Fic: Adventures in the Bad Green Apple: Blood for a Bauble - Chapter 5 (Wicked)
Fandom: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Disclaimer: Wicked (c) Gregory Maguire.
Rating: PG-13, whole fic PG-13/R.
Summary: In a slightly different Oz, Elphaba Thropp ekes out her living as a bitter private eye in the Emerald City, the bad green apple of Oz, where rain rarely lets up, crime runs rampant, and sensuous socialites wrap themselves in cigarette smoke.
Chapters: Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 / 12
Adventures in the Bad Green Apple: Blood for a Bauble
Chapter 5.
"Shall I tell His Highness that you are busy, sir?" said the butler calmly.
"Lurline preserve us," Boq cried out, "no, Taffington! I will meet him in the library."
"Are you friends with the Winkie Prince?" Glinda said incredulously, her blue eyes widening in surprise.
"No, which is all the more reason I don't want to keep him waiting. Please." Boq held the door for them and then hurried on to lead them down the paneled hallway.
Elphaba's belly felt cold with anticipation. As Boq's back was turned, Glinda touched her hand, brushing her fingertips across her wrist, leaving Elphaba in a turmoil. She closed her fingers around Glinda's for a second before letting go, and though she didn't look at her directly, could sense Glinda stand up straighter, could imagine her pleased smile. It had been a dumb thing to have done. Elphaba hurried on to walk besides Boq, her errant hands thrust deep inside her coat pockets, her hat drawn low over her eyes.
She remembered the last time she'd seen the Winkie Prince. They had not parted on bad terms, much the worse - two broken hearts and no-one to blame but a damned incompatibility of temper and responsibility. He had been beautiful and gentle, trapped by family obligations that ran deeper than hers ever had - she, unable to stop living a life so violent and rotten it ruined every person and every thing it touched. They'd said their goodbyes among ashes, her arms burned pink, his side scarred by bullets, and two of his countrymen in the Wizard's prison. She almost wished he'd shouted and slapped her, or displayed that icy politeness he could summon on occasion - it would make things easier now. Instead, she was left with the memory of his last kiss.
They found the library empty and waited for a few nervous moments - Elphaba fumbling with her matches with a cigarette between her lips, Glinda perfectly poised but her eyes lowered in uncharacteristic modesty, and Boq playing nervously with the tassels of a blanket thrown over a nearby armchair - before the young master's latest guest entered, handing his cape and hat to the butler at the doorway.
Prince Fiyero cut a handsome figure in his fashionable Emerald City outfit, the style merely accentuated by the desert tribe crest he used to fasten his coat, the gold that glittered at his wrists and ears, and the strange diamond tattoos that ran across his brown face. Glinda looked at his hands and blushed. Elphaba looked at his eyes, looking for some sign of her old lover, and saw nothing there but the sad, steady gaze of the Winkie Prince, the challenger of the Wizard, the man they called a worm but feared. It was just as well. She took the cigarette up to her lips again and inhaled, blew out smoke to hide her face further.
"Prince Fiyero, I believe you know Miss Glinda Arduenna. This is--"
"I know Miss Thropp well," he said. "And I was told they had both come to see you."
"Word does seem to travel fast these days," said Elphaba.
"I first went looking for Glinda at her apartment. I didn't know you'd be with her until her maid told me you'd stayed the night."
"Wouldn't want anything happening to my client."
"How considerate."
The detective and the prince stared at each other in a silence that spoke volumes. Boq looked from one to the other in some confusion. Glinda cleared her throat. "Fiyero, I believe I may owe you an apology," she said, placing herself between the two.
Fiyero broke his gaze from Elphaba. "I hope I'm not so callous as to demand an apology for being rejected..."
"For falsely accusing you," said Glinda quickly. "I believe now I was mistaken in regards to... the issue I called you about yesterday."
Fiyero's mask cracked a fraction and he moved to grasp Glinda by the shoulders. "Did you find your necklace?"
"No," said Glinda sharply and brushed off Fiyero's hands. "Please don't forget yourself. No, the detective and I have come to believe it was taken by someone else and for quite a different reason."
