Fable Justice (E-4)

by Chadw996

Bigby Wolf was cursed to die seven times, one time he was too damaged and was reincarnated. When Jason awakens after his death, he has flashes of another life, as the Big Bad Wolf. He returns as sheriff of Fabletown while keeping an eye on other supernatural cases. [DC/Young Justice, Fables/Wolf Among Us, Grimm, and more] (Harem)

3. Ch3: Catching The Scent

AN: I don't own DC/Young Justice, Fables/Wolf Among Us, or anything else.

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Chapter Three: "Catching The Scent"

Jason stared down at the head of Snow White on the front steps of the Woodland, looking up at him with blood seeping from it's stump as police lights flash red and blue around his frame.

"Mr. Wolf!", a woman's voice snaps him out of it and he's in an interrogation room looking at a photograph of the head of Snow White on the table as he sits there.

The female detective that snapped him out of it takes the photo away, leaving it on the center of the table.

She is Detective Kelsey Brannigan of the NYPD that was questioning him about the incident. Most importantly, she was a Mundy, which made it so Jason wasn't allowed to talk about Fable business with her.

"You're making this more difficult than it has to be", Kelsey says to him in annoyance, "If you just cooperate and answer the questions, you can go home. Maybe get some sleep".

Jason was really tempted to grab the cheap ass cigarettes with the Big Bad Wolf catchphrase on them, 'Huff & Puff' they were called. Despite everyone saying they were a shit brand, the worst brand, it was found everywhere like it was the best.

Jason taps the pack on the table in consideration of taking a smoke before setting it back down on the table.

Kelsey sighs before asking, "How are you feeling? I know it's been a long night for you. You look like you could use some rest", due to his haggard state before her.

"I'm hunky dory. Thanks for asking", Jason tells her, sounding overly cynical and bitter.

"There's no need to get aggressive. I'm trying to help you", Kelsey tells him, scooting closer to the table in her seat, "Look... I know what you must be going through... Really, I do... But I could use your cooperation".

"You don't know anything. If you did you wouldn't be sitting here talking to me", Jason remarks, "You'd be talking to the piece of shit who did this".

"Well, you're stonewalling like this isn't helping either", Kelsey responds before roughly standing before him from her chair, "So why don't you cut the shit and...", before stopping herself from going good cop to bad cop, "I'm trying to help you Jason", she says as she sits back down, writing some more in her notepad.

"What is it with you cops always trying to empathize with people, even when you don't mean it?", Jason asks, ""I know this must be hard for you"", he quotes, "Do you? Do you fucking know ?", he scoots closer to her and hunches over the table to look her in the eye, "Have you had a friend killed and their head left at your fucking doorstep?!", he demands, which she remained silent to, "No? Didn't think so", and he sit back like before.

He shakes his head to calm himself before looking towards the detective, "Your nose is bleeding", he tells her.

Kelsey didn't notice at first as the red seeped from her left nostril, her eyes blinking in a panic before she wipes it and looks to her hand to see that she was bleeding.

"Are you... okay?", Jason asks her in worry, believing that not to be normal at all, "You don't looks so good", she doesn't answer him, "Detective Brannigan?"

"I'm Detective Brannigan", Kelsey introduces herself in confusion.

"Uh, yeah, I know... I just said that", Jason says, "Is there something-"

"Do you hear that?", Kelsey asks, before grabbing her head in pain, "Please... Please...", before scrunching her face as though she was hearing the worst ringing noise stuck in her head.

Jason hears a bang on the two-way mirror to his left, followed by a squeak as it slides down it. Jason suspects that those officers watching in had fallen unconscious onto it.

"I'm sorry, just...", Kelsey goes as she hunches from her seat, "Make it stop... please", she begs before falling unconscious onto the desk before Jason.

Jason sat their for a beat, wondering what has happened before the door to the room opens and in steps Ichabod Crane with a box of evidence about the investigation.

"We have to go. Now", Crane declares.

"What the fuck is going on?", Jason demands of him, confused on what he did.

"You should be thanking me!", Crane reprimands, "It's just a memory wipe spell. Very expensive, but it works. The whole station will forget the last 24 hours and everything they saw at the Woodlands. So, hurry up!", and he goes to leave the room. Jason gets up, grabbing the photo of Snow's head, the notes of their conversation, along with messing up the cameras on the room, and left after Crane.

Soon After

Jason and Crane were in Crane's car, an old Lincoln Continental that was mainly green with a beige roof, driving back to The Woodlands late day before the sun falls to night.

The duo are just sitting in silence, save for Jason clearing his throat from lack of rest and hydration with all that has been going on.

Crane clears his own throat as he adjusts his rear-view mirror.

"We, um, we found Tweedle Dee chained up to a post. That was your doing, correct?", Crane asks as he stops at a intersection.

"Yeah", Jason tiredly responds.

"Well, I don't know why you detained him", Crane remarks with condescension, "Dee was at the Trip Trap when Snow was left at the Woodlands, so he couldn't possibly be involved in this madness. Bluebeard's currently interrogating him... and he hasn't said anything useful. And Wolf, we have to tread carefully here. We can't implicate an innocent man, and people are already worried about your conduct. As of late", driving away again.

"I'll see what's what when we get back home", Jason claims, "But for now, let's just... shut up for awhile, alright?"

"We have to formulate a plan of action, Wolf", Crane tells him.

"I will", Jason tells him, rubbing his head, "Just not right now".

Crane soon comes to a stop at another intersection.

"I know what you're thinking, Jason", Crane says in sadness, "It's been one full night and a slice of morning, and I already miss her, too", before driving again on the green light, "You know, I never get more homesick than when one of us dies. And now... for it to be Snow... I've never been good with these sorts of things. I just can't believe this is really happening".

"Give me a fucking break", Jason growls, his anger about what happened boiling over.

"What?", Crane asks in shock.

"You treated her like the fucking maid, and now you want a shoulder to cry on?", Jason demands him, hating such things happening when a person dies and others that treated them like shit being the most remorseful of their deaths, acting like they were friends or family, "You didn't care then, you don't care now", upsetting Crane.

"That is not true! Not true at all!", Crane denies, a whine in his voice as he avoids crying, "I thought we had found some common ground... Could discuss this like gentlemen!".

"Let's get something straight here, alright?", Jason tells Crane as they make another stop, "We have exactly nothing in common. The only thing that connects us is being Fables".

Crane sighs before driving again, "I don't know why I'm asking you, but did she give you any indication as to what she was thinking... when you saw her last, I mean? I don't know why, but I'd like to know that she was... I guess, fine, I suppose".

Jason looks down in thought, "She could come off as... callous, sometimes, but she wasn't really. She said she wanted to change things... make it easier for Fables to get help when they need it."

Crane looked a little ashamed at that before steeling his features.

"I don't know what else to say, Wolf.", Crane goes, "We have to- We have to put an end to this", pulling up to the front gate of the Woodlands, "There's been two murders in just as many days. If we don't unearth our culprit and soon, there will likely be another on our doorstep tonight", before he and Jason exit the car.

"I'll get it", Jason says as he gets out the car passenger side.

"Please, Wolf. For Miss White", Crane begs.

"I got it!", Jason growls, slamming the door shut and cracking the window glass, startling Crane before he glares after Jason as he stalks his way into the Woodlands.

Woodlands, Basement

"That's not a very good answer, is it?", a voice says to another in a steel vault door led room in the dingy basement of the Luxury Apartments, "Come on, just tell me what I want to know. It will make hings a lot less painful for you... in theory", rubbing a knife in a clothe.

The man interrogating Dee was a classy looking man with a bald head but a dark blue, almost black, trimmed beard, matching frame glasses over his eyes, and a small lopped golden earring in his right ear. He wore dark pants and shoes with a red vest over a black tie and white dress shirt with rolled up sleeves.

This is Bluebeard. Known in his stories as a serial killer that murdered his wives, which range in the thousands. Currently, he's a billionaire funding Fabletown and is still shady as fuck, being the only person Jason hates more than Crane in the Fable community.

"Oh! Were you planning on using that?", Dee rhetorically asks from his position strapped in a chair, "I just thought you really like rubbing your little sword", pissing off Bluebeard.

"You ignorant fuck!", Bluebeard lets out, coming onto to Dee with the knife to his neck, just as Jason and Crane arrive.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?", Crane demands indignantly.

"Hello, Ichabod. Sheriff", Bluebeard greets in sadness, like a child that won't get to play with it's toy.

"Bluebeard", Jason greets with similar fanfare.

"I was just chatting with our new friend", Bluebeard informs as he stands straight up off Dee, while Jason made note of the blood seeping from the fat man's mouth and staining the collar of his polo button up shirt.

"You were supposed wait for us to get back!", Crane admonishes as Jason shuts the door behind them, "I told you, if you want to be involved, you will do things my way. No violence".

Bluebeard side-eyes him for a second before smirking, "Whatever you say, Ichabod", moving away from Dee, and allowing Jason to stand before the suspect.

"Hello, Jason", Dee greets with a british like accent.

"I want answers, Dee", Jason growls out, crossing his arms.

"Oh goodie! I thought you wanted questions, and I was having so much trouble thinking of any good ones", Dee retorts, "Though I'd settled on, "How's your head?""

"You see what I've been dealing with?", Bluebeard remarks, "What are you going to do about this, Wolf?"

Since Bluebeard has been acting all bad cop and has gotten nowhere, Jason will be going the good cop route, "It's been better, but we're not here to talk about me", stepping into Dee's comfort zone, "Snow White is dead".

Dee shrugs, "Look, I didn't kill anyone".

"And I'm supposed to just believe you?", Jason asks him, unconvinced of his involvement.

"You were with me when it happened, dummy", Dee smiles.

This causes the other two men to look at Jason curiously.

"I still have questions for you, Dee", Jason says,

"Sounds like a personal problem?", Dee retorts.

"This is ridiculous", Bluebeard gruffs.

"Let him work", Crane tells him, "He's got more experience with these kinds of things, in all his lives.

"Why were you at Toad's place?", Jason demands.

"Lookin for a change of scenery", Dee supplies, "Thought I might move in", Jason clenches his fist in suppressed anger, "Make sure everything's up to code and whatnot. Looked alright, except for this big hole in the wall. Might get drafty".

"All right, Dee, let's get to know each other", Jason retorts.

Wanting to spook him a little, Jason pulls out the retrieved photo of Snow White's head from his person and shows it to Tweedle Dee.

