OOM: Conversations With Dead People (the second)
It's storming in St. Louis.
The funny thing is, St. Louis looks a lot like Sioux Falls, possibly because Claudia's never been to the former - but there's the Gateway Arch, so it has to be Missouri and not South Dakota, right?
And it's not so much storming as there's a hell of a lot of lightning going around, centered on one building in particular. This isn't the kind of Artfacty thing she really wants to investigate on her own, but it's clearly Artifacty, there's no sign of any of the others, and the building's front door is unlocked, so she opens it--
--To find perfect calm inside, and a guy - thirtysomething, sandy blond hair, kinda cute for an old-timey guy (why does that thought sound familiar?), smirking like the cat that ate the canary - leaning back in a chair, with his feet propped up on a desk. And when Claudia glances out the window, the lightning's completely stopped.
"Oh, dude, that was not a nice trick," she says.
The guy shrugs. "Got your attention, didn't it?"
"Well, yeah, but did you really have to--" She stops short as it hits her that she's seen this guy before, but only in an old file photo. " Jack?"
He grins. "Oh good, you are just as good at this as I thought you would be. Anyway, I won't take up too much of your time, I just need someone to get a message back to Becks."
"Who's... Rebecca?"
Jack rolls his eyes. "Yeah, Becks. Who did you think I meant, Mrs. Frederick?"
"Well, no, it's just... I don't think she's gonna come back. She was pretty clear on that."
"You had any cases of mysterious glass statues lately?"
Claudia frowns. "No. Why?"
"She'll be back, then. She never did like leaving loose ends untied."
That doesn't make much sense, but Claudia's willing to roll with it, at least for now. "I'll take your word for it. What's the message?"
"Tell her I miss her?" Jack's got a hell of a set of puppy eyes. "And that she was right, I should've waited for her to get here before I started trying to work the case. But the thing was getting nasty, and I thought I could handle it."
"I could snark on that, but I probably would've done the same thing."
"Well, we can't all look before we leap." Jack takes his feet off the desk, then says, "Oh, and thanks, by the way. For making sure Becks got the ring."
"Hey, of course, no problem," Claudia says.
She wakes up not long after that, and thinks that at least she's not likely to get blindsided by grief this year. But really, it's no less weird the second time around.