Disclaimer: Don't own it. For full disclaimer and other info please see Chapter One.
And in this Dream...
By Colleen
ACT 6
SCENE 1
On their way to interview Raymond Palmer, Detective Wilder grabbed a couple of uniforms and sent them to round up the cast members from their dressing rooms and deposit them in the green room. Since they had the manager's permission to search the building, it would be better to do so with the dressing rooms empty, rather than to have to fight with each actor when they tried to search their space.
The actors were shifted with a fair bit of grumbling, but nothing like what would have occurred if they had seen police officers rummaging through their things.
The officers were told to be neat. Since the only thing they had asked to search for was the prop sword, they kept their search to places that would be large enough to hold it. They didn't want to lose evidence to some actor managing to convince a judge that they had been searching illegally. Although they did have permission from management, things like dressing rooms could get a little iffy when it came to search and seizure rules.
Yuffie gave a little sigh as she sat wedged in-between two extras. Somewhere along the way she'd lost Vincent. One minute she was sure he was behind her and the next she had been entering the green room with only the escorting officer. The fact that the officer didn't seem concerned led her to believe that Vincent had been pulled aside for questioning.
That thought made her skin crawl, but she guessed it made sense. He was the only person back stage that didn't have any place specific to be during the play. He could have wandered anywhere, seen anything... done anything.
No, she shook the thought out of her head. She wasn't going to start thinking things like that and besides, she would be being questioned soon enough herself.
SCENE 2
You would think that a six foot tall man, in a black suit, with long black hair and the face of a Raphael angel would have a difficult time being ignored. And yet, Vincent still managed it. He had followed Yuffie and the officer for only a short ways, before he slid a step sideways and more or less disappeared from sight and mind.
Yuffie, he knew, would be safe with the officer and even safer once she was in a crowd of her fellow actors.
Vincent moved through the building like a shadow, graceful, flowing and completely ignored by the milling officers. He headed for the manager's office, but passed it by when he heard the quiet counterpoint of the police detective's voice to the overbearing tones of the theatre's leading man. He headed further down the hall, figuring that if Aaron wasn't in his own office he may be in his assistants. The police officer keeping watch outside that room seemed to verify this and Vincent waited until the man's attention was pulled to the main office by a louder than usual exclamation from Raymond, before he slipped past him and into the room.
Vincent watched for a moment as his old friend worked at his secretary's desk, pulling out files from a number of drawers while consulting a computer placed prominently on the desk.
"Aaron."
Not surprisingly, Aaron jumped slightly.
"Vincent?" He said, perhaps a little too loudly. He gave a quick look towards the door, to make sure that the officer on the other side of it hadn't heard him before continuing on in a quieter voice.
"What are you doing here?" A slight frown marred his face.
Vincent leaned up against the wall next to the door. "I thought I should warn you that I was around."
"Anyone else know you're here?" Talley asked, his voice still low as he walked around the desk and leaned back against it, giving his friend his full attention.
Vincent hesitated a bare moment. Most people might not have even caught it, but Aaron had known Vincent too long to miss something like that. "Well?"
"The new girl, Yuffie. She's seen me around and I was standing next to her when it happened." Vincent paused a moment. "I stopped her from joining the mob on the stage." Another pause. "Dwight knows I'm here as well."
Aaron dismissed the doorman's involvement with a wave of his hand. "I doubt Dwight would offer the police any information about you, unless he had no choice. Yuffie..."
If she had been in actual physical contact with Vincent, then she would probably mention him to the police. Especially if he had been beside her when the 'accident' had occurred.
"I told her the usual story about why I was wandering around the theatre, so even if she tells the police about me, I don't think it will be a problem."
Aaron nodded and realized that he had better add Vincent to the current list of employees, so it wouldn't look suspicious if, or more likely when, Yuffie mentioned him.
Vincent gave him a nod back and turned to go. "Vincent." Aaron's voice stopped him with his hand on the door knob. "I don't like to pry, but why are you here now? I know how much trouble you have with Hamlet."