"Fuck, Wolf. Don't make me look at that", Dee complains, as it was within a few inches of his face, "Just put that away. Please. I don't want to see that".

"This is why we're here. Someone killed this woman, and we need to know who", Jason tells him.

"I get it, I do. But I can't tell you what I don't know", Dee denies.

Jason repockets the photo, "Just tell me what you were doing at Toad's place", he restates.

"Look, Wolf. We're not on opposite sides here. My brother and I are trying to get to the bottom of things, same as you", Dee tells him.

Jason shifts his eyes in thought, "Your brother...", causing Dee's eyes to go wide, "Where was he last night?".

"I can't say. He could've been anywhere", Dee smiles off

"Take your best guess?", Bluebeard remarks from the corner with his arms crossing to look intimidating.

"He didn't do it, if that's what you're thinking", Dee denies.

"Then where is he?", Jason demands.

"No. I'm not sending you after my brother", Dee denies in anger, "Look, I answered your question. Can I get my stuff back now?"

Jason looks to Crane, "What did you find on him?".

"Oh, ah... nothing of consequence really", Crane states retrieving the items fro off to the side and bringing them over to the dingy bed next to Jason and the detained Dee, placing them from a shoe box onto a metal tray, showing only a cigar and a big money roll, along with a bottle of whisky that rolled off the tray.

"This is gettin old very quickly", Dee remarks as he sees Jason gaze about his belongings.

Jason grabs the bottle and lifts it up between him and Dee, "You just carry this around with you?", unscrewing the top.

"Always handy that way", Dee retorts.

Jason takes a whiff before offering it up to Dee for a drink, causing Bluebeard to sneer a little.

"Couldn't hurt, I guess", Dee claims at the offer, before allowing Jason to pour in a generous amount, swallowing it down.

Jason takes a swig himself before setting it aside onto the bed.

Bluebeard comes up to him, "Look, Wolf. This isn't going to work", almost acting like the devil on Jason's shoulder, "Don't you want to find out what happened to those girls... to Snow White?"

"Let me handle this?", Jason utters out in disdain for the man, leaving him to go back to his corner, "So where's your brother?"

"Look, mate. I'd like to help, I would, but I can't tell you where he is", Dee explains, "last time I saw him, we split up, and I went to find Faith's-", before quieting as he realized he was blabbing on about things he shouldn't, "I don't know where he is now. But he didn't kill anybody. Just leave him out of this".

"You mentioned Faith?", Jason inquires from his talking.

Dee looks hesitant, "Look... I went to her apartment. That's no secret. You saw me".

"No, there's more to it", Bluebeard cuts in, catching something, "You said you were trying to find something".

"All right, Dee", Jason says, crossing his arms again, "What did you want from Faith?"

"Sorry, I can't help you. I'm not saying anymore about it", Dee denies.

Jason goes and picks up the wad of cash and holds it up, "You always carry around this much cash?"

"I got a lot of laundry to do this week", Dee supplies, poorly lying in Jason's opinion, "What's it to ya?".

Jason flicks through the bills, seeing them mostly on the large numbered side, "Not event he rich are dumb enough to carry this much cash at a time", Jason remarks before tossing it back on the tray.

He steps closer to Dee, "Com on, Dee. What did you want from Faith?", looking off to the side as he remembered meeting her, "Sweet girl like her-"

"Sweet? You think that girl was sweet?", Dee asks incredulously, brow furrowing in anger, "She was a fuckin thief", before snorting dismissively, "Fuckin sweet. Faith was plenty of things, but that ain't one of 'em. I mean, you know what she did for a living, right?"

"You still seem pretty mad about it", Jason notes.

"Hell, I ain't bothered", Dee shrugs off, "Wasn't me she stole from. Nah, she took somethin' from by boss".

"You boss...", Bluebeard repeats from his corner.

Dee's eyes change to show he fucked up.

"So, let's talk about your boss then", Jason continues his inquires.

"You're going to get me into trouble, Wolf", Dee jokingly retorts, trying to hide his fear, "I can't answer anymore of your questions.

Jason then picks up the partially smoked cigar, he lights it with his custom zippo lighter, that had a wolf motif of his wolf mother, White Wolf, and takes a few puffs of the cigar.

"I'm saving that", Dee complains.

"This is really... What's the point of this?", Crane asks.

Jason offers the cigar to Dee, "Here".

Dee looks to it for a second, "Yeah, all right", and accepts a few puffs of his own, "Want to see a trick?", blowing a cloud up to Jason's face, you remains unbothered by it as he drops the cigar and stomps it out.

"Why don;t you just tell me who you're working for?", Jason demands.

"Look", Dee leans in a little, "You're not a bad guy, I believe Beauty on that, but I can't give you that information. That's where I got to draw the line"

"There's no way Beauty would associate with a scumbag like you", Jason growls, his inner wolf and anger seeping out.

"What's wrong with me? you telling me I ain't pretty enough?", Dee aggressively asks him, "Yeah, we're real close".

Bluebeard cuts in, "I thought this was supposed to be a murder investigation, but you're treating this guy like a fucking houseguest!", he yells at Jason.

"Bluebeard!", Crane tries to disway.

"You're not getting any answers from him this way", Bluebeard claims to Jason, "Snow White is dead. One of us! And you're going to let this ignorant shit walk out of here in one piece?", he pushes Jason away, "Out of my way, I'll show you how it's done", gut punching Dee".

"Ah.. fu... what the fuck!", Dee cries in pain.

"What do you think you''re doing?", Crane demands.

"Teaching him a lesson. Now, pay attention", Bluebeard responds, before sucker punching Dee across his face.

"Stop this right now!", Crane commands.

Dee looks to Bluebeard, "You enjoying yourself?"

"Immensely", Bluebeard retorts.

Jason grabs him by the arm he was about to punch Dee with again and pulls him away. Bluebeard rights himself and pushes Jason. Jason then ducks under another punch from Bluebeards right sucker punching him to the right rib and tackling him into the wall, holding an elbow to his neck to old him down.

Just then, the door opens into the room to reveal someone no one here was expecting.

"Snow!", Crane utters in surprise with wide-eyes.

"What's going on down here?", she demands, seeing Jason holding Bluebeard against the wall, and the beaten Tweedle Dee, who looked shock to see her too.

Jason got off Bluebeard to look at her with him.

"Snow?", Jason says in surprise.

Soon After

Jason and Snow were heading back up from the basement and headed through the front lobby, before she stops them.

"What the hell was going on down there, Jason?", she demands of him, sounding tired and unsure, "Abusing a prisoner like that... I thought you could control yourself".

"I didn't lay a hand on him", Jason tells her, "I wanted to do the things the way you would've wanted, but Bluebeard had other ideas".

Jason was also using the method he saw Superman and Batman use once, when Superman was the Bad Cop and Batman was the Good Cop, the criminal laughed off Superman but was so freaked out by Batman being nice, he spilled everything.

He has yet to reach his level, apparently.

"You came in as I was trying to stop him", Jason tells her.

Snow White sighs and rubs the bridge of her nose in aggravation.

"Yeah", Snow reluctantly accepts and heads for the elevator, with Jason following her.

"Where the hell have you been all night, Snow?", Jason asks her, with some worry in his voice.

"I was working on this case", Snow tells him, brow furrowed, "After our conversation in the taxi last night, I got a call from Toad. he said his son found a body", she looks to him, "We thought it was Faith at the time... Getting her back here wasn't easy, but hopefully we'll find something on her to help us track down the killer. Or at least to figure out who she is. If it's not Faith's body...".

"I'm... glad you took care of things while I was busy", Jason tells her as they got onto the elevator.

"Thanks", she smiles before pushing the button fro their floor.

She checks her watch as they head up.

"Snow...", Jason utters to her.

"What is it?", Snow asks, looking to him.

"I'm glad you're not dead", Jason tells her.

"Me too", Snow replies, "I just want to get ot the bottom of this", as they arrive on their floor and they step off, "I just feel like...", she stops saying as she walks.

"What is it?", Jason asks her.

"I just...", Snow stops walking and turns to him, "I feel responsible, in a way. She looked just like me".

Jason scratches his head at that.

"And maybe that's why she was killed", Snow continues.

"I don't think it's about you", Jason denies, "There's something else going on here".

She looks around in thought before crossing her arms and nodding, "Maybe", before going resolute, "We just have to find out who did this. And why she was glamoured to look like me... I mean, that's what it is, right?"

"Unless you have a long lost twin sister or some descendants I don't know about?", Jason rhetorically asks her.

Snow quietens and coughs into her hand before continuing her walk to the office, "So what's our next move?", she asks him.

"We just keep doing what we've been doing", Jason says as he follows her, "We do our jobs".

"And I'm supposed to do what?", Snow demands as she turns back to him, "Sit around the Business Office twiddling my thumbs? Waiting for the Big Bad Wolf to solve all my problems?"

"That's not what I meant", Jason denies.

"Then what did you mean?", Snow asks him indignantly, "I told you, I'm tired of sitting around! I'm not going to be an errand girl for Crane anymore!"

"I just want you to be careful", Jason goes, "I almost lost you once-".

"I'm not yours to lose!", Snow yells at him, this causes both to quiet down and stew in sad silence before she says, "I'm sorry", she goes to open the door before looking to him, "I know it's dangerous, but I'm not helpless. I can take care of myself", she looks down at the doorknob, "I've been doing it for centuries", she looks back to him, "TJ is waiting inside. He was so freaked out last night, he wouldn't tell us much. Even now, he just stops talking after a certain point. He's pretty shaken up though, so try not to be too... you know..."

"Myself", he quirks a brow.

Snow looked down cast, "Right", before opening the door and they enter into the office for TJ and Toad.

They go through the Fabletown Business Office.

"TJ's over there", Snow informs, "I don't know if you want to talk to him first or after, but let me know when your ready to see the body. I'd... I want to be there".

Bufkin then flies in onto a cabinet to Jason's right.

"Bufkin. Do you have a second?", Snow asks him, walking over to the flying monkey.

"Of course. Miss Snow", Bufkin smiles to her, happy she's alive.

While that wa going on, Jason looks around the room for anything new that may help him. Reviewing the one book on Fables that helped him find Faith. Noting the Antacids on Crane's desk. Catching a whiff of Snow White's Leialoha perfume from her desk. The new tarot cards on Crane's desk showing three swords in a heart, two wolves with a lobster between them hollowing to the Moon, and some hermit.

Seeing no point in wasting time, Jason heads over to the two toad people looking into the Magic Mirror.

TJ looks to him with a touch of fear, which Toad notices and waves away the mirror.

