Alex sat behind his desk and looked at the file he had left open from the night before, newspaper clippings and case files about missing persons. His most recent case was a ransom case, the husband wanted to find out who took his wife and where they may have gone with her. In the efforts of finding her Alex came across quite a few missing persons cases all in similar circumstances: Young people, early to mid 20's taken right off the street, never seen or heard from again. The difference in this case was that there was a ransom, that was a first, and it subsequently led Alex to find out that the wife took a lover and they were making a quick bid for the husband’s money before trying to escape across the country. More often than not, many of his cases led to the same conclusions, greed run rampant and people making dumb decisions.

Still though the missing people cases he stumbled on. Those were different, serious crimes, with very serious implications. In a port city as dirty as this one there was every possibility those poor people were smuggled off country and sold into slavery. It was a common problem and it was something that disgusted him, there was a time in his former military career where he stumbled on one such ring and it shook him to his core. The conditions those poor people were being held under. He frowned at the recollection of that thought only to be abruptly knocked from his thoughts to the sound of a hesitant knock at the door.

"Enter." Was his only response to the timid knock.

Soon the door was opened with a creaking groan, in stepped the woman from the diner. Alex looked over her as she walked into the office shutting the door behind her. Now that Alex could get a proper look at her he felt there was something amiss, she was incredibly pretty to him and her dark hair framed delicate facial features, she had blue eyes that almost burned with an intense intelligence but they had that tired, worried look to them. She was clearly not from this particular area of town told well enough in her manner of dress, she was too well dressed, not dirty enough to be from the gutters, everything about her had an air of aristocracy about her. She was clearly out of her element in this hovel of an office.

"Please, sit, Miss..." Alex left it hanging to get her name and he waved to a chair across from his desk, all things considered, even if his office was in a rough part of town he still tried to maintain some dignity for the people who came in.

"I'm Emily Beauchene, it’s a pleasure Mr. Byrne, though I’ll admit I was a little intimidated to come here after the stories I heard from that man Salvadore." Her voice was gentle and lilting. She sat down across from Alex and crossed her hands in her lap, she too was taking stock of Alex as if trying to get a measure of the stories she was told.

"Miss Beauchene, I apologize for Salvadore's stories, most of them I'm sure are only half truths. How can I help you? I was told that you asked for me specifically. I'd offer a drink, but the only thing I've got in this office at the moment is bourbon and bad water." Alex smiled gently, trying to lighten the mood slightly to help her to get more at ease. "I could call Salvadore and have him send some coffee to us though, if you'd prefer?"

She shook her head. "No thank you, you’ll forgive me as I haven’t the head for pleasantries at the moment, Mr. Byrne. I have been told by some of your former clients that you were the person to come to if I'd like something to stay quiet and get resolved quickly." Her previous tone gave way to a very direct and business like one as she leveled this at Alex. He leaned back in his chair and motioned for her to continue. "I am an artist, I’ve been asked by my benefactor to work on a particular piece that I must admit is somewhat troubling." Seeing that Alex was listening she continued. "This isn’t about something like a stolen piece, but more about my benefactor, she has gone missing and I worry for her safety, I’ve known her for many, many years and she's commissioned many different things from me, most of the time it’s been simple things, mundane and innocuous. But over the last few months, the things I’ve been asked to paint, they're wrong, off somehow. I worry that they are linked together somehow and I want no part in perfidy."

Alex listened to her carefully taking mental notes in the accounting. He leaned forward onto the desk. "How has she gone missing? What were the circumstances? Have you reported it to the police?" He reached into one of the drawers and pulled out a simple note pad and a pen to write down notes as she answered the questions. "These paintings you've made, I’m not certain that they'd fit in with the fact that she’s missing, but could you explain what you mean by them being "wrong?" If you felt like they weren't ok, why did you paint them? What were they of?"

Emily frowned at the line of questioning; she knew he'd ask them, they were necessary after all. She just didn’t like to have to think about it as it was so out of place for her, this train of thought. "The police came to her home, and questioned me, at length about the incident; I was the last person to be seen with her according to her staff at her home. I tried to find out what they knew but they wouldn't say anything, I managed to speak with one of the maids who told me that she just up and vanished, no notes, no words, no nothing. She told me everything was left exactly as it was when I left the night before. That's why the police came to me, my fingerprints were everywhere in the room. I'll tell you exactly what I told the inspector that came to ask me questions as well. When i left her home that night, she was fine, excited even that I had finished the painting she requested. It was strange though; she asked me to use a gold paint to make some specific designs around the outer edges of the painting and told me they had to be exact." She frowned again. "Please Mr. Byrne, the police passed it off as happenstance and I'm concerned that there is something very seriously wrong with this. People don’t just disappear."

