AN: Nothing to do with anything, but Angelique is (distantly) related to Tommy Shelby. (Hooker? One night stand? I dunno.) She looks a bit like him. They met once. He taught her how to cut a man's tongue out with minimal mess and no biting risk.
Yay. Family.
Elise's Angelus-Aww, thanks! Matt disagrees. He doesn't like this at all, really. But he'll just have to deal with it-if he doesn't like it, he can retire.
"My god, you're a tenacious bastard."
So he's been told.
"How are you not dead by now?"
He's...actually not sure.
He ignores her questions in favour of asking his own.
"Did you find him?"
"No. He's quick. Like you. Only less nice to look at." There's the sound of something-ice cubes, orange juice, vodka-being poured. "Drink?"
He shakes his head.
"Whisper. That's his name."
"You're kidding."
"No."
She laughs, a little disbelieving, and pads over to her chaise.
"Sit down, you must be tired."
"I'm fine."
"So you said. Right before you went down."
He sinks-grudgingly-into the hugging chair and wills his ribs to stop hurting now. They ignore him.
"Whisper, then?" She takes a long drink. "Good to know. We borrowed his friend, by the way."
"What did you do to him."
"I didn't do anything." Her heart says truth, her voice says from a certain point of view. "You did more damage than I did."
"Is he dead."
"Oh, so suspicious." She laughs at him, takes another drink. "Never mind him. He's happy."
He's dead, then. He must be. That kind of evasion? There's no other answer.
"Quit that, I didn't kill him."
No, she probably ordered him tied to the train tracks or something.*
"Whisper. Have you heard of him?"
"I would be shooting at you if I didn't still need you. You are trespassing, after all."
"That's not an answer."
She gets up and walks over and puts her hand against his cheek. He twists away and swats at her fingers.
"Oh, honey, he really did a number on you." She withdraws her hand. "You poor thing."
"What do you want."
"Whisper. Stopped." There's the sound of ice hitting soft plastic and a second later a bag soars through the air to hit him in the chest. OW. "And that bruise on your face less purple, it's putting me off my vodka**."
"Did the pawn shop owner tell you anything?" The ice actually feels really nice. She doesn't need to know that.
There's silence for a minute or two-well, as silent as his life ever is.
Heartbeat
Ice cubes clinking
Someone two blocks down nearly got run over and is pissed
"We did." she says at last. "He was very chatty. Admittedly, he had a bit of trouble-you do realise you knocked his front teeth out?-but he was...helpful. A little goldmine of information."
"What did he say about Whisper?"
"Besides insisting that the skull on his cane is a real one?" She takes a long drink and goes to the window. "He appeared out of the blue one day with a...profitable...business proposition, during that whole fiasco with Fisk. Everything was in an uproar, our economy was in shambles...I can see the attraction."
Matt grimaces. He supposes it was only a matter of time before everyone got really desperate, but he hadn't expected...
I'm so sorry.
"Where is he from?"
"I have no idea. I don't know how he's getting them out, either-our dear friend was clueless."
Silence settles between them again.
Heartbeat
Ice cubes
Security's watching 'The Bachelor' downstairs
"You should be going." she says at last. "Tick-tock."
"There's nothing else you can tell me?"
"No." There's that tone again, but she doesn't seem to be lying. Shame. "Run along, now."
He throws the ice pack at her with a little more force than necessary and hears it smack her in the arm. There's a beat.
"That wasn't very nice."
He smiles at her-a real one, for once-and heads for the window. He's halfway to the ground when a bullet comes within a hair's breadth of hitting him.
"That's for the ice pack, asshole!"
Aw. She likes him. He's touched.
She's not going to like it, and she might actually try to hit him next time as a result, but he borrows one of her goons.
The guy stepped out for a smoke and...didn't quite make it back inside. Matt makes a mental promise not to do too much damage and to put him back in roughly the same place he found him.
But right now he's busy threatening to drop him off a nearby rooftop. (Owners are out.)
"What do you know about Whisper?"
"Don't hurt me!"
"Then answer my questions." He forces him closer to the edge. "And you'll be fine."
"I don't know nothin', man, talk to the boss!"
He's taken to carrying a bungee cord (useful for tying up criminals for the police to find!) and he fishes it out and wraps it around the guy's ankles. He's not sure how this will go, but there's a first time for everything.
"I'm pretty sure this will hold. If not, you're not that far up."
"Oh, shit, oh, shit-"
And then Matt pushes him off the roof.
There's a scream, but it's quickly choked off when he yanks him back up. The bungee holds, but it's strained. Hopefully he won't have to risk another drop.
"What do you know?"
The guy's heart is threatening to pound right out of his chest and he's pissed himself at some point. Matt's starting to wonder if he's going to pass out from fright when he gasps out, "Okay! Okay! No one's seen him since he ran off, but the shop's been getttin' emptied out. No one goes in, no ones goes out, but the stuff keeps disappearing. That's all I know, man, I swear-"
He's telling the truth. Matt drops him and reclaims his bungee cord.
"Thanks." He pauses. "Sorry about the...uh...drop."
The only reply he gets is a terrified whine. Not much he can do about that. Maybe next time the guy'll be a little more cooperative.
*There is at least one 'texting and walking turned tragic' that wasn't...accidental. Hey, once somebody did it for real, it became an acceptable murder cover-up.
**Maybe you shouldn't have let him crash face-first into the floor, Angelique.