Fiyero's shoulders sagged. Elphaba watched him with interest. His behaviour was beginning to give the lie to everything Glinda had just said. This case seemed to suffer from the worst of maladies - too many damn suspects. Things were starting to click together, though. She still had to figure out was who had the Grimmerald now and where - in other words, though the chain of events had become clearer, she was no closer to getting done what she'd been hired to do.
Master Boq had edged closer to Elphaba during this exchange and now told her in a low voice, "I've made a point of not asking who the bullet was dug out of - yes, I recognized the signs of impact on bone." He just smiled at Elphaba's raised eyebrow. "I expect there were reasons enough, just as there must be a reason for the sister of the Eminent Thropp to be chasing after stolen property in Em City."
"Hush," replied Elphaba in the same low voice. "I'd rather not have that go around."
"Come to think of it, wasn't the green girl in fact the elder sister?"
"Detective," Fiyero called out, "have you any clue as to the necklace's whereabouts? If I could assure the lady by returning them I could consider myself absolved."
"Sorry," said Elphaba, pulling away from Boq. "We've got nothing."
"You've grown worse at your job, then," said the Prince bitterly.
"It's not exactly a cheating husband case," said Elphaba calmly. "I'll get there, though." She took a long drag of her cigarette, holding Fiyero's gaze. "Eventually."
"Heavens, you two are not going to have another meaningful stare-down, are you?" said Glinda impatiently. Elphaba almost laughed; she could imagine Glinda stomping her foot impatiently at them.
"Right. I don't think we'll learn any more here. I thank you for your hospitality and kind assistance, Master Boq. Your Highness, if you have something to tell me, contact my secretary. As for now, I have another, hopefully more fruitful meeting to arrange."
"Wouldn't you like to stay for morning tea?" asked Boq, eagerly but almost automatically. Elphaba didn't fancy the idea of another amateur getting involved, so was meaning to decline as politely as her nature and upbringing allowed when Taffington appeared carrying a letter on a silver plate.
"Excuse me, sir, Your Highness, my ladies. There's an urgent message for Prince Fiyero."
Fiyero took the note and tore it apart without ceremony. He read it, his expression impassive on the surface, but Elphaba detected his twinge of surprise and - was it hope? He then balled up the missive, threw it in the fire and excused himself in a hurry.
"Well! I wonder what that was about," said Glinda.
"I think," said Elphaba, kneeling next to the fire and picking up the singed paper ball with the poker, "that was our first real clue."
-
"..out and just wanted to collapse laughing! The expression on his face when I said I could pay for it!" Tibbett laughed merrily as he walked through the park, joined loosely by hand to his companion, a tall and rather attractive young man with curly black hair. "I mean, I can never afford to go there," he finished, a smile still lingering on his face.
Dappled morning sunlight escaped in glares through the trees as the two men walked. Here was the one place in the whole of the Emerald City where you could begin to pretend there was peace. They stopped by the edge of the Lyeh River which cut through the heart of the city. The Lyeh was said to begin up in the Vinkus mountains at a spring which Lurline herself had blessed before traveling all the way through the otherwise barren land to the city. True or not, no sacred waters were enough to clean up the filth that was the city. It sparkled in the sunlight, though, and kept the shadows at bay, if only for the moment.
"I wish we could afford for you to shop there everyday!" the taller man said, swinging his lover into a hug.
Tibbett giggled again, resting his head on the other man's shoulder. "You don't have to do that! Although I suppose it would be nice not to have to work..."
"You'd deserve it," his lover insisted, stroking Tibbett's light hair through his fingers. "I mean it, I'll make us rich someday. Then I can give you anything you want and everything you need." He placed a kiss to the other's forehead.
"You're already that," Tibbett muttered before reaching up and pressing a firm kiss to welcoming lips.
It was a perfect morning - the sort that rotten green apple of Oz could not long sustain.
