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Post by Bellatrix Black on Oct 11, 2016 3:46:12 GMT -5
Ricki Crawford Bellatrix was delighted in the opportunity for a little sport. She'd been sitting on the sidelines for much too long, and was eager to jump into a game of her own device. It was terrific luck that she happened to see the Gryffindor girl that dared to face her during the Hogsmeade attack going into a detective agency looking for her long-lost parents. She had to act quickly, so as to not lose the advantage.
It took a lot of money, but the Black family had plenty to spare, as did her soon to be in-laws the Lestranges. Money was no object to Bellatrix. And neither were morals. Bellatrix hired a private detective specializing in the use of black magic to track down the girl's mother. The clues led to a woman named Diana Crawford. The name meant nothing to Bella, but caused a problem in that the PIs Alyx had hired could potentially track down her real mother and spoil her fun. So Bella got crafty. She used Rodolphus' connections at the Ministry to create a paper trail that connected Alyx to Marlene Dogges, a single 30-something witch who lived in Larkhill, Scotland. Marlene was a waitress at a pub that had been in the verge of shutting down for several years. This was not a place where everybody knew your name. This was important to Bella.
Having identified a decent candidate, Marlene, Bellatrix overtook the woman in her own home. She only needed to kill the woman, but Bellatrix was known to sacrifice timeliness for torture, whenever possible. The woman screamed for mercy but by the end she screamed for death. Marlene had given Bellatrix everything she needed. With Marlene’s hair, Bella brewed a polyjuice potion. She assumed the woman’s identity and her job at the pub and waited for her time to come. With the clues she’d laid out, the private investigator would be well on the way to tracking Alyx’s“mummy”.
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Post by Ricki Crawford on Oct 17, 2016 21:34:03 GMT -5
It was almost too easy to track down Alyx's mother, especially with such a small amount of information about the circumstances of her birth. Ricki should have been suspicious about that, but the truth was, she was still off of her game and had been ever since Tom had waltzed back into her life and reminded her of things that she had tried so hard to forget.
Alyxandria Rye had been found on a doorstep as an infant in a small town in New York state, known as Rye. That was where she had got her name. It took a little bit of searching to track down a birth certificate from a nearby hospital that listed an Alyxandria Dogges, daughter of one Marlene Dogges and an unknown father.
From there she pieced together the story; a sadly familiar story. Scottish girl visits the US, falls in love with an American, gets pregnant, is dumped, doesn't know what to do with the baby, so she abandons it somewhere she thinks it will be safe, then goes home to Scotland. Marlene Dogges now lived in a small town in Scotland, worked in a tiny, rundown pub, and did her very best to blend into the background.
But Ricki found her and made her way to Larkhill, Scotland, to try and meet with the woman.
It seemed rather like the town that time forgot, and the pub looked to have been forgotten by everyone. When she stepped inside, she saw just a few grizzled old drunkards nursing their ales in dark corners, grumbling to themselves in between drinks. And behind the bar was a woman who looked almost as broken down as the pub itself. She wasn't old, nor was she altogether unattractive. But she looked tired and sad and very much alone.
Or maybe Ricki was just internalizing the woman's story.
She approached the bar and sat down on a squeaky barstool. She was aware that she looked singularly out of place in this establishment, but she didn't care. She was on a mission.
Catching the woman's eye, she decided not to hit her with the story all at once. Instead, she simply ordered a drink. "I'll have a firewhiskey," she said.
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Post by Bellatrix Black on Oct 18, 2016 13:32:59 GMT -5
Bellatrix had only been waiting two days. The clues she had laid out were concise enough to expedite the process, but not so precise as to look completely false. Still, when Ricki entered the dingy pub Bella smiled at the efficiency of this detective. She watched Ricki enter and approach the bar from the corner of her eye, then Bella dragged herself over to meet the woman with a haggard look.
Bellatrix nodded at Ricki's order, in the same manner as she had observed of the real Marlene. Minimal talking up front, exhausted sighs upon the return, and an open ear for the drinker. These mannerisms were less for Ricki's sake, although it needed to appear real enough, but for the people close to Marlene. If Ricki asked around, there needed to be no question in the mind of her boss and the regulars at the pub (because Marlene had no friends) that Marlene Dogges was her same, ragged, pathetic self.
She pushed a not quite clean glass of firewhiskey at Ricki with a long sigh, then messed about with the taps in front of her, waiting for Ricki to speak.
