Setting up the joke

Who: Eris and Jakob
Where: the streets
When: late

Nothing had even happened yet and Jakob was having fun, grinning like a fool with eagerness whenever he had private moments. He knew there was a killer on the loose somewhere in the city, that calm between the rival crime syndicates teetered on the edge every day, but today he simply didn't care. The call to the station house had ensured that; a call for him, a woman asking for a private meeting about something that couldn't even be hinted at on the phone. Of course he'd agreed to it, who wouldn't? It was simply too intriguing to pass up.

The location had been his choice, one he hadn't even needed to consider before naming it. It was a lonely stretch of blocks not too far from the bank; tenement housing and closed businesses, no bars or motels to worry about onlookers. Jakob had dealt with the local patrol cars before leaving, clearing his meeting with an informant and making sure there would be no passing traffic from the police. And the local homeless? Well, he'd handed out a few dollars to two or three of the meaner looking transients, flashed his badge, and told them to keep their fellows away. The streets were his for the time being, a private stage to play a new game on. All that was missing was his competitor, and as Jakob lingered under a flickering streetlight he wondered about who she might be. A whore from Babylon? An intrepid soul from either crime syndicate with an eye on bringing down the corruption? Maybe someone from the paper demanding that more be done about the rampant crime in Chinatown? Wait and see, wait and see, patience little sparrow...

The location wasn't what Eris would have chosen. For one, she was a woman with limitations right now, which meant a street address wasn't exactly going to help her. She got lost. And she was meant to be fucking dead, so meeting anywhere out in the open? Not at all someplace she wanted to be. So yeah, this was possibly the shittiest meeting place she'd ever goddamn heard of. She couldn't even really logic out why it would be ideal for Jakob, considering you never knew who was listening in. On the streets? You had no control over the environment. None, whatsoever. Sure, you could arrange things, but you didn't know if it got followed through on. It was the last place she was ever going to want to be. So when she got there, she was planning on demanding a re-location to someplace that wasn't what she viewed as fucking stupid. Perhaps he had another location in mind, he just wanted the initial meet here.

She had the cab let her off as close to the place as possible, and then made sure to ask the cabbie which direction she needed to walk. She had her dark glasses on again, a had that had a wide brim, something that helped hide her, a long dark coat, a scarf that again, helped hide her features. Then she started the difficult-for-her task of trying to find it, which was basically a stab in the dark for her. She had the educated guess of the cabbie's direction pointing, but really...she didn't know. So she kept walking, and kept her eyes open for the man in question.

She spotted him under a streetlight that seemed to be having seizures, which was fine with her, only she wouldn't be stepping into that light. That was just asking for someone to remember, to note the detail in their minds. So she walked up towards the man, and the unsteady lightsource, but remained outside the circle of it. "This is a piss poor place for a meeting, Jakob."

Surpised? yes, he was very surprised to hear that voice coming from the mostly obscured woman walking towards him. Jakob had an eye for details that he used as his mind reeled, studying the curve of her lips, the poise she carried herself with. "Stockard?" he murmured in surprise, suddenly thinking this wasn't where he'd want to speak with her. With any other informant, sure, but this? This was a private wonder he wanted to unravel in private. "This is just where I make contact. Follow me." He turned to step out from the streetlight, putting his back to Eris as he tried to think of somewhere new to go and fast.

Oh good. Well, that was a plus. She didn't exactly confirm her identity, he'd recognized her, and really, he was still someone who'd made it to the police force, he had an eye for detail. And he couldn't pull nearly as much shit as he did if he didn't have a head for it. "Good. This isn't exactly the best place to be." she said. So long as it wasn't so bloody exposed, she'd be doing better, feeling less paranoid. She moved to follow him, wherever he was going to lead.

Where could he take a woman who was supposed to be dead? A woman he had technically helped to kill, albeit indirectly? "It's a safer spot than you might think," he said casually in Eris' direction, mentally adding that it never hurt to have allies on both sides of the crime war. "But I have a place not far from here that I use," Jakob went on as his mind clicked with an address in place. He'd worked a case nearly two weeks prior, a murder just after Christmas in a basement-level apartment. Crime scene analysis had been done over a week ago, and while the apartment could've been opened back up for rental, it hadn't been just yet. It'd do for a private talk. "I must say, you're the last person I expected to be calling," he added with a smirk, keeping his eyes ahead of him for now to hide the excitement in them.

