The Shamus Austin Shopping Complex

"... Yes. You two live very, very different lives," Jacky agreed, deciding that this, at least, was a point she could agree on. "And, at least from a wellness standpoint, it's certainly nice to enjoy what you do. I wonder if she doesn't get a little carried away, though..." Jacky also privately wondered if Jocelyn got carried away, but didn't mention it. After all, enthusiasm was hardly the worst of Jocelyn's issues as a mall cop. "And yes. As another way of seeing it, it would be most unfortunate if she was programmed to be an intrepid detective and had no aptitude for it." The operator seemed to find that a fitting way to address Jocelyn's point about names, and left it at that.

Jacky, along with Jocelyn, met up with Damson again. Stepping through the shop, she thought it would be wisest to avoid making any contact with whoever Damson was currently seeing to, but decided the opportunity to avoid leaving an impression had pretty much vanished when Jocelyn decided to bring her motorized vehicle inside. She gave the customer a very short nod of apology on behalf of her partner, then hurried into the back room.

Once there, Jacky let out a sigh. She couldn't help but let her eye travel to the camera, noting the lack of anything apparently obscuring it any longer. She quickly glanced away, though, realizing that a prolonged look at it would probably be ill-advised in light of the furtive nature of their current business. She listened to Damson's inquiry, Jocelyn's floundering response, and Sleuth's picking up the slack. "Yes, I agree that it'd be most appropriate if the culprit spoke to you herself. I, for one, think it'll give everyone peace of mind going forward. As to our methods... we took some care to try and protect your identity throughout the investigation. I can say with some confidence that the only parties alerted are those that have no personal relationship with you and no way of spreading any malevolent information that could impact your status at this mall. That is, with the exception of the culprit herself and her acquaintances, which should hopefully become clear in a moment..."

The medical student shifted nervously, removing her glasses and producing a clean, white cloth to wipe them, mostly just to be doing something with her hands. "Some confidence" was probably a strong statement for how she was really feeling, but she did feel they'd done the best they could. There were too many factors against them for them to act as total ghosts in the operation. Taking a mental tally of who'd actually be alerted, she thought they'd done pretty good work.
Hiding in plain sight was a knack that was becoming increasingly useful for Jocelyn's party; the sheer spectacle of her delicately manoeuvring her vehicle through the shop and into the back room was more than enough to prevent the curious customer from taking too good a look at anything beyond Jocelyn and her segway. Inside, the explanations were almost as clunky as this operation, and Damson looked between her two miracle-workers with kit brows and some mild confusion.

"Talk to her... myself? I'm not sure I follow, exactly... Why on earth would I want to...?" A moment after that though, the well-timed answer came, and Damson's PET called for her attention.
"Damson?" It was CurlGurl's voice, as expected, but Jocelyn and Jackie might both note that it was a far cry from the bubbly, excited voice they'd heard earlier in the morning.
"Yes, dear? What is it?"
"Um... Listen..." Damson herself frowned, catching onto the serious tone. She looked up towards the case-solvers for a moment.
"That sounds serious, whatever it is... I'll be with you in a moment ladies and we can finish talking about the case then. If you could just give me a minute or two with my navigator, please?" She gestured towards the door and ushered them both back into the shop again, segway and all, then closed the door on them again.

It was a few more minutes before Damson re-emerged, slightly pink in the cheeks but otherwise looking calm and collected. Similar to her navi, net-side, Damson didn't exactly look pleased, or relieved. Her lips were the thin line of a woman determined to act professionally.

"It seems I've wasted both of your time then, haven't I? Well I hope this means Curly will actually have her mind on the crossword this evening. I wondered why her mind was so far afield yesterday. Now I know. This will take some time to heal up, I expect, but we'll be fine. Thankyou for your help ladies, and I'm sorry for calling you out over something so..." She couldn't seem to find a word to describe what it was exactly, but clearly it was something unpleasant, judging from her tone and expression. She took a long breath and shook it off. "Right, well, I'll be sure to see that you're both well paid for your work here. I'll get it sent through to the GNA shortly, once I've finished with this customer." She paused, then decided that, strange behaviours or not, it would certainly be alright to shake with the odd couple, and extended her hand to each of them in turn.

Jacky and Jocelyn's instruction to Damson, along with Sleuth and Hyde's herding of the perpetrator, soon came together, leading to a meeting between navi and operator. The effect seemed to be the desired one. Jocelyn shook hands with Damson, appreciating having a definite conclusion to her first ever investigation (for whatever unknowable reason, Rodney didn't tend to her assign her to duties like this). "That sounds perfect! Thank you for your candor, Miss Damson," she smiled, enthusiastically gripping Damson's hand with one of her dainty silk gloves. "In the end, preserving justice and peace of mind for the citizenry can never be viewed as a waste of time! That's what I have to say about that!"

