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Joseph Zeo
Joseph Zeo
Tale Spinner

Apr-22-2010 21:04

"Cut!" The director screamed. He ran onto the movie set and stared at the lost man in a tacky detective costume. The director was a head shorter than most actors, but his stare was fierce. "I told you for God knows how many times, read your script as it is WRITTEN!"

"But real detectives don't say things like 'What were you doing at the time of the murder.' It's a straight give away to the suspect that a murder had taken place!" The poor man defended.

"God damn it, who cares what you say as long as it's a talkie film. A MOVIE!" The director slapped his script on the prop table. He turned to his crew, "Who hired this genius?"

The crew was stone silent. The cameramen wiped their bulky equipment fervently like their life depended on it. The lighting crew looked at their silver lamps as if they saw it for the first time. The soundman listened to his playback looking for noises that didn’t exist.

A young man in a plaid sweater put up his shaking hand, "but sir, you said you wanted an authentic guy to play the part, so I got you a real detective."

"I said I wanted an authentic LOOKING guy, Martin! Not the real deal. This is show biz, use your brain, if you're not SITTING on it!!" The stumpy director bellowed.

"But…"

A voice light as chimes cut through the quarrel. "Boys, if you don't mind, I'll just go powder my nose." The lead actress with white blonde hair and the figure of an hourglass floated back into her dressing room.

"Yes of course, certainly my darling." The director cooed. He then turned coldly to Martin and the detective. "We'll take a 15 minutes break for you two to sort this out."

"Break! 15 minutes!" Martin announced, he then turned apologetically to his friend, "I'm so sorry, detective Zeo. I know most of this doesn't make sense, but can you please stick to your lines?"

Joseph Zeo looked at his shiny detective costume and gave a weak smile, "I dig what you mean," he sighed, "and you know I wouldn't have taken the job if I wasn't low on dough.

Replies

Joseph Zeo
Joseph Zeo
Tale Spinner

Apr-25-2010 20:16

Marc held his Colt .45 at Simone between her eyes. His whole body was shaking.

"What the hell's going on?" Zeo barked.

"Marc, that's Ms. Summers you're pointing at. Are you alright?" Riza asked. Marc shook his head clear and looked around.

"Joseph? Riza? I thought I was attacked." Marc replied, sounding as if he had marble in his mouth.

"There was a man in your room. What's going on?" Riza continued.

"I... don't know. Simone was in the bathroom taking a shower then my head became heavy and someone must have knocked me out." Marc's voice was still blurry from the dizziness, "when I woke I saw someone close by and by instinct I took out my gun and fired."

"It was me! You almost shot me!" Simone screamed. Even in a panicking mode her voice was still the sound of fairies. "When I came out of the shower the bedroom was really dark. A voice asked me 'where are the photos'. In panic I hit the man with an ashtray and ran."

"Then how come Marc was with you?" Zeo asked.

"I... I took Marc with me when I ran," was Simone's reply.

"You 'took' an unconscious man with you when you ran?"

"I couldn't leave my bodyguard behind now, could I?" Simone said. There was no sarcasm in her voice.

"Guys, let's return to the room and see to this mystery man first." Riza reminded everyone cooly. They all headed back to the room but the man was already gone.

"Did you get a good look at the guy?" Zeo asked Simone and Marc, but they both shook their heads. "What about the voice, Simone. Is he someone you recognize?

"I don't think so, but it could be one of the people Johnny used to hang with." She replied, "He wanted the photos, but I really have no idea where my brother hid them. I had searched Johnny's place already, but found nothing." Simone wrote down an address on a piece of hotel napkin and gave it to Zeo. "Perhaps you'll have better luck?"

"I will get Vulkie on it, since I have to shoot tomorrow as well, and Marc should never leave your side. " Zeo replied. (con'td)

Joseph Zeo
Joseph Zeo
Tale Spinner

Apr-25-2010 20:28

"I have no idea what came over me today, but I promise it won't happen again." Marc firmly stated. "It's strange. I was sure the door was locked..."

"This is no longer a safe place, and I am sure the man recognized Simone's car outside. Mame, I don't think you should be using that car anymore." Simone nodded. Zeo then suggested to go to his office for the night, and they all drove there in Zeo's car.

When everyone finally settled down, Marc told Riza and Zeo their account of the man in Simone's villa, and everything the lady had told her bodyguard.

"Yes, I believe the words on the street was that Johnny was hustling women for the mob as well, as to blackmailing them... the guy got some crazy nerves." Zeo replied.