She followed along, about a step behind and to the left of him, just in case she needed to pull Brett's gun. which she had her hand on inside the pocket of her coat, even if it wasn't at all obvious. "I would be hard pressed to think you would have expected me, what with my untimely demise and all." she said. "Know anything about that, sweetheart?" she asked lightly, thinking he had to, somewhere along the line.

Jakob's lips pursed in thought as he separated the facts of the case from the fictions he'd padded it with, finally glancing sidelong towards Eris. "We had plenty of reason to assume foul play, yes," he said first, "The scene of your last known whereabouts was... colorful. I interviewed several of your 'employees' as well, they reported unusual trends in visitors up before you vanished. And the club's new owners?" Jakob chuckled dryly, shaking his head.

"Our Organized Crime squad is pulling their hair out, trying to find some dirty money they could link the owners to. They're thinking Eastern Europeans, maybe Russians." He fell silent again as he breezed across the street and down a short flight of stairs, twisting the door that waited open on a dark and mostly empty apartment.

"Are you really handing me the 'we're doing everything we can' cop's line?" Eris asked doubtfully, once they were across the street. "I didn't ask you what the cops weren't doing about it, I asked if you knew anything about it. This isn't going to go very well for the two of us if you're going to be treating me like a moron, Jakob. Have a little more respect." she told him. She stopped outside the apartment, and looked at him. "You know I'm not going first."

"You'll have to forgive me," he said as he stepped inside, squinting and pausing just beyond the door to tug at the chain dangling from an uncovered lightbulb overhead, "If I come off so? I'm a bit bewildered, Eris. Your disappearance played utter hell with our understanding of the power play in town." Jakob turned back to look her way, shaking his head. "I know next to nothing," he lied with an apologetic shake of his head, "And trust me, it's frustrating. My snitches couldn't tell me a word, your former employees were even less helpful, now it makes a bit more sense. No one had any leads on your body because there never was a body, was there?" He had tidbits he could safely share, but Jakob was curious about what Eris might fill in on her own.

Eris wasn't actually interested in filling anything in. Her own death wasn't why she was there in the first place. She arched a brow at him and kept her gaze there. "Jakob." she said. "You're insulting my intelligence." she told him. "I'm sure you probably know exactly what happened to me, down to the name of whoever actually did the deed. I'm just not actually interested in that." she said, at least setting that in play. Honestly, she could give a shit. She was dead, now. Nailing some lackey was hardly going to do anything. They'd just fill the ranks in with other eager to please assholes. It wouldn't accomplish anything.

"And yet you asked," Jakob pointed out, shaking his head her way again, "So if you're not interested in what I may or may not know about your... mishap, why call? Why come to meet me? There's something you must be wondering." And that had him curious, no doubt about it. The fact that she was alive at all was a riddle, one he'd have to delicately unfold using his contacts. "I'll tell you this much, all evidence points to the Konoviches taking what was yours. And however new they may be in town, they couldn't do such things without help from the department. Otherwise the DiGiovanni would've known beforehand, not to mention the police not on either side's payroll. You haven't been overly friendly with any officers, have you? Let them too close, perhaps?"

Eris shook her head, but she was smiling at him. "I wanted to see if you were immediately go in for bullshit with me." she told him. "Which you did. Not surprising, I suppose, but still. Look, sweetheart. Here's the deal. I have information I can give to you on certain things, and I have a few things I want to know too. In fact, one might say I have a challenge for you." she said, leaning back against the wall, keeping her gaze on the man. She'd actually always kind of liked Jakob. He was, in her view, nicely twisted. but not in the same way everyone else in this town was. He had his own bent.

"A... challenge?" Jakob echoed, losing just a touch of his composure to the flicker of a smile. He smoothed it away quickly, tucking his hands in coat pockets and caressing the dice inside of one. "I've always been a gambling man, Eris, but somehow I think you may set the stakes a touch high. Still, name the stakes." He wanted, no, needed to know the game before he could even consider what she might be able to tell him. And even if the terms of her 'challenge' were suicidal, Jakb doubted he'd decline. He was getting bored twisting the people in the city, something dangerous would revitalize him. And tangling his affairs up with Eris Stockard definitely qualified.