"Ah, that's enough, Mirror! Vanish! Cancel!", he panically says and the mirror fades to normal

"Toad! What the hell are you doing?", Jason demands, not liking just anyone using the Magic Mirror for any reason.

"What? I wasn't touchin' nothin'", Toad denies.

"What's going on?", Snow asks as she joins them.

"What were you doing with the Mirror, Toad?", Jason asks him.

"I'd thought maybe I'd catch you on the shitter", Toad snarks, causing Snow to facepalm with a shake of her head, "I was just havin' a laugh. We've been waitin' here a long time".

Snow squats down, in a ladylike fashion to protect her modesty, and looks to TJ.

"TJ...", she calls out to him, and the young toad walks out from behind his dad's side to stand before her and Jason as he sniffles, "It's all right. Are you ready to talk to Mister Wolf?", calming the kid some.

He looks to her with a brave smile.

Snow looks up to Jason and he crouches down to her level to talk with TJ.

"Are you okay, TJ?", Jason asks him as the kid sniffles, to which the kid nods. Jason takes a humorous note of the kid's t-shirt sowing Swamp Thing on it.

"Go ahead, TJ", Snow encourages.

"I go swimming at night sometimes, in the river...", TJ begins, "I wasn't doing anything bad, I promise".

"Of course you weren't", Toad tells him.

"We know you're a good kid, TJ", Snow tells him, "You're okay".

"You're not in trouble", Jason declares to the kid, "Just tell me what happened".

TJ nods and continues, "I was there... under the big blocks. And I heard noisy feet. And when I hear that, I'm supposed to go underwater and stay real still and quiet.".

"That's right, son", Toad tells him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Then I saw... I saw the lady", TJ says in a husted tone, a cry rising in him, before he whimpers and does so.

"It's ok son", Toad comforts, patting his back.

Jason thought of doing the same, but went against it due to his reputation, so he just says, "Take your time, kid".

TJ calms himself and continues, "The lady... fell in... but she didn't have her head on!", barely stopping himself from crying, "I thought... I thought she was gonna pull me down too", he wipes his face f tears, "'Cause she had rocks on her feet. And she kept falling down into the dark parts".

Jason and Snow look to each other, "Cinder Blocks. Tied to her ankles", Snow confirms.

"Like a mafia movie", Jason grumbles before he and Snow look back to TJ.

"Is there more TJ?", Snow asks him.

TJ looks to Jason, "Is it true... you know when people are lying? I heard you can do that. That's why you're the Sheriff".

"Yeah, part of my job is being able to tell when people are lying", Jason smiles to the kid, "As a wolf, I have better senses than most people. Smell, sight, taste, touch, and hearing. These all help me in finding out if someone is lying, and I'm pretty good at it", TJ was quiet, "Is there something else you want to say?"

TJ looks to his dad, "Please don't be mad".

"What is it, TJ?", Snow asks him.

"I... I didn't stay under the water", TJ utters

"What?", Toad inquiries, upset at the thought of his son disobeying him.

TJ turns to his dad, "I know I was supposed to, but I was scared, and I went to the top again. I couldn't help it".

"I gave you very specific rules! You have to stay quiet and out of sight or bad things can happen. I told you!", his son cries at being admonished, "It's dangerous out there! If someone saw you!".

"You're not in trouble", Jason tells the kid.

"Like hell he's not", Toad disagrees.

"Not this time, Toad", Jason growls, "Unless you've forgotten what it's like to be a scared little kid. You don't exactly do what your supposed to when you're afraid", he takes a deep breath, "Just be more thankful he is safe right now".

Toad quietens at that but crosses his arms over his chest.

Snow looks to TJ, "So you didn't stay underwater...".

TJ continues, "I don't know... if anyone saw me, but someone said, "stop laughing". And then I was scared and I went under for as long as I could".

"Wait, you heard someone?", Snow asks in confusion.

"Yes", TJ confirms.

"Why didn't you tells us before?", Toad asks in his own confusion.

"I didn't want to be in trouble?", TJ sniffles.

"Were those their exact words, "Stop laughing". Try and remember what they said exactly", Jason encourages in a calming tone.

"They said... they said, "Stop laughing at me"", TJ repeats.

Jason doubts he'll get anymore out of the kid before he gets to stressed out, "Okay, TJ", calling this questioning to an end.

"I'm sorry", TJ tells him, wiping more tears from his face, "After I came up again, there was noone there, and I ran home. That's all. I promise", he looks to his dad, "I want to go home".

"Okay, you can go", Jason tells him, before reaching into his pocket, "But first...", and he pulls out five lollipop suckers, "Pick one", offering a green apple, a blue raspberry, a red cherry, a yellow lemon, and a purple grape for TJ to choose from.

TJ takes the green one, cause it matches his shirt.

Thank you, TJ", Snow smiles, both at the kid's courage and Jason's kindness.

"Let's get you home son", Toad says.

"You did a good job, kid", Jason tells him before he leaves, causing TJ to smile more.

The toad duo leaves in silence as the humans look after them.

"That went better than i expected", Snow remarks before looking to Jason, "You're... good with kids", she smiles, "And the lollipops?"

"I offer them to kids when I have to question or comfort them", Jason tells her, this being a tactic he learned from Batman, "Being the Big Bad Wolf makes them afraid of me, but those help kids to like me more. I plan to get wolf head shaped ones on Halloween", causing her to snort a laugh.

She looks to Jason, "Do you want to go look at the body now?"

Jason glances to the Magic Mirror, who was gazing back at him, "In a minute", he tells her.

"When you're ready", Snow tells him, hesitant in going herself, before going off to talk to Bufkin again.

Jason heads over to Magic Mirror to investigate some things.

"Hey, Mirror", Jason roughly greets.

"Hello, Wolf. Nice to see you", Mirror bemuses.

"You probably knew Snow was alive the whole time, didn't you", Jason theorizes.

"Possibly so, but the time has passed, you didn't rhyme, and you never asked", the Mirror articulates, "But as you know, I'm quite prolific, if you want me to show you someone specific".

Jason sighs, "The Woodsman and I were fighting, now I want to know where he is hiding", as he wants to check in on the suspect to everyone but him, doing a half-assed rhyme.

The Magic Mirror shows Woody drinking from a big bottle in front of a door way to a building.

"Well, that's helpful", Jason sarcastically remarks, before the Mirror shifts back to his own giant green face.

"Where can I find Tweedle Dum, that giant piece of scum", Jason inquires, wanting to know where the twin of Dee is, hoping to gleam anything tied to the murders.

The Mirror shows the fat bastard in a car similar to Crane's, smiling as he looks around.

"Bastard's up to something", Jason remarks, "His brother's arrested yet he's happy as hell".

Not thinking of anything else on his mind to look into, Jason decides to head to Snow and Bufkin.

"So, check out anyone who fits that profile. You might start with Bluebeard", SNow informs the green flying monkey.

"Right away, Miss Snow", Bufkin accepts the task, scratching his side like the monkey he is.

Snow looks to Jason, noticing his arrival, "Are you ready to examine the body now?", she asks.

"Yeah", Jason nods, "No point in delaying the inevitable".

"Oh, my goodness", Bufkin lets out as he realizes something, "I almost forget", he flies over to the evidence box Crane had brought back and flew it deeper into the office.

Snow looks down before telling Jason, "Come on", and they head out.

Witching Well Chamber

All three of them arrive to the chamber that houses the Witching Well, a well that disposes of things never meant to be seen again, such as dead Fables and unredeemable criminals, no one knows what lies at the bottom, if there even is a bottom, but everyone assumes it to be a passageway to the final resting place.

The chamber itself was mostly rounded concave pillars with a cave system beyond it, looking like a place Batman would call home.

Bufking flies pass the well to a stone slab that had the body of Snow White's double along with her head, with Jason and the real Snow White following after Bufkin to the body.

Snow couldn't help but avoid looking at her double as Jason and Bufkin arrive with her to the body. Bufkin stayed at the top right corner of the ancient slab that held the body and head, while Jason went to the left side of the body. Snow remains at the head of it.

"Wow", Snow remarks, letting out a breath, "I didn't realize... I never seen her face before now".

"Are you gonna be okay?", Jason asks her, "You don't have to stay".

"I want to stay", Snow says, resolute, her gaze not leaving her double, "I'll be fine, it's just... a little strange. The glamour is so effective, it's... invasive. But... Just do what you need to do".

Jason glances over the body before noticing a brooch on her collar of the shirt and takes it off. It kinda looked like a cancer ribbon, but ancient metal work with some jewels encrusted in.

"That's weird", Snow remarks before Jason hands it to her, "I don't where a brooch like that".

"Maybe it really belonged to her...", Jason surmises, "Not part of the glamour".

"Looks like something from the homelands", Snow theorizes as she inspects it, "Bufkin, do you recognize these symbols?", holding it before the flying monkey.

"No, nothing I've seen before", Bufkin denies.

Jason then looks to the wounds on the neck between the head and body, "Looks just like Faith's did", he looks to Snow, "Did Doctor Swinehart ever get back to you about Faith?"

"No. He said he wanted to run more tests", Snow shares.

Jason looks to the head itself.

"If the neck wound was the same, there might be a ribbon in her mouth too", Snow suggests, Jason inspects the mouth for her, "Anything?".

"Nothing", Jason denies, not finding anything, "So, it's not exactly the same", before respectfully closing her mouth.

"Thanks", Snow utters.

Heading down the body, Jason sees that her fist is clenched shut.

"Her fist is clenched", Jason informs the others.

"So she fought back?", Snow asks him

"No marks on the knuckles", Jason shares, denying that theory.

"Oh", Snow accepts.

"Maybe she was grabbing something?", Bufkin asks in suggestion.

"Maybe...", Snow repeats in thought.

Jason takes the arm and begins to pry the fingers open, trying to be careful as to not rip them off.

"What are you doing?", Snow asks him.

"Only one way to find out", Jason tells her as he worked before he gets them open, accidently breaking them.

"Jesus, Jason", Snow utters before looking to the opened hand, "What is it?", she asks him.

Jason picks up what looks to be purple flower petals of some kind.

"Flowers?", Snow notes in confusion.

"Yeah", Jason agrees, "Probably lilac", before continuing looking down the body.

Jason then inspects her legs and see markings on her ankles.

"Rope marks", Jason notes.

"She was tied up?", Bufkin asks.

"They tied cinderblocks to her ankles... so she would sink", Jason informs him.

"Oh", Bufkin sags.