Simone sighed. In her charming voice she remarked, "my brother was always running on the wild side of things... I've tried to tell him many many times..." she swallowed a tear.

Zeo was silent and waited for those finely drawn brows of hers to relax before he continue, "Simone, did Johnny ever asked you to leave Salazar's productions for another studio?"

Simone was shocked. "How did you know about that? I thought Johnny was discreet."

"So he did asked you." Zeo concluded, and Simone nodded.

"Johnny did a lot of things. He was always trying to make a name for himself, but I do have my own future to look after as well. The other studio's offer was tempting though, and I did thought about switching over. Salazar found out about it and had a huge argument with Johnny, claimed that Johnny was stealing from him. Of course, Johnny won the fist fight and left Salazar with a black eye. I don't think Salazar ever forgive or forget."

"And this happened, when?" Marc questioned.

"About a week before Johnny... Johnny... but no, I don't think my dear director is a murderer. Besides, he is too... short... to lift Johnny over the edge." Simone chimed.

"But he could've got someone else to do it for him..." Marc remarked.

Joseph Zeo
Joseph Zeo
Tale Spinner

Apr-25-2010 20:29

Zeo pull in hard on his cigarette and exhaled slowly. "Don't worry, I'll get shorty to talk tomorrow." Riza offered. She stroked her trusted stiletto inside her breast pocket.

"As to the threatening note," Zeo continued, "we found the glue used to paste the note together in the waste basket in your dressing room and the cut newspaper in the guard's room."

Simone froze, "What you do mean?"

"Probably an inside job." Zeo replied. I shall do some asking around tomorrow to find out if anyone saw anything. I don't need to report in until 9:00 in the morning, but I shall go to the set a bit early for a bit of chat up."

"Is that necessary? Don't we know that it's the mob who did this?"

"No, if it really was Genovese's men, they would've came to you directly. Those people don't do notes. I have a feeling it's someone within the set. There's definitely more to the story."

****

"Wow, detective Zeo, you're early. You actually don't have anything until..." Martin checked his roster, "Nine o'clock." He finished confidently.

"Yes, I just wanna come in earlier to rehearse my line. If I don't glue to my script the director is going to fume again." Zeo winked with a smirk on his face.

"True, true. I'm really sorry about this detective Z..."

"Don't worry about it Martin. By the way, did you see anyone suspicious yesterday on the set? Any strangers, any one you know acting funny?"

"Well, I think most actors in here 'act funny', but I don't think that's what you were referring to. No, anyone had just been their normal selves yesterday... but I did see a stranger coming into the set when I left..."

Zeo tensed. "Describe the person to me." Martin did. Zeo exhaled. "Oh, that's just my friend, Riza Hawkeye. Did you see someone else?" Martin shook his head. Zeo thanked the helpful assistant nevertheless, and proceeded to the guard's office.

Joseph Zeo
Joseph Zeo
Tale Spinner

Apr-25-2010 20:30

On the way, he noticed that Simone was already sitting on the set running her lines with the lead actor. Not far away, Zeo could spot Marc crouching in a dark corner, poised. His friend's eyes never left Simone. Zeo knew he found the right bodyguard for the lady.

As Zeo was about to push open the door to the security room, and he heard a guard inside describing to another about how he fought off three men but ended up being knocked unconscious. Zeo knew the guard must be exaggerating his account of the 'nosebleed' Riza gave him last night. He removed his smirk on the face and knocked.

"Excuse me gentlemen, good day to you..." Zeo flashed his most congenial smile.

"Oh look, is that real detective in that surreal dick costume. What can I do for you sir?"

"Yes, this shiny jacket is totally ridiculous." They laughed together. "I don't have anything to do so I thought i can spend some time in here. The smell of your coffee is just amazing. May I grab a cup?"

"Sure, help yourself. Anything for someone in the similar line of business." One of the guard replied.

Zeo poured a cup and sat himself on the dirty tattered couch. "So, does some of the crew member come in here to chat, say yesterday around morning or mid day?"

"Yeah yeah, some do. Yesterday, Martin did come in. Nice chap. He dumped some old newspaper, said he was cleaning out other dressing rooms and found them. Thought we might want to read them." The guard with the nosebleed replied.

"Oh, did he?" Zeo continued to sip his coffee and directed the conversation to other unimportant issues until he finished his drink, thanked the guards and left.