"I can tell you everything I knew up til the point of my 'disappearance', if you want me to answer questions." she said. She didn't have current information but she hadn't been out of commission that long. "And in exchange, you get to do a good deed. It just won't be easy." she told him.

He pursed his lips thinly in consideration, one arm folding across his chest to support the other as Jakob scratched at the scruff on his chin. Sure, it was tempting to have a chance to learn all of Eris' secrets; she'd been a powerful woman, and Babylon a neutral ground. Both sides must have exposed themselves there, not to mention countless citizens removed from the larger situation. "Eris, you know I could have a list of every kill that's ever been ordered and I couldn't convict anyone but soldiers and smugglers. Is that the good deed? Bringing down the families?"

She laughed a little, shaking her head. "Oh, no. Where would the fun in that be?" she asked, in the back of her mind, she was noticing how easy it was to slip back into her old persona. she'd thought it would be more difficult, and the fact that it was easy was...more than a little unsettling. She just didn't let it show. She shook her head. "No, actually, my dear, think smaller. I'm talking about saving one person. If it happens to destroy the structure of the Syndicate, that would be a nicely added bonus, but still. My main goal? Is just that. One man's life." She was still smiling, knowing that was going to confuse him at least a little, going for something small, and it being more difficult than something large-scale.

"One man. Nobility is an odd fit for you, Eris," Jakob observed quietly, trying to fit this with what he knew of her already. She'd been a sharp one for sure, nearly a match for his own wit, but she'd never seemed the sort to barter so much for so little. Then again... she had said it wouldn't be easy. "Which one man?" he asked, "Because I'm afraid that kidnapping and reforming Don DiGiovanni himself is a bit beyond my jurisdiction."

Eris smirked. "Who would want him?" she asked. "No. One man. You know him. Brett Trent." she said, and then stopped there, just because she didn't figure she had to fill in the blanks for how it would be difficult to do anything along the lines of saving him. Brett was in a bad place, and it wasn't going to be easy by any stretch of the imagination to get him out from under.

Jakob lost to his smile again, though he won against the manic urge to clap his hands in delight. This? This was delicious. The woman he'd set up to fall asking him to save the cop he'd helped to bury. Trent had been deep in his cover, all it had taken was Jakob leaking the details of Brett's meeting place and the burning of his files. "Brett Trent..." he murmured, "A formerly dirty cop turned ex-cop? Last I'd heard, he was cracking skulls for the O'Malleys." Ah, the advantages of being connected. "Why the sudden interest in one soldier?" Jakob asked, already putting the pieces together for himself.

"That's my business." Eris told him sweetly. "It has no bearing on whether or not you think you're up to it." she added. "Are you?" she asked, tone light. There was that undercurrent to it, the one that said she wasn't exactly sure he was. Just that pinch of doubt, that should needle him enough into wanting to prove he could. She'd dealt with the guy before, after all. And she didn't think people's nature's changed. Maybe on the outside, but deep down? No. Hell. Brett proved that, with his little bout of heroics in saving her, even if it was a spectacularly stupid idea on his part.

Some part of him wanted to admit that he wasn't. How could he pull a deep-cover policeman from the ranks of a vicious gang and keep both himself and Brett from the inevitable retaliation? But Jakob couldn't bear to tell Eris that, to confess that this lunacy was beyond him. "It would take time," he said first, "Unless I could arrest him on trumped charges and keep him in lockup for a while. Any sort of rush would end in body bags. But yes, I can save him." And bury him again afterwards.

She shook her head. "Not good enough." she said in that deceptively light tone. "No, he gets to walk away. From them, from the force if he wants to. From everything. keeping him locked up and arresting him hardly describes saving someone. I don't want a half assed job, dear. I want one that's going to hold up." Which was really the most difficult part. "I did mention that it was going to be a challenge, yes?"

