A Little Too Casual
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Previously: The team receives Alexa’s school project.
01:36 PM - Wednesday, November 5, 2014
US Park Police Office, Ft Winfield Scott, The Presidio
Paco loped up the stairs from the lab, a slight skip in his step. After combing the chest area closely, Amanda located a single sequin tucked into the feathered butterfly wings. It matched the streaky ones, but was more blue in color.
“Hey Jeannie — woah, who cleaned up in here?”
“Wasn’t me.” Raj tossed out, his fingers never stopping on the laptop.
“Yeah, I figured.”
“I did it.” Jeannie said from across the room. She was perusing the bulletin boards closely. “The whole table was getting sticky. We need to have some rules about garbage.” She turned to face Paco. “Like, no cups left behind at the end of the day, and all wet garbage goes in the kitchen, that kind of thing. Who knows how long we’ll be in our little war room here, so we need to keep it tidy.”
“I’m down.” Paco said approaching her side of the room. “Look what Amanda found: it wasn’t easy to find, but it was tucked in there sort of deep. It looks bluer than the others for some reason.” He handed her the small plastic bag that held the errant sequin.
“Okay, that’s good, but we still need to figure out a match. Any chance you want to pay a visit to Talbot Briggs with me in a little while?”
“Sure thing. Where’s Mark anyways?”
“He took off before lunch. I think he’s trying to sort out what’s going on with the DOJ. Haven’t heard anything yet.”
“What’s all this here?” Paco gestured to the bulletin board with its new pages tacked in sequence.
“It’s apparently Alexa’s school project — remember the Myth and Modern Culture thing? It’s pretty cool. Definitely thorough. I want to talk to the teacher again and ask a few more questions.” Paco started to read the pages quietly, arms crossed. “Raj — did you see anything in Alexa’s email to Seb?” Jeannie slunk back into her chair at the table.
“Yeah…I found it, but it isn’t much. She just asked if he was coming to Tripp’s party, and wondered who else was coming along. He wrote back and tried to be flirty, but she wrote back and just said “cool!”” Raj said this with a high-pitched girlie voice.
“Hmmm. Like she was leading him on?”
“Nope, just sounded curious. But Seb seems like the type who’d read into it. He’s the kind of guy who needs to know all the girls are chasing him.”
“He is that. So, you think she really was just confirming?” Raj shrugged slightly. “Wonder why she’d want to make sure he and his entourage would be there. I mean, she could probably just assume that.”
“Maybe she had a reason to be friendly?” Raj offered. “Like, catch him off guard a little? See what he’d reveal?”
“Or make it seem like she was opening the door to him again?”
“Yeah, I’d buy it. But who knows what the real reason was — you’re right. She could probably just rightly assume he’d be there, why make an effort to be certain, AND why would you go right to the guy? Why not be finding out through the grapevine, or just posting onto Pr3pSF you know “hey - who’s coming to the party on Friday???” That kind of thing.”
“You’re right — she WAS trying to be friendly. But she didn’t even like him. Why would she do it?”
“That one’s for you to answer.” Jeannie raised her eyebrows at Raj, smiling a little. Paco sighed from the bulletin board.
“What do you think Pac?” Jeannie asked after a long quiet minute.
“It’s weird, you know, this Orpheus thing? I knew about it, you know, from school — everyone learns a little mythology, right? But I didn’t know that much. But this story — we have something like it too. My grandparents and aunties would always tell us about the land of the dead — it was a real place, they said. There were a few painted rocks on our reservation that they said marked the entrance to the land of the dead, I guess like the “underworld”. So the story is kind of the same, except in our story a woman dies and the man follows her into the underworld — she even carries him so he won’t be seen. They go to her family (who are already in the underworld) and they don’t like that he’s still alive, but they put up with it. After a while, they say “no — this isn’t right, he should go back and live his life” and they send both of them back so they can live together since they love each other so much. So the man and woman go home. But the tribe said they’d have three years…but the underworld is a land of opposites, right? So they said years and it was really just three days. The man woke up on the fourth day and the woman was gone again.”
Jeannie tilted her head at him. “Wow, yeah,” she began slowly. “They are kind of the same. I guess that’s why it’s an eternal myth.”
“Archetype. The word you’re looking for is archetype.” Raj quipped. “A recurrent symbol or motif. It’s an archetype. They cross cultures. That’s anthropology — you know, studying different cultures and finding out how they’re the same and how they’re different? Finding archetypes across cultures is anthropology.”
“Okay, remember this morning when you said you weren’t going to be condescending?”
“Sorry…I’m just saying.” Raj added quietly.
“It’s okay. I, for one, am happy to hear the Native Californian version of the story, because I would not have known otherwise, so thank you Paco.” Paco grinned a little, turning back to the bulletin board.
“We’re full of stories. Everyone is — it’s why I like people.”
“It’s why I hate people.” Raj replied. Both Jeannie and Paco looked at him.
“You’re in the wrong line of work, man. People are telling stories all day in law enforcement. Some are true and some are lies, but it’s the stories that we work with.” Paco smiled again. Jeannie knew he couldn’t help it; Paco was one of the most genuinely happy people she’d ever met. “Even you with your codes and things, that’s a kind of story too. Maybe it’s more concrete or scientific, but it’s the same. That whole Pr3pSF site that you’re chasing down? That’s somebody’s story — they made it up. We don’t know why yet, but somebody wants to tell it and they wanted it enough to build a whole complicated website and set booby traps on it. So it’s obviously not just any story.” Raj shrugged again. “So that’s some anthropology for you.”
“Fair play to Paco.” Jeannie giggled. “Should we go?”