Salazar, Martin, Simone... were there more people involved? Zeo wondered. The more he thought about it, the more he found oddity in the threatening note. Something was wrong, but he just couldn't pin point what it was. Just then, Martin called for Zeo to standby for the shoot.

M. Lacrimosa
M. Lacrimosa
Thespian

Apr-25-2010 22:15

Marc had never felt more embarrassed in his life. He offered to protect this girl with his life. But the one second he turned his back, BOOM! He screwed up. Resulting in them both being nearly killed. It was a humiliation, he hoped that no one would bring back to him.

He wanted to hold his head down in shame, but he couldn't. It would be unprofessional. He knew he would need to learn from this. He lived by that saying, "we learn from our mistakes".

As Marc watched Simone say her lines during the filming, he found himself in deep thought. There was something about her. Something different...she was hiding something and he knew it. But what was it? It was obvious she had a dark secret.

Maybe he made the mistake of taking her to that hotel run by The Order of Socrates. But then again, maybe not. Maybe they had been followed. It had to be someone inside the set. It had to be! Marc was sure of it! If it had been Genovese ordering a hit, he would have sent five or six people to carry out the deed. Not just one.

Marc reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his pipe and favorite tobacco. He lit it.

"No smoking on the set, pal," Someone yelled to him. Marc quickly cut the man a look; a look designed to inflict intimidation. Marc was pissed off as it was. "Get over it," Marc replied calmly and began puffing on his pipe.

The filming went on for hours with Zeo coming on and off the set getting ready for the next scene.

"And cut! Take a 20 minute break, then get your asses back into place!" The director yelled.

With out a word Simone walked to her dressing room, where Marc followed her, now puffing on his fifth pipe of the day. People often asked him what it that pipe was for and he replied that it relaxed him. And that was exactly what he told Simone when she asked.

Marc had been sitting down for no more than two minutes when the door opened up. Instinct took over. Marc jumped up pulling out both pistols and aimed them at the figure in the door way.

M. Lacrimosa
M. Lacrimosa
Thespian

Apr-25-2010 22:16

"Whoa there, Marc. It's me," the figure said.

Then they walked in the door and began to speak.

Vulkie3
Vulkie3
Haynes

Apr-26-2010 18:53

***The Next Morning***

Vulkie woke up and made some breakfast and read the newspaper. She was busy doing the crosswords, when the phone began to rang. As Vulkie walked to the phone, she couldn't help, but feel a chill going over her spine.

"Creepy..." Vulkie murmered and she picked the phone up. "Detective Vulkie here.." she said, as usual.

"Vulkie, it's me, Joseph. Do you have a pen and a piece of paper around? I have an address for you and you need to check it out. You'll need to find some photo's that Simone's brother, Johnny, made. I'll tell you the story soon, I promise. In the meantime, go to Johnny's place (1658 Rancine Street) and check it out..." Joseph said.

"Ok Joseph. I'll go check it out right away. Where do we meet?" Vulkie asked.

"At my office. I'm having a shooting for the movie today, so I won't be there until sunset has passed..." Joseph replied.

"That's fine. Got to go now. Say hi to "Salazar" for me. But keep it "short", ok?" Vulkie said to Joseph and a grin immediately showed on her face.

"That'll show him" Vulkie thought and she hung up the phone.

***1658 Rancine Street***

It had been less then 3 years since Vulkie visited Rancine Street. The place she always remembered as "Richard Cambridge's" turf... (see Frame-Up for info).

"I don't want to.... kill.... Richard Cambridge... Leon...." the voice of Sergei Kobetz echoed in Vulkie's head.

"Get over it!" Vulkie murmered and she snapped out of her trance.

As she entered the door, she saw that the door was forced open already. She took her .38 Colt out from her dad and went inside the building...

Vulkie3
Vulkie3
Haynes

Apr-26-2010 19:03

As Vulkie slowly pushed the door open, the door creaked. "There goes my cover..." Vulkie thought and continued down the hallway.

Vulkie had 2 options. She could either go upstairs and look for the photo's there, or make sure that the ground level of the house was secured. She chose the second one.

As she entered the living room, everything was teared apart. Books lay scattered everywhere, the sofa that once stood near the window was upside down, the cushions teared to shreds.

"Nothing here" Vulkie murmered and she continued to the kitchen. As she carefully tried the door knob, she noticed that it was locked. "Gonna check that out later..." Vulkie murmered and she went back to the hallway.

"Ground level secured, now the upper floor.." Vulkie said under her breath and she carefully went up the stairs.