-
"Won't you tell me what was in that note?" asked Glinda for the fourth time, her manner steadily losing all semblance of patience. Elphaba had thrown the note back in the fire after reading it. The two of them were sitting in a carriage across from each other, walking being far beneath the dignity of an Arduenna and the neighbourhood, in any case, less than cordial.
"You were telling me about Shiz," Elphaba said, leafing through a copy of Emerald City Daily.
"Oh, who cares about Shiz!" Glinda snapped.
"I do. You said there were several university buildings?"
"Yes, and I never saw the inside of any except those of my own college. Oh, do tell me, Elphaba, please!"
"Did the faculty stay at the same complex?"
"Coming around to the school mistress theory?"
"Maybe," said Elphaba quite seriously, "though there are other fish to fry before then. How was the college guarded?"
"Hardly at all. There was a groundskeeper and of course the staff. There was one gardener who was particularly nosy, always on the lookout for anyone trying to make it to the street across the orchard after hours."
"Really," Elphaba commented dryly. She could well imagine how Glinda had found that out. Though given their late encounter it might be she hadn't needed to escape the all-girls' college after all in order to misbehave. Elphaba felt warmth rise to her cheeks at the memory, so she coughed and looked out the window.
This dame was driving her nuts. It just wasn't the sort of nuts she was used being driven - she had to keep her head straight. Her and lovers didn't work out. She had... Glinda's hand on her leg, fingertips pushed gently along her thigh. She glanced up at Glinda's flushed face, her soft parted lips, and reached out.
Less than ten minutes later when Glinda paid the coachman outside the run-down building that housed Elphaba's office her hand was shaking slightly. If he noticed it or her flush, or could tell there was an odd expression on Elphaba's green face, he kept it to himself. The women climbed upstairs, both stepping light and lively all the way to the third floor. As soon as the door to the reception room closed behind them Glinda slammed Elphaba against it, pulling her head down to mash their lips together.
Elphaba's fingers entwined in golden hair. She cradled Glinda's head and opened her lips more gently but no less eagerly, a touch that had Glinda mewling in need. She yanked Elphaba's trenchcoat off her shoulders and wrenched the waistcoat open to press her hand against the soft mound of Elphaba's breast. Elphaba's breath caught, and her body shivered with wonderful anticipation, and ground against Glinda, who accepted her, melted into her, panting with desire.
"You have a cot?" Glinda managed between kisses. Elphaba nodded wordlessly, picked Glinda up easily and carried her, kissing her all the time, through the door into the office proper. They tumbled into the desk. Elphaba made to go for the cot but Glinda pulled her savagely back and onto her, between her legs. The world was spinning, the desk squeaked under their weight, Glinda reached for Elphaba's shirt buttons, and the door slammed open in the reception room.
Elphaba's head snapped up. "Shit!" She tore herself off Glinda so fast she hit the filing cabinet and a cardboard box of old case files tumbled and crashed on her and on the floor, narrowly missing the flower vase Tibbett had installed just the day before, and spread sensitive material across the floor. Glinda let out something that in a less fine lady might have been described as a howl of frustration.
The door to the office was still half open, and it was now slammed wide open by a blonde young man with a small, dapper gun in his hand. "Not again, you--!" His eyes widened as he saw Glinda on the desk, her skirt being hastily smoothed over her recently crossed knees, a murderous look on her face.
"Whoever you are, you had better leave now," Glinda hissed.
"No, no, Tibbs, it's fine," said Elphaba wearily, stepping into the light from behind the filing cabinet, still straightening her tie. "Sorry to startle you."
"I don't believe it!" Glinda yowled. "You are not human!"
"Glin- Miss Arduenna, this is Mr Tibbett, my secretary. Tibbett, my client, Miss Glinda Arduenna."
"Is she now?" said Tibbett, whose eyes had started to sparkle with laughter.
"And who is your friend?" said Elphaba, glancing sharply at the reception room.
A happy smile spread on Tibbett's face. "I've been wanting you to meet my perfect man. Crope?"
"Crope?" said Elphaba and Glinda in unison.