The Briggs home at 3425 Washington Street was a stately French-inspired mini chateau in a mix of stone and brick. A sweeping set of stairs spread from the front door, arching outward to a pair of thick hedges flanking each side. Jeannie parked Martha at the curb and left the back window open so Fergus could sit in the car.
“Is he gonna be okay out here?”
“Of course. He loves the car. Besides, who’s going to mess with him?” Fergus’ giant head smiled from the back seat. “There’s nothing of value in this old car. And if there were, Fergus wouldn’t let anyone near it.” The two of them mounted the stairs and Jeannie rang the bell. A chime sounded softly from within, muffled by a large pair of glass and iron doors. Soon, an older woman in a set of navy scrubs with a large cardigan on came to answer the door.
“Hello — I’m Jeannie Hagen from the SFPD, and this is Officer Mayfield from the US Park Police — we’re here to speak with Talbot Briggs? Is she at home?” Both Jeannie and Paco held up their badges to be seen. The woman looked them over silently, and opened the door fully to allow them inside. The house seemed stale, somehow. Like it needed an airing out, even though it smelled like the famous Agraria Bitter Orange potpourri that made Jeannie think of her grandmother. It didn’t smell badly, it was all just still. The large living room across the foyer had windows that glimpsed the tree tops of the Presidio, but the far room was shadowed and dim. “Thank you — do you know —?”
“Marta, who is it?” A middle-aged woman in a pair of slim trousers and cap-toed Chanel flats appeared from a room off of the entry. Her blue eyes were framed by a coiffed bob in an unnatural shade of of auburn. A white turtleneck which looked like cashmere finished her ensemble.
“People to see Tally.” Marta said, gesturing at them.
“Hello — I’m Linda Briggs, Talbot’s mother. What is this about?”
“Hello Mrs Briggs, I’m Jean Hagen from the SFPD and this is my colleague Paco Mayfield of the US Park Police.” Jeannie swallowed, offering a tight smile. Linda Briggs was a demanding presence already. “I’m sure you’ve heard about the death of Alexa Thomas on Friday evening?” The woman’s blue eyes shaded slightly. “We’re just following up on a few things and thought Tally might be able to help us.”
“I thought she already spoke with you on Sunday.”
“Yes, she did, and she was very helpful. These are just some more specific details we’re trying to confirm.” Linda Briggs sighed and shrugged slightly.
“Well, her Cotillion dress was delivered today and she just got home, so I’m sure she’s up there trying it on again,” she gestured to the stairway. “You can go on upstairs if you like, it’s at the end of the hallway on the left. Actually, I’ll take you up.” Linda turned on her heel and made her way to the broad staircase, a large diamond flashing from the hand placed on the bannister. “How is — have you found out what happened to that girl? It’s just so sad. All of the children are devastated.”
“We’re making some progress, although it’s going slowly. We hope to have some answers soon.” Jeannie noticed the faded stairway carpet and the not-quite-fully-polished brass stair rods.
“I see. I’m sure it can’t be good for the school — Academy Prep, I mean.”
“Yes, indeed, they are very concerned and cooperating with everything we need.”
“These kinds of things often have a lot of fallout for everything involved.” Linda explained as she made her way upstairs with a somewhat quick step. “At least Holy Heart keeps the girls in line. I’ve heard some parents complain that Academy is undisciplined, not to mention a little too casual.”
“Ah — I can see that.” Jeannie replied. “I understand it’s a very good education though.” They’d reached the top step and Linda Briggs led them down the hallway. The faded equestrian prints on a classical botanical striped wallpaper seemed staid and old-fashioned. Not to mention lacking in any personality.
“And are you local? Where did you go to school?”
“Yes, I went to Holy Heart until high school and then I went to Xavier.” Linda stopped and looked at Jeannie full in the face, assessing her.
“I see.” Jeannie gave her a dimpled smile. “Here we are — Talbot? Some people are here to see you.” She knocked gently on the door and then opened it. White light broke through from behind the door as it opened, shining into the stodgy hallway. “Talbot? Where are you?”
“I’m in the closet, mother.” Tally called sharply. The room was bright, dressed top to bottom with a rosebud chintz fabric and a pale pink wall-to-wall carpet. The fabric pattern spread from the bed and its pillows to the little pleated lampshades on the light fixtures, up the walls where it picked up a solid vertical stripe in a shade of deep rose. The large windows on the far side looked out north toward Marin, with the same Presidio treetops showing — the whole group draped and valence’d in the same rosebud chintz.
“What a beautiful room.” Jeannie said quietly.
“Isn’t it? I did it over for her when she was in 7th grade, and she loves it.”
“Um, I hate it, actually.” Tally appeared from her closet ensconced in a pair of jeans and a hoodie. Linda’s face pinched slightly. “But I’ll be in college soon enough and I’ll be able to do what I want.” Her mother sighed a little.
“Where’s your dress, darling?” A warning note in the question.
“In the closet, all tucked in.” Tally offered her mother a pissy smile of acquiescence.
“Good. The fitter from de la Renta will be here at the weekend, so we’ll make it perfect.” Tally crossed over to her desk, pulling her backpack up on the chair to unload it.
“Perfect.”
“Alright, please be helpful to Officer Hagen and Officer Mayfield, was it?” Paco nodded. “Do you hear me Talbot?”
“Yes, of course mother. We’re already acquainted, it will be fine.”
“I don’t like that tone of voice, Talbot.” Tally stopped, tilting her head at her mother, challenge in her eyes. “Now, please. Tell them what they need to know so they can go on with their day.” Tally turned up the edges of her mouth in some semblance of agreement. Linda gave Jeannie and Paco a slight nod as she exited, leaving the hallway door open, which Tally immediate moved to slam shut.