At every step she set, a small creak could be heard. The main bedroom door was open. As Vulkie waited at the wall, and took a quick look inside, she noticed that a figure was standing over the bed, having something in his hands...

"Here goes nothing..." Vulkie thought and she immediately jumped into the bedroom.

"If I were you, I would drop those!" Vulkie shouted. The figure turned around and Vulkie had a quick glance at the figure. The figure was masked, but that was all she could see for a few seconds. The figure immediately took a lupara out of his pocket and aimed.

"If I were you..." the figure said, with a deep voice, "I would carefully back the f*ck up and leave me alone..." the figure added.

"Fine, have it your way..." Vulkie said, as she pocketed her gun away and carefully backed up.

"By the way, is that a family picture?" Vulkie asked, an intentional joke to confuse the intruder, and pointed to a photo that the figure held

"What are you talking abou..." the figure said, as he looked at the photo's. The masked figure didn't have time to complete his sentence, as Vulkie took her gun out and fired...



Vulkie3
Vulkie3
Haynes

Apr-26-2010 19:11

"Wrong turn sweetface!" the figure with the deep voice said and he fired his lupara at Vulkie. Vulkie was just in the nick of time, as she ran out of the room and took cover to the left of the entrance of the main bedroom.

The shot of the lupara blasted the door of the bathroom to shreds and Vulkie swallowed.

"That could've been me!" she thought. As Vulkie quickly looked around, she had three options. 1. She could return blind fire and hope to hit the masked figure. 2. Run to the other way of the hall and go outside, by using the firestairs, or 3. Go back the way she came from.

She eventually went for option one. As she reloaded her Colt .38 quickly, she turned her right hand around the corner and fired the gun empty.

2 bullets had hit the figure, 4 missed. One bullet tore a photo in 2 pieces.

The figure immediately "ran" towards the window and jumped out, landing softly in a garbage dump in the frontyard.

As Vulkie took a quick look around the corner, she saw that the figure dropped 3 of the 6 photo's that he had in his hands.

"I'll take those.." Vulkie said. She looked out of the window, only to see a car speeding away.

"Well, I guess I'll have to wait now for Joseph to return to his office..." Vulkie murmered and she went outside Johnny's house.

As she looked back, she decided to take a quick look at Richard Cambridge's house.

As she saw it, she noticed that it was totally abandoned, a window shattered to pieces and the garden in the front had more weeds then all of the neighbourhood together.

Thought's came into her mind... "What where you thinking.... I don't want to kill Richard Cambridge.... I'm sorry Richard... A gunshot was heard..."

Vulkie let a tear roll over her face and went back in the car, driving herself home, to wait until Joseph was at his office and had time to phone her...

Riza Hawkeye
Riza Hawkeye
First Nomad

Apr-27-2010 17:53

“Hello,” Riza said softly, stepping out of the shadows behind the set. The short man dressed in dark pants and a suit jacket jumped at the sound of her voice. He slowly turned around. “What do you want? You’ve already got your money!” he said shakily.

Riza smirked. “I just have a few questions for you, relating to the note that Simone got the other day.”

“I don’t know anything about that, except that someone has way too much time on their hands. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to see that today’s productions run smoothly. I’m a busy man,” he said, tugging on his jacket.

“No, you’re not excused. You’re staying right here until I get my answers,” Riza replied coolly, cracking her knuckles as she stepped forward.

“Y-you don’t scare me!” he said, his widening eyes betraying his statement. Riza began to chuckle. “Little man, you amuse me.”

Salazar began to turn red. “DON”T call me little!” he screamed. Clearly Riza had hit a nerve. Choosing not to push his buttons, she instead launched into her questioning. “So tell me about this Johnny character. What was your little scuffle with him about?”

“That guy? He was trying to steal Simone from me for another studio. I taught him a lesson, though. Gave him a black eye using the ol’ one-two.” Salazar made little punching motions in the air.

“Oh really?” Riza said, realizing that this guy was probably full of shit. She would never get any answers this way. “So you wouldn’t happen to know anything about his death then?”

“No, why the hell should I care about the stupid stuff that guy does on his own time? It’s not my fault he fell out of a building and died.”

“Salazar,” Riza said, “I never said anything about Johnny falling to his death.”

“Uh-that is, I mean-”

“I suggest you tell me everything you know right now if you know what’s good for you!” Riza shouted at him, making him cower and look smaller than he actually was.” But Salazar remained silent.

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