Jason looks further up the legs to find track marks near her knees, drug injecting points.

"Track marks", Jason informs the others.

"She used mundy drugs?", Snow asks.

"Looks that way", Jason says with some sadness seeping in, remembering his human mother suffering due to drugs, "Pretty heavily too. I hear they only go for the legs if they used up the veins in their arms... or if they're trying to hide the marks".

"Wait", Snow cuts in, stepping in closer, "If the glamour is supposed to make her look like me, shouldn't be concealing things like track marks? That brooch too. Why would it change everything else? I never seen one this sloppy".

"It might just be failing", Jason remarks.

"Glamours don't just fail", Snow denies, "The witches upstair know what they're doing, that's why they cost so much. Unless someone is making glamours illegally?"

Bufkin chimes in, "It's not technically illegal, miss. It's not encouraged, for sure, but there aren't any laws specifically forbidding it".

"So there's some sort of black market for glamours?", Jason asks him.

"One would assume so", Bufkin says, "I imagine anyone with access to the proper books and training could theoretically produce a glamour".

"Yet another thing to worry about", Snow sighs.

"And not all magic users are Fables", Jason remarks, thinking of Zatanna and Doctor Fate.

"Black market or not, it's a pretty good match", Snow remarks about her double, before noticing a difference in their clothes, feeling the buttons on her own suit jacket, "Look at that. The buttons aren't exact either", stepping forward and tapping the body's buttons, "There's an extra one here."

"You're right, these button are wrong", Jason agrees, scratching his unshaven face, "I wonder...", he trails off, looking to Snow White.

"What?", she asks him.

"Snow, do you mind if I...", Jason gestures to the coat, "open her coat?", reaching to do so.

"Jason", she says, stopping him, "Just... let me do it", she then stands beside him and unbuttons the coat, showing off more of the state of the body, before stepping away with her arms crossed.

"You still okay?", Jason asks her.

Snow remains silent for a moment before looking to Jason, "I...", only to be cut off by Crane's arrival.

"Sorry, that, uh, took longer than I expected", he tells them as he walks up behind them, causing the trio to look to the elder looking lanky man, "What have you found out?", he asks, looking to the body.

Snow walks away a little, letting Jason speak.

"Her glamour is defective", Jason informs.

"Oh. Defective?", Crane asks him.

"We're thinking it's black market", Snow shares from her place beside Bufkin, "We should really be regulating this kind of thing".

"Yes", Crane says snidely, as if he knows something.

Jason and Snow look to each other for a second at this.

"We should keep going", Snow suggests.

Jason looks over the body, the button up snow design shirt was flip up near the skirt exposing a purple lace lingerie underwear, it had a little ribbon on it that reminded Jason of Faith's ribbon that was around her neck.

"Do you wear silk lingerie, Snow?", Jason asks Snow.

"Why do you want to know?", Snow asks, scowling at him.

"I'm just trying to see how exact the clothes are", Jason informs, gesturing to the exposed underwear.

"They're not", Snow denies.

"That could mean the clothes were never a part of the glamour and she had them herself, like the brooch", Jason theorizes.

Jason looks to the inside of the coat to see two pocket on the left side of the body, he looks into the lower one and pulls out a perfume bottle.

It was the same bottle Snow had in the office with a note that said 'Use This!' written on it.

"What is that?", Crane asks, his voice raising an octave.

Jason takes a whiff to confirm his suspicion, "It's your perfume", Jason tells Snow.

"How do you know what perfume I wear?", Snow asks, a little creeped out by both that and the fact her double had it.

"Nose knows", Jason retorts, "Also, the bottle on your desk right now is an exact match", before reviewing the note, "Looks like someone picked it out for her", before setting the bottle down on the slab next to the body.

"So someone gave her instructions?", Snow asks using the given information.

Jason reaches into the other pocket and pulls out a small wooden vial thing.

"I've seen things like that before...", Snow remarks, "It's definitely magic, though witches don't usually craft objects these days".

"I don't think it's wise to fool around with that", Crane remarks to Jason, fear in his voice, "It's some kind of black market magic, who know what it could do? We should have it looked at. Just to make sure it isn't dangerous. Don't you think?".

"You may be right", Jason tells Crane, "One way to find out", Crane looks around like he's looking for a ghost.

Jason shakes the vial, "Hmm".

"What?", Crane asks.

"There's something in here", Jason shares.

"How do we open it?", Snow asks.

Jason looks to the vial and the ring dials it had along the shaft, "I think I can figure it out. Something to d with these rings here", and he began spinning them along the shaft till he got an image of a white deer in the woods and the lid popped open.

"A deer? What does that mean?", Snow asks curiously before noticing the lid fall into Jason's hand, "Oh!"

Jason holds the open end over the slab and out falls a small piece of black hair and a rolled up photo.

Jason picks up the hair.

"Is that...?", Snow goes to ask, uncomfortable about the answer.

Jason takes a whiff, "It's your hair", he confirms, causing Snow to sneer in digust at someone taking her hair for this.

Jason then took the photo and unrolled it, showing Snow White from many years ago in an old fashion dress, with a woman's arm around her that he couldn't identify because it was torn off.

"Some one must have taken this from my apartment", Snow theorizes as she takes the photo from Jason, "I noticed it was missing, but i didn't think...", she walks away from them as she gazed at the photo and Jason follows her, "This was the last picture I had of Rose and me. My sister and I don't talk much anymore".

Rose Red, whom Snow White had lived with in her youth as they were sisters, fraternal twins to be exact, and she runs The Farm.

"Who did this, Jason?", she asks the wolf man.

Before he could reply, a green light releases from the body and they look back to see it transform.

"Oh my god", Snow utters. Crane adjusts his glasses as he stares on with wide eyes.

"She's a troll?!", Bufkin lets out as he lands, having flown up and away as the body transformed.

"You've gotta be kidding me", Crane remarks in disbelief.

"Calm down", Jason tells them as he steps forward, "it's not like none of you haven't seen a troll before

"Who is she?", Snow asks before noticing something on the body's leg, "That wasn't there before", referring to a vine and flower tattoo on the right ankle, "Who do you think she is? I don't know any trolls, i'm afraid."

"Should've left all of them back in the Homeland", Crane gripes.

"You don't mean that do you?", Snow loudly asks Crane in disbelief.

Ignoring that, Jason suggests, "Maybe Holly knows", hoping that trolls convene with each other.

"The owner of the Trip Trap?", Snow asks, "No, she looks a little...", before realizing, "Oh no".

"What is it?", Jason asks her.

"It's not Holly, it's her sister Lily", Snow reveals, "She was reported missing, but I... I guess it just slipped slipped through the cracks", her voice wavering as she blamed this on her failure.

"We have to go tell Holly", Jason tells her, barely containing his own anger at not even being told about a missing person.

"Right", Snow agrees, "Who knows, she might know something about this. Who Lily was seeing..."

"Well, certainly another troll", Crane loudly claims, causing the two to look at him with contempt, causing him to look around at being stared out.

SNow looks to Jason, "We should go".

"You can't go out there", Crane denies in a panic.

"Why not?", Snow White demands,

"It's too dangerous", Crane explains, "Someone tried to kill you", he looks to Jason, "Wolf, you can't let her go out there with you. You'd be putting her life at risk".

SNow steps up to Crane, "Jason is not in charge of me".

"He's in charge of this investigation", Crane responds.

"That's not the same thing", Snow angrily replies.

"If Snow wants to come with me, I'm not going to stop her", Jason says to them.

"But-", Crane goes.

"We should leave now", Jason continues, "You ready?"

"Yeah", she says with a smile before leaving the chamber, Jason soon taking the lead.

The Trip Trap Bar, The Bronx, Early Evening

A blonde man paces the bar. He wore blue jeans over white shoes with a jean vest over a white t-shirt that had a red star on the chest. his long blond hair down up in a loose ponytail

This is Jack Horner. Known for climbing giant beanstalks, slaying giants, being nimble, inspiring Jack O'lanterns, and possibly fathering Jack Frost. He is a trickster that plans get rich quick schemes that always backfire, but is still confident. He thinks himself the Most Important Person of Fabletown, but everyone thinks of him as a harmless smart ass.

"This whole thing is complete bullshit and always has been", Grendel gripes from his seat on the stool by the corner of the bar in his human form, near the smokes machine, "I mean, what's his job, really?"

"To keep shit from reaching the Woodlands", Holly retorts, also in her human form, as she looks around under the bar, before calling out, "Jack, I don't know where they are".

"You're a bar, you're supposed to have darts around", Jack complains.

"And I normally do", Holly stands up, "but who knows where the fuck they went to after-", only for the front door to open and in step Jason with Snow White, leaving her and Grendel to look at them.

"C'mon, Holly, I need entertainment", Jack complains before noticing her gaze and looking over to see Jason, "This'll do".

Grendel fearfully looks to Holly, not wanting to fight again, while Holly hides her booze and glass under the bar.

"Okay, oaky, I know, just relax", Jason says in peace, "I'm not here to start anything

Grendel and Holly look to each other again before she accepts, "Okay".

"Miss White", Jack calls out to Snow, "I heard you had kind of a strange morning..."

"It's been "Kind of a strange morning" for everyone, I think", Snow retorts.

Jack comes up to Jason and slings his arm over his shoulders, "Every time I see this guy, he seems to lose weight. It's amazing, it really is. He loses weight and yet somehow keeps all the muscle".

"Jack", Jason growls.

"Wolfie, my dear, how are you?", Jack jovially asks.

Jason ignores him and walks up to Holly out of the hold of Jack.

"Because, you know, we were just talking about you", Jack goes on, walking back to the bar, "All of us. At the bar, here. About you".

"I just need to talk to Holly. Privately", Jason growls at the end to Jack.

"Alright, just give us a second first", Jack retorts, "I'm dying to hear about the body that came out of the East River this morning. It was a Fable, right?", causing Snow to look to Jason in concern, "Oh, everyone knows".

"Tweedle Dee was just here", Grendel grumbles.

"He said it looked like Snow White", Jack mentioned.

"You sure it wasn't Tweedle Dum?", Jason asks in confusion.

"Well no but HE seemed pretty sure", Jack tells him.

"Fucking Crane", Jason growls.

"Sorry", Snow tells him with sympathy, suffering similarly to Crane's incompetence.

Jack continues, "Tweedle Dee said you arrested him for no earthly reason, "Kept him locked in a cellar all fuckin' night"... He said you tortured him. Which... I dunno, that seems like a breach of your legislative duties", as grendel and Holly look to each other again, "Wolf, c'mon, you can't be so dumb as to-".