"At first I was just interested to see how the new Ophelia would be," Vincent said, not looking back towards his friend, "and then I was just interested in her." Vincent turned the knob and left the room.
Aaron stared at the door for a few moments, before letting out a pent up breath and shaking his head.
"It's about time."
SCENE 3
Detective Justin Wilder fought to keep his eyes from rolling, as leading man Raymond Palmer went over the events of the night.
It was amazing that the man was able to go to the bathroom by himself, given how much of his night had apparently been spent keeping his personal assistant/dresser busy. The detective was beginning to doubt that Palmer would have been able to switch the weapons, not because he wouldn't have had the time or the opportunity, but because he probably would have sent his assistant to do it for him.
Actually, now that he thought about it, he had better schedule the assistant for an interview tonight. He couldn't dismiss the possibility that Raymond hadn't done exactly that.
His partner, Dom, had gone to collect Mr. Talley and see if he didn't have a set of names for them. If he did they could start connecting people to addresses and maybe set up appointments for interviews in the next couple of days, so they could clear out the theatre and lock it down for a better search.
Palmer was just starting to sputter indignantly again; he seemed to run a fairly predictable range of emotions timed to ten minute intervals, when Dom returned with both the manager and the information.
Wilder held up a hand to stop Raymond before he could really get going. "Mr. Palmer, I realize it's late, so I would like to propose that I send you home and have you come into the station tomorrow to give us your official statement or," Justin paused a moment as he noticed that Palmer looked like he was about to blow up in a very messy manner, "or we can go down to the station tonight, although it may be several hours before we're done here.
Raymond Palmer deflated, although he still looked quite annoyed.
"Very well detective, I will see you tomorrow." He looked over at Aaron Talley. "We will be performing tomorrow, won't we?"
Talley opened his mouth to answer, but Detective Wilder beat him to it. "I don't think that will be very likely. However, we may be able to let you get back to business in a day or two."
"For God's sakes man it's not like he died and besides it was just a stupid accident."
With that statement Raymond firmly entered himself into the Detective's mental list of assholes they'd rather not have to deal with. If he kept things up, he might eventually make their list of assholes that needed to be taken down, hard.
They could only hope.
"No, he didn't die, but we don't know what's happening at the hospital yet and while I hope Mr. Potts is able to make a full recovery, what we have may be more than an accident. If that's all it was I would be overjoyed, but it is very possible, even likely, that this will be ruled an attempted murder at the very least."
Raymond Palmer's mouth opened and closed, the actor finally at a loss for words. When he finally did speak, it was the four words the detective had been expecting to hear sometime ago.
"I want my lawyer."
"Have him join you at the station tomorrow."
Detective Wilder threw his partner a quick look and Dom stuck his head out of the room, nabbing a uniformed officer to see Mr. Palmer out of the theatre.
The actor staged a masterful scene as he left. Somehow managing to stalk, stomp and schlep out of the room all at the same time.
"Ever consider being an actor Detective Wilder?"
Justin smiled ruefully at Aaron Talley and shook his head. "Nope, always wanted to be a cop."
The manager laughed slightly at that and held out the promised list of employees.
Detective Wilder took the list and gave it a quick flip through before handing it off to his partner.
"We should double check everyone's information and than let them go. We can set up interviews as we need..." A knock at the door interrupted the investigator and Dom opened it to an officer holding what had to be the original prop sword.
"Where was it?"
"In dressing room three, sir."
Dom and Justin both looked to the manager.
"That would be Yuffie's room," he said, obviously a little shocked. "Yuffie Kisaragi, but she couldn't have anything to do with this."
"Known her a long time, have you?" Detective Spencer asked in the rumble that passed for his voice.
Talley hesitated slightly. "Actually, this is the first production she's done with us."
"Hmmm, looks like Ms. Kisaragi just got herself to the top of the interview list." Dom nodded to his partner and headed out to track her down.