Story Notes:
The 'dock' scene is only basic at the start. It builds itself up as Tom reminds himself more about it, and he discovers more facts behind that fateful day, all leading up to the truth.Tom also reminds himself of the events that happened in a summary. This recaps what he needs to find out, and allows you to have a guess yourselves.THE FAIRVIEW CHRONICLES IS LINKED TO THIS STORY, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE READ IT FIRST, OR YOU WILL NOT UNDERSTAND ALL OF THIS:http://agn.ph/fics/viewseries.php?seriesid=219Now with a prologue, explaining how Tom found Stacey!http://agn.ph/fics/viewstory.php?sid=3504
Chapter 2: Nile
16:45
Tom twisted the doorknob on his apartment slowly. Opening it, he looked around for Stacey. She was still lying on the bed, sitting up as he walked in.
"Hey Stacey." Tom said, expecting a reply from her.
"You took your time, didn't you?" Stacey replied. She had a very relaxed tone to her voice, fitting her personality of being by Tom's side.
"Yeah, I was doing some of my work. Got one of the items on the list, and I'll tell you one thing - there's certainly something strange about this hotel."
"Are you going to look into it then?"
"I'm not a detective any more Stacey, so I can't do much about it. I'll try and unearth some facts, but right now? I have a job to do. I'm now looking for something called The Sapphire Star."
"Strange, it's like I've heard that before."
"Well, judging from where you originally were, I'm not surprised." Tom pointed out. 'I found Stacey on her own a year ago in the city of Lerwillbury. Rough town, that. She was on her own, and she looked like she'd been abandoned. So I decided to have some compassion for once and care for her. She's probably the only person I get along with, apart from the boss' secretary.' Tom thought. Placing the red box from before in his suitcase, Tom headed for the door. "Whatever this Sapphire Star is, I better start somewhere." Tom stood for a minute, and thought about who to ask. "I think Alex is the guy I can trust the most right now. He looks like the kind of guy that knows about it."
Passing into the lobby, he found Alex reading an old newspaper at the table. Walking over towards him, Alex looked up.
"What do you want now?" Alex asked.
"Do you know anything about something called the Sapphire Star?" Tom asked casually, trying to sound as non-suspicious as possible. Alex gestured for him to sit down, and leant towards him slightly.
"You lied, didn't you?" Alex whispered.
"What? Did I say something wrong?" Tom asked quietly, surprised by Alex's reaction.
"If you know what the Sapphire Star is, you're definitely working with THEM."
"Alright, enough games, who's them?" Alex sighed at this, rolling his eyes.
"Nile. It's a criminal organisation, and by far the most dangerous in the whole region. Just knowing the tiniest bit about them is grounds for them to get you... 'knocked off''."
"So how does knowing about the Sapphire Star make me with Nile?"
"Because it belongs to Nile." Alex said, Tom alarmed by this.
"What? Why's it out in some dump like this then?"
"Because one year ago, it was stolen from a Nile worker. The guy got killed, and the killer promptly looted his body, and stole the jewel."
"Hold up a minute, lemme think." Tom said, pausing. 'When he thought I was working with them earlier after I mentioned that letter... does this hotel work with Nile? It would explain the killings...' Tom turned back to Alex. "All right, the games up. I think I know why you know so much about Nile."
"What are you on about? There's no reason I know this stuff."
"It's quite simple actually. You're investigating Nile, aren't you?"
"And why would I want to investigate them? That's writing myself a death wish!"
"There's a good reason for that. You think the hotel manager has links with Nile, don't you?"
"..." Alex stared blankly at Tom for a while.
"Damn, I'm wrong?" Tom said suprisedly.
"No, you're nearly right. I do think the manager is connected with Nile, and I AM investigating them. But it's not because I think the manager has ties with them."
"Then why?"
"I can't tell you. But how the hell did you guess?"
"It wasn't hard. I used to be on the detective force."
"Used? Did you get canned or something?"
"It's a long story, and I can't remember most of it now..."
7th December, 2014
18:03
Fairview Detective Agency
Tom swirled a pen around his fingers in boredom. The phone burst out ringing, as Tom picked up.
"Tom Blakely here, what's the matter?" He asked. Suddenly he became much more tense after what he heard. "...What the hell?!?"