"Jack. Find the off button. Now", Holly orders him.

Jack looks to them, "What is it with you two? You and Gren are all, "Let's get a posse together", when there's no one around, but as soon as the Big Bad Wolf walks in your tails go between your legs. Cat got your nerve? What happened?"

"What happened? I'm tired is what happened", Holly retorts to the asshole known as Jack Horner.

"Tired of what?", Jack asks.

"Of trouble, Jack", Holly says, "I'm sick and tired of trouble. I don't want anymore. So just stop revving his motor or wait outside or fuck the hell of, I don't care which".

Jack looks to Jason, "Wolf.. look. Two Fables are dead, and shit, Gren's sister.."

"Holly's sister", Grendel growls out.

Jack continues, "Holly's sister has been missing for what, a few days now? And we haven't heard a word one about it from anyone".

Sick and tired of Jack's talking, Jason grabs him by the collar and throws him towards the door, smashing his side into the pool table.

"Hey, easy!", Jack cries out, "Ow! Fuck!", he stand sup, "What I do? It's an honest question", Jason grabs him again and throws him to the door, "Owww!"

"Go fuck on up a beanstalk, Jackie boy", Grendel retorts, also sick and tired of Jack.

"Gren, you need to go and learn some new lines, let me tell ya", Jack says before heading for the door and leaves.

"All right, then", Holly says with Jack now gone, "Actually, have there been any updates?"

"I...", Jason goes, trying to be gentle "I don't know how to say this to you, Holly. The woman we found in the river..."

"Who was it?", she asks him

"You know who it was", Jason says.

Holly looks off to the side as it dawns on her, closing her eyes to stop the tears.

"God fucking damn it!", Grendel utters in rage before looking to them, "Of course the dear Princess Snow White is all safe and sound!", Holly takes out a glass and bottle to drink, "Where were you when we reported this weeks ago, huh?! Where are you when we ever fucking need you?!", he gets up and walks up to Jason, "If you'd give one ounce of a sht about her, about any of us, she might've been saved!", walking away in a rage as he waves his arms around, while Holly shakes the bottle and glass on the counter, "She might've been cared for! She might've been-", but stps as the glass and bottle smash apart in Holly's grip.

Holly breathes heavily as she tries to process the lost of her sister.

"I'm sorry, Holly", Jason tells her, "I'm sorry we found your sister this way, and I... I wish this had ended better. That I knew she was missing before we found her".

Grendel growls at that as Holly took deep breaths.

Holly sighs before walking out from around the counter and sits at a table on the other side of the pool table, near the dark corner of the bar. Snow White walks up to her.

"Holly?", Snow asks for her.

"Get the fuck out of my bar", Holly utters in her despair.

"I just want to-", Snow goes.

"It should have been you", Holly continues, "It should have been you and it wasn't", she glares at Snow.

Jason comes up behind Snow and Holly looks away as she grieves. Snow looks to Jason and then goes up to Holly.

Snow takes out the brooch they got off Lily and holds it to Holly, "We recovers this from her personal effects", Holly takes it, "I thought you'd might like to have it".

"I.. I didn't know she still had this", Holly utters as she held the brooch before her, "the copper was from a dwarf mine... It's very rare... and very old.

"That was decent of you Snow", Jason utters from the side, causing her to give him a smile before looking to Holly.

"Gren?", Holly calls out to him as she looks to the brooch.

"Yeah?", Grendel responds.

"Take off for a bit, would ya", Holly tells him

"Are you sure?", he asks her.

She doesn't answer as she looks to Snow before nodding to him. Accepting her orders, he leaves the bar to the three of them.

Holly had gone back to the bar and got a new glass and bottle out.

"I did't know much about her life... honestly, we didn't talk often", Holly informs them, before downing a glass, "She was lost here, in the city. She just got swept away by it".

"Do you have any idea why she'd be glamoured as Snow White?", Jason asks her, suspecting the reason. Snow looks to him then back to Holly

"What? Oh god", Holly utters, "I'm sorry", Snow waves it off, "That was probably about...", she looks down before looking to Jason, "She was hooking. To pay down debt. It ate me up to see her that way", glancing between the two, "Eventually, the only people she owed were at her work, you know, that shithole club. The Pudding n Pie. The owner, Georgie, with all his fuckin' "fees", it's a crock of shit. It's how they kept her under their thumb, really", she shakes her head.

"Holly, it's OK", Snow tries to comfort, "If it's too much, we don't have to do this".

"Georgie, huh?", Jason asks in thought, "Not the first time I heard that name", remembering Prince Lawrence mentioning the same name when talking about Faith, "What do you know about him?", to which Holly shakes her head.

"We can just... go talk to him", Snow suggests, "We got a lead. Maybe we can take it from here?"

"Thanks for everything, Holly", Jason tells the troll woman, "Is there, um... Is there anything we can do to...?"

"No, no, I'm better off dealing with things along" Holly denies, "I don't need sympathy and I don't need charity".

"It's not charity, it's looking out for our own", Snow tells her.

"Is she... Where is she?", Holly asks them.

"She's at the Business Office", Snow shares, "She's taken care of".

I'm gonna have to go down there and get her", Holly tells Snow, "Fuck".

"Please, we can handle the funeral arrangements...", Snow goes.

"No, no, it's- it's a kind of- it's a formality with trolls", Holly explains, "We burn our dead at sunrise or... I dunno. Some old world shit will fuck your soul up".

"Of course", Jason agrees.

"Okay. Good", Holly says.

"Let's go down to the Business Office and start making the necessary preparations, alright?", Snow asks of Holly with a smile, which Holly returns in gratitude.

They begin to walk away to leave, with Snow stopping before Jason.

"That club?", she asks him.

"I'll go down there now, see what I can find out from the owner", Jason tells her.

Snow smiles to him, "You were good with her. I'm impressed", referring to his handling of Holly right now, "Really. Thanks. It just made everything easier", before leaving the bar with Holly.

Jason gazes to the caved in wall from his fight with Grendel the other day before leaving the bar himself.

The Pudding & Pie, The Bronx, Evening

Jason soon arrives to the out of the way club that was right next to a deli grocery store and an alley.

In the alley was a blonde woman with short hair combed to the side. She wore and short purple dress with vertical line work and on open collar that exposes her clavicles, a pink belt hanging on her waist, black heeled boots on her feet. She also had on the same ribbon as Faith around her neck.

She sees Jason arrive and stomps out her cigarette before walking out of the alley.

"Oh!", she utters when she realizes who he is, "Sheriff. What a nice surprise. I'm not sure I've seen you here before", she walks up to him good naturedly, "You're always welcome, of course. Is it business, or pleasure? Or both?"

"I've got some questions for Georgie", Jason tells her.

"Straight to business this time, then", she smiles to him, "You're in luck, he's here. Come on", ushering him to the front door, which she then unlocks, showing Jason that she is actually high up on the totem pole, "I should warn you that Georgie does not like to be bothered when he's working. And he's in kind of a... mood right now. I mean, more so than usual".

"I don't much care how he feels about it", Jason dismisses.

"Ah. Well. You two will get along just swimmingly", she smiles to him before opening the door and letting him in before shutting it behind them.

They walk down the entrance hall as the woman begins the presentation, "Welcome to the Pudding and Pie, where we cater to the diverse tastes of the Fable community. Your pleasure is our pleasure. Your desires are our desires. your imagination is the menu, and discretion is our guarantee".

"Did you know Lily?", Jason asks her, "She worked here?"

She sighs, "My lips are sealed", saying the exact same thing as Faith had, "You'd better ask Georgie", before they turn left into the main club.

Music plays from an old boombox as a woman dances on the stripper pole.

the woman in question had a lithe body, with fair skin. She had medium length mahogany red hair and amber eyes, a flower of some kind was in her hair on her left side. She wore nothing save her dark purple thong panties, reminiscent of Lily's own, and white strap heels, leaving her tits exposed for Jason and the others.

She does a mermaid swimming movement on the pole before swinging around it to the front facing the center forward.

"Aw, fucks sake!", explains a bald man, who wore black jeans and wife-beater with a matching bowler cap, tattoos covering most of his skin. "What do you think you're doing?", he asks the dancer with his british accent, "You look like you're trying to take a shit! Who's gonna want that? No one's gonna want that! You fucking dozy bitch!"

Jason looks to the woman that escorted him, "Nice guy. Seems like a real prince", he jokingly comments.

"You do have a sense of humor. That's good", she smiles to him, pointing at him at the end, "Good luck", before leaving back the way they came.

Jason gazes to who he assumes is Georgie, "It's your face! You have to SMILE! You never smile!", he complains to the dancer as Jason approaches him before he notices the Sheriff, "Oh, it's you. We're closed".

The dancer suddenly gets nervous at the Big Bad Wolf gazing upon her nubile body and stops dancing.

"Keep dancing, you! I didn't say stop!", Georgie orders her.

She looks to him but doesn't continue.

"Ah, for fuck's sake", Georgie gripes before stopping the music of the boombox, "You stay right there, don't even think about sitting down. We're not finished".

"Leave her alone, Asshole", Jason growls, stepping before georgie, while the dancer offers a grateful smile to him.

"Sure, whatever you say", Georgie retorts before leaning forward from his seat, "What do you want, then Your he for a little taste?", glancing to the dancer, who covers her chest and looks away from him, "Tell you what, come back after midnight, maybe. I can hook you up", before pausing, "Or... knowing you.. she's probably not quite your style. You'd prefer someone who can take a bit of a beating. Tell me, do you prefer a stationary target, or one that will put up a fight? I can arrange whatever you like, for the right price".

"Fuck you, Georgie", Jason growls, "I'm not so pathetic as to pay for sex".

""Fuck you, Georgie". Grrr!", Georgie mocks, "It's the Big Bad Wolf!", before leaning back in his chair again, "Jesus, Wolf. You're so corny. I love it, though. No, seriously, I love it".

Jason takes a deep breath to try and keep his anger in for pimps and this asshole in particular, before taking a step towards Georgie.

"Okay, alright, Sheriff. Just fucking with you", Georgie jokingly states to stop him, "Look, I know why you're here".

"Are you sure?", Jason asks him.

Georgie leans up again, "Listen, Sheriff, around here we can't afford to wait for you and your swanky pals to take an interest. We have to look out for each other. When shit happens, I hear about it, especially if it concerns my livelihood", gesturing to the dancer.

"In that case I assume you knew Lily was glamoured", Jason tells him.

