[Plot] "Fuck Tha Police."

[Chisaki Watanabe]

Chisaki had given the other two very specific instructions. Colette was to use whatever funds Basil had set aside to find a designer outfit to wear, and Chisaki used her own funds to purchase matching quality suits that were believably working class for her and Chase. They needed to blend in, otherwise those authorities Chase was so concerned about would definitely be coming around purely because of nosey neighbors in one of the richest communities in London.

Chisaki was sitting in the front seat, giving Diego directions to Basil's home. Diego was wearing a matching blazer, but she didn't purchase him any slacks because she didn't have time to customize them to fit his unique legs.

"Let us go over the plan again. Diego, where are you going?"

[Diego Zapata]

"Park the car at the Hyde Park carpark. Wait for instructions," Diego answered, fiddling with the hat he had stuffed his floof into.

[Chisaki Watanabe]

"Correct. Chase?" She asked, quizzing him next.

[Chase Delacroix]

"Watch our six until we get to Mrs. Benson, then take point for the questioning," Chase answered professionally. Though it was increasingly apparent that he didn't like the headspace this was putting him in.

[Diego Zapata]

Diego snorted. "'Watch our six?' 'Take point?' What are you, a..."

Chase shot him an annoyed look.

"Oh, right, that," Diego said.

[Chisaki Watanabe]

"Colette?" She prompted the gelatinous girl, though she had the least to remember.

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette fussed with her purse a bit, the girl dressed in a provocative but very professional outfit with black skirt and tie. Thank goodness she had been a regular human for awhile, she never used to bother former toes, and if she hadn't had some practice there was no way that she could have worn such open heels. At least she wore it well, she'd had half a year of practice of dressing professionally.

"Are you certain zat spending zis much money was necessary?" The woman still wasn't used to the mere concept of spending more money on a pair of shoes than she'd have spent on rent.

[Chisaki Watanabe]

"Colette...." Chisaki admonished lightly, attempting to get her to focus.

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette let out a heavy sigh through her mouth. "Right. I am to proceed directly to Madame Benson's home while... looking ze part." The girl straightened her back, raised her head, and half-lidded her eyes - she was trying to adopt many of the mannerisms she had noticed in the woman and others like her.

[Chisaki Watanabe]

"Yes. Perfect. Diego, it's right up here. Drop us off on this corner. Only residents can park on the street here.

We will be going into a... strange little cobblestone area that looks like a street. It is not a street it is... driveway?"

With that, Chisaki jumped out of the car to scope the initial area out and play her role as 'security' as best she knew how. She 'took point' as Chase called it, leading the group down the street like she knew exactly where she was going.

Because she did.

As the trio walked up the street, they'd notice blue circles on some of the homes they passed. A cursory glance would identify them as historic homes. As they passed a modernistic brick building, Chisaki randomly swerved into was indeed seemed like it was a back alley at first by the way the cobblestone just bled out into the street, but at the end of said alley were a series of three rather garish looking garage doors. The placement of the windows on the building almost made it seem like an apartment complex, but there was only one way to get in. A big black door, set back into a deep alcove which obscured it from the casual passerby.

Unbeknownst to Chisaki, Colette recognized it too. Nearly a year ago, it only existed in the mindscape, a door where two women of similar make shared a cigarette together..

[Chase Delacroix]

Chase followed at the back, expertly keeping a lookout with actually appearing to.

"Only thing I see is proof you can't buy taste."

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette remained in the car for a moment, taking it all in. The surroundings just told her of opulence, even if some aspects were "subtle". What that an embassy across the street? She stared out of the car window up at the place and muttered softly to herself. "It was a great big white elephant of a place. Ze kind crazy movie people built in ze crazy twenties. A neglected house gets an unhappy look. Zis one had it in spades…"

The pink woman collected herself and, with the door opened for her, stepped out of the back seat with a clacking of heels. She paused for only a brief moment to resituate her purse before she proceeded straight ahead down the cobblestone "alleyway" and toward the white mansion. She didn't once look back at her companions, each step directly in front of the other, and her mouth not showing even a hint that they'd ever shown the slightest signs of a smile.

[Narrator]

As smoothly as if they themselves lived there, Chisaki opened the door, and held up a keyfob to re-enable the security system once everyone was inside.

