Solomon Seal: Summer Bries & Bubba Gum, Part 3

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She looked at me like I was stupid. "Come on. Look at those pictures. We can't fly during the day."

"What then?"

"I've wondered that for a long time," she said sadly. "Ghost?"

"Why would a ghost care who had her picture, and be worried about blackmail? What are they gonna do? Kill her?"

She shrugged. "Shapechanger?" she said weakly. With doubt, she added, "Alien?"

I shook my head. "Mighty slow aging." I perked up, and snapped my finger, pointing at Jeanine. "Goddess! She wants to keep it a secret, because she's afraid of being hounded for the secrets to her immortality!"

Jeanine blew it off with a shake of her head. "No. Cupid? Most of the staff at Holiday, Inc.? That guy from the Secret Service? Nobody bothers them. For that matter: us?"

I looked at her like that was preposterous. "We don't tell people how old we are. And we're not immortal."

She looked a little petulant. "We're longer lived than the average mortal."

I nodded. "Ideally, yes- I'll give you that. Then... what?" I looked back-and-forth across my desk for a few seconds like the answer was going to be in the wood grain. Then I looked back up at Jeanine, and said, "What about Bubba Gum? Why did he bring this to you?"

She rocked a little more, clearly not wanting to say, but she did. "He was on the run."

"Fr--"

"--Don't ask me that!" she snapped. "Solomon Seal, you do not ask me that!"

"But you came to m--"

"--They can make us disappear, Solomon! Us! For real," she said, and she sounded scared. That scared me.

Very calmly, I said, "Jeanine. We're working for each other here, and we did that so we couldn't tell anybody anything. Time to lay it all out- what are we talking about, here? Who is Summer Bries? Who is Bubba Gum? And who was he running from?"

She looked unsure.

"Fairchild! What the heck? You've gone from 'Wow, what a coincidence' to 'They're out to get us!' I'm a vampire that's been around for a bit, and you're a vampire that's survived for centuries. What are you afraid of? Where is Larsen, and why was Bubba Gum running from it? Why did he come to you?"

She rolled her lips between her teeth for a few seconds while she thought of how to tell me. "Bubba was in Witness Protection."

I just looked at her, confused by this new information. "He worked for WITSEC? The pages read like he was a P.I."

Giving me a tight shake of her head, she said, "He was a P.I. He didn't work for WITSEC. He was in Witness Protection."

"And he was placed in Larsen?"

She nodded.

"And Larsen is where?"

She shook her head.

"Come on now."

She shook her head, and shrugged. She wasn't telling.

"Fine, but we're coming back to that. Then what's this got to do with Summer Bries, and a picture of h... Wait a minute. Was she in Witness Protection too?"

Jeanine nodded.

"And she was also in Larsen?"

She nodded again.

I sat there a few seconds, index finger pressed to the black-and-white photo, moving it back-and-forth slightly as I thought. "So, she wasn't worried about this photo, because it shows she can fly. She was worried about it, because it shows her face."

She nodded again.

"Braggodocio tells her he knows who she is, and what she can do," I mused, tapping the photo. "Again, she's not worried about the flying, so... he was telling her that he knew what her testimony could do, and he was threatening to give her up to whoever was looking for her."

Another nod.

"So she went to Bubba Gum- private investigator, friend of the family, who also happens to be in Witness Protection?"

"She knew he was in Witness Protection, and he knew she was too." Jeanine answered.

"She speaks!" I said with surprise.

She just scowled, biting on the tip of a fingernail. Then she winced like she thought she may have said too much.

I threw my hands up in the air, and threw myself against the back of my chair. "Ah, dammit, Fairchild! Help me out here! We're both protected by privilege! Why are we still playing this damned guessing game?!"

Jeanine clasped her hands together at waist level, looked at me wide eyed, and just said, "Guessing game?" Then she looked off to a corner of the ceiling and back to me.

I closed my eyes in frustration for a few seconds, pinched the end of my nose between two fingers, and then rubbed the bottom of it with a knuckle. Sighing, I looked back to Jeanine, who just stood there waiting. She was starting to freak me out, but I tried to keep that to myself. As I looked at her, staring back at me, but stubbornly not sharing any useful information, it hit me. "There's a third issue of privilege here, isn't there?"

Jeanine raised her eyebrows, and tilted her head sideways. The slight smile told me I was on to something.

"Okay. Braggadocio somehow finds out who Summer Bries is, and threatens to out her location to whoever she was going to testify against if she doesn't have a meeting with him. She goes to Bubba Gum for help, because they know each other are in Witness Protection, and he advises her to take the meeting, but says they'll figure out the next step. Then he came to you."

Fairchild nodded.

"Why did he come to you?" I mused, lost in the thought. Then, looking back to her, I said, "Were you a lawyer then?"

She pointed over her shoulder at the framed dollar.

"First client. Right. So, you're a newly minted lawyer, and Bubba Gum comes to you." I squinted at her with confusion. "Why does a seasoned private eye think he can trust a rookie lawyer to help him and a girl in..."

Jeanine just cocked her head and leaned in a bit, waiting for me to finish my sentence.

I wracked my brain for a few seconds, and then raised my eyebrows with the realization. "Were you in Witness Protection too? Bubba knew they could trust you, because you all three had something to lose!"

She huffed, slightly irritated, and shook her head.

I just looked at her, a little exasperated. "Well, then why... the guy's in Witness Protection, and needs for not that many people to know about that. He comes to you for help- a nobody lawyer with no rep yet- and you're not in Witn-- oh my God!"

Jeanine leaned a little closer, anticipating my conclusion.

"Oh my God! You were with WITSEC?!"

She let out a huge huff like she'd been holding her breath, and threw her hands up in the air. She hustled off to her office for the third time, and came back with a clipboard, paper, and pen that she slapped onto my desk. Before I could even look at it, she put her hands on her waist, and said, "Why, Mister Seal, I don't know how you came to such a deduction all on your own," she said with a meaningful nod, "without anyone telling you anything, but that represents a serious security risk to persons who may be under the protection of the federal government."

I found myself nodding along with her nods, and looking at her without blinking. I'd have laughed if she wasn't freaking me out so bad just then.

"I'm afraid you have left with me with no choice but to have you sign this non-disclosure agreement, agreeing to be read in on the particulars, and effectively becoming a temporarily deputized federal marshal of the United States of America until such time as I can alert the proper people about the change in situation, and resolve the present matter," she said very businesslike. Then she added, "For the safety of those under the protection of WITSEC."

I just looked at her, wide eyed, and without saying a word.

She matched my look for a couple of seconds, and then made a writing motion in the air, whispering, "Sign the NDA, Solomon."

"Oh! Right!" I said back, fumbling the pen into the floor. I started to reach for it, and she plucked mine from the breast pocket of my jacket. I took it, signed the NDA, and handed it back to her.

Looking at the form briefly, she plopped it back on the desk.

"Is that even legal?" I asked, pointing at the NDA.

"I've been with WITSEC since shortly after it started in 1970. I have the authority," she assured me. "Now, we have to talk about Summer Bries."

I just chuckled, almost noiselessly. "Yeah. Yeah, we definitely need to talk. I have so many questions right now."

Sitting on the corner of my desk, Jeanine said, "Fire away."

Story and characters owned by Chris Bishop, copyright 2021, 2022.

Solomon Seal: Summer Bries & Bubba Gum, Part 3

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Solomon Seal: Summer Bries & Bubba Gum, Part 3