"Of course she was, you daft it", Georgie retorts, "She was a troll".

"No. I mean glamoured to look like another Fable", Jason specifies.

"Yeah? Well, so what?", Georgie dismisses, "Who gives a toss? People get up to all kinds of things when nobody's watching. It's their own business"

"It's sick", Jason remarks.

"Ha! That's quaint", Georgie laughs, "Especially coming from you".

"The Thirteenth Floor would never provide a glamour like that", Jason continues, "It's strictly black market stuff".

"Ooo, black market, is it?", Georgie chortles, "How exciting! This is exactly what I would expect from a thug like you. Storm in, throw around a bunch of accusations, try to scare people, but you've got fuck all to back it up", he spits onto the ground, "Pfft", before looking back to Jason, "And we're all just meant to jump any time the wolf shows his teeth", he looks to the dancer, "He used to be something, ya know. Now look at him", said girl nervously looks between the two.

"Nothing to back it up?", Jason inquires of him, "Well, what the fuck is this then?!", showing Georgie the wooden glamour vial.

"Get that outta my face", Georgie says, looking away from it.

"I found it on Lily's body", Jason shares, "it's definitely a back alley job. Where did she get it?"

Georgie looks up to him, "You've got this all wrong. If Lily was doing a special glamour, it wasn't for me! For fuck's sake, I want that kind of heat?"

"Who was she doing it for then?", Jason growls.

"She had clients, Wolf. Maybe one of them was into it", Georgie supplies, "Lot of fucked up people in Fabletown"

"Like who?", Jason demands.

"try looking in a mirror", Georgie snarks, causing Jason to glower, "Anyway, nowt to do with me", before playing the music again, "Go on then", he commands the dancer to start again.

She nervously looks to Jason before she begins again.

Jason glances to her then back to Georgie before looking to the boombox. He goes to turn it off, but georgia stands up to stop him.

"You gonna hit me?", Georgie challenges him, "Go ahead. That's what you want to do, right!", only to receive a fist to his face, causing him to bump into the chair and then in turn causing the boombox to fall to the ground and stop playing.

"AW, NO! FUCK!", Georgia cries over his boombox before looking up to the dancer, "YOU! Take your sad fucking face where I can't see it!", she scowls but gets off the stage and heads to the back room, "Bloody bastard fucking shit!", Georgie gripes over his boombox before looking to Jason, "You proud of yourself, mate? Proud of your little mess?", before going to pick up his boombox, "Fuck's sake".

The tall muscular blond guy dressed like a construction worker sans flannel, who was sweeping off to the side, walks up to them to see what's going on.

Georgie sees him and shoves the boombox in hand to him, "Fuck off, Hans.".

Jason watches him leave for the bar counter, which Georgie notices.

"Hans just cleans up and provides a little muscle when we need it", Georgie explains, "He's not gonna know anything about the girls and their clients, or any of that. No one knows, don't you get it?", he goes as he walks up to the bar with Jason following, "It's by design. "Discretion is our guarantee", right? And the way we guarantee that is that no one knows anything they don't have to know. Including me. I cover my eyes and take my cut, end of story".

"Why not look it up?", Hans suggests.

"What's that?", Jason asks him, while Georgie looks to Hans angrily.

"Isn't there a little book with all the stuff about the girls and all that written in it?", Hans says in confusion, not as clever as the Brothers Grimm story 'Clever Hans' title would say.

"You're a fucking moron!", Georgie angrily declares to Hans.

"Show me", Jason demands.

"There is no book", Georgie denies before grabbing a cricket bat that read 'CROWD CONTROL' on it, "And as for you, Hans, we need to work on your communication skills, and I've a fairly good idea where to start", only for Jason to take the bat, "Hey, that's my personal property!"

Jason sets the flat of it on the counter.

"Ha ha! Sure, go ahead. Do what comes naturally", Georgie taunts Jason.

Jason slides the cricket bat along the counter, pushing off whiskey glasses and ashtrays that go smashing on the floor, before stopping before the boombox. He then raises it and brings it down on the boombox repeatedly, smashing it beyond repair.

"Ah, no, NO, NO", Georgie cries out in despair at the boombox's destruction, "You unbelievable prick!"

He then backs up into the cigarette machine as Jason stalks close to him.

"Hey now...", Georgie goes to disway him.

"Cut the crap, Georgie", Jason growls, "I want the book Hans is talking about".

"Hans is confused. Again", Georgie denies.

He turns into the bar area and backs up to the TV, "Don't even think about it", he warns/begs Jason.

Jason repays the warning with smashing the TV in half.

"Jesus Fuck!", Georgie yells as he dodges away from the glass shards.

He backs up away from Jason again into the counter passed a keg, which Jason tips over with his foot a little.

"Do NOT tough that", Georgie warns, "You hear me? That's nothing to do with you".

Jason replies by kicking the whole keg into the wall, leaving it embedded there, while also revealing a floor safe.

"Well, well, what's all this then?", Jason jokingly quotes Inspector Lestrade from Sherlock Holmes, "Looks like a floor safe"

"I wouldn't know", Georgie shrugs, walking away from him, "It was here when we moves in, I don't have a key to it", leaving the bar area before looking back to Jason, "Sheriff, will you come on! Fuck's sake, I gotta open up in a few hours!"

Jason shoves the end of the cricket bat into Georgie's stomach.

"Aah!", Georgie cries out in pain before laughing in pain, "Was it good for you, "Sheriff"?", as he stands straight again, "Next time I'm gonna have to charge ya".

Jason continues to stalk Georgie, leaving the brit to back up to his indoor neon sign for the Pudding & Pie.

"Jesus! You're killing me!", Georgie whines, "I'm beggin ya! I'll pay ya!".

"Two women are dead!", Jason growls with suppressed anger.

"Then quit being a bloody idiot!", Georgie retorts.

Jason shoulder the cricket bat as he eyes Georgie before heading to the DJ booth.

"C'mon mate. Leave it. There's nothing there for you", Georgie begs.

Jason looks back to him, "You might want to stand back", before lifting the bat over his head.

"Alright, alright, ALRIGHT", Georgie calls out to stop him, walking up to the DJ booth and pulling out a secret key while Jason drops the cricket bat, "Bloody come on, then!", ushering him back to the safe.

"Fucking trash my business over this bullshit!", Georgie gripes as they head across the club, "Protector of Fabletown, my ass. What a load of crap", he unlocks the safe, "Once again, don't get your hopes up. There's nothin' in here that will tell ya anything- but it's a kick to the balls for me and my club, so you can be happy about that", before grabbing the back and shoving it into Jason's hands.

Jason sets it onto the counter and flips it open to the needed page, "Here. This is Lily's last entry", skimming through it, "So tell me, Georgie, who's this Mister Smith?"

"Oh, dear", Georgie remarks as he leans against the counter with a smile, "I'm afraid it might be a fake name, Wolf. Secrecy is sort of how this all works. Even Hans knows that".

Jason looks along the line that showed Lily as Snow White with Mister Smith with a number showing 207, "What's 207? Room number?"

"I don't fucking know, millimeters maybe?", Georgie retorts.

Jason glares at him, "Don't bullshit me, Georgie. This is YOUR book! YOUR girls!"

"But I'm not their fucking secretary", Georgie remarks, "I hive them a stage, I give them music, I provide an "erotic venue to attract and retain clients...". But let's be clear on something- the girls make the arrangement with their clients! Not me. The girls. They're the ones with the Mister Smiths, and Joneses, and Mister X types. Whatever happens outside the club- that's on them..."

Jason pockets the book and looks over to see the dancer disappear from peeking behind the door to the back room.

"I log the business, take my cut, and I'm out", Georgie finishes his tirade before then grabbing his phone from under the counter, "Now I've had quite enough of you and your bullying. Excuse me while I call your superiors to make a complaint".

Jason heads out from behind the bar and then goes to the back room door, heading inside.

He first sees a mess on the ground before a series of cubbies, one for each girl. The mess was of makeup.

"Lipstick. Lip gloss. compact... Glitter", Jason notes the items before seeing a piece a paper to the right and picks it up.

""Faith, Thanks for covering for me tonight! Let's talk before you go over to the apartment. - Lily". Looks like they booth saw one of Lily's clients...", Jason remarks before putting the note into Lily's cubby.

He sees that the cubby to the right of it was Faith's, showing two boxes, a jewelry box and a makeup case.

"Lock was busted open", Jason notes about the Jewelry Box before looking to the Makeup Case, "No lock, but still busted open", looking to the mess on the ground and suspecting it might be Faith's, he put them in the cubby.

Jason sees light around the cubbys to an enclosed area, he rounds the corner to see the dancer, fully dressed in a white dress that exposed her back and shoulders, ending at her thighs, a little chain acting as a strap around her neck.

"Excuse me", Jason politely greets.

She looks to him from her seat before the sole vanity mirror, "I heard you out there. I don't remember ever seeing you here before".

"Never had a reason to come here before", Jason shares.

"Yeah", she says, looking downcast, before reapplying her lipstick.

Jason goes to stand behind her, leaning against the wall, so she can look to him through the mirror.

"You're trying to place me", the dancer says, "they use to call me The Little Mermaid. ONce upon a time", she smiled in remembrance, "Does that help?"

"What are you doing here?", Jason asks her, not understanding how a Fable of such renown could end up in this situation as a stripper and prostitute.

"Same as anyone. It's a place where I am", she responds, depressingly shrugging, "Where else am I supposed to be?", she sits up, "My name is Nerissa"

Jason sighs, "Well, Nerissa, I've got some questions".

She looks to him through the mirror, "Of course you do. I don't have answers. You'll have to find those yourself".

"Does the number 207 mean anything? I assume it as a room number, but where?", Jason asks, hoping she'll be able to point him in the right direction, unlike most he has to deal with in this case being antagonistic.

Nerissa sits back with her arms crossed, looking down, "We can't talk about work".

"This is a murder case", Jason reminds her, trying to get her to talk without forcing her.

"I mean CAN'T", Nerissa tells him, "These lips are sealed. Discretion is our guarantee", she looks to him, "It's how things work here. By design".

Jason sighs, a growl seeping in, "People keep using those phrases. What does it mean?", he gets up off the wall.

Nerissa looks to him, surprised he noticed.

Jason goes up to her and tosses the book onto the table before her, flipping to the appropriate page, "This is what I need to know about! Lily's last entry. Who's Mr. Smith? Where is room 207? I have to know!"

