Case No. 20
BARISTA: AUDITOR
CAFE: ALL
DATE: EARLY FEBRUARY
RECEIPT ID: RQM-01
Herbs and chalk, jazz wafting in from all corners, dim candlelight—ah, it is good to be back in New Orleans. Not that I ever considered New Oreleans "home," though I did spend many years here keeping the customers in check. It's quite an eccentric city, no? More problems than I could ever count and all precociously balanced between the Old Voodoo Families—and the New; well, them, and now the Cafe and Diner: Requiem. Fourth or fifth oldest of the Cafes… depending on how you look at it. Sister Cafe to Midnight and holder of the ever karmically conundrumic Cane of Fate.
I'll be staying here awhile. While it is true Jack wishes for me to be a bit of everywhere, no one can ever truly be in more than one place at a time… Right? Right. So, Requiem will have to be my "base of operations," until their Lake Pontchartrain situation has been dealt with. From my understanding, the Lake has recently gone from dormant to active. More than active… It's dancing, swaying, swinging to a beat otherwise unheard. Some sinister subsonic jazz tune coming from who knows where. And that is what I am here to help with. But first, I need to get reacquainted with the baristas and the owner of Requiem, Mr. Felix Blackwood.
Ah, Felix.
If there is one bright side to being tethered to a specific Cafe for a set duration it would be that I may finally get to know Felix Blackwood better. I knew him in another time and another place, but back then there was a… Distance… Between us. Yes. "Distance." That sounds more diplomatic than outright animosity, wouldn't you agree? But now? No such acrimony remains between us. At least, I would hope not.
Caffeinated Report: C-RQM-02
"East of Eden, The Pearl, ??????? ???"
Apocrypha Trivia | 4 Words
Caffeinated Report: CD-RQM-03
"Between Aconitum and Absinthium."
Research | 2 Words
Caffeinated Report: C-TBC-01
"Sublingual salary."
Tradition Trivia | 1 Word
Caffeinated Report: C-TBC-02
"With mixed results: Arguable Bran."
Fruit Trivia | 1 Word
Caffeinated Report: C-TBC-03
"a tIssue Issue."
Herbal Trivia | 1 Word
Caffeinated Report: CD-THC-01
"I
see,
certainly
thee."
Cipher | 1 Word
BARISTA: AUDITOR
CAFE: ALL
DATE: EARLY FEBRUARY
RECEIPT ID: RQM-04
Ultramarine.
The color of lapis lazuli. Blue and gold. Hm…
Well, I would say that the picture is now somewhat complete. A singer, a club, and a cursed flame of stasis. A fire that burns straight to the core of nostalgia of a time long since passed. Ms. Sandiego still slumbers beneath the Lake though we now can see that she slumbered there before all this came to be… And that is how she might yet wake up. But, what good is waking up without a cup of the Cafe and Diner's finest in her hands?
And the singer at the heart of La Belle Pleureuse, that's the key to all of this. I've been doing my own digging and I think I've uncovered just who our mystery singer is, of course, I couldn't have done it without Ichabod, Aelan, and Jade's excellent field work. This vile singer is none other than Nico "Nickles" Costigan. A man who has sung for New Orleans for decades… and now his song has reached new depths it would seem. Whether he sings for Ms. Sandiego willingly or not… That mystery still remains.
As for what the Cafe and Diner: Requiem needs to do next? Well, we need to book a reservation at La Belle Pleureuse. I can't imagine Asmi would care one way or another how we go about doing that… And besides, it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission in cases such as these. And, to be quite frank, I've never liked the Death's Door clubs operating in the same regions as the Cafe and Diners… So if La Belle Pleureuse ends up in a heap of rubble, oh well… Better for our business, anyhow.