Media Studies: Zodiac - Write about a serial killer

Creativity Month: Film Noir AU

Cocktails: Thyme: (Job) Detective

Character Appreciation: Write about being betrayed

Liza Loves: Lady WiFi - Write about someone wanting the truth

Buttons: Pansy Parkinson

A Year In Entertainment: 1995 - Book: Northern Lights/The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman - (word) Dust

Insane House: 35 -Pansy Parkinson

Resolutions: Write an AU that you've never written before, Write a pairing you've never written before

Word Count: 3277

The Art of Deception

Alicia raised her cigarette to her lips as she listened to her boss, Hermione Granger, talk animatedly about the newest case for the agency.

It comprised of a woman who wanted Hermione to find evidence that her husband was having an affair so that she could protect herself from financial ruin when she filed for divorce. It appeared that the foolish woman had neglected to get herself a prenuptial agreement to spite her father who had objected to the marriage in the first place.

"Mrs Zabini is quite willing to pay top price for my services too," Hermione continued, "which is just as well given how slow business has been recently and the mountain of bills we have to pay."

The ash from Alicia's cigarette fell to the floor as her eyes widened in surprise.

Pansy Zabini was the heiress to her father's vast fortune which had been founded primarily on her family's stroke of luck during the gold mine rush, and had only been improved upon tenfold by her father's wise investment in the hotel industry. Over the last thirty years, the family had gone from one hotel to owning the largest chain in the country.

Pansy was just as well known in her own right in the society pages of all the newspapers. Everyone was fascinated by her. The dark haired beauty had managed to shock the world when she had married Blaise Zabini only a year ago; a man who her father reportedly considered to be below her station and did not deserve to marry into the family. It was widely reported at the time that Pansy's father would have disinherited her if it wasn't for the fact that she was his sole heir. If the rumours which started circulating this week were true then Pansy looked set to inherit her fortune a lot sooner than anyone anticipated-supposedly an unexpected heart attack had left her father in hospital and fighting for his life.

To hear that Pansy Zabini, the envy of high society, had come to Granger Detectives Inc. after such a reported event would come as a surprise to many, but not to Alicia. She saw through the facade Pansy put up in the photographs of The Herald. To many her smiles would indicate she was happy, but the smiles were clearly forced. To many when she was looking up at her husband she was gazing lovingly at him, but Alicia could see the suspicion in her eyes.

"Alicia, rearrange all my outstanding appointments for the rest of the week," Hermione requested, going to her cabinet to get a glass. "Considering how much Mrs Zabini is willing to pay for my services, it is only right that she gets top priority."

"Right away, Miss Granger," Alicia replied, stubbing out her cigarette in the ashtray on the desk.

~o~o~o~

"We need to step up the timeline," the dark haired woman hissed into the phone. "She's already suspicious."

"You know I can't do anything else until the old man croaks it," the man on the other end of the phone replied. "Heaven knows he should be dead by now given how many amphetamines I gave him."

The woman sighed. "Leave the old man to me. He'll be out of the way in no time. Until then keep acting as normal. You're being watched."

She placed the phone back onto the hook, pulled the hood of her coat up and exited the phone booth, and hastily made her way down the road in the pouring down rain. A plan of action was already formulating in her mind.

~o~o~o~

Heiress Inherits

World renowned hotel pioneer, Elliott Parkinson, passed away last week after suffering from a cardiac arrest. Our inside source has revealed that the family have heard his last will and testament. It comes as no surprise to The Herald to learn that his only daughter, and sole heir, Pansy Zabini has inherited his entire fortune and his business empire.

~o~o~o~

"Miss Granger," Pansy said, flinging her coat towards Alicia before she seated herself on the chair across from Hermione, "I trust that you have made progress on the case. Heaven knows I could use some good news right about now."

"Ahh yes, I heard about your father. Such a loss to the hotel industry," Hermione replied, smiling sympathetically at Pansy. She turned her attention to Alicia. "Perhaps you could fetch the Zabini file and fix my client and I a drink. Bourbon on the rocks?"