The trio found themselves standing in what must have constituted as a foyer. To their left was a dining room with ample natural light and a table that sat ten people. Each chair at the table was plush enough to pass as an armchair. The wood was a brushed gold colour, the upholstery white and silver. One could imagine a little Basil wasn't exactly sitting in here and finger painting at the table.

To their right, what some British called 'the lounge', but other anglophones might call a living room. The decor in this room was sparse, but all of it made a 'less is more' statement. There were no electronics to be seen, though Colette might pass a guess at some being hidden in one of the ornate cabinets not unlike their own. The seating was a plush, deep blue chesterfield style sectional, the pieces of which were organized in two semi circles to allow for visitors to be facing one another. In between them was a slightly taller than normal coffee table, likely meant for sharing tea, snacks, alcoholic beverages or all of the above. But there was something else that would catch Colette's eye.

Covered in a large white sheet and taking over the entire corner of the room was a Steinway model D. A hulking beast of an instrument compared to the upright in the music room, the piano was facing in such a way as to allow it's musician the most light to read by and facing the windows so the seated player could watch the neighbors go by on the street. Judging by the accumulated dust on the sheet, it had to be Basil's.

Throughout all the rooms was the same colour of dark mahogany hard wood flooring. Perhaps the Mrs had better taste than the Mr.

[Chase Delacroix]

Chase had to calm his breathing as a flash of memory brought him back to Madripoor. Back to the lavishly decorated home of one of his assignments. Back to the blood dripping from his blade as he...

Keep it together Chase. This is not the time for getting wrapped up in misplaced guilt.

[Colette Rosenhof]

At one time Colette would have marveled at the sheer vastness of the place, the prominent wealth on display in what was visible, and what wasn't. But today she was filled with different emotions. Amit and Esther's home suggested wealth, obviously, but it also had elements of warmth - of being a home. This felt more like a museum, a temple to money. She looked at the covered piano and wondered to herself when was the last time Basil had even set foot in this place.

Not recently. Certainly not today. And reminded of that fact she stepped forward, her heels echoing with every step as she ventured deeper into the lion's den. Was she scared? Oh she was terrified. But she was more terrified of the possible truths than of any harm that Mrs. Benson might bring down upon her. She had no bones to break, after all; and insults, she had heard them all before.

[Narrator]

Unfortunately for the intruders, the sound of heels clicking attracted someone.

"Mrs.Benson, would you like me to make up the second guest room for your parents?" A feminine voice called out as footsteps made it's way towards them.

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette gave a nervous look to Chisaki. This was one contingency she hadn't mentally prepared herself for.

[Narrator]

Chisaki didn't have time to respond before the woman entered the room. A middle aged woman of average height with a bottom heavy frame, dark hair and brown eyes was staring at them in complete surprise. Colette would think her familiar, but she'd definitely never met her before.

She was almost too attractive to be a believable house-maid, but the middleclass clothes and the sensible shoes confirmed she must have been.

"DIOS MIO!" She called out is surprise.

[Colette Rosenhof]

To her credit, Colette didn't let out a scream or jump at the woman's reaction. Maybe she was too deep into the role, or maybe she'd just gotten so used to that sort of treatment in the time she'd been "public". Either way, she played it off as though she barely noticed it, turning to look at the woman with an air of indifference.

"Good afternoon. I take it zat Jessica is not in at ze moment? Tsk, of course not, she would forget...." She feigned annoyance before glancing ad the slender watch on her gloved wrist.

"Are you expecting her to soon return?"

[Narrator]

"She is... here...." The woman replied. As she shifted, Chase would notice something weighty but box shaped in the pocket of her half apron.

Likely, a cell phone.

[Chase Delacroix]

Chase tensed imperceptibly just in case it wasn't a phone. Also, because he had to subdue a servant in the mansion in Madripoor. She had been lucky that he had been ordered to leave as small a footprint as possible.

"I hope we don't have a problem. Mutatiphobia is hardly becoming for household staff. At least, in this city," he said evenly, gambling on her having at least some fear of appearing bigoted.

[Narrator]

"I fed and cleaned up after one of you for nearly 17 years. Do not think you can play that card with me boy." She replied sternly in a light italian accent as her hand more casually slipped into her apron towards the square object. She apparently felt less threatened by their presence once they showed they posed no hostility towards her.

[Colette Rosenhof]

"Please excuse ze boy, madame;" Colette said with a hint of a smile, taking some tiny pleasure in Chase's talking down to - just a smidgen. It gave her something to work with. "He is in my employ for several skills, but manners is not one of zem." She nodded toward the phone in the woman's hand. "Please tell Madame Benson zat Basil's fiancée Madame Rosenhof has arrived, as she requested, Madam..."

