’t a Ministry of Assassination, is there?”
Longear chuckled. “I can assure you there is no such thing. Having an entire Ministry devoted to murdering annoying Nobles would be a trifle ridiculous.”
“It occurs to me that if there was one, however, you’d have to give that answer anyway,” Salli pointed out.
“True,” he admitted with a smile. “Have a good evening, Lady Sallivera.” He climbed into the skimmer and let Zaker close the door.
“So do you believe in the Ministry of Assassination, Zaker?” she asked the bodyguard/secret agent/whatever else she was.
Zaker grinned slightly. “That’s above my security clearance, Milady.”
“Hah.” She held out her paw to Zaker. “Thank you for your efforts to protect myself and my House.”
The agent shook it gravely. “Thank you. I’m just sorry I wasn’t able to reach Ali in time to do any good.”
“You saved her from dying right there, Zaker. I can’t ask you to have done more.”
“Yes, but… In her current condition, how much longer can she last?”
“On life support, almost indefinitely.” Salli shrugged slightly. “Whether her family wishes her to remain so, with little possibility of improvement, is going to be up to them.”
Zaker nodded. “I wish there was something else you could do.”
“Yes, well the only alternative is out of reach with my family’s current…” Salli blinked once, thinking.
“Lady Sallivera?” Zaker asked cautiously.
Salli started walking backwards towards the door of the manor, turning to run as she shouted, “I have to check my e-mail. And then make a call!”
“If you had gotten yourself shot by that vixen,” he jammed a thumb at Nari, still unconscious and being strapped to a stretcher for transport to the CP station, “I’d be having a very unpleasant conversation with your lady mother right now.”
“Well I didn’t, so it worked out,” Salli told him. “Don’t worry, I’m certain my mother will repeat the same points that you and Officer Fin have made to me. Repeatedly.”
“Just don’t get the idea of taking up detecting as a hobby,” he grumbled.
“No worries there, Detective. I will be returning to my duties as Governor of Greenholme as soon as…” Salli frowned, thinking of Ali still lying in her hospital bed. “Well, as soon as I am able.”
“Are we done here?” Razi asked. “I want to see Ali before we have to go home.”
“I think so,” Lightfoot said. “I need to follow up to HQ and interrogate our suspect once she wakes up.”
“And I need to talk to my parents so they have a chance to chastise me,” Salli said. “Razi, Karra, I’ll follow along when I can.” She exchanged hugs with the two vixens, then took her leave and headed up to her parent’s office.
To her surprise, she not only found Mother and Father, along with Zaker, but also Count Longear, dressed in his formal house uniform, obviously having flown in from attending some duty related to his authority as Minister of Justice.
“Count Longear,” she greeted. “I’m very surprised to find you here.” She spared a glance at Zaker, who was doing poor job at trying to look innocent.
Longear gave her a brief bow. “When I heard that Miss Blacksailor’s attacker had been apprehended, I decided it would be prudent to come here, so I could reiterate my word of support for your House’s safety.” He gestured to Zaker briefly. “I was just explaining to your parents our agent’s role in the investigation of the late Countess Highglider and her conspiracy against your House.”
“Ah, so I was right,” Salli said, smiling grimly in satisfaction.
“Indeed. Now that you are here, I can also inform them of your sister-in-law, Lady Melanie’s, extracurricular activities, such as they are.”
Now it was Salli’s turn to try and look innocent. “I… don’t know what you are talking about,” she said weakly.
“Nor do I,” her mother said, frowning. “Lady Melanie has been a great aid to our House, and a great comfort to my son Rolas. I can not believe she is involved in anything questionable.”
“Less ‘involved’ and more ‘up to her neck,” Longear said dryly. “Do you recall when Lady Melanie came to you with that loan offer to rescue Lord Rolas?”
“Of course,” her father said. “She never even asked us to pay it back.”
“Well, there was little need,” Longear gestured to Salli. “Would you like to inform them of the truth, Lady Sallivera?”
“Oh, please,” Salli said fervently, a smile growing on her face. “I’ve been waiting for over a year to get this off my chest!”