18:52
Fairview Docks
Tom faced Chris, who was staring across the ocean, as Tom quickly drew out his pistol.
"Chris... why did you do it?" Tom asked in vain. Chris turned his head to look at Tom, and faced back out of the stream, walking towards the edge of the cliff.
"Don't move!"
BLAM!
Chris reached for his back, yelling out in pain. He yelled out something, before falling off the cliff into the river below. Tom dropped his gun, dropping to his knees.
"...What have I done..."
17:10
"Holy shit..." Alex said, left speechless by what Tom had done. Looking at his watch, he stood up to leave. "I have to go set up the restaurant now anyways. I've been coming up with Jack Shit on Nile lately, so how about we team up?" Tom thought for a second, and came to a decision.
"Hell, why not?" Tom said, walking back to his apartment.
17:15
Opening the door, Stacey sat on the bed, staring outside the window.
"You know, you can go out of the room if you want." Tom said, as Stacey turned to face him.
"Thanks. I've always wondered, what exactly do you do for a job if you move from place to place so much?"
"Me? I work for some small time company that finds stuff for people in return for cash. Some people don't want that stuff found, but I find them anyway. I've always taken things to the bitter end Stacey, no matter how horrible the truth is." Tom said frankly, looking Stacey in the eye.
"I see." Stacey replied, staring out the window. "So you don't really know what it means to settle down and live a quiet life, huh? Always on the move, only your companion with you... It must get pretty stressful."
"Yeah, but I can always cope with it. Some of the views we go to are fantastic, which makes up for it. Anyway, I've just got to phone work." Tom said, picking up his phone and dialing in a number.
"Hello, Red Crown?" A voice said on the other end of the line.
"Hey Zoe, it's me, Tom."
"Hey sweety. I see you got there alright." Zoe said in a polite voice.
"Yeah. Look, I have a favour to ask of you. Can you find some info on the Sapphire Star for me?"
"That's not a problem."
"Thanks, I'll see you around." Tom said, putting the phone back on the receiver. "Man, I'm starving. I'll head over to the restaurant and pick you something up as well, ok?"
"Ok. See you around Tom." Stacey said, walking out of the door and in a different direction. As soon as Stacey was out of site, Edwin walked in from around the corner.
"I've been looking for you. I've heard all about your little escapade in my office, and whatever the hell you were doing, I want to make it clear I do NOT tolerate that kind of behaviour! 'Staff Only' means 'Staff Only'!" Edwin nagged, wagging his finger at Tom.
'Christ, get out of the sixties, nobody wags fingers anymore!' Tom thought while rolling his eyes, annoyed by Edwin's personality. "All right, all right. But have you got a minute? I have a few questions to ask you."
"Like what?" Edwin asked impatiently.
"Do you have any kind of contact with Nile?" Tom asked. An expression of anger crossed Edwin's face, tightening his fists.
"NILE?!? Are you having a laugh? If there was a man more against Nile, that would be ME! Bunch'a no good thugs, those lot! I'll have you know that there is a One Hundred percent chance of there being absolutely no Nile members here!"
"Jesus, calm down, will you? I was just getting some suspicions out of the way." Tom said, alarmed by this response. This was a bad thing to say.
"Suspicions? SUSPICIONS?!? What the hell made you think I was with Nile?!?" Edwin yelled, pushing Tom backwards. A voice yelled from downstairs:
"Oh for the love of- Calm the heck down will ya Edwin? You'll pop your blood vessels at this rate!" Edwin took a deep breath.
"Yes, Melissa!" He called back nervously.
'So that was Melissa, the woman looking after that girl I found, huh?' Tom thought. He decided it would be best if he just left Edwin to himself for a while, walking out of sight. Noticing a poster saying 'Restaurant this way', He walked through the corridor towards it. There was a bright, neon sign over the top of one of the doors. 'RESTAURANT' was what it read, it's multi-coloured lights and insult to the human eye, with several shades of blue, red and green. 'Ugh, this people have no taste in design at all'.
Opening the door to the restaurant, Peter stood at the stand, his depressed expression practically radiating sadness.
'Glad to see Mr. Cheerful is as happy as ever.' Tom smiled to himself.
"Oh... hi there." Peter said, as Tom swore he was TRYING to make everybody upset.