Nerissa looks up to him with her eyes glistening, "These... lips...", she struggles out, as if being forced, before suddenly stopping as she gets an idea, "Sheriff Wolf... would you like to make an... appointment, with me?", she asks him.

Jason stands straight looking at her curiously before realising what she might mean, "Okay...", he answers hesitantly, "What would I need to do?"

Nerissa grabs a pen and rights into the book, "I need a hundred and fifty. It's not good to be short", she looks back to him, waiting for the cash.

"Okay", Jason agrees, looking into his pocket only to find nothing, "Shit, I forgot to grab my daily money again", he gripes to himself, "Dumbass".

Nerissa looks understanding before grabbing her purse and taking out the required money, "Wait here for a second", she tells him before sliding passed him and out the dressing room to Georgie.

Jason takes the book back and pockets it again. He waits in the room, but gazes out the crack of the door to see Nerissa talking to Georgie.

Nerissa soon returns and hands him a room key.

"204? Like my apartment number", Jason humorously notes the number on it before asking Nerissa, "Not 207?".

Nerissa rubs her arm, slightly embarrassed, "You'll think of something".

Jason looks to the words over the number, "The Open Arms", he reads, "Hmm, this is where they met".

"Enjoy your stay", Nerissa tells him, before looking sad, "I hope you find what you're looking for", before leaving to somewhere to go and pretend to do what Georgie think she's doing.

Jason too soon leaves out the front of the Pudding and Pie club, walking down the street pass the alley and a Quickcash place, only to find the Open Arms hotel he needs. A dark skin police officer walks out, holding the door for a similarly skinned prostitute, who hugs him for his time before they go their separate ways.

Jason looks up the building before entering inside.

The Open Arms Hotel, The Bronx, Late Evening

After going up a short flight of steps, Jason enters into the main lobby of this hotel. The lobby looked like a shit hole in his opinion. Old everything, with a payphone broken down on one wall, old vending machine that looks like it's from the 70s. Signs that say 'No Public Restroom' and 'No Refund', were on the walls.

He gazes to the prices for rooms to the left of the teller window and they were expensive, "If the rooms are anything like the lobby, they should cut their rates. Heavily".

Having no reason to stay down here, Jason heads for the stairs to head up and find room 207.

"Keep your pants on, Buddy", a familiar voice calls out to stop him, "You have to check in first if you want a room", Jason heads for the teller window, "So, c'mon... Mosey on back and we'll get you set up".

"I'm not here for a room", Jason gruffs out.

"Oh!", the voice lets out as it recognizes him, before lifting the window.

"Beauty!", Jason lets out in surprise.

Beauty sighs, "I work here, okay? I work the front desk. It's to help pay rent", she crosses her arms in shame, "So now you know. I know I should have told somebody... But Beast would lose his mind if you knew. Beast is a proud man, Jason. He wants to do right by me, and he... he just couldn't handle it if he knew I had to do this so we don't get evicted. All of our friends live at the Woodlands. He'd be mortified."

"Well... Your secrets safe with me, alright? Let's not make a big thing of it", Jason tells her, "Though, I do suggest you look for a job in a better part of town. People here look to put you so far in debt you have no choice but to become a prostitute."

Beauty shivers in disgust, not wanting that to happen to her, before saying, "Thanks, Jason. And thanks for covering for me last time, too", she recovers from her disgust and asks, "So... what are you doing here?"

Jason brings out the key and shows it to her.

"Oh... you have a key", Beauty remarks.

"Someone else was murdered last night", Jason clarifies.

"I heard", Beauty says with sympathy.

"The victim was someone who worked at the Pudding and Pie. Lily", Jason explains before asking, "She come around here ever?", hoping Beauty may recognize the name and answer question no one else can.

"Oh! Oh, yes... The, uh, the troll", Beauty goes, "I did see her", before adding, "I mean, you know, we never really spoke, but... she came off a tad intimidating."

Jason nods before continuing his questions, "Ever see Lily with someone here? Maybe on a "job"?".

"Sometimes, but nobody I've recognized", Beauty tells him, "I haven't worked here that long, though...".

"How about a room register? Or someone called Mister Smith?"

Beauty snorts, "That's all we get here are Smith's, Jones's, or Johnson's. I think the last ones are jokes", referring to penis innuendos.

"Ever meet a girl named Faith, or just maybe just hear that name?", Jason asks her.

"I might have. I don't know", Beauty answers unsurely, "By the end of the night, it's kind of a blur with all the names. Tara, Brandy, Amber, Heather... Sorry".

Jason nods in understanding before going, "Have you seen Snow White down here? Or, more accurately, someone glamoured as her?".

Beauty looks around in thought, "You know, it's funny", before looking back to Jason, "I did see someone who I thought looked a lot like her, but... she didn't say anything when she saw me, even though she knew that I saw her. I just assumed it wasn't Snow and went about my business".

Jason makes note of that before remembering this morning, "I talked to Tweedle Dee earlier today... He mentioned you in passing. Do you know him... or his brother?"

Beauty looks ashamed, "I took out a loan for backpay- It was like our third notice- and ever since then, those annoying freaks have been pestering for the money plus interest".

"Why take a loan from those two?", Jason asks with worry, fearing that she may already be a target for prostitution.

"It was from the Crooked Man", Beauty reluctantly answers

"Beauty...", Jason admonishes, fearing the worst.

"You don't know how desperate I was, Jason!", Beauty angrily responds, "I had nowhere else to go!"

Jason stops her with a hand held up, "Look,, if this ever happens again.. come see me, or Snow, first, alright?"

"I tried", Beauty retorts, eyes glistening.

Jason sighs, "And this is the first time I'm hearing about it. Again!", he growls before telling her, "Thanks", and turn to head for the stairs.

"Wait", Beauty stops him with her own hand raised to him, "It'll be better if anyone sees you that they at least see you with me, so they know I didn't let you just wander around by yourself", she goes to the door to the left of the window for Jason and exits out the office before walking up to Jason, "Five minutes? Please?", she begs as she passes him for the stairs.

"We'll see, Beauty", Jason remarks, not knowing how long this investigation might take, as he follows her up the stairs.

"Just be ready to act like I'm trying to kick you out", Beauty retorts.

"That won't be hard", Jason tells her, not planning on leaving till he's good and done.

As they arrive on the appropriate floor, Beauty goes, "Listen, Jason, I assume you'll be filling some kind of an official report or something, which is fine, it's just that, I was wondering, if... I need to be in it?", stopping from walking down the hall of rooms, "Do you have to mention my name? I mean it's- it's not like Beast would ever see your report, it's just... Well, you never know".

Jason waves it off, "Don't worry about it. The less I have to write down, the better", never liking reports and thankful Batman handled that stuff for the Batcomputer when he was Robin.

"Thanks. I appreciate it", Beauty gratefully says, before gesturing to the hall, "Well, here we are. Which one was it?"

Jason briefly looks to room 204, and ignoring the sounds of sex in 203, he then heads down the hall to find 207 at the dead end of it. Hearing nothing inside, he tries to open the door, but it's locked.

"You have keys to these rooms?", Jason asks Beauty.

"I thought you had a key", Beauty says in confusion as she walks up to him.

"Not to this one", Jason retorts, "The key I got just told me which hotel I needed to go".

"Hold on, Jason, I can't just let you go into any room you want", Beauty denies, "Seriously, what if someone found out? I could get into a lot of trouble".

Jason looks to her, "You have to let me in there. This is the room. 207."

"But I..", Beauty goes.

"This is the room Lily was in", Jason continues.

Beauty sighs, "Fine", and goes to unlock the door, only for it not to work, "Well, that's weird. This key is supposed to open every room in the building. But it's not working".

"Beauty?", a voice from down the hall calls out to them that they both recognize.

"Ah shit", Jason groans before turning to see Beast down the other end of the hall by the stairs.

"Beast", Beauty lets out in horror.

"Wolf?", Beast lets out at seeing the man with his wife, "How could you do this to me?"

Beauty steps forward, "No, sweetie, no, wait a minute!"

"How could you do this? We've been together through everything! I took care of you! I lov-", Beast goes as he slowly walks down the hall to them.

"It's not what you think! Please!", Beauty cuts him off.

"You're cheating on me! With him?!", Beast yells, disgust seeping in at the end, which insults Jason a little.

"No! No, Beast. I promise! I'm not", Beauty denies as Beast comes to be in front of her, "I'm helping him! That's all!"

"I'll bet!", Beast angrily retorts, his eyes going black with red irises, "I'm sure you help each other just great! I know what this place is! I know what goes on here!".

"No! That's not what I meant!", Beauty cries out.

Jason steps forward, "This is a murder investigation", he reveals to Beast t try and calm him down, "She's helping me-", but beast cuts him off.

"Stop lying to me!", he yells, holding his head to ignore him before looking to Jason again, "What the fuck is wrong with you? She's my wife!"

"Beast, listen to me, there's nothing going on!", she begs, placing her hands on his chest, "I'm not-", only for Beast to rush passed her for Jason.

He grabs hold of Jason's collar.

"Hey!", Jason says.

"Bastard!", Beast yells, "I guess I finally see you for who you are!"

"Stop! Stop it!", Beauty begs him.

"You told me you hadn't seen her! You fucking liar!", Beast roars at Jason, "You've been sleeping with her this whole time!"

"Listen to your wife! You imprison-", Jason goes as his anger rises.

"Beast!", Beauty cuts in, her anger at Beast rising as his horns appear on his head once more and his five o'clock shadow comes in, ears going to a point, black claws appearing on his fingers, and thick brown fur on his arms. The more upset Beauty gets with Beast the more into a Beast he returns to, proving in Jason's eyes that they don't truly love each other.

Beast backs up for a second before throwing a punch at Jason, who ducks under it and gets behind him. Beast turns around to Beauty yelling at him.

"That in the hell do you think you're doing?!", Beauty demands from him before Beast walks passed her, "You aren't even listening to me!"

Beast goes to swipe Jason with his right claws but Jason catches his arm by the wrist. Beast grabs his shoulder and Jason shifts to do the same, before they hold each other by the shoulders.

"She's my wife, Jason!", Beast roars.

"I told you! just-", Beauty goes before Jason slams Beast into the wall with a radiator, breaking it and the wall some.

Jason picks Beast up with a growl while Beauty yells out, "Stop!", before Jason slams Beast into the other wall, destroying an old colored glass artwork, "Beast!", Beauty cries out.

Beauty goes up to Jason, who has gone into his Wolfman form, "Leave him be! This is my fault!".