"Hm hm hm... Yes, well, it wasn't one for the memoirs, for multiple reasons, but the only true 'waste of time' will be if you and your navi stay upset. There are enough real crimes out there, Miss Damson, that we should be happy when the answers are so neatly wrapped up and harmless as this," Sleuth offered from the PET. "Both of you are at your best when you're happy, so both of you, be happy! If you're having a hard time getting in the right mood, well, both of you now have a handy, portable answer to perking yourselves up now!" she joked, perhaps a bit too loudly.

"Right! Honesty!" Jocelyn laughed along. "It's honesty, right?"

"Well, too much honesty from the common folk and we detectives find ourselves out of jobs! But yes, generally, there's a reason they call it 'the best policy,'" Sleuth nodded.

Jocelyn turned her head back to Jacky and beamed, seeming to project sunniness and warmth throughout the small room (it wouldn't be surprising if her over-sized scooter wasn't projecting a little actual warmth in this confined space). "Especially among friends! Friends like Miss Curly and Miss Damson shouldn't keep secrets from one another either and neither should friends like the two of us... not that you or I have anything to hide!" she giggled, keeping her eyes shut as she began to thumb at her child-like bangs absent-mindedly. It wasn't hard to believe her when she acted that way.

"You didn't do a very good job of hiding much today. That's certainly true, my dear," Sleuth sighed again.

"So we're all done?" Jocelyn asked again, already moving her segway back outside, which was probably a relief for Damson, who might not be able to exit the back room if Jocelyn and her favorite mall cop tool didn't leave the room first.

"Not quite... Please leave me jacked in for just a bit longer while I resolve something on my end," the navi requested quietly, not wanting Damson to be aware of this particular conversation. Of course, she might still be if she watched Curly on her PET, but there was a good chance Curly had taken measures against that, especially considering the navi already had displayed she had the means to hide all of her secrets from her operator up till a short time ago.
Jacky returned her glasses to her face and gave Damson a professional handshake. "You have our gratitude. And please, don't think of your actions as a waste of time. At the time of your decision, you couldn't have anticipated the circumstances surrounding the case. Of course, you'll have your own weight of risk versus reward, but I believe your request for assistance was justified. For our part, we're happy to have helped."

She listened to Jocelyn and Sleuth have their retort, then gave Jocelyn a smile in return. "You have a point, but of course, the two of us aren't friends... we're partners, right?" she said, giving Jocelyn an uncharacteristically friendly pat on the back. She'd intended that to be an especially warm way of congratulating Jocelyn on the good results. "Well," she added with an uncomfortable cough, "... I think we did good work.

"Anyway, we'll be taking our leave, Ms. Damson." She thought back over the events of the day, as her practice was to try and glean and retain lessons wherever she could. "Ah yes..." She gave the camera in the back room one more glance. "I do advise you to take the lessons of today seriously. Today, everything worked out, but there are other ways your privacy and security could be compromised in the future. Taking care can prevent misfortune in the future..." Jacky frowned, unsure of how she could convey the message she was trying to without going into specifics. She didn't really want to make Damson jump at shadows, but the mall security had left quite a bad impression on her. "No need to put too much reliance on security when safety can start with you, right? Well, take from it what you will... We'll get out of your hair." Realizing that might be a taken as a pun when she didn't intend it, the operator cleared her throat and hurried her way out.

Realizing Sleuth still had some business on the Net, and assuming Hyde did as well, the operator slowed her pace once outside the store. Now that her business was over, she was suddenly feeling a wave of energy. She never visited the mall to browse, only with a clear destination in her mind... now that she was here, she was half and half considering browsing around.

Then again, Jocelyn would probably appreciate it if she gave that business to the Gloria Scott instead... well, in actuality, Jocelyn probably wouldn't care.
Jocelyn had been mostly watching in silence as Sleuth and Hyde handled the difficult matter of breaking to Curly that she ought to play it straight with her friends and get them all on the same page. The mall cop smiled in approval when it was all done. "You two are right! There shouldn't be any secrets between friends," she concluded. "After all, what's a secret worth, anyway? I think the world would be a much better place if we all acted honestly with one another," she further resolved, swiping one fist in a gung-ho gesture of committal to naive principals.