Alicia smiled and nodded her head as Pansy confirmed what she wanted, and promptly returned with the file. She placed them on the desk in front of her boss and client, before getting Hermione's prized bottle of bourbon from the cabinet along with two glasses, set the glasses down in front of them and poured their drinks.

Pansy spent the first half an hour at the office getting Hermione to dissect every photograph she had taken during her surveillance over the last week, and made her go over every possible connotation of the contents, hoping that at least one would suggest her husband was having an illicit affair. Alicia had to fight the urge to roll her eyes whenever Pansy tried to suggest her husband was sleeping with whoever he was pictured with-even if the woman in question she was referring to was nowhere near him.

It appeared the new multi-millionaire was displeased to discover that her husband had not been found to be doing anything untoward. If anything, he was more loyal and legit than a lot of the clients that came through the door wanting to catch their spouses cheating.

"You must have missed something, Miss Granger!" Pansy exclaimed. "I know my husband is up to something."

"Mrs Zabini, why not save yourself time, money and worry, and accept that your husband is faithful," Alicia interjected from the corner of the room. "It's clear as day that you have absolutely nothing to worry about."

"I did not ask for your opinion," Pansy screeched, giving Alicia a scathing look. "Why are you still in here? Shouldn't you be fulfilling your secretarial duties and doing some filing."

Alicia narrowed her eyes at the stuck up 'princess' and dug her nails into her sideboard cabinet.

Hermione, who had been looking down at a photograph on her desk and examining it closer, raised her head and turned to Alicia.

"Perhaps you could prepare the Potter file for me and chase up any outstanding payments, Alicia," Hermione suggested, although it was clear from her tone that it was an order. "You are making Mrs Zabini uncomfortable."

Alicia pushed away from the cabinet and walked towards the door. "Of course, Miss Granger," she replied before opening the door and leaving the room.

~o~o~o~

It was a little over an hour later when Pansy finally left looking rather smug and happy with herself.

"Alicia, can I see you in my office now?" she head Hermione call.

Alicia rolled her eyes, figuring that this would have something to do with Pansy Zabini and her smugness. What Alicia wouldn't give to wipe that smug grin off her face after the way she had her thrown out of the meeting.

She pushed her chair back from her desk and picked up the files she had been working on and placed them back into the filing cabinet before making her way into Hermione's office.

"What was that?" Hermione asked as she poured herself another drink. "You were completely unprofessional."

Alicia shrugged, took a seat across from Hermione's desk and picked up the packet of cigarettes on the there and removed one, and inhaled deeply as she lit it.

"What do you want me to say?" she asked, blowing out a cloud of smoke. "Do you want me to apologise for speaking the truth? The stuck up cow was refusing to admit what was right in front of her-her husband is nothing but loyal. Perhaps she is the one having the affair and looking for a way out without tarnishing her precious reputation."

"That is enough. It is not my job to speculate of anything that may or may not be going on in my client's lives. My job is to collect evidence and present it to them; whether or not they choose to believe it or not is none of my concern," Hermione explained. "Be that as it may, Mrs Zabini is retaining my services for a while longer to dig deeper into her husband's comings and goings under the proviso that you are nowhere near the case-something which I happen to agree with. So, when Mrs Zabini is at the office, you will be carrying out some surveillance for the Potter case for me."

Alicia sighed and took another drag of her cigarette. She hadn't really expected anything less after the scathing looks Pansy had given her. What she hadn't expected was to be given her first assignment in the field, although Alicia suspected that she wouldn't find anything Hermione hadn't already found. It was already perfectly clear that the Weasley family were dealing drugs and were laundering the money through Harry Potter's club. She was well versed enough in the case to know that much, and if it hadn't been for the timely arrival of Pansy a week earlier, the case would be closed.

"I couldn't think of any better way to spend my time," Alicia answered, smiling sweetly.

~o~o~o~

Heiress Found Dead-Zabini set to inherit?