“Salli, whatever to you mean?” her mother demanded. “What is going on?”
“The reason Melanie came so miraculously out of the blue with that loan offer is because she already knew about it. Mostly because she was the Red Vixen.” Salli smiled, for one brief moment enjoying the look of absolute crogglement on her parents’ faces. “You see Melanie, aside from being greedy, was also bored. I gather from talking to Rolas that she came into the pirate thing when she rescued her brother from some financial difficulty.”
“Yes, we were aware of that,” Longear put in. “Marl Lovejoy is not exactly the most shining example of Noble administrative capacity. I believe his current tasks are more congruent with his displayed abilities.”
“All he does nowadays is get drunk,” her father pointed out.
“Precisely.”
“Countess Highglider needed to hire a pirate to take our family’s freighter,” she continued. “Fortunately, and I use that term without irony, that pirate turned out to be the Red Vixen. When she found out the reasons why Rolas was captaining a freighter with such a valuable cargo, she actually felt quite remorseful. For once. That’s also why the Red Vixen started attacking House Highglider’s trading ships after Rolas was successfully returned to us.”
“You knew about this, and you never told us?” Mother demanded.
“I didn’t hear the whole story until much later, after Melanie had rescued Ali and myself from Bloody Margo. Rolas figured it out the night she’d been wounded in Hotclaw’s assassination attempt against me however.”
“So you see,” Count Longear put in to her parents, “Lady Sallivera is not the first member of your family to fall in love with a pirate.”
“But how do you know all about this, Longear?” her father asked.
“Well, when the Red Vixen first started her career some ten years back, it was of course a matter of concern to the Ministry of Justice. A rogue foxen with the resources to command a pirate vessel pointed to either a Noble, a highly placed Military caste officer, or perhaps even a very rich Commoner,” Longear explained. “Once we figured that out, it was merely a matter of tracking the movements of likely suspects, and comparing moments when they dropped out of sight to appearances of the Red Vixen. After the field was narrowed down, we managed to obtain a DNA sample of the Red Vixen’s fur; not very hard given her normal mode of dress; and compared it to Lady Melanie’s medical records.”
“If that’s true, and you knew about it,” Mother said darkly, “why isn’t she in prison?”
Count Longear gave her a nod of respect for the point. “Lady Melanie is, as my colleague the Minister of Intelligence would put it, a ‘useful idiot’. She’s not as clever as she thinks she is, but she has access to resources and contacts that would not normally be available to our government. So long as she kept her predations confined to non-foxen targets, and maintained an aversion to civilian casualties, we saw no reason to interfere with her. Though she is retired from piracy now, there may come a time when we wish for her to activate her Red Vixen persona again for our own purposes. Having a list of charges to bring against her should she prove reluctant to help,” he smiled briefly, “is just a nice bonus.”
“What about Alinadar?” Mother demanded. “Did she know any of this?”
“Ali only knew Melanie in her persona as the Red Vixen,” Salli explained. “She found out about her double life at the same time I did.”
“Miss Blacksailor said she was the Red Vixen’s slave,” her father said, looking very troubled.
“And so she was. A slave deeply in love with Melanie, and grateful for being rescued from her life under Bloody Margo. Once Melanie decided to retire, she had enough brains to realize she couldn’t just dump Ali into the street. She needed to find someone to hand her off to. When I announced my intentions to go on my Grand Tour, she arranged for Ali to be hired as my bodyguard, with the intention of throwing us together.”
“Wait a moment, I thought the Red… Mel…” her mother stumbled, looking utterly flummoxed now. “I thought she was trying to kidnap you, and Alinadar had rebelled against that idea.”
“She was, and Ali did,” Salli said, trying not to enjoy her mother’s discomfort too much. “As Count Longear noted, Melanie isn’t quite as clever as she thinks she is. Countess Highglider’s separate conspiracy sidetracked that overly convoluted plan. It was sheer luck that Melanie was already aboard the Scarlet Claw and ready to swoop in and ‘kidnap’ me when Bloody Margo attacked the liner we were traveling on.”