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Post by Ricki Crawford on Dec 3, 2016 23:33:44 GMT -5
Ricki preferred to observe first in situations like these. It helped her to get a feel for how to approach the subject without raising alarm on the other person's part. So she watched the woman's movements as she sipped her drink.
She could see the strain on the woman's face. A sadness, an emptiness that Ricki found all too familiar. Many of her cases had this same haggard, hollow look on their faces--expressions of loss and loneliness and of being beaten down by life. It was remarkable in that it was so very ordinary and expected... almost scripted. Not that she saw anything at all unusual in the ragged, dispirited woman in front of her, and she had no reason to think it was anything but genuine, but the fact that they all seemed to be this way almost without fail was depressing.
She tried to watch to see if she saw any similarities between the woman and Alyx. Appearance-wise, she didn't have a lot in common with the young witch. She was drab, dull, and gave no appearance of ever having once been as lovely as Alyx was. Moreover, the coloring was a bit off as well--her hair was sort of a dull brown and her skin a bit too pale. This didn't trouble Ricki all that much, though--it merely meant that the girl probably took after her father, whomever he might be. No, Ricki was more interested in looking for similarities in actions--mannerisms, habits, tics--the little things that people did without ever realizing it. She had spent enough time around Alyx that she was sure she would notice anything like that.
The silence seemed to drag out, and Ricki decided it was time to speak up. "This is such a nice little town," she began, although this was clearly an overstatement. "I don't imagine you get many visitors around here?"
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Post by Bellatrix Black on Dec 4, 2016 0:49:47 GMT -5
This was far from anything resembling a nice little town. It was small and dirty, ans it seemed to have been completely passed over by anything resembling modern advances in magic. Ricki was being polite. How insufferable.
"Not many at'll. I suspect you're just passin' through." It was phrased as a question but not delivered as such. Bella knew that Ricki was here for her. Marlene would have assumed otherwise.
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Post by Ricki Crawford on Dec 8, 2016 23:04:02 GMT -5
So she wasn't one for small talk. Ricki expected as much, but it still seemed a bit harsh to just jump in and say Hey, so you gave birth to a child 16 years ago, right? She needed to find an angle, a way to lead into the subject gently. She also wanted to feel the woman out a little more, to make sure that her research had indeed led her to the correct person. At the moment, she really wasn't entirely convinced that this was the case. Yes, all signs pointed to the fact that this was Alyx's mother, but the lack of resemblance to Alyx did give her a small amount of uncertainty.
"Yes, just passing through," Ricki said. "Actually, though, I might stay a few days. I have some business in town. Does this place rent out rooms?"
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Post by Bellatrix Black on Dec 9, 2016 1:03:36 GMT -5
"We've a few upstairs," Bellatrix replied. "They're nothin' special but if you're lookin' to stay in town it's all there is." Bella chewed on the inside of her lip in a manner resembling Alyx's actions when she was thinking.
The dark detective Bella had hired was also tasked with observing Alyx and giving Bellatrix a list of characteristics she could exploit during her ploy. Of course, after she had all of the information she needed and the clues had been laid out for Ricki, Bella used a memory charm to erase her detective's knowledge of their plot. Bella didn't like loose ends.
"What kind of business you got Larkhill?" It was a perfect opening for Ricki to get more information about 'Marlene' now that the bartender was starting a conversation. And Bella was ready to feed the detective a whole slew of bullsh*t to further her agenda. Bella shook her head to the side to throw her hair out of her face, matching another of Alyx's mannerisms.
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Post by Ricki Crawford on Dec 11, 2016 22:47:02 GMT -5
The first gesture was like a key clicking into place for Ricki. Although hardly an unusual habit, it matched Alyx's behavior to a tee, and Ricki felt herself relax just a little. It was still a small clue, but enough that she could start drawing the woman out a little more.
Usually, if she sensed a subject was hostile to the idea of recovering a long-lost child, she would start in more directly, so as not to leave them time to back away. But the dullness, the depression, and the absolute beaten-down nature of the woman before her seemed to indicate that this very conversation might be exactly what she needed. So it was necessary to start carefully, to create a rapport with the woman. And what better way than the solidarity of sisterhood? So the tactic she used was intended to create a common ground with Ms. Dogges.
Unfortunately, it also hurt like hell for Ricki.
"I'm looking for someone. I... I believe he might be here. You see..." she lowered her voice here, preparing to share a confidence with the woman. "Years ago... I had a child. And I had to give him up...."