Beast, who has recovered, roars before grabbing the pipe of the radiator from the wall.

"Beast, no! You don't understand!", Beauty yells to him before he swings the pipe at Jason.

Jason ends up taking it to the get in his attempt to catch it, before Beast pushes him against the wall with the pipe to his neck. Desperate, Jason shoves his clawed

fingers into Beast's eyes, spurting up blood as he yells in pain. He releases Jason to grab at his face. Jason tackles him down and holds him to the ground. Beast grabs at his neck but Jason begins to wail on his face.

"Fucking Stockholm Syndrome inducer!", Jason yells in anger as he beats Beast's head in.

"Jason, No! Don't hurt him! It's not like that!", Beauty cries out to him.

This causes Jason to hesitate before Beast grabs a nearby discarded bottle and smashes it against Jason's head, causing him to fall to the side as Beauty gasps in horror.

Jason gets up and overlooks the dysfunctional couple as Beauty tries to console Beast as he gets to his hands and knees.

"You ruined everything!", Beast yells as his eyes have healed, "She's my fucking wife!", he yells as he stands up.

Not wanting to fight for much longer, Jason tackles him again, this time into the door for 207 and breaking it down, letting them inside to the room Jason needs to get into.

Jason remains standing at the doorway, looking down at the recovering Beast before looking to the left over Beast to see a blood trail. Jason takes his human form again as he steps into the room and turns the corner to the bed.

"Shit, Wolf", Beast groans as he tries to recover, getting to his knees to get up.

Beauty steps into the doorway, "What have you done?!", she demands from Beast, glaring at him with her arms crossed.

Beast looks form her to Jason, and sees the bed. He wipes his bloodied eyes in horror, "What... What is this? Wolf..."

"Look what you did to the door!", Beauty yells at Beast, "You can't just act like this whenever y-".

"Stand back", Beast cuts her off, "You- you don't want to see this.".

Jason gazes upon the blood soaked bed with flowers strewn over it, "Beauty, I suggest you stay in the hall".

Beauty looks to him, "What? Why? What's going on?", she asks as she steps into the room, only to see the horror on the bed and gasping, "Oh! oh my god!", putting her back to the wall away looking from the bed.

"Don't touch anything", Jason tells her.

"Is this...? Is this..?", Beauty goes.

"Lily met her client here, "Mr. Smith", whoever he is", Jason tells her.

"And then...", Beauty goes again.

"Must have happened right here", Jason remarks due to the blood.

"Jesus", Beast utters in horror.

"Last night?", Beauty asks Jason.

"yeah", Jason confirms.

"I was on shift last night!", she lets out in horrified realization.

"On "Shift"?", Beast asks, fearing the worst, "Beauty, what exactly-"

Beauty crosses her arms indignantly, "I'm not a prostitute you idiot! I work the front desk!"

"I- So that's-", Beast goes in realization.

"Yeah", Beauty angrily retorts.

"Still... This is no place for someone like you", Beast tells her, "I mean look-".

"Can we please not talk about this?", Beauty demands.

Jason looks to Beauty, "Was anyone acting suspicious? Maybe moving a heavy piece of luggage, or, uh...", only for her to shake her head negative, "He got the body out of here somehow", he looks down in thought.

"Jesus Christ. No, no I didn't see anything like that!", Beauty denies, looking to him, "It just seemed like a totally normal night. How is that even possible?", glancing to the bed, "There's so much blood..."

Jason goes up to her and Beast, "Go lock the front door. Keep people out of the hallway", he looks directly at Beast, "I need you to be sure no one comes in here. This is a crime scene. Okay?"

"But-", Beast goes.

"Just do what he says", Beauty cuts in, sadness coming off her, before she looks to Beast, "I'll explain later... okay?"

Beast looks between her and Jason before leaving the room to do what Jason asked of him.

Beauty looks to Jason, "Jason, what kind of a person could do something like this?".

"That's exactly what I'm about to find out", Jason tells her, readying his investigative thinking.

"I can't believe this", Beauty utters in horror.

Jason pulls the flower from his pocket that he got from Lily's body.

"Where did you get that?", Beauty asks him.

"Lily had it in her hand", Jason informs her, repocketing it as it matches the flowers on the bed, "Looks like she was lying down when she was killed. The flowers were already here" walking around the bed to the foot of it, "No doubts on that", before looking around.

He soon spots a storybook on a side table next to the desk where the sole light stood on.

He flips it open.

"What is that?", Beauty asks.

"It's a book about Snow White", Jason informs as he sees an illustration of her, "Or, about the Mundy version of her story, anyway", as he begins to flip through it.

"The whole book is about here?", she asks him.

"Yeah", Jason confirms as he continues to look through it, seeing notes added in with sticky notes, before reaching a certain page.

"Why is she in a glass coffin?", Beauty asks, looking over his shoulder at it.

"This is the part where she's in a deep sleep, but they think she's dead", Jason tells her.

Beauty looks away with a shake of her head.

"Hm?", Jason lets out in thought.

"What's it mean?", Beauty asks him, "Why mark the page where she's sleeping?"

Jason glances to the bed and back to the book, "I think he made up the bed to match the coffin in the picture. Flowers, too", gesturing to the bed for Beauty to see, "He'd have Lily ie down just like this", gesturing to the picture.

"You mean just before...", Beauty goes.

"In the story, that's when someone comes to kiss her awake", Jason explains, "That's our, "Mr. Smith""

Beauty looks around, "This is creepy. The coffin, and the weird fixation on Snow. What the hell is wrong with this guy?"

Jason gazes to the desk next to him, finding cassette marked 'For my Arrival', before pocketing it and looked around some more, finding a wine bottle and a cigarette in an ashtray.

"He brought wine...", Jason remarks, seeing it was just like the one Bufkin stole from Crane yesterday.

"Classy", Beauty retorts.

Jason picks up the cigarette and smells it to identify the brand, "It's a Huff and Puff".

"I thought you were the only one that smoked that shit brand", Beauty remarks.

"Not in this lifetime", Jason retorts, setting it down in the ashtray.

Jason goes over to the alarm clark that had a cassette player in it that was on the nightstand to the right of the bed, placing the cassette into it and pressing play. A whimsical music begins to sound out through the room, mith birds chirping merrily in the background.

"Jason, this, I think I heard this music", Beauty informs, stepping closer to him, "Last night. It was playing pretty loudly for a while, then stopped in the middle. I didn't think twice about it at the time, I mean, you hear all kinds of things around here and I guess I've already gotten used to blocking them out", feeling down about how complicent to a murder she was, not even knowing it was happening right above her.

"It could have covered up the sound of the murder", Jason remarks about the music.

He looks pass Beauty to see the closet was cracked open and something was inside. Jason heads over and opens it to find a ripped dress that looks like the one from the book about Snow White.

"Someone's been rough with this dress; it's torn", Jason notes.

"Oh no, she must have been wearing it", Beauty goes in horror, "He killed her, and then he.. took it back off-"

"No", Jason denies as he looks to her, "There's no blood on it. It must have been torn... some other time", before looking back to the dress.

"What? What are you thinking?", Beauty asks.

"This is the same dress as the one in the book about Snow", Jason shares with her, "I tink "Smith" was dressing Lily up in it, to recreate the Snow from the book".

"You're right. it's the same dress", Beauty remarks, "It fits. He's acting out scenes from the book. That poor girl... She couldn't have known...", as Jason walks away from the closet, "She probably just needed the money. She could have been... anyone. How did she wind up... here? I mean... not exactly here? But, how does a person...?"

"Georgie took advantage of her when she was in trouble", Jason growls, hating that man, "He's a real predator".

"Yeah...", Beauty utters in agreement.

Jason then spots something he missed walking around the bed so often, an apple.

"Do you smell something?", Beauty asks as she sees him hunched over.

"No. Just an apple", Jason shares with her as he picks it up, finding a bite mark on it, "Huh?"

"Oh, no. There's more?", Beauty utters, "What? What now?"

"It's got a single bite taken out of it", Jason tells her, "Like in Snow's story"

"Oh no! Do you think it was poisoned?", Beauty asks in horror.

"It wasn't", Jason denies, "I'd have smelled that", before looking to her, "I think it's just a prop. It's here because they were acting out the scene in the book".

Beauty sighs, "Of course. That makes perfect sense. He's just acting out another part of the book!", indignant for Snow as she now looks around, "God, I can see the whole picture now! It- It all goes together, like you said! This creep put that girl in a Snow White dress and recreated the whole story from the book, with the apple, and- and the deep sleep, and everything!", looking to Jason, "You're a better detective than I thought you'd be"

"Thanks?", Jason says, "Little insulting".

"Sorry", she says to him before she looks around, "So, he planned it all out, he had all the details noted down. Only, then, when it comes time to kiss her and wake her up...".

"Yeah", Jason agrees with the theory.

She walks to the door to leave, checking on Beast, "I hope you're just about through. I don't really want to stay in here any longer", she tells Jason.

Jason spots an envelope that was below the carpet, covered by the apple earlier. Setting the apple back down, he picks it up from under the carpet before heading for the desk.

Beauty sees this and joins him there.

Jason takes photos from the envelope and looks at them.

The first shows Snow White crossing a bridge in the park.

"Are those pictures of the dead girl?", Beauty asks him.

Jason looks at the next one from the enelope, "Not all of them".

"How do you know?", Beauty asks.

"I'm in this one", Jason informs her, "When I first came back", the picture showing him with Snow walking around town.

"Oh no", Beauty breathes, stepping to Jason, "Jason... This kind of stalking... it doesn't just stop by itself. Trust me, I know about this, first hand", remembering her youth, "He'll keep trying to get closer and closer".

Jason looks to the envelope, feeling around for another photo, "His stand-in for Snow is gone now, so...".

"The next step closer..", Beauty goes before Jason gasps in surprise, "What is it?".

"It's...", Jason goes, turning around to see the bloody bed in the back ground, "Crane", as the photo shoes Crane over the sleeping Lily as Snow White in the bed of flowers.

Fabletown Business Office

Crane was looking through the Magic Mirror to see Jason find the photo of him. He grabs the empty genie lamp from its pedestal and lifts it over his head. The Magic Mirror cries out before it falls onto him, shattering the mirror into pieces as Crane looks on in anger.

Chapter End

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AN: I'm releasing this on March 21st 2025, so people will have a story come out with Snow White that they'll want, compared to the shit show that is Disney's remake.

I'll try to do more chapters for this story once a month till the game is finished. Before then going into more original content.

Next Time: The Hunt