Client Missing: Please Help (Open)

Participants: Jessica Jones and TBD
Open/Closed: Open
Location(s): New York City
Time of Day: Mid-morning
Weather: Overcast, but not raining
Summary: While looking for a client of hers that's gone missing, Jess finds some help from an unexpected place...

"Sorry, yeah, I was wondering if you've seen this woman lately? Her name's Josephine Kothari, goes by Josie? She's your-"

"-neighbor?" The door was only open a sliver in the first place. The one, glaring eye it showed narrowed. "Not seen her in a week or so. You can tell because that godawful Indian cooking of hers hasn't stunk up the whole floor. Good riddance." The door slammed shut.

"-client?" The dingy little salon reeked of nail polish remover and - terrifyingly - burnt hair. The "stylist" (though Jess thought that title was being incredibly generous) smacked her gum over the blowdryer she refused to turn off to talk to her. "Oh, Josie's booked every Thursday since forever. But she missed this week's appointment. First time, actually." Jessica cringed at the words being yelled at her over the blowdryer.

"-customer?" The convenience store owner looked at her over half-lidded eyes and sunk his teeth pointedly into a salami sandwich. Mustard and salami sandwich, apparently, because a glob of the stuff jumped ship with the vicious bite and landed right on Jessica's white T-shirt. Her knuckles cracked as she bawled her fingers into fists. "'vn't scheen 'er." Jess reached over the counter, took the sandwich and left. On her way out she peeled off the piece of bread dripping with mustard and plastered it to the glass front door, chucking the rest in the garbage.

"-tenant?" Jessica stood in a cramped little coffee shop, using a counter near the door to doctor up the steaming cup in front of her. Her phone was cradled between her ear and shoulder and, given how much of a ****ing a**hole the man on the other end was, it was a good thing she'd opted for a phonecall instead of a face-to-face encounter. "Haven't heard from Kothari since last Tuesday when she tried to weasel out of paying rent on time." Jessica paused halfway through tipping a packet of Splenda in her cup to fish a pen out of her pocket and scratch some notes on a crumpled napkin.

"Tuesday, you said. And she was having trouble getting you the rent?" Jessica bit off a curse and shook the pen to try to get more ink out of it. "Always does, but this is the first she's actually missed. Not even half. I got nothin' for this month. Left her messages. She's got until Monday and then I change the locks. Now, I told you a minute, and I've given you two," the landlord grunted and Jessica heard a toilet flush. "Don't call this number again." 

Jessica pinched the bridge of her nose, letting out a sigh to try to vent some frustration. She dropped her phone gracelessly on the little counter and stared at the picture of Josie Kothari looking up at her from the screen. When she noticed someone behind her, Jess shook herself back into the moment. "Sorry, just finishing up," she muttered, tearing the top of two more Splenda packets off with her teeth. Jess dumped them into her cup, gave it one last stir and shoved the lid back on.

She reached for her phone only then to realize that the person waiting for her was staring at it like they'd seen a ghost.

The line at the coffee shop seemed endless. For a space so small and cramped, there should have been some logical or mathematical impossibility to the sheer number of customers it had squeezed in to its four walls, but a snake of human bodies coiled around small tables, swerved around bar stools and counters and exited through the front door, regular customers taking to queueing up on the busy street outside. All about her, conversations expressed frustration, irritation, boredom, impatience, joy, whimsy and about every other human emotion she could think of. With isles between tables so crowded, it left people from all walks of life hustling and bustling as they tried to pick their way through the throng – shouts of annoyance and apology occasional audible over the loud ambient ‘chatter.’ The café acted as a microcosm of New York City itself – all its quirks, flaws and characteristics captured in one tiny shop.

And Anya loved it. It wasn’t a perfect – far from it - but it was home.

Before she’d heard of the world ‘multiverse’, and before she’d encountered an invading interdimensional group of vampiric spider people bent on destroying her reality and everything in it, Anya had always been in a rush – a rush to get to class, to the scene of a crime, to her friends. She had never been good at standing still. Her adventures through the ‘Web’ of interconnected dimensions had changed that – at least a little. Most of the time, she kept pace with her old self. But occasionally, she didn’t mind waiting half an hour for a coffee, not when she could bask in the ‘everyday’ – catch half of conversations, see and learn about the struggles and successes of those in her community, those she’d strived for years to protect and aid. Her time away had taught her a deeper appreciation of New York – she’d seen first-hand how easily the things people took for granted could be lost.

Almost at the front of the queue, she wrinkled her nose a little, her large brown eyes squinting at the chalk-board menu for about the five hundredth time. She was torn between a caramel hazelnut frappe and a gingerbread latte, and the time it had taken her to reach the counter had only aggravated and encouraged that indecision. As the person before her placed their order, Spider-Girl was no closer to making her choice, and upon finally being asked what she’d like, ‘uhmmmed’, ‘ahhhed’ and eventually blurted out ‘caramel gingerbread latte’ – which was neither of the things she’d originally wanted.

She suffered the brief, questioning look from the store’s clerk expertly, smiling like she was sure of her order, sticking with her somewhat maverick decision. She paid, moved along so that one of the milling line could make their order, and waited to collect her beverage. The service was surprisingly quick, and once Anya held the warm drink in her hands, she sighed contentedly. A sip confirmed the concoction wasn’t as bad as it might have initially sounded – even if it was extremely sweet – and she began the difficult journey back through the crowds to the shop’s exit.

“Excuse me.”
“Pardon me.”
“Can I just…?”

Being light on her feet and superhumanly lithe didn’t seem to matter in the enclosed space, and after she’d bounced off, squeezed past, ducked under and wiggled through the gathered crowd, she ended up stood at a counter, beyond which lay her destination. All that stood between her and it was a woman in a black leather jacket who had an apparent taste for Splenda. Chewing her lip for a moment, Anya waited for her to finish stirring her takeaway coffee, certain that when she’d done, she too would be making for the nearby door, leading back onto New York’s streets.

As if aware of Anya’s lingering presence, the other woman offered an apology over her shoulder. However, the young heroine didn’t reply. Instead, her gaze had been drawn to Splenda’s phone, which lay next to the coffee she’d been so ardently stirring. Upon its display was a picture of Josephine Kothari.

Jessica Jones

Jess's chest squeezed with sudden tension and suspenseful expectation. She lived in a world where men and women flew through the sky at the speed of sarcasm and shot lasers from their asses. Crazy crawled out of every orifice of the freaking globe, and even then, cases didn't go this well for her. Jess didn't get breaks like what this one might be. But she wasn't going to let the knee-jerk skepticism keep her from at least asking. 

"Do you know her? Her name's-"

The young, brunette woman waiting behind her had wide, expressive eyes flicked from the pic of Josie, snapping up to meet Jess's own. And the teen - teen? young adult? Jess didn't know. Every year people looked younger to her, but at least this woman's atmosphere didn't immediately scrape teenage nails down her patience. That was something - and rare.

Whatever