In a shocking twist of fate, just two weeks after the death of her late father, Pansy Zabini has been found dead in the house she shared with her husband, who found her late Thursday afternoon.

Details at the moment are scarce, but an inside source said the following, "It is a clear cut case of suicide. Mrs Zabini was found by her husband next to an empty bottle of gin and an empty bottle of pills. And if that wasn't enough supporting evidence, she left a suicide note."

The police have refused to comment on the death of the heiress, but the question on everyone's lips is: who will inherit the Parkinson fortune? The recently widowed husband? Or did the Parkinson will make provisions to ensure this never happened? The late Elliott Parkinson's distaste for Blaise Zabini is, after all, well documented.

~o~o~o~

"What on earth do you think you were doing?" Blaise yelled, his brown eyes shining with anger as they bore into hers. "It was too soon! You should have let the dust settle for a while after Parkinson's death-like we agreed."

"You would have done the same thing if you heard the way she spoke to me," Alicia bit back defensively.

"Alicia, I lived with her every day for two years," Blaise growled, grasping Alicia's wrists. "I know perfectly well just how difficult she can be but you don't see me going around making it look like she killed herself every time she acts like a stuck up princess."

"If you were your mother's son, I wouldn't have needed to act," Alicia quipped, quirking her eyebrows. "We were home and dry. No one suspected foul play in Mr Parkinson's death. And besides, Pansy was halfway to the divorce courts already-she needed to go before she had a chance to start the process."

Blaise sighed heavily and released Alicia's wrists which now had angry red marks where his hands had been.

"I don't know if she made a will," Blaise hissed through gritted teeth. "When her father had his heart attack, she started worrying about her own health and started talking about how she wanted to make sure those she loved were provided for-at that point I'm fairly certain I wasn't in that group of people since she had your boss following me."

"Darling," Alicia whispered, draping her arm over Blaise's shoulder and pressing her lips to his ear, "she's been spending so much time at Granger Detectives Inc that she couldn't possibly have had the time to draw up a will too. This means, as her spouse, you inherit every last penny." Alicia pressed her lips against Blaise's reassuringly. "Trust me; I know what I'm doing."

Blaise grasped her shoulders and pushed her away.

"You have no idea what you're doing," Blaise shouted. "The police suspect foul play. They think that I killed her; and let's face it they're not a million miles away, are they? They'll do some digging around and find out she had a private investigator looking into me and before you know they'll be fixing me up for a crime I didn't commit."

"Relax, Blaise," Alicia laughed. "The police are idiots. They have to appear to be looking into all the alternatives. If you're really that concerned, use some of your family money to pay them off-I know you aren't nearly as wealthy as the Parkinson's were but surely you have enough to give a little cash incentive to a couple of corrupt cops."

"Or maybe I could give them your name," Blaise suggested. "I'm sure they would love to hear about your crazy plan. I can just see the headlines now: Grieving Widow Brings Down Wife's Psycho Killer."

"You wouldn't dare!" Alicia hissed. "After everything I've done for you, for us."

"Don't pretend like that is why you did this," Blaise retorted. "You did this for the greater glory of Alicia, otherwise you would have stuck to the original plan."

"How dare you?" Alicia screeched, raising her hand and slapping Blaise. "I love you. Everything I have done has been for you."

"For me?" roared Blaise, grabbing her by the throat and pinning her to the wall. "Or for my money? Because I hate to break it to you, but there is no money."

Alicia found herself fighting for breath as she reached out for the candlestick on the table. She curled her hand around it and swung it in his direction with every ounce of strength she could muster.

As she watched Blaise fall to the ground, Alicia smiled. It was a little sooner than she had anticipated getting rid of him but he had left her with no choice.

She placed the candlestick down and crouched next to his unconscious body as a plan formulated in her mind. "You were right," she whispered. "This was all about me, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy having you around."

~o~o~o~

Alicia knocked on Hermione's door and waited until her boss called, "Enter," before opening the door and approaching her with the documents.