The shadow that had hovered in the reception room appeared in the doorway hesitantly. Glinda got up hastily. "Crope, what are you doing here?"
"I might ask you the same question," Crope replied, stepping through the doorway and into the office. He took in Glinda's mussed clothes with raised eyebrows. "But if you're busy then I can..."
"Please. Do." Glinda, having gotten over the initial shock had remembered what she'd been up to just a moment ago "Just for maybe half an hour." She paused, glancing down at the desk. "Maybe fifty minutes?" The smile was there, it was definitely a smile, but the words were more than a little forced.
"It's fine," Elphaba said waving her hand. "In fact, Crope, I've been meaning to talk to you."
"You have?" Crope asked warily, feeling suddenly like a very small mouse talking to a very hungry cat. The door behind him was slammed shut, locking with a resounding click. Sometimes, Elphaba mused, a cheap course in sorcery had its benefits.
"Elphaba, what are you doing?" Glinda asked, confused. "I keep telling you, Crope here isn't a suspect." Crope nodded, swallowing as Elphaba came closer.
"Now look here, I won't have you threatening him!" Tibbett called, moving between the two of them. "It's not fair, Elphaba! You can get away with treating me like dirt, but not him, you hear?" Normally cheerful light grey eyes now sparked with anger as Tibbett held his ground. "I love him and I won't let you bully him!"
Elphaba blinked, slightly shocked at her normally mild-mannered secretary. Sure he could get a bit tetchy about the money - but accuse her of bullying? She shook her head. "If the two of you would listen for a second then maybe I could do my job," she said coldly. "You see, I have reason to believe that our friend here may not be as innocent as you two have already decided to believe."
All eyes turned to the dark-haired man - Glinda confused, Tibbett's anger now tinged with uncertainty, and Elphaba steady. A breeze blew in, billowing the newly fitted curtains.
"I don't know what your talking about. Tibbs, what's going on?" Crope looked nervously to his lover.
"What's going on," Elphaba cut in before Tibbett could reply, "is that I have reason to believe that you know exactly what's going on - with my current case. Where were you the night of the theft of Miss Arduenna's necklace?" she asked quickly, resisting the urge to roll her eyes at Glinda's indignant gasp.
"I was with her when she found it was missing - I comforted her. I'm her friend, for Lurline's sake. Then she asked me to find a detective and well, I thought with a name like Thropp you were bound to be good..." He trailed off, trying to avoid Glinda's eyes.
"You see, I found something interesting after an inspection of Miss Arduenna's rooms," Elphaba said in a casual tone, but her eyes were deadly serious. "There was no forced entry, no broken lock on the jewel box. Whoever took the pretty must have been a regular guest in the rooms." She paused and began walking over to Glinda.
"Can you confirm, Miss, that you found the jewel missing on the same night that Crope visited your rooms?" Elphaba asked, trying to ignore her current proximity to the other woman. What was that damn perfume she was wearing? It smelled so bloody good!
"Well, yes. We were talking, then I went to get out some new earrings of mine to show him and I found that it was gone," Glinda said thoughtfully, twining a strand of hair between her fingers. "But I must say, Elphaba, this does all seem a bit..." But Elphaba had moved away and back to Crope.
"So, Mr Crope, you used to work at the museum were the Grimmerald was kept?" she asked, ignoring Tibbett's cry of protest.
"Yes. I was very fond of that exhibit," Crope replied through gritted teeth.
"Then it must have been horrible for you when it went missing," Elphaba said, not missing a beat.
"I was unaware that it had. If that is so then it is a sorry case indeed." Crope's eyes were level and his hands steady.
"Really? Because interestingly enough the jewel in our stolen bauble bears a remarkable resemblance to the Grimmerald," Elphaba said, still casually, but now the mood felt anything but.
"I hadn't noticed," Crope replied icily, his fists clenched, "and frankly I fail to see what this has to do with me."
"It believe that it has everything to do with you, Mr Crope, in fact." Her voice was raised now, the light from the oil lamps casting her sharp features into frightening clarity. "I believe that you took my client's jewel whilst you were at her home and then kept it hidden on you as the discovery was made. I believe you robbed your friend."