"OK, seriously now, why the hell are you so sad the whole time? Life isn't THAT bad!" Tom said.
"...It's nothing." Peter said.
'Man of few words.' Tom picked up a menu. "Hey, can I have one toasted cheese roll, and some pokémon food, please?"
"That's... not a problem..." Peter said, looking down. Tom ignored him from then on, and passed into the dining hall. Tom spots Alex walk past him towards the kitchen.
"Hey, Alex!" Tom called out, as Alex faced him.
"I take it all that shouting was you talking to Edwin, right?"
"Moody little bastard, isn't he?"
"You're telling ME that? So what did you find out?" Alex said, laughing.
"It's definitely not Nile he's linked with for starters. And right now, I've got a whole load of questions, but no answers."
"Damn. Good luck pinning down some evidence on that guy. See ya 'round." Alex said, pushing open the steel kitchen doors. Tom walked down towards a table, sitting down patiently. After about 15 minutes, a Woman walked in. She was at least 50 years old, with short hair, and an apron on. Her name tag read 'Melissa', and she had a very serious expression.
"Here you go." Melissa said, placing Tom's plate on the table, along with a can of food for Stacey. "Now I take it you'll be at the fireworks, right? We've got some real good ones in this year!"
"Yeah yeah yeah, Thanks." Tom said, picking up his knife and fork to begin eating. 'It's probably about time I recapped what's just happened.'
'I started off back at my apartment, and I talked to Stacey. After talking to her for a bit, I went back to the lobby, where Alex was reading an old newspaper. (What was he reading?)
I asked him about The Sapphire Star, and he thought I knew about Nile as well. It turns out he was suspecting the manager to have links with Nile, and that he was investigating them. (But WHY was he investigating them, and why can't he tell me?)
I told him about my job as a detective and how I lost it, and we decided to team up to find out more on Nile. I decided to head back to my apartment and phone Zoe. I asked her to get me some information on The Sapphire Star, and headed back out. I met Edwin there, who popped a few veins when I asked him about being with Nile. (What the hell causes a reaction like THAT?)
I headed to the restaurant and found Mr. Sunshine working Front House for the place. (Is it just me, or is this the most depressed guy IN THE WORLD?)
I caught up with Alex and reported some findings, and here I am now. Any ways, I guess I could take a look at that newspaper article Alex was reading.'Chapter End Notes:New characters:
Melissa: Some old lady. She's the one looking after the girl I found right now.
Zoe: The secretary for my boss. A really nice girl, I've been on a few dinner dates with her before
Tom twisted the doorknob on his apartment slowly. Opening it, he looked around for Stacey. She was still lying on the bed, sitting up as he walked in.
"Hey Stacey." Tom said, expecting a reply from her.
"You took your time, didn't you?" Stacey replied. She had a very relaxed tone to her voice, fitting her personality of being by Tom's side.
"Yeah, I was doing some of my work. Got one of the items on the list, and I'll tell you one thing - there's certainly something strange about this hotel."
"Are you going to look into it then?"
"I'm not a detective any more Stacey, so I can't do much about it. I'll try and unearth some facts, but right now? I have a job to do. I'm now looking for something called The Sapphire Star."
"Strange, it's like I've heard that before."
"Well, judging from where you originally were, I'm not surprised." Tom pointed out. 'I found Stacey on her own a year ago in the city of Lerwillbury. Rough town, that. She was on her own, and she looked like she'd been abandoned. So I decided to have some compassion for once and care for her. She's probably the only person I get along with, apart from the boss' secretary.' Tom thought. Placing the red box from before in his suitcase, Tom headed for the door. "Whatever this Sapphire Star is, I better start somewhere." Tom stood for a minute, and thought about who to ask. "I think Alex is the guy I can trust the most right now. He looks like the kind of guy that knows about it."
Passing into the lobby, he found Alex reading an old newspaper at the table. Walking over towards him, Alex looked up.
"What do you want now?" Alex asked.
"Do you know anything about something called the Sapphire Star?" Tom asked casually, trying to sound as non-suspicious as possible. Alex gestured for him to sit down, and leant towards him slightly.
"You lied, didn't you?" Alex whispered.
"What? Did I say something wrong?" Tom asked quietly, surprised by Alex's reaction.
"If you know what the Sapphire Star is, you're definitely working with THEM."
