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Aqua Spirit Blossom
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"Hit the lights when you come in, to your right" says Vesta. "I like the atmosphere, but I like seeing what you're doing with your hands better." Oren flips the lightswitch on, revealing a dingy, bare, smoke-filled office. A scent like burning apple trees reaches Oren's nose. Furlesian tobacco.
"Sheriff Loper, Deputy Squires," Vesta nods. She's a petite brown vidder with an unironed dress shirt and a pipe. "I'd offer you seats, but there's only one. Flip a coin?"
"I'm good with standing," says Oren.
"Me too," says Nessie.
"Suit yourself," Vesta takes another pull on her pipe. "You have some wealthy friends, Mr. Loper. I won't ask how you know the formerly deceased Mr. Arbock. This is where you can be impressed I figured out who he was."
"How?" says Oren.
"He hired the best," says Vesta. "and to be honest he's terrible at keeping up a false identity. Daria Etra Vesta. PI and sellsword, when the need arises. Now about your assassin friend."
"Not exactly a friend," says Nessie.
"I gathered," says Vesta. "There's some traces of your man Joseph Bird floating around, or someone awfully like him. Yesterday he bought a bagel at a coffee shop in Little Waan, then a friend of mine in Authority Forensics found his fingerprints on a knifehandle stuck in a stiff right here on the skiffdocks. Two sightings of him near midnight at the skiff of Bevil Marco, noted chalk baron-slash-crook. And last I heard, a local gang, the Nines, has a meeting with a 'representative' of Mr Bird on the docks, around 7 PM today in Nine territory. Sounds like your man is a bit of a networker. I can take you to the coffee place, crime scene, skiff, or Nines Headquarters, or anywhere else, as it pleases you. I know the city, and it knows me enough to stay out of my way, most of the time."
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