Disclaimer: Wicked (c) Gregory Maguire.
Rating: PG-13, whole fic PG-13/R.
Summary: In a slightly different Oz, Elphaba Thropp ekes out her living as a bitter private eye in the Emerald City, the bad green apple of Oz, where rain rarely lets up, crime runs rampant, and sensuous socialites wrap themselves in cigarette smoke.
Chapters: Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 / 12
Adventures in the Bad Green Apple: Blood for a Bauble
Chapter 5.
"Shall I tell His Highness that you are busy, sir?" said the butler calmly.
"Lurline preserve us," Boq cried out, "no, Taffington! I will meet him in the library."
"Are you friends with the Winkie Prince?" Glinda said incredulously, her blue eyes widening in surprise.
"No, which is all the more reason I don't want to keep him waiting. Please." Boq held the door for them and then hurried on to lead them down the paneled hallway.
Elphaba's belly felt cold with anticipation. As Boq's back was turned, Glinda touched her hand, brushing her fingertips across her wrist, leaving Elphaba in a turmoil. She closed her fingers around Glinda's for a second before letting go, and though she didn't look at her directly, could sense Glinda stand up straighter, could imagine her pleased smile. It had been a dumb thing to have done. Elphaba hurried on to walk besides Boq, her errant hands thrust deep inside her coat pockets, her hat drawn low over her eyes.
She remembered the last time she'd seen the Winkie Prince. They had not parted on bad terms, much the worse - two broken hearts and no-one to blame but a damned incompatibility of temper and responsibility. He had been beautiful and gentle, trapped by family obligations that ran deeper than hers ever had - she, unable to stop living a life so violent and rotten it ruined every person and every thing it touched. They'd said their goodbyes among ashes, her arms burned pink, his side scarred by bullets, and two of his countrymen in the Wizard's prison. She almost wished he'd shouted and slapped her, or displayed that icy politeness he could summon on occasion - it would make things easier now. Instead, she was left with the memory of his last kiss.
They found the library empty and waited for a few nervous moments - Elphaba fumbling with her matches with a cigarette between her lips, Glinda perfectly poised but her eyes lowered in uncharacteristic modesty, and Boq playing nervously with the tassels of a blanket thrown over a nearby armchair - before the young master's latest guest entered, handing his cape and hat to the butler at the doorway.
Prince Fiyero cut a handsome figure in his fashionable Emerald City outfit, the style merely accentuated by the desert tribe crest he used to fasten his coat, the gold that glittered at his wrists and ears, and the strange diamond tattoos that ran across his brown face. Glinda looked at his hands and blushed. Elphaba looked at his eyes, looking for some sign of her old lover, and saw nothing there but the sad, steady gaze of the Winkie Prince, the challenger of the Wizard, the man they called a worm but feared. It was just as well. She took the cigarette up to her lips again and inhaled, blew out smoke to hide her face further.
"Prince Fiyero, I believe you know Miss Glinda Arduenna. This is--"
"I know Miss Thropp well," he said. "And I was told they had both come to see you."
"Word does seem to travel fast these days," said Elphaba.
"I first went looking for Glinda at her apartment. I didn't know you'd be with her until her maid told me you'd stayed the night."
"Wouldn't want anything happening to my client."
"How considerate."
The detective and the prince stared at each other in a silence that spoke volumes. Boq looked from one to the other in some confusion. Glinda cleared her throat. "Fiyero, I believe I may owe you an apology," she said, placing herself between the two.
Fiyero broke his gaze from Elphaba. "I hope I'm not so callous as to demand an apology for being rejected..."
"For falsely accusing you," said Glinda quickly. "I believe now I was mistaken in regards to... the issue I called you about yesterday."
Fiyero's mask cracked a fraction and he moved to grasp Glinda by the shoulders. "Did you find your necklace?"
"No," said Glinda sharply and brushed off Fiyero's hands. "Please don't forget yourself. No, the detective and I have come to believe it was taken by someone else and for quite a different reason."