"Alright, enough games, who's them?" Alex sighed at this, rolling his eyes.
"Nile. It's a criminal organisation, and by far the most dangerous in the whole region. Just knowing the tiniest bit about them is grounds for them to get you... 'knocked off''."
"So how does knowing about the Sapphire Star make me with Nile?"
"Because it belongs to Nile." Alex said, Tom alarmed by this.
"What? Why's it out in some dump like this then?"
"Because one year ago, it was stolen from a Nile worker. The guy got killed, and the killer promptly looted his body, and stole the jewel."
"Hold up a minute, lemme think." Tom said, pausing. 'When he thought I was working with them earlier after I mentioned that letter... does this hotel work with Nile? It would explain the killings...' Tom turned back to Alex. "All right, the games up. I think I know why you know so much about Nile."
"What are you on about? There's no reason I know this stuff."
"It's quite simple actually. You're investigating Nile, aren't you?"
"And why would I want to investigate them? That's writing myself a death wish!"
"There's a good reason for that. You think the hotel manager has links with Nile, don't you?"
"..." Alex stared blankly at Tom for a while.
"Damn, I'm wrong?" Tom said suprisedly.
"No, you're nearly right. I do think the manager is connected with Nile, and I AM investigating them. But it's not because I think the manager has ties with them."
"Then why?"
"I can't tell you. But how the hell did you guess?"
"It wasn't hard. I used to be on the detective force."
"Used? Did you get canned or something?"
"It's a long story, and I can't remember most of it now..."
7th December, 2014
18:03
Fairview Detective Agency
Tom swirled a pen around his fingers in boredom. The phone burst out ringing, as Tom picked up.
"Tom Blakely here, what's the matter?" He asked. Suddenly he became much more tense after what he heard. "...What the hell?!?"
18:52
Fairview Docks
Tom faced Chris, who was staring across the ocean, as Tom quickly drew out his pistol.
"Chris... why did you do it?" Tom asked in vain. Chris turned his head to look at Tom, and faced back out of the stream, walking towards the edge of the cliff.
"Don't move!"
BLAM!
Chris reached for his back, yelling out in pain. He yelled out something, before falling off the cliff into the river below. Tom dropped his gun, dropping to his knees.
"...What have I done..."
17:10
"Holy shit..." Alex said, left speechless by what Tom had done. Looking at his watch, he stood up to leave. "I have to go set up the restaurant now anyways. I've been coming up with Jack Shit on Nile lately, so how about we team up?" Tom thought for a second, and came to a decision.
"Hell, why not?" Tom said, walking back to his apartment.
17:15
Opening the door, Stacey sat on the bed, staring outside the window.
"You know, you can go out of the room if you want." Tom said, as Stacey turned to face him.
"Thanks. I've always wondered, what exactly do you do for a job if you move from place to place so much?"
"Me? I work for some small time company that finds stuff for people in return for cash. Some people don't want that stuff found, but I find them anyway. I've always taken things to the bitter end Stacey, no matter how horrible the truth is." Tom said frankly, looking Stacey in the eye.
"I see." Stacey replied, staring out the window. "So you don't really know what it means to settle down and live a quiet life, huh? Always on the move, only your companion with you... It must get pretty stressful."
"Yeah, but I can always cope with it. Some of the views we go to are fantastic, which makes up for it. Anyway, I've just got to phone work." Tom said, picking up his phone and dialing in a number.
"Hello, Red Crown?" A voice said on the other end of the line.
"Hey Zoe, it's me, Tom."
"Hey sweety. I see you got there alright." Zoe said in a polite voice.
"Yeah. Look, I have a favour to ask of you. Can you find some info on the Sapphire Star for me?"
"That's not a problem."
"Thanks, I'll see you around." Tom said, putting the phone back on the receiver. "Man, I'm starving. I'll head over to the restaurant and pick you something up as well, ok?"
"Ok. See you around Tom." Stacey said, walking out of the door and in a different direction. As soon as Stacey was out of site, Edwin walked in from around the corner.
"I've been looking for you. I've heard all about your little escapade in my office, and whatever the hell you were doing, I want to make it clear I do NOT tolerate that kind of behaviour! 'Staff Only' means 'Staff Only'!" Edwin nagged, wagging his finger at Tom.