"I didn't say I'd keep him locked up. It's just an easy way to get him off the streets and out of peoples' sights." His pride flinched over the idea that he would do anything but a stellar job, wearing the smile off of Jakob's lips. His work to undermine Eris herself had been flawless, it had only been the syndicate's fault that she survived. And Brett? Well, he was in so deep because of Jakob that things had come to this point; he had no exit except for the man who'd put him there. "If I do this? I want two things, one of them now. I want to meet Brett soon, talk with him and figure out where to begin. And I want to know what happened to you; what you can recall, how you got here. I'd be remiss in the duties of my badge if I didn't try to find the people who brought you down, after all."

"Still not good enough. You lock him up and either someone gets him on the inside, because we're both not stupid enough to think that won't happen, and 'out of sight, out of mind' doesn't exactly work with the families in town, now does it?" she said. "No. No jail time. Find something else." she said, tone suggesting this was not negotiable. She listened to the other terms, and didn't answer straight away. "Jakob. I know you're dirty. Please stop hitting me up with the virtuous cop routine, it's getting old, incredibly fucking fast." she said, keeping her tone level. "If you want to know what happened to me, fine. Meeting with Brett doesn't happen. If you need something from him, it goes through me. I may have been out of the game a little while, but that doesn't mean I've forgotten how it's played."

"There's a difference between being on the take and having blood on my hands, Eris," he countered, shaking his head, "I don't exactly try to hide my extra income. But that does not mean I won't lock up a killer when they're in front of me. It's not virtue, it's prudence. If someone is sloppy enough to be caught? They deserve to be caught." That was a standard he applied to himself as well as the rest of the city, it was why Jakob never regretted his standing with the families. He'd gotten himself in the situation, he deserved it. "And if you remember the rules of the 'game', as you call it? Try to remember that berating the people you deal with lessens your bargaining power. I tell lies, yes, but I am a cop. I'm good at it, I like doing it, and I don't appreciate being told that my doing my job is a routine. Now then," he said, breathing deep for a moment, "I'll eventually need to meet with Brett, but that's a point we can argue another night. For now? Please, fill in the gaps for me."

Eris smirked at him. "You expect me to believe you've been on the take this long and they for some reason treat you extra fuzzy special and haven't had you pull anything worse? If for no other reason than they'd want you in deeper so they'll have you where they want you, whether it's your current position in the force, or your current position in their pocket?" she asked. "Again, I'm not stupid. Here's my point. I don't give a shit. I don't care, in the slightest, what your involvement means, or what you want to tell people. I'm not interested in selling you out, or anything else. And I wouldn't be bringing this up if you'd just play straight with me, when we both know you're trying to jerk me around. It's unappreciated. And I'd be remiss if I didn't call you on it. Am I meant to smile and nod? I hardly think so and you know me better than that." she said. "As for killers, he's not your man on that. What gaps do you need filled? Be more specific."

He would take this insult out on Brett, Jakob decided in that moment. Tiny lies (like forging her downfall) aside, he'd mostly been a straight-shooter tonight. Jakob was genuinely interested in doing this, both for the challenge and the potential her knowledge would give him to cause some good chaos. Being a cop meant that when he turned the screws on people, he got applause. "What do you remember about the night you disappeared?" Jakob asked, brushing past everything they'd been arguing, "You were attacked, I'm guessing? How did you survive? What part does Brett Trent play in it all?"

"Not a lot. Things are fuzzy. I know it was the O'Malleys. I know they sent a group in, and I know that my bodyguard was nowhere in sight, so they either took him out of the picture beforehand, or they offered him something, though honestly, I don't think that he could have been bought that easily." she said, holding up her end. Or, mostly. The one thing she didn't plan on doing was handing him information on Brett. She still didn't know if she could trust him or not, and until she did, she wasn't making him more vulnerable. "Either way it was a set up, and a good one. It worked." she continued. "How I survived, I don't know. They thought I was dead, they were wrong. I got dropped in the river, and climed out later." she said. "After that, it was rather prudent for me to stay under the radar. I don't think showing back up again would do anything but get me killed." And it still could, she knew. Jakob could set her up. Hand her over, whatever. Though he wouldn't have much reason to other than him being pissy with her. The family she was up against wasn't the one he affiliated with, after all.