Fiyero's shoulders sagged. Elphaba watched him with interest. His behaviour was beginning to give the lie to everything Glinda had just said. This case seemed to suffer from the worst of maladies - too many damn suspects. Things were starting to click together, though. She still had to figure out was who had the Grimmerald now and where - in other words, though the chain of events had become clearer, she was no closer to getting done what she'd been hired to do.
Master Boq had edged closer to Elphaba during this exchange and now told her in a low voice, "I've made a point of not asking who the bullet was dug out of - yes, I recognized the signs of impact on bone." He just smiled at Elphaba's raised eyebrow. "I expect there were reasons enough, just as there must be a reason for the sister of the Eminent Thropp to be chasing after stolen property in Em City."
"Hush," replied Elphaba in the same low voice. "I'd rather not have that go around."
"Come to think of it, wasn't the green girl in fact the elder sister?"
"Detective," Fiyero called out, "have you any clue as to the necklace's whereabouts? If I could assure the lady by returning them I could consider myself absolved."
"Sorry," said Elphaba, pulling away from Boq. "We've got nothing."
"You've grown worse at your job, then," said the Prince bitterly.
"It's not exactly a cheating husband case," said Elphaba calmly. "I'll get there, though." She took a long drag of her cigarette, holding Fiyero's gaze. "Eventually."
"Heavens, you two are not going to have another meaningful stare-down, are you?" said Glinda impatiently. Elphaba almost laughed; she could imagine Glinda stomping her foot impatiently at them.
"Right. I don't think we'll learn any more here. I thank you for your hospitality and kind assistance, Master Boq. Your Highness, if you have something to tell me, contact my secretary. As for now, I have another, hopefully more fruitful meeting to arrange."
"Wouldn't you like to stay for morning tea?" asked Boq, eagerly but almost automatically. Elphaba didn't fancy the idea of another amateur getting involved, so was meaning to decline as politely as her nature and upbringing allowed when Taffington appeared carrying a letter on a silver plate.
"Excuse me, sir, Your Highness, my ladies. There's an urgent message for Prince Fiyero."
Fiyero took the note and tore it apart without ceremony. He read it, his expression impassive on the surface, but Elphaba detected his twinge of surprise and - was it hope? He then balled up the missive, threw it in the fire and excused himself in a hurry.
"Well! I wonder what that was about," said Glinda.
"I think," said Elphaba, kneeling next to the fire and picking up the singed paper ball with the poker, "that was our first real clue."
-
"..out and just wanted to collapse laughing! The expression on his face when I said I could pay for it!" Tibbett laughed merrily as he walked through the park, joined loosely by hand to his companion, a tall and rather attractive young man with curly black hair. "I mean, I can never afford to go there," he finished, a smile still lingering on his face.
Dappled morning sunlight escaped in glares through the trees as the two men walked. Here was the one place in the whole of the Emerald City where you could begin to pretend there was peace. They stopped by the edge of the Lyeh River which cut through the heart of the city. The Lyeh was said to begin up in the Vinkus mountains at a spring which Lurline herself had blessed before traveling all the way through the otherwise barren land to the city. True or not, no sacred waters were enough to clean up the filth that was the city. It sparkled in the sunlight, though, and kept the shadows at bay, if only for the moment.
"I wish we could afford for you to shop there everyday!" the taller man said, swinging his lover into a hug.
Tibbett giggled again, resting his head on the other man's shoulder. "You don't have to do that! Although I suppose it would be nice not to have to work..."
"You'd deserve it," his lover insisted, stroking Tibbett's light hair through his fingers. "I mean it, I'll make us rich someday. Then I can give you anything you want and everything you need." He placed a kiss to the other's forehead.
"You're already that," Tibbett muttered before reaching up and pressing a firm kiss to welcoming lips.
It was a perfect morning - the sort that rotten green apple of Oz could not long sustain.
-
"Won't you tell me what was in that note?" asked Glinda for the fourth time, her manner steadily losing all semblance of patience. Elphaba had thrown the note back in the fire after reading it. The two of them were sitting in a carriage across from each other, walking being far beneath the dignity of an Arduenna and the neighbourhood, in any case, less than cordial.