'Christ, get out of the sixties, nobody wags fingers anymore!' Tom thought while rolling his eyes, annoyed by Edwin's personality. "All right, all right. But have you got a minute? I have a few questions to ask you."
"Like what?" Edwin asked impatiently.
"Do you have any kind of contact with Nile?" Tom asked. An expression of anger crossed Edwin's face, tightening his fists.
"NILE?!? Are you having a laugh? If there was a man more against Nile, that would be ME! Bunch'a no good thugs, those lot! I'll have you know that there is a One Hundred percent chance of there being absolutely no Nile members here!"
"Jesus, calm down, will you? I was just getting some suspicions out of the way." Tom said, alarmed by this response. This was a bad thing to say.
"Suspicions? SUSPICIONS?!? What the hell made you think I was with Nile?!?" Edwin yelled, pushing Tom backwards. A voice yelled from downstairs:
"Oh for the love of- Calm the heck down will ya Edwin? You'll pop your blood vessels at this rate!" Edwin took a deep breath.
"Yes, Melissa!" He called back nervously.
'So that was Melissa, the woman looking after that girl I found, huh?' Tom thought. He decided it would be best if he just left Edwin to himself for a while, walking out of sight. Noticing a poster saying 'Restaurant this way', He walked through the corridor towards it. There was a bright, neon sign over the top of one of the doors. 'RESTAURANT' was what it read, it's multi-coloured lights and insult to the human eye, with several shades of blue, red and green. 'Ugh, this people have no taste in design at all'.
Opening the door to the restaurant, Peter stood at the stand, his depressed expression practically radiating sadness.
'Glad to see Mr. Cheerful is as happy as ever.' Tom smiled to himself.
"Oh... hi there." Peter said, as Tom swore he was TRYING to make everybody upset.
"OK, seriously now, why the hell are you so sad the whole time? Life isn't THAT bad!" Tom said.
"...It's nothing." Peter said.
'Man of few words.' Tom picked up a menu. "Hey, can I have one toasted cheese roll, and some pokémon food, please?"
"That's... not a problem..." Peter said, looking down. Tom ignored him from then on, and passed into the dining hall. Tom spots Alex walk past him towards the kitchen.
"Hey, Alex!" Tom called out, as Alex faced him.
"I take it all that shouting was you talking to Edwin, right?"
"Moody little bastard, isn't he?"
"You're telling ME that? So what did you find out?" Alex said, laughing.
"It's definitely not Nile he's linked with for starters. And right now, I've got a whole load of questions, but no answers."
"Damn. Good luck pinning down some evidence on that guy. See ya 'round." Alex said, pushing open the steel kitchen doors. Tom walked down towards a table, sitting down patiently. After about 15 minutes, a Woman walked in. She was at least 50 years old, with short hair, and an apron on. Her name tag read 'Melissa', and she had a very serious expression.
"Here you go." Melissa said, placing Tom's plate on the table, along with a can of food for Stacey. "Now I take it you'll be at the fireworks, right? We've got some real good ones in this year!"
"Yeah yeah yeah, Thanks." Tom said, picking up his knife and fork to begin eating. 'It's probably about time I recapped what's just happened.'
'I started off back at my apartment, and I talked to Stacey. After talking to her for a bit, I went back to the lobby, where Alex was reading an old newspaper. (What was he reading?)
I asked him about The Sapphire Star, and he thought I knew about Nile as well. It turns out he was suspecting the manager to have links with Nile, and that he was investigating them. (But WHY was he investigating them, and why can't he tell me?)
I told him about my job as a detective and how I lost it, and we decided to team up to find out more on Nile. I decided to head back to my apartment and phone Zoe. I asked her to get me some information on The Sapphire Star, and headed back out. I met Edwin there, who popped a few veins when I asked him about being with Nile. (What the hell causes a reaction like THAT?)
I headed to the restaurant and found Mr. Sunshine working Front House for the place. (Is it just me, or is this the most depressed guy IN THE WORLD?)
I caught up with Alex and reported some findings, and here I am now. Any ways, I guess I could take a look at that newspaper article Alex was reading.'Chapter End Notes:New characters:
Melissa: Some old lady. She's the one looking after the girl I found right now.
Zoe: The secretary for my boss. A really nice girl, I've been on a few dinner dates with her before