He took her story in, silently wishing there were a few more details but knowing not to press. She didn't want her killers arrested, she wanted Brett free and clear. It'd mean a lot of digging through files, talking with people he shouldn't associate with and not letting them know his plans, and maybe even a frame-job or two. "I'll do some preliminary work as I have time between cases, gather up what I can on the O'Malleys and anything the precincts still have on Brett. But what you're asking? Well, there's limits to the law, which I assume is why you came to me," jakob told her with a smile, "It may come down to confrontation, and if it does? I hope that you know something so damaging that it's easier for the O'Malleys and their allies to let your friend go."

"I didn't say he was a friend." Eris said, figuring Jakob had worded it as such to see if he could confirm what her interest in the man was. She didn't want to give that away though. Hell, she had enough trouble even coming to terms with how she felt about him in the abstract, let alone start claiming relationship status with him. Even if it was only 'friends'. Though her tone had changed as well, she no longer had an edge beneath her tone, now that she didn't feel like he was playing cards he didn't really need to. "I'm aware this'll take time, and that it isn't going to be easy. I'm also willing to do my part if it helps, or compensate in other ways should the need arise. as for the O'Malleys, I don't know that you're really going to be able to dig up much. I mean, I could likely pick out a couple of people if I saw them again, but when they sent people in after me they didn't send people I had extensive dealings with, and like I said, it's...fuzzy." What with the dying thing. "What do you have on Trent?" she asked. "I don't know the history there, only bits and pieces."

"There's always something to dig up," Jakob assured her, grinning with the affirmation, "Find one low-level grunt, wave charges tying him to something in his face, and he rolls over on the next man. If I can manage that three or four times, I'll have a gridwork to guess at who may have been involved." He let the smile flicker for a moment, pacing a little bit and reaching up to run his fingers around the pull-chain of the overhead light before looking back to Eris. "Brett Trent was a good cop. Direct, efficient, unshakable," he began, dredging up the details he'd commited to memory from Brett's files, "Awarded a commendation for valor twelve, maybe thirteen years ago now when the city library caught fire. Three years ago, he was pinched stealing evidence from the station house, evidence tied to an investigation on the O'Malleys. He was discharged, of course, and a month or two later our informants started linking him to O'Malley labor directly. There's no direct evidence, but word was that he was involved in the murder of an officer, Captain Hardy." That was a fun tidbit to drop, given that Jakob had sent the man to the meeting the night he'd died.

She listened, getting more on Brett than she had at current, though she wasn't entirely certain the pieces added up. "You sure it wasn't a set up?" she asked, tone giving away nothing. It was just a question. And really, one that wouldn't be that unusual. Since he was some hero cop, it was odd for an abrupt, sloppy turnaround like that. Jakob managed to keep himself just fine without anything of the sort, after all. Lots of cops did. She knew that just from how many of them used to come into Babylon, with the various families, or even on their own. "Did anyone ever try and dig it up properly to find out?"

"If it was a set up, he did it to himself," Jakob explained, "He was caught with a large amount of seized cash, not to mention files detailing several O'Malley shipping routes. He'd been on the job for thirteen years, mind you, maybe he got tired of only taking home the paycheck. But when he was questioned, he never claimed to have been framed." He raised a hand to his chin, finger tapping his lips as Jakob considered the other question Eris had asked. "People did investigate, and the curious thing at the time was the lack of reprimand. In any other case, he would've been tried and locked up. Brett simply lost his job. The commission attached to his case involved some of your old clientele, not to mention retired officers and a judge who all had morals for sale. So the theory is that they were told to show mercy." He needed to feign ignorance, but Jakob never liked to play dumb. Still, it wasn't good to show just how much he knew about this one cop in particular. "He's actually a bizarre sort of legend; the cop who was so straight that he didn't bend, he broke."

Eris would give the point about Brett being broken. He was. She knew that. It was part of why she wanted to help so badly. Because he was broken, and wouldn't do it himself. "Doesn't sound like it adds up quite right." she said. "But then again, there's quite a lot in this city that doesn't. I'd like his files, or copies of them. it might warrant looking into more with him again. Because it is rather odd he wasn't nailed, he was let go. Sounds like a set up to me, I just don't know on who's part." She could see several angles that might work. But she didn't have enough information to go by. All she really had was her rather skewed points of view and insights on Brett. "I just want him to walk away and not have to drop into hiding. I want him to walk away and be a free man, from everything." Though on the police side of things, it wouldn't be too difficult if he wasn't ever charged to begin with. He was just let go. Which...didn't make sense, unless Jakob was right and people were paid off. Still, though. It was odd, to say the least.

