Just a step on the boss man's ladder;

[animator]

Choosing to visit Pierce & Robinson's offices was a much bigger step than it would have appeared to anyone on the outside looking in. Anita had already placed a call back to Sergeant Storr in St. Louis before going; she wasn't local anymore, but Dolph owed her a hell of a lot of favors. He was a good cop, honest, but he would lie to back her up if he had to. She'd pulled him and his boys out of the fire one too many times for him to find it in his heart to say no. He knew what both she and her husband did for a living -- if you could call it a living -- out of pure necessity. It had become impossible to hide things from him any longer, but fortunately, he was on their side.

Lucky for her, because if she was going to pull out her expertly-forged badge on this one, she needed someone official backing her up. Dolph could sell the story of her being a plainclothes detective that had recently transferred to the area. She had spent enough time around murder scenes and enough late nights at the precinct to be able to play the part.

What she was doing now was taking the initiative. Bert had pushed her to meet with this particular client, even though she could smell that there was something wrong with it a mile off. He loved to use her sense of responsibility as leverage. 'Do you want to keep working for me, or not? You've got kids to take care of, don't you? Mouths to feed? And there's nobody else out there who can help you and Mr. Kirkland make use of your gifts the way I do.' He always told her that she didn't want to cross him. He was right -- but she could almost hear his eyes turning to dollar signs on this one over the phone.

Nothing about it felt right. Of course, when she met Harold Gaynor in person, that had all been confirmed. He had been too nice, too friendly, too insistent -- and not forthcoming enough with the details. Pair that with the hired muscle that had attended their meeting and the very clear implication that he would make her life unpleasant should she choose to decline, and she had no choice but to do some digging.

She had to get one step ahead of him.

'You will raise this zombie for me. You'll see reason soon enough.'

It was a threat she didn't want to see him follow through on.

The receptionist had been helpful and taken the time to escort her to the office of one Steve Rogers, a lawyer with a reputation for being not only efficient, but a far sight more honorable than many of his colleagues. It hadn't taken much for her to learn that the firm represented Gaynor. If she could appeal to Rogers' better nature, she might be able to find something useful.

God, she hoped so. For now, all she could do was sit in the chair in front of his desk with her hands folded in her lap as she waited for him to join her.

Comments

[neverdanced]

Life was as normal for Steve as it was capable of being. He'd been back on the job for several years now, and the months he was supposedly deathly ill were long forgotten to everyone he worked with. For that, he was glad. He put a ton of effort into still seeming human. His aversion to sunlight was written off as a result to a weak constitution, a long term side effect of medication, whatever. If anything about Steve Rogers seemed inhuman to the untrained eye, it was his work ethic.

The firm he worked for was huge enough that he had his own secretary, but he still did most of his own work. Compared to even the lawyers this firm was named after, he put in more hours each week. It was normal for him to stay as late as nine in the evening if there was work to still be done. He didn't like calling it a day until everything he needed done was completed. It wasn't even about the money so much as getting piece of mind.

It was all made easier by Bucky's schedule matching up with his enough that when he had to stay late to finish up, he didn't have to worry about Mavis. Neither of them would leave her alone, but the nights Bucky went into the bar later meant that there wasn't a time constraint in him getting home in time.

All of these factors worked to Steve's advantage; he was as successful as ever and he honestly felt like he was helping people who needed it.

He was returning from his lunch break, which consisted of sitting in one of the breakrooms with an iPad to Skype with his daughter. Mavis had drawn him a picture that she insisted on showing him now; it couldn't wait until he got home. The small girl had him wrapped around her fingers, so of course he couldn't say no. Once he had to go, he'd told her she needed to go take a nap- by which he meant she needed to sleep the next six hours at the least. It wouldn't have surprised him if she'd curled up against Bucky and fallen asleep shortly after. She'd already looked completely exhausted, after all, and it was honestly pushing into the territory for it being extremely late.

Just because Steve had weird sleeping habits didn't mean he wanted Mavis to have the too. That was completely brought on him for insisting on continuing a diurnal career.

After a brief conversation with his secretary, who told him he had a detective waiting on him in his office, Steve opened the door and stepped in. For someone who hadn't officially been in the game a long time, his office was actually quite large, but owed to him after successes with high profile cases. Despite that, it was modest. Apart from the desk, which apart from the necessary things for paperwork and his laptop, bore only a picture frame with a photo of the three of them. To the side was a printer and filing cabinet, and along the walls were bookshelves filled with law journals and other reference things.

What was perhaps most notable to anyone who took the time to look around were the picture frames behind the desk itself. He had his diplomas and licenses hung, much like any other professional would. It was alongside those frames that he had his daughter's artwork hung. There was even a sequential order to it. The drawing styles changed along with her age. From the left to right of the wall, the artwork varied from mere scribbles and attempts at shapes to disproportionate but fleshed out figures with stick fingers to represent the family.

He was just as proud of each and every one of those as he was his own educational and professional accomplishments.

Steve intended to cross the room to introduce himself immediately. Better to get on his side of the desk and shake her hand- his body temperature was warm enough at the moment that it wouldn't be a problem- but he was distracted for a moment. Something felt off in regard to this woman. He didn't know how to explain it. He just knew he felt drawn in some kind of way. It was too strange for him to know how to define it, but it was apparent enough to him that it made him wary.