It had been three weeks since Blaise Zabini died in a drug deal gone wrong-or at least that's what the paper's had reported. The story they wove was that he was so overcome with grief after the suicide of his wife, he had turned to drugs as a way to numb the pain but he had fallen foul of the dealers when he didn't have the money to pay for them. It turned out that the Zabini fortune had been squandered away years before Blaise had married into the Parkinson family, and was in fact in quite a lot of debt.

The death of such a man would have been forgotten about almost as soon as it happened if it hadn't been for the recent deaths of his wife and father-in-law. Instead, the whole sage was being sensationalised by the papers as they speculated how such a tirade of misfortune could befall one of the country's most loved families.

If only they knew the truth.

"Alicia," Hermione said, lifting her head from the folder in front of her, "is there something that needs my attention?"

"Not exactly," Alicia whispered, approaching Hermione's desk and placing the documents in front of her as she took a seat. "But I'd like it to."

Hermione opened the folder and her eyes widened in surprise. "I see. You want me to-?"

"Please," Alicia answered. "I know it's not what you usually do, but I hoped maybe you had some connections; and of course I will pay you the going rate."

Hermione shook her head. "Absolutely not. I wouldn't hear of it," she replied. "Employee discount means you don't have to pay. Plus with the Potter and Zabini money, I can afford to do you this favour."

"Thank you," Alicia whispered, standing up. "You have no idea what this means to me."

~o~o~o~

It was only a week later when Hermione called Alicia back into her office with her findings, and it was everything Alicia had hoped for and more.

Nothing Hermione would tell her would come as a surprise; it was something she had known for years, and Alicia was impressed at how quickly Hermione had followed the minimal information she had provided, especially when it had taken Alicia months to uncover the same.

"Alicia," Hermione started, seemingly struggling to find the right words, "this is going to come a shock."

Alicia widened her eyes. "You found them?"

Hermione nodded and stood up from her desk. She made her way over to her cabinet and retrieved two glasses and a bottle of bourbon, and returned to her desk.

"You're going to need this," she informed Alicia as she poured them both a drink.

"Miss Granger," Alicia started, taking a sip from her glass, "who are my biological parents?"

Hermione drained her glass and poured herself another one before she replied.

"Alicia, your biological parents are Eliza and Elliott Parkinson," Hermione said bluntly. "Eliza was Elliott's first wife. I had to do some digging to find out about her because there was a whole year where Elliott Parkinson went off the grid. It turns out when he met and married your mother, he was disowned from the family."

Alicia frowned. "But then how? Why? I don't understand."

"Your parents were married for just over a year, and when your mother died in childbirth, my best guess is that Elliott Parkinson was offered a choice-put you up for adoption and be welcomed back into the family and marry a suitable woman in society, or remain destitute without a penny to his name to raise a child," Hermione explained.

"That bastard," Alicia hissed, picking up her glass and draining it. "How could he care about money more than his own flesh and blood? He cared about my mother enough to give it up. Why wasn't I enough?"

Tears started streaking down Alicia's cheek which she quickly wiped away.

"I wish I could answer that, Alicia," Hermione replied sadly, offering her a cigarette which she gratefully took.

Alicia lit the cigarette and inhaled deeply. "Is that everything you found?"

"Not quite," Hermione replied. "After I found all this out, I examined the contents of Elliott Parkinson's will, and there is a specific line that I think will be of interest to you."

Alicia fought to keep her facial expression neutral, and took another drag from her cigarette. Everything she had done up until this point had been leading to this moment.

"In his will, Elliott Parkinson states: I leave my all my assets to my first, trueborn heir. That's you, Alicia," Hermione explained. "You are the sole heir to the Parkinson fortune. All you would need to do to claim your right is present the Parkinson lawyers with this documentation."

Alicia sank back into her chair as she finished her cigarette.

"I can't believe it," she finally said as she leant forward to stub her cigarette out. "I think I need some time to allow this to sink in."

Alicia rose to her feet and walked towards the door. "Thank you, Miss Granger," she whispered before opening the door with a smirk on her face.