"What sounds like a set up to you sounds like a reward to me," Jakob pointed out evenly, "And I'm not accusing him, I'm no hypocrite. But the O'Malleys received a mistrial on the case he interfered with, after all." The logic wasn't perfect, but it had been solid enough to bury Brett in his cover and keep him from ever resurfacing. "I can get you his service record, but his commission review is sealed in the archives. You'd have to come with me to the station to see it, there's actually very effective monitoring of what goes in and out of there. And I doubt you'd like to walk into HQ. But if I'm already planning on climbing a mountain? One more peak won't hurt. I'll see if I'm owed enough favors to get a copy of it."

"And that's one way of looking at it." Eris agreed, since it was. Things didn't always add up perfectly, though. She got that. "But it's also a way of looking at it that was likely the easiest way out, too. Another factor to look at is when most people snap like that? They really snap. Particularly a decorated officer, he's not going to snap then stay in a shit level position somewhere, just to be a nobody, but he is, isn't he? That also isn't much of a reward." she posed. It wasn't like it wasn't common knowledge. "That doesn't add up. Which makes me question the obvious answer." She wasn't claiming to know what another one might be, she just was looking at it from another angle. "And no, I'd rather not walk into HQ. But I'd appreciate anything you could get." she said. Really, the records were for her own personal knowledge, she didn't need them, but they might help. "If you can't..." she shrugged one shoulder. "It's not a top priority."

"Well, I mentioned getting people to turn on each other?" Jakob reminded her, grinning a touch more deviously, "It doesn't just work on criminals. Anyone with a secret to hide, such as, say, the commission that censured him? They may have some stories to tell. Maybe Brett was blackmailed or coerced, maybe he received a payoff beyond what's apparent. I could have his finances checked if it didn't raise too much suspicion, and even if someone noticed? A cop is investigating a grunt, I doubt anyone would assume I was doing it to help him. All the same, I'll be discreet." It promised to be fun, more fun than the killer with his predictable mutilations. "How should I contact you if and when I have something worth sharing?"

"I'll contact you again." she said. "I'll give you a few days, unless you'd like to set your own time limit." she added, figuring that it wouldn't take long to do the minor preliminary things. Plus, she knew the man liked to sink his teeth into challenges, and this was one. So he might actually work more efficiently if he had markers to hit along the way, even if they were self imposed ones.

Jakob nodded curtly at the limit she proposed, his mind already ticking along a list of where to start. "A few days is plenty of time to gather the basics. I'll see if I can't find out who he associates with most often, it'll give me an idea of what angles might pan out. In the interim, if you see him?" Jakob smiled, moving a little closer towards Eris, mostly since she was between him and the door. "Find out if he still has his commendation. If he pawned it, it's likely that he is exactly what his file says."

He still has it. Eris thought. She'd seen it. He had the medal, the box it came in, and the article. Sure, it was tucked away in the back of his closet, but he had it. In fact, he had a lot of things she would consider were proof that the file didn't cover what had happened. But, she didn't know for sure, it wasn't like Brett had gone into the whole mess. Just a little bit. "I'll keep that in mind." she said, however, not giving that away if for no other reason than she wasn't even meant to know about it, and she definitely wasn't handing it over for no reason. That was private, of Brett's. "Though even if it's the case...I still want him to walk." She let Jakob walk past her, though she did it because she couldn't recall which way to go to get out, and she didn't want to risk looking this way and that once they were out the door.

"Death, or near-death as it were, has done little to decrease your tenacity," Jakob complimented over his shoulder as he moved past her and out the door, "Walk safely, Eris, I'll be waiting to hear from you." He skipped up the stairs lightly, a thoughtful expression settling to line his brow eventually as Jakob hit the sidewalk. He'd find a solution to this living riddle, no doubt about it. The trick, of course, was in managing to do as Eris requested and have things end in misery. What a punchline it'll be, Jakob thought, chuckling to himself and heading for Nighthawk's Diner at a lazy pace. Brain food, that was what he needed.