"You were telling me about Shiz," Elphaba said, leafing through a copy of Emerald City Daily.
"Oh, who cares about Shiz!" Glinda snapped.
"I do. You said there were several university buildings?"
"Yes, and I never saw the inside of any except those of my own college. Oh, do tell me, Elphaba, please!"
"Did the faculty stay at the same complex?"
"Coming around to the school mistress theory?"
"Maybe," said Elphaba quite seriously, "though there are other fish to fry before then. How was the college guarded?"
"Hardly at all. There was a groundskeeper and of course the staff. There was one gardener who was particularly nosy, always on the lookout for anyone trying to make it to the street across the orchard after hours."
"Really," Elphaba commented dryly. She could well imagine how Glinda had found that out. Though given their late encounter it might be she hadn't needed to escape the all-girls' college after all in order to misbehave. Elphaba felt warmth rise to her cheeks at the memory, so she coughed and looked out the window.
This dame was driving her nuts. It just wasn't the sort of nuts she was used being driven - she had to keep her head straight. Her and lovers didn't work out. She had... Glinda's hand on her leg, fingertips pushed gently along her thigh. She glanced up at Glinda's flushed face, her soft parted lips, and reached out.
Less than ten minutes later when Glinda paid the coachman outside the run-down building that housed Elphaba's office her hand was shaking slightly. If he noticed it or her flush, or could tell there was an odd expression on Elphaba's green face, he kept it to himself. The women climbed upstairs, both stepping light and lively all the way to the third floor. As soon as the door to the reception room closed behind them Glinda slammed Elphaba against it, pulling her head down to mash their lips together.
Elphaba's fingers entwined in golden hair. She cradled Glinda's head and opened her lips more gently but no less eagerly, a touch that had Glinda mewling in need. She yanked Elphaba's trenchcoat off her shoulders and wrenched the waistcoat open to press her hand against the soft mound of Elphaba's breast. Elphaba's breath caught, and her body shivered with wonderful anticipation, and ground against Glinda, who accepted her, melted into her, panting with desire.
"You have a cot?" Glinda managed between kisses. Elphaba nodded wordlessly, picked Glinda up easily and carried her, kissing her all the time, through the door into the office proper. They tumbled into the desk. Elphaba made to go for the cot but Glinda pulled her savagely back and onto her, between her legs. The world was spinning, the desk squeaked under their weight, Glinda reached for Elphaba's shirt buttons, and the door slammed open in the reception room.
Elphaba's head snapped up. "Shit!" She tore herself off Glinda so fast she hit the filing cabinet and a cardboard box of old case files tumbled and crashed on her and on the floor, narrowly missing the flower vase Tibbett had installed just the day before, and spread sensitive material across the floor. Glinda let out something that in a less fine lady might have been described as a howl of frustration.
The door to the office was still half open, and it was now slammed wide open by a blonde young man with a small, dapper gun in his hand. "Not again, you--!" His eyes widened as he saw Glinda on the desk, her skirt being hastily smoothed over her recently crossed knees, a murderous look on her face.
"Whoever you are, you had better leave now," Glinda hissed.
"No, no, Tibbs, it's fine," said Elphaba wearily, stepping into the light from behind the filing cabinet, still straightening her tie. "Sorry to startle you."
"I don't believe it!" Glinda yowled. "You are not human!"
"Glin- Miss Arduenna, this is Mr Tibbett, my secretary. Tibbett, my client, Miss Glinda Arduenna."
"Is she now?" said Tibbett, whose eyes had started to sparkle with laughter.
"And who is your friend?" said Elphaba, glancing sharply at the reception room.
A happy smile spread on Tibbett's face. "I've been wanting you to meet my perfect man. Crope?"
"Crope?" said Elphaba and Glinda in unison.
The shadow that had hovered in the reception room appeared in the doorway hesitantly. Glinda got up hastily. "Crope, what are you doing here?"