He would have to mention this to Bucky later, because he couldn't think of anything to explain this that made sense at all.

It would have to wait for later; it was the middle of the day so he couldn't easily run blindly out into the street. Nor was he the type of person to just walk away from a client, detective or otherwise. He did his best appear as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

Once he was behind his desk, he offered his hand. After shaking Anita's, he sat down, scooting the chair to the edge of the desk. "Detective Lockley, right? Steve Rogers. What brings you here today?"

[animator]

Anita had been admiring Mavis' artwork when he entered the office, smiling to herself as she did so. Despite the reason for her visit, she couldn't help but take a moment to appreciate that the man she was about to speak to was a parent. His office looked a great deal like her own office at home, if only in the sense that among things like her diploma and photos she had also hung Sammy's artwork, which was very close to taking over both her office and the fridge. Edward had started scribbling too, finally, and his artwork was displayed proudly beside his brother's.

She was pulled from these thoughts the moment Steve stepped towards her. Something about him made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, and she didn't need to get any closer to figure it out. She met his gaze when he reached out to shake her hand, taking it without hesitation and giving it a firm, confident shake once she did. He was warm, but that didn't change the fact that the power in her was already trying to reach out to him. Vampire.

A vampire lawyer. Huh. Well, she'd seen stranger things. Jean-Claude had run a whole host of businesses back in St. Louis and nobody had ever been the wiser as to his species or identity.

"A pleasure, Mr. Rogers. Thank you for seeing me at such short notice," she told him, reclaiming her hand and helping herself to a seat. She held up her badge for a moment before she continued, just to confirm her identity. Standard protocol on any investigation. "I'm here to inquire after one of your firm's clients -- a Mr. Harold Gaynor."

[neverdanced]

Professionality had to come first; there was no reason to let on Steve's unrelated feelings. Not knowing what any of it meant bothered him, but this wasn't the time or place for it. Apparently, Harold Gaynor was on the agenda, and Steve couldn't find it in him to even look surprised.

Typically it was unethical to read the files on clients that weren't his, but considering Gaynor's reputation and the firm as a whole representing him, Steve had taken the time to read up on him before. He hadn't been impressed with the man at the least, and wasn't too pleased that the firm he worked for willingly represented a man like that. Then again, Steve was a lot pickier over the clients he chose to take on. It always had been that way, and that had only increased after the Stark debacle.

It had kickstarted his career, but the result had also changed his life in a way he never wanted.

He was happy, and still got to have the things he wanted out of life- a family, and his career. But that didn't change the fact that Stark had literally taken his life and left him with the constant battle of trying to hold onto his humanity.

"I'm familiar with his file," Steve admitted, intentionally wording it in a way that would allow the detective to read between the lines if she was adept enough. "What about him?"

[animator]

"Mr. Gaynor has been involved in some questionable activities as of late. Activities that have attracted the attention of the law."

She was careful to take note of his tone, his body language. It was enough to tell her that he wasn't entirely thrilled with what he had seen in Gaynor's file, at the very least.

"There have been several counts of grave desecration." He had contacted another animator before Bert had put her on the job, apparently -- one who had tried the perform the ceremony and failed, but left the grave desecrated all the same. Gaynor's voice had been uncomfortably cold when he spoke of her predecessor failing him. He was clearly a man who didn't like being told 'no' in any fashion.

"We also have reason to believe he may be linked to a missing persons case we've been investigating."

The job he had asked her to do required human sacrifice. Kidnapping? Not only was it probable, but it was entirely likely he already had the "white goat" prepared to be slain, not to mention however many throats had to be cut for those who had come before her to try and raise the damn near ancient zombie he was so fixated on.

[neverdanced]

He knew Gaynor was dirty, downright despicable, but he hadn't imagined that he'd been this low. Perhaps that line of thinking was ironic coming from a vampire, but Steve wasn't typical in that regard either. Either way, grave desecration was extremely disrespectful to both the family and the dead.

Depending upon how this panned out, he might put a word in with the other lawyers on the firm. Hell, he probably would anyway. His name wasn't directly tied to this, but the reputation of the firm at whole was. For now, there was only so much he could do.

He had no objection with assisting the detective, but the issue with that was it ha to fall into his legal limitations. "I'd be more than happy to help you however I can on behalf of Pierce and Robinson, detective." He paused, choosing his words carefully. He wasn't above breaking the rules whenever he saw it fit to, when the cause was more important. But he couldn't compromise anything yet. "Do you have a warrant? If not, I'm sure Judge Matteson will be back from lunch shortly. You could give her a ring."

[animator]

"We're still waiting on one," she told him evenly, doing her best to remain as calm and confident as possible. She had done this sort of thing enough in the past that lying to get the job done no longer bothered her -- she could lie without batting an eye. When it came to things that were more personal, it wasn't quite so easy, but for now, she could be convincing enough.

"It's meant to be issued within the next twenty-four hours, but we're concerned that may be too late. Unfortunately, the red tape involved means that things don't always progress as quickly as we'd like, and there's reason to suspect that Gaynor may act as early as tonight."