Alex wrote everything down as she said it, stopping at that last statement, his eyes going to the news clippings. He turned his sight back to Emily. "What of the paintings? Aside from these designs what else was off about them? Who exactly is your benefactor? Did this inspector say that you may be a suspect in her disappearance? Did the inspector make mention of foul play or anything of that nature?"

She looked to the walls around the office in response, as if taking stock of Alex's accomplishments. "Her normal sense of art was more to vast landscapes or the city or port lines. The recent paintings she asked me to make for her had me going to a very specific place in the forest outside of town and painting what I was looking at. The difference between these two things to most wouldn’t mean anything, it’s simply pictures of nature, but for me, as an artist it was unsettling. She used to focus on general beauty of a wide view. Now it's a very pointed look at that... cave entrance she had me paint, she said I had to paint it while I was there I could not work on it at home or work from memory. It had to be as I was there and exactly as I saw it at the time. It's so different from what she normally wanted, and we used to talk in the past about how much she loved the freedom of the vast horizon of the sea but was terrified of the forest. I tell you, not as superstition either, but when I went to that place, I heard the strangest noises, whispers and laughter. When I talked to her about it she dismissed me but I feel like she knew what I was talking about. The last night I saw her I walked into her study and swore I saw her praying in front of the painting as well."

Emily took a moment to let him finish writing his notes and in turn, gather her thoughts. "She is Sarah Delacroix, the high house musician, certainly you've heard of her?" Her voice changed a bit and cracked slightly at mention of her friend. Much of this was making more sense to Alex as she went on. "The inspector told me that her disappearance was likely that she took a vacation without telling anyone, he said people of her stature routinely leave without word for the sake of privacy but that he would let me know if anything else came to light. Please Mr. Byrne, I don’t have anyone else I can talk to, some of the people in the noble houses suggested you because you've done work for them in the past."

Alex finished writing his notes; he looked at Emily calmly and put on an air of reassurance. "Miss Beauchene, I will do my best to help you to come to a resolution. I assure you. I need more information from you though, and some of these questions will be somewhat invasive. I can give my word though that none of this information will leave this room. I need for you to tell me without any form of deception. Were you and Miss Delacroix involved romantically?" He held up a hand to her as she was about to protest. "The reason I need to know this information is so that I can piece together if it may have something to do with a past spurned lover, or perhaps a jealous fan. As you said 'I must have heard of her.' Indeed I have, I’d have to be deaf and blind to not know about Miss Delacroix, she’s a noble, and one of the most widely known musicians in the city. But this is the reason it's important that I know. I give my word that this will not leave this room, I don’t wish to air out any laundry. Secondly I'd like for you to draw for me, those symbols that you had to paint for her, again, I don’t know if they'll have any bearing on anything involving her disappearance, but every little bit helps." He slid the notepad over to her with the pen making sure that she had a clean sheet of paper for her to write up the symbols for him.

She huffed slightly in protest, the inspector didn’t ask her something like that, and why did it matter? "We shared many moments together, yes. She told me she loved me..." She again cut a look of protest to Alex who was standing up to move to one of the file cabinets nearby. "I still don’t see why that has any bearing at all Mr. Byrne. Jealous fans and spurned lovers wouldn't know any of that. No one would know anything like that." She started to draw the small patterns, many of which looked like runes of some sort.

Alex pulled a file from the cabinet and moved back to the desk sitting back down. "Miss Beauchene... allow me to draw your attention to something. You, I'm sure, recall about five year ago there was that scandal involving a noble and a choir boy from the church? Both the boy and the noble swore to secrecy about the event, even though the young man was old enough to consent it was more a matter of church doctrine being the issue? 'Those of the cloth are not to join in congress with anyone.' I believe are the words from the churches doors. Abstinence policies and all that. Do you know who informed the church of their relationship?" He didn’t wait for an answer. "It was the house staff. Contrary to what you might believe, even if they are trustworthy and good people. They know what happens in those homes more than their employers do. People talk, Miss Beauchene, and all it takes is one passer-by to hear it in the hushed tones to pass on a rumor. Hell as I'm sure you experienced it from Mr. Salvadore himself, Rumors fly everywhere, and eventually they'll hit you right in the head." Alex smiled warmly "Again I assure you, word of it will never leave my lips, though honestly I’m surprised you haven’t announced it to begin with, it’s not as if those sorts of relationships are frowned upon, and if nothing else it would be seen as talent mixing with talent in the noble circles."