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Diaz & Ass.; Monday [10/17].

Despite unexpected stowaways, the school trip had actually been pretty nice and chill, and Rosa could appreciate that, even if she didn't actually get a chance to throw any students overboard. It was so disappointing, really, finding out that this current batch of students were, in fact, all big nerds.

She supposed some of them could have managed to pull off an offense worthy of being toss off a boat without them realizing it, in which case....good for them.

But, for now, it was apparently time to get back to work.

(Playing Solitaire on her computer totally counted as work).

Diaz & Ass. is open!

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Arthur had found this place in the island's directory, only to learn that most of the island was on that trip last week. So here he was, relieved to find the door open, and hobbling inside and removing his hat.

"There is a woman here with long, dark hair, wearing a modern shirt and trousers, and sitting at a desk. She looks strong, and faintly annoyed."

Arthur stepped forward, set his crutches so he could lean on them, and nodded. "Hello. Are you..." Was it Miss or Mrs? "...Diaz?"

Edited 2022-10-18 00:02 (UTC)

There was a small pause, that faintly annoyed turned up just a notch until Rosa remembered she was in the office and that this was, potentially, a job.

From an actual person for a client, how novel.

But it was also her natural habit, when someone asked a question like that, to answer in the negative. If they had to ask...

"She stepped out," she said, lifting her chin, looking the guy up and down. "Who's asking? I'll leave her a note."

"My name is Arthur Lester, ma'am." Arthur nodded politely. "I'm fairly new to this island, and I was hoping to speak with her about a job."

"A job, huh?" Rosa quirked a brow, suddenly wondering what happened to Jones, and half thinking if this guy was serious, maybe that could be his test case.

Didn't she have a plucky Victorian-era intern at one point, too?

"You a detective? Or just misguided by the sign on the window?"

"The only sign I saw is the name of the business," John supplied.

Arthur frowned faintly, confused, but answered the rest of the question. "No, I'm a private detective. For a few years now. I worked in Arkham, largely on missing persons cases."

"Missing persons, huh?" Rosa took another moment to take a measure of the man...including a lingering glance at the cast before looking back at his face with a questioning lift of her brow.

"We get a lot of that around here, she said, "but most of those persons probably prefer to stay missing. But, hey, you're looking for a job? How about giving us an idea of what you bring to the table. Wanna find someone for me?"

"If you mean Mrs. - Miss? - Diaz, I'm beginning to suspect I have already found her," Arthur said wryly. "And I'm not out to find anyone who doesn't want to be found. I'm a detective, not a snitch."

That last line was a very good move, mysterious becasted detective. The approval was almost even noticable on her face.

"What makes you think," her head tilted, "you've found her?"

"Because you ask a lot of rather pointed questions for a secretary," Arthur noted. "You sound as if you're interviewing me for a job, rather than taking a message."

"She hasn't taken any notes, either," John pointed out.

Arthur nodded his thanks for that. "Also, you haven't taken a message."

"Mental notes are a thing," Rosa pointed out. "It's not exactly hard to remember 'someone came in looking for a job'. Just like it shouldn't be that hard to make an educated guess on Miss or Mrs. if I was Diaz."

"I try never to make assumptions about someone's personal life," Arthur said. (Unless they were a cultist, but he doubted that.) "That said, it would almost certainly be 'Miss' if this were where I came from, but I'm learning there are a lot of differences. And if all you needed to know is that I came in for a job, there's no need for all the other questions."

"I don't like to waste her time," Rosa said, with a shrug of her shoulder. "Especially with a detective that tries not to make assumptions. Isn't that a big part of the job?

"Making deductions based on reasoning, yes," Arthur said. "But those should always be susceptible to adjustment based on further information. And making assumptions and acting on them is one thing; offending someone without need is something I try to avoid."

"Often poorly," John muttered.

"You think I'd be offended?" Rosa asked, arching a brow, settling back in her chair with an expectant look.

Arthur shrugged. "If I guessed 'Miss' and you were a 'Mrs', you might be offended that I thought you were unmarriageable. If I guessed 'Mrs' and you were a 'Miss', you might be offended that I thought you weren't capable of being your own person."

He paused and tilted his head. "Although the more I speak to you, the more I think you might find both assumptions equally pointless."

"I take pride in my unmarriagability," Rosa disclosed, as if she hadn't once almost done it and hadn't been living with the same guy for years now.

"But alright," she said, leaning forward again and reaching for a notepad and making a big deal of showing him that she'd grabbed a pen and was writing things down, "I'll let her know you were here. I assume," as if to show just how little issue she had with making assumptions, "you'll want to leave a name and number?"

"She's writing it down, Arthur," John dutifully informed him. "She seems determined for us to see it."

Hm. Equivocal. Still, if that was the way she wanted to do this...

"I'm staying at the hotel for now," he said. "My name is Arthur Lester. And you are, Miss...?"

"Goldfinch," Rosa offered, jotting all that down, then setting down the pen, and leaning back again, but this time with a smile. "Emily Goldfinch. Nice to meet you, Arthur. We'll be in touch."

Maybe.

"Of course. And who did you want me to find for you, Miss Goldfinch?" he asked.

"Detective Diaz, actually," said Rosa, with a nod of allowance that he'd actually gotten that part right. "She should have been back by now, so I'm just getting a little worried, and it seemed like a good opportunity to make sure you really weren't wasting her time."

Instead, she was just going to waste his.

But at least he'd have a good idea of what to expect as an Ass..

Well, it wasn't as though he had anything else to do.

"Absolutely. Please start by telling me everything you can about her - her appearance and habits, where she went when she left here, how you might normally reach her, and so on."

Rosa considered Arthur for a moment and weighed a few options, before she launched in to a thorough, highly professional sort of description fitting not herself, but rather one Amaya Balckstone.

"She probably just went out for coffee and got distracted," she added. "Usually, I just text her, but she's pretty absent-minded at times and forgets her phone. Spends a lot of her time at the blacksmith's shop, though. She's got a lot of knives she likes to keep good and sharp."

"Right." Arthur nodded. "I'll send her back here when I find her, then?"

"Unless she's dead," said Rosa, with a shrug of her shoulder. "We're a detective agency, Mr. Lester, not a morgue."

"Right." Arthur nodded and gave her a tight smile. "If she's died on her way to coffee, I won't bring her back. Would you prefer the body sent to the clinic or the police station?"

"Oh, the police station," said Rosa, without even missing a beat, and with the utmost conviction, "definitely. That would be hilarious."

"I'm not sure the cops would share her sense of humor," John said.

"Right. I'll see what I can do." Arthur nodded. "Good day, Miss Goldfinch."

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Diaz & Ass.; Monday [10/17].

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