The crack in her voice, was, of course, not an act. She thought of Billy, and although she wished that her next words were true, she knew they were not. "An investigator told me he lived near here."
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Post by Bellatrix Black on Dec 13, 2016 22:00:15 GMT -5
Either the woman before her had truly lost someone close to her and was channeling that feeling now or she was the best actress this side of the Atlantic. Not knowing Ricki's background, Bellatrix assumed it was the latter and prepared for a show of her own.
Marlene's face went rigid and she swallowed hard as she looked at Ricki. "Oh," she said meekly. "I see." She chewed on her lip as she looked to the bar top, wiping a non-existent spill. Liquid pooled at her eyes and she turned her back to the woman, clearly wiping her face before clearing her throat and straightening herself up.
She sniffled as she turned back to face Ricki. "I hope you find him."
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Post by Ricki Crawford on Dec 20, 2016 22:43:17 GMT -5
Ricki recognized that look. It was the look she got on her own face whenever Shelby or one of her other female friends started talking about their children.
She had buried it all deep inside a long time ago, but every so often, someone would innocently bring up something that reminded her of Billy. Of course, thanks to the unwelcome visit from her ex-husband, the memories seemed to come up easier than ever now. She didn’t like it, it made her feel unstable and off her game. But now, at least she could use it for something.
Of course, knowing that it was for a greater cause didn’t make it any easier.
Her eyes glistening with her own tears, she reached across the bar towards the woman, not touching her, but offering her hand in case the woman wanted some support.
“You know how it is, don’t you?” she said gently. “It’s never easy for us women… We think love is forever, but really regret is the only thing that never goes away. Men love us and leave us with burdens we can’t manage. It’s not fair.”
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Post by Bellatrix Black on Dec 20, 2016 22:58:35 GMT -5
Bella didn't take the woman's hand but looked down at it, furrowed her brow in sadness, and then looked up at Ricki with what appeared to be tears in her eyes. This exaggerated Marlene's haggard appearance, making her look more feeble and worn down than before. It was a wonderful affect that Bellatrix had planned carefully for.
"Some of us don't have the chance to atone for our sins." Her voice was rough with sadness but quiet, as if she were ashamed of herself. "I hope you find your little boy."
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Post by Ricki Crawford on Dec 20, 2016 23:19:16 GMT -5
The woman's sadness was profound, and Ricki felt her heart ache even more as she empathized with her. Of course, the news Ricki had to bring her would likely change everything, but she still couldn't just blurt it right out. After all, she had started on her own story and couldn't very well back out of it without potentially losing the woman's trust. She would have to tread carefully.
"He... he should be 24 now," she said softly, her voice catching again. One thing Ricki had found to be true, and was certainly true of herself, was that any woman who had ever lost a child could tell, at any given moment, how old the child would be. Whether the child had lived or been adopted, every woman seemed to know how old her child would have been. She assumed that Marlene would not be any different.
"I named him Billy... I imagine he has a new name now..." she sighed softly, then looked at Marlene. "What about you? Clearly you lost someone... you can tell me about it. I won't judge."
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Post by Bellatrix Black on Dec 21, 2016 0:04:24 GMT -5
Bellatrix was too self-centered to assume the pain in Ricki's voice might have actually been real. And if she had thought it, she wouldn't have bothered to care.
Bella chewed on the inside of her lip and busied herself with wiping the non-existent spot once again. "It doesn't matter," she said quietly. "She's in the states. She's got a better home than I can give her."
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Post by Ricki Crawford on Mar 26, 2017 21:02:48 GMT -5
Ricki silently took it all in--all the clues were there. The same habit of chewing on the inside of her lip, just as Alyx frequently did. The mention of the girl living in the US. It all fell into place neatly, like pieces of a puzzle. It was almost too neat, really, and for a moment, Ricki almost didn't trust it. But she had no reason to suspect that anything was wrong, and she never would have guessed that the mousy woman standing before her was anything other than what she seemed to be. If she doubted anything, it was her own investigation skills, since she had not run this by Milo before coming to approach the woman. And of course, the recent reappearance of her deadbeat ex-husband had been a severe blow to her self-confidence. Maybe that was one reason why she was so desperate to solve this case and reunite this family.
"In the states, eh? That's nice. Have you heard anything about her at all? Do you think about her often? I know I've thought about my son every day since he--since he went away."
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