Perry glanced at his watch as he approached the Aquarium of the Pacific. There was still a good half hour until five, but he had finished his groundwork here. And, chances were, Harmony was already waiting for him.

"Patient" was never a word he had used to describe the actress... Not that it was an apt descriptor for Perry himself these last few hours either, though.

Usually, the finer details of detective work -- the stuff Harry liked to call "boring shit" -- were what Perry enjoyed most. It was like putting together a puzzle -- the more pieces there were, the more satisfying it was when one finished the puzzle.

But not this time. Not when half the pieces had sharp, jagged edges to them and none of them seemed to match up. Not when the picture taking shape seemed to become more frightful by the moment.

"Perry! There you are!" The familiar voice was followed by a rapid clacking -- the sound of someone running in high heels. "Where have you been?" Harmony stood before him, anxiety flashing from her eyes and radiating from the hands she held, trembling ever so slightly, between them.

"I was doing groundwork." Commenting on the time would likely provoke a violent reaction. "Checking where there are cameras."

"Cameras -- you mean like security cameras?"

"And ATM and traffic cameras."

"Won't the police check those?"

"They're not looking for Harry -- they're looking for a murderer."

"Fucking assholes." She startled a group of kids coming out of the aquarium. "Who needs them?" She began pacing the sidewalk in front of Perry, her heels clicking a rhythmic pattern on the sidewalk. "Perry!" She startled him out of his brief mesmerized state. "You said the fucking piece of shit who took Harry has killed already." She stopped pacing, her eyes and voice sharpening on him. "How do we know?"

"Because he faked Harry's death."

"He what?"

"He killed someone -- we don't know who, yet -- and made the cor-- it look like it was Harry."

"How?"

Unbidden, memory surfaced -- the black, nine and a half fingered body in the burnt remains of Harry's clothes. "You... don't want to know."

"Perry!"

"You don't want to know!" Only when he saw Harmony's eyes widen did he realize he had snapped. "Trust me."

"Oh my God, Perry. You fucking saw it?" He gave one sharp nod. "You... thought it was Harry?"

Perry turned away from the softened expression in her eyes. "For a while." What the fuck was wrong with his voice today. "But that's not important now." That was better.

"But Perry, why?"

"Why what?"

"Why would someone kidnap Harry and go to all that trouble to fake his death? What are they do--"

"Don't fucking ask that question." The words came out without thought, but with a force that surprised him.

It shocked Harmony, too, if her frozen posture was any indication, and he prepared for an angry retort.

"You're not used to this, are you?"

"What?" Not remotely the expected response.

"You're not used to having something -- someone -- to lose." Her expression at that moment was so like Harry's.

"I don't... We don't have time for this." Perry straightened his shoulders and turned his head to the side.

Harmony sighed. "Right. What are we doing here?"

"We're retracing Harry's steps from two nights ago and collecting information."

"You mean, like, questioning people?"

"Exactly."

"How are we doing this?"

"Well, splitting up would save time..."

"Perry, you said this asshole was probably trying to get at you. Do you think it's a good idea to go by yourself?"

Harmony, too? "We don't have time to play it safe."

"Well how many places are we going to and what the fuck are they?"

"Four bars and a cocktail lounge." All the places on the credit card report.

"Fine. We split up inside each joint." She held up a manicured hand to his protest and he noticed absently that more than one of the nails was chipped. "You take bartenders, I'll take bouncers." She moved her hands to her hips and glared at him. It was one of the things Perry liked about Harmony -- that even from a shorter height, she could really stare you down.

"Fine. Let's go."

"Thank you for your time," Perry told the seventh bartender (in the fourth bar) of the evening, though by that hour, it came out as insincerely as it was meant. Perry sighed, set down his glass, and turned to scan the room for Harmony. He had left her talking with a bouncer, who had seemed to have had a great deal of information to impart to Harmony's breasts.

I hope one iota of it, at least, is fucking useful. Perry was not sure what he had thought he would get from the rounds of questioning, but it had come to nothing so far. The staff they had spoken to so far had "kinda recalled" Harry because he had been asking questions, but no one had seen anything that had registered as unusual.

Perry could see neither Harmony nor the bouncer. From the overwhelming smell of tobacco which had emanated from the bouncer, Perry supposed a smoking break was a high probability.

It was only when he stepped into the relative quiet of the street that he realized how obnoxiously loud it had been inside. And cloying. He took a deep breath of salt-scented air -- and coughed. Definitely a smoking break.

He turned toward the source of the smoke and saw Harmony. However, it was not the bouncer she was talking to, but some girl. He moved closer, tuning into their conversation.

"Thanks," the girl said -- apparently Harmony had given her a light. "God, California! Love the beaches, hate the 'smoke free' bars!"

Harmony laughed, but Perry could tell it was her Hollywood laugh. "My boyfriend complains about that, too."

"Boyfriend, huh?" The girl gave a drunken snort. "Men can be such pigs."

Perry was about to step in and break up the conversation -- they did not have time for bitch fests -- but Harmony caught his eye and shook her head minutely. "Oh, but some of the pigs are kind of sweet."

"I guess so."

"Not all the guys you meet here can be that bad." Perry knew her well enough to hear the fishing tone in her voice. The bouncer must have given her a tip.

"Well, there was a guy here, the other night. He gave me a light, too. Come to think of it, he complained about California, too." A laughing tone came into the girl's voice. "He was funny. He told me he played the pipe organ until he lost his finger!"

Harry! Come on Harmony, find out what she knows!

"That sounds like my boyfriend -- I hope you didn't go home with him!"

"Naw. I thought he was making a pass at me, but he just wanted to know if I knew any cheap hotels nearby..." The light tone left the girl's voice and she shivered.

"Are you OK?"

"I just remembered... Some other dude came up after he left --started asking me if I knew where the first guy was going." Both Harmony and Perry perked up at that. "I just told him, like 'some hotel.' I mean, the guy seriously gave me the creeps."

Perry felt a scrabbling sensation in his stomach as Harmony asked, "Why is that?" Her acting skills seemed to fail her -- Perry could hear the same anxiousness in her voice.

"It was the guy's voice." The words caused further disquiet to shiver from Perry's gut and thrill along his nerve endings. "He sounded like a snake. Ugh!"

"Shit..." Perry breathed, buzzing filling his head and gravity focusing on his stomach.

"Perry?" Harmony's attention shifted to him, but he was unable to answer.

Memories eddied around his mind, but the whirlpool centered on one, red tabloid headline.

Jake the Ripper.

"Fucking hell."

~to be continued~