“Kidnap… her sister-in-law… because she wanted to find a lover for Alinadar,” Mother repeated slowly, looking like she was going to choke.
“Yes,” Longear said helpfully. He looked like he was doing his best not to enjoy the Countess’ discomfort as well. “I thought you might like to know.”
“Sallivera…” her mother began to speak, then stopped, seeming to think better of it.
“I believe you’ve given us a lot to think about,” her father said smoothly into the gap. “Salli, could you please escort the Count and Miss Zaker to their skimmer?”
“Of course, Father.” Salli bowed to him, still smiling, and began walking Zaker and Count Longear towards the front portico. “Thank you, Count. That relieves me of some secrets I’d been holding onto for a while.”
“From some of the reports I’d received from Zaker, I thought you deserved some assistance in your situation with your parents,” Longear said. “They can hardly argue against your relationship with Miss Blacksailor when your brother has done the exact same thing. Especially given that your lover had no choice in the matter, but Lady Melanie got involved in piracy because she was bored.”
“Indeed,” Salli agreed. She frowned briefly. “What do you think will happen to Nari?”
Longear seemed to consider the matter seriously. “Conspiracy to undermine a Noble House, conspiracy to murder, and attempted murder are all very serious charges, Lady Sallivera. I wouldn’t count on her getting much mercy, especially after you managed to get that confession out of her.”
“Ali was given mercy,” Salli pointed out.
“Miss Blacksailor had little agency when she committed her most serious crimes. I’m afraid the same cannot be said for young Miss Nari.”
“And if mercy was offered by my House?” she asked.
Longear gave Salli a provisional nod. “Perhaps a lesser sentence of indenture, rather than imprisonment, could be arranged. Would you wish that?”
“I will consult with my mother on the matter,” Salli said. She let out a long suffering sigh. “I am tired of vengeance.”
“Vengeance without possibility of Mercy cannot be Justice, as the Mother Goddess teaches us,” Longear agreed.
“Hmm, with that in mind, has the Ministry ever found anything to indicate that Evelina and Kevinaugh’s deaths in the facility were anything other than self-inflicted?”
“None whatsoever,” Longear assured her. “Did you think otherwise?”
She grimaced. “My mother voiced some suspicions about Ali being involved, given her criminal background and the depth of our love.”
“Let me reassure you, Lady Sallivera. Your Alinadar had nothing to do with the deaths of the Highgliders.”
“And I suppose I can’t really blame it on the mythical Ministry of Assassination,” Salli said. She paused as they stepped out onto the portico where their skimmer sat parked. “There isn’t a Ministry of Assassination, is there?”
Longear chuckled. “I can assure you there is no such thing. Having an entire Ministry devoted to murdering annoying Nobles would be a trifle ridiculous.”
“It occurs to me that if there was one, however, you’d have to give that answer anyway,” Salli pointed out.
“True,” he admitted with a smile. “Have a good evening, Lady Sallivera.” He climbed into the skimmer and let Zaker close the door.
“So do you believe in the Ministry of Assassination, Zaker?” she asked the bodyguard/secret agent/whatever else she was.
Zaker grinned slightly. “That’s above my security clearance, Milady.”
“Hah.” She held out her paw to Zaker. “Thank you for your efforts to protect myself and my House.”
The agent shook it gravely. “Thank you. I’m just sorry I wasn’t able to reach Ali in time to do any good.”
“You saved her from dying right there, Zaker. I can’t ask you to have done more.”
“Yes, but… In her current condition, how much longer can she last?”
“On life support, almost indefinitely.” Salli shrugged slightly. “Whether her family wishes her to remain so, with little possibility of improvement, is going to be up to them.”
Zaker nodded. “I wish there was something else you could do.”
“Yes, well the only alternative is out of reach with my family’s current…” Salli blinked once, thinking.
“Lady Sallivera?” Zaker asked cautiously.
Salli started walking backwards towards the door of the manor, turning to run as she shouted, “I have to check my e-mail. And then make a call!”