Colette gave pause and looked at the woman a little more closely. "I am sorry, but you look familiar. Your face, you are... a relation of Basil's friend Mia, yes? An older sister perhaps?"

[Narrator]

"Her mother." She replied, looking at the group skeptically now that they'd identified themselves as she pulled out her cellphone and called Jessica. There was an awkwardly long pause as the phone rang on speaker, but after two rounds Jessica picked up.

"Yes Theresa?"

"The latest in the revolving door of tarts your boy got prick drunk is here. She's broken in with... her friends?" She said, seemingly asking Chase and Chisaki how they fit into this picture.

You want me to call the police?"

[Chase Delacroix]

"Tell her we know where her son is."

They had been caught, so they might as well announce the reason they were there. Though he felt not being entirely honest about how much they know was worth the risk of being wrong.

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette looked legitimately offended. "Well, zat was uncalled for. And considering what I have learned about your daughter, a bit of zrowing stones in glass houses."

[Narrator]

"Oh, lovely. Shall I have Theresa escort you out then? I can't imagine what else we'd have to talk about besides my son." Jessica replied through speaker phone to Chase's vague threat.


Theresa rolled her eyes but was letting her mistress do the talking for the moment.

"Say what you will about Mia De Luca, but she at least knows how to keep the upper hand, Colette Astrid Madeleiene Rosenhof." She added to the girls protestations about the insult. For her part, Theresa wore sort of a wry smirk, her eyebrows arching in unison.

[Chase Delacroix]

"So you don't want to talk about him being held against his will?"

[Narrator]

"Well that rather depends. Have you evidence that he actually is and this isn't one of his perverse games that he's drug you all into?

His father loved those."

[Colette Rosenhof]

"Well, we have ze fact zat he left us clues to show us zat zings were not on ze... how you say, up and up? Like signing his own signature incorrectly?" Colette was having trouble keeping herself together, and it was starting to show in both her tone and her body language.

"His fazer has not been a part of his life since he was a child, but after having visited boz households I can safely say he would have been a better influence zan what Basil was offered here. At least Monsieur Spencer was a more gracious host, even when we arrived uninvited AND unexpected; ze latter of which you cannot claim."

[Narrator]

"To be fair, I was definitely expecting you, but you probably didn't break into his house either. And I feel relatively comfortable saying that because the fact you're standing in my living room giving me a lecture through my house-staff's cellphone supports the idea that his blade harpy didn't slice you into sashimi for unlawful entry."

After a pause, she added -

"make them drinks Theresa, and then send them up to the terrace.

Oh and have them bring a bottle of something for me? That would be lovely."

[Chisaki Watanabe]

Chisaki had been incredibly still and quiet through most of the conversation, looking over their surroundings.

But the 'blade harpy' comment set her into the giggles, and the little unassuming girl shook visibly with laughter as she tried to re-compose herself.

[Chase Delacroix]

Chase gave Chisaki a questioning look but didn't say anything. Granted, the description was accurate.

[Colette Rosenhof]

"... it is difficult to cut a liquid." Colette softly commented, but didn't want to argue the point. She didn't want to say anything that delayed them speaking face to face.

"A clover club, s'il vous plait, Zeresa." Colette said coldly, before looking to her "bodyguards", one serious and the other giggly. "... and for you?"

[Chase Delacroix]

"Nothing, thanks," Chase said. He didn't really drink alcohol often and wasn't thirsty anyway.

[Chisaki Watanabe]

"Do you have any lemonade?" Chisaki asked. "I would like some lemonade. That sounds yummy."

[Narrator]

Theresa rolled her eyes at the requests, but fulfilled them anyways. She left the group alone for a moment while she went and fetched all the things she was asked to.

It gave them a moment to strategize, or perhaps just collect their tempers in some cases.

[Chase Delacroix]

"Well, that plan went off-script fast. But it definitely could've gone a lot worse."

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette closed her eyes and rubbed her temples, despite not having the latter - or any blood to have a high pressure.

"I do not know how much longer I can put up wiz all of zis. I feel as zough I am going to snap at any moment."

[Chisaki Watanabe]

"Patience Colette. We are doing this for Basil. If you lose your cool now, we may risk finding him again."