"Ha. If only we could all be as innocent as you," Sleuth shrugged with a smirk. "But I do think it will do Curly good in the long run. A more fulfilling relationship without all of the cloak and dagger will certainly do her some good... not to mention that it was simply an inevitability. The others around her are too sharp and she is too... well, I don't want to say dull, especially after what a fool I've made of myself... let's go with 'sharing,'" she decided. "Now, Jocelyn, I believe the right thing to do would be to post and collect our reward from the GNA, while you and Miss Jacky go your separate ways. You should get at least a little work in this afternoon, and besides that, I imagine Jacky feels like she's spent so long in this Shamus Austin mall that she ought to remember the gentleman it was named after."

"Really? Do you know? I've always wanted to meet the real Miss Gloria Scott myself!" Jocelyn gasped. "Wow! Now I'm wishing we hadn't split up earlier..."

Jacky might also be wishing they hadn't, for very different reasons, but it was all over and done now. The student of ill-fortune would probably be happy to be away from mall security of all types for a while following this excursion. "Quickly, Miss Jacky! Get running, before Jocelyn recruits you for help at the mall and asks you to teach Rodney all about Mama's Method," Sleuth laughed. "Oh, but before you go, do be a dear and give me your navi's contact information. Either I'll contact her in the future or she'll contact me... but I do believe it will be the former as opposed to the latter. You can have my calling card too, of course. But even without it, you know where to find me... Jocelyn does tend to stay in one place, after all."

"Quite true," Jocelyn admitted, seeming proud of that fact. "I'm very devoted! The Shamus Austin has been fun and is full of great people, but in the end, there's only one mall- or shopping center- for me!" she chuckled. "In the end, Miss Sleuth, I'm just happy you got a chance to hone your detective skills again. Just a shame you didn't manage to solve Miss Hyde's condition," she sighed.

Sleuth raised her eyebrows and looked up from the PET. "You were paying attention to the whole business with Hyde?"

Jocelyn thumbed at her hair again and beamed absently. "Just a bit! I was just thinking... solving that case would really be a feather in any detective's cap," the operator extolled, seeming as though her mind was deeper in thought than usual.

"... Are you taunting me, Miss Jocelyn? Rest assured, it will be solved in the future and I will be the one to wear the feather!" Sleuth swore. "You two had better run now, or Miss Hyde will face another round of rigorous interrogation."

Either way, Jocelyn broke it off herself, giving her finest, graceful princess wave as she left the shopping center on her motorized transportation.

((Leaving for new thread in Netopia))
Jacky continued idly scanning the shops around as Jocelyn and Sleuth discussed the value of honesty, facing Jocelyn with an absent expression when she was addressed again. "Ah... no, I believe Sleuth only means that as a colorful exaggeration. Whoever Shamus Austin is, I highly doubt he visits this mall regularly..." She had the same feeling about Gloria Scott, but she figured there was no harm in letting Jocelyn hold onto that dream.

The operator didn't smile at Sleuth's joke, feeling a little bit of her previous energy and sudden enthusiasm drain as Sleuth dredged up some bad memories. "Ah, yes, my contact address... I'll transfer it over to you now." Jacky wasn't sure if it was a great idea to give Sleuth and Jocelyn her address. Between the lack of courtesy of one and the lack of common sense of the other, she was half expecting to get odd messages at odd times of the day, but she supposed she'd deal with that when the time came. It probably wouldn't hurt for them to have her address, at least as an emergency contact if Jocelyn got herself into trouble.

The operator did raise an eyebrow at the mention of a mystery involving Hyde. Really, that portion of the day's adventures had mostly skated under her radar. She brought her PET out, finding Hyde in a seemingly reasonable state of mind, and decided to press her luck. "Hyde, did Sleuth come to some sort of a breakthrough on your condition...?"

"Sleuth and I got up to... many things, I'm sure you're at least partially aware," Hyde replied, sighing. "But, I would say she's already had a profound effect on my awareness of my own condition. I would say staying in contact with her would be prudent."

Jacky nodded, making a note to follow up later, but happy to take the advice for the moment. "Well, Ms. Jocelyn... Hyde and I will be in touch, I'm sure. Good work this morning, and may the same good luck follow you the rest of the day." She gave her own petite wave to Jocelyn's...

... Then, Jacky headed straight for the nearest exit. She thought she had the walk back to her vehicle at the other mall's parking lot left in her, and maybe a trip to the shop... after that, she felt the sudden and alarming desire for a nap.

((Leaving thread))
((FXP for this thread has been tallied, and is located in the companion Net Thread, Here.))