"I might ask you the same question," Crope replied, stepping through the doorway and into the office. He took in Glinda's mussed clothes with raised eyebrows. "But if you're busy then I can..."
"Please. Do." Glinda, having gotten over the initial shock had remembered what she'd been up to just a moment ago "Just for maybe half an hour." She paused, glancing down at the desk. "Maybe fifty minutes?" The smile was there, it was definitely a smile, but the words were more than a little forced.
"It's fine," Elphaba said waving her hand. "In fact, Crope, I've been meaning to talk to you."
"You have?" Crope asked warily, feeling suddenly like a very small mouse talking to a very hungry cat. The door behind him was slammed shut, locking with a resounding click. Sometimes, Elphaba mused, a cheap course in sorcery had its benefits.
"Elphaba, what are you doing?" Glinda asked, confused. "I keep telling you, Crope here isn't a suspect." Crope nodded, swallowing as Elphaba came closer.
"Now look here, I won't have you threatening him!" Tibbett called, moving between the two of them. "It's not fair, Elphaba! You can get away with treating me like dirt, but not him, you hear?" Normally cheerful light grey eyes now sparked with anger as Tibbett held his ground. "I love him and I won't let you bully him!"
Elphaba blinked, slightly shocked at her normally mild-mannered secretary. Sure he could get a bit tetchy about the money - but accuse her of bullying? She shook her head. "If the two of you would listen for a second then maybe I could do my job," she said coldly. "You see, I have reason to believe that our friend here may not be as innocent as you two have already decided to believe."
All eyes turned to the dark-haired man - Glinda confused, Tibbett's anger now tinged with uncertainty, and Elphaba steady. A breeze blew in, billowing the newly fitted curtains.
"I don't know what your talking about. Tibbs, what's going on?" Crope looked nervously to his lover.
"What's going on," Elphaba cut in before Tibbett could reply, "is that I have reason to believe that you know exactly what's going on - with my current case. Where were you the night of the theft of Miss Arduenna's necklace?" she asked quickly, resisting the urge to roll her eyes at Glinda's indignant gasp.
"I was with her when she found it was missing - I comforted her. I'm her friend, for Lurline's sake. Then she asked me to find a detective and well, I thought with a name like Thropp you were bound to be good..." He trailed off, trying to avoid Glinda's eyes.
"You see, I found something interesting after an inspection of Miss Arduenna's rooms," Elphaba said in a casual tone, but her eyes were deadly serious. "There was no forced entry, no broken lock on the jewel box. Whoever took the pretty must have been a regular guest in the rooms." She paused and began walking over to Glinda.
"Can you confirm, Miss, that you found the jewel missing on the same night that Crope visited your rooms?" Elphaba asked, trying to ignore her current proximity to the other woman. What was that damn perfume she was wearing? It smelled so bloody good!
"Well, yes. We were talking, then I went to get out some new earrings of mine to show him and I found that it was gone," Glinda said thoughtfully, twining a strand of hair between her fingers. "But I must say, Elphaba, this does all seem a bit..." But Elphaba had moved away and back to Crope.
"So, Mr Crope, you used to work at the museum were the Grimmerald was kept?" she asked, ignoring Tibbett's cry of protest.
"Yes. I was very fond of that exhibit," Crope replied through gritted teeth.
"Then it must have been horrible for you when it went missing," Elphaba said, not missing a beat.
"I was unaware that it had. If that is so then it is a sorry case indeed." Crope's eyes were level and his hands steady.
"Really? Because interestingly enough the jewel in our stolen bauble bears a remarkable resemblance to the Grimmerald," Elphaba said, still casually, but now the mood felt anything but.
"I hadn't noticed," Crope replied icily, his fists clenched, "and frankly I fail to see what this has to do with me."
"It believe that it has everything to do with you, Mr Crope, in fact." Her voice was raised now, the light from the oil lamps casting her sharp features into frightening clarity. "I believe that you took my client's jewel whilst you were at her home and then kept it hidden on you as the discovery was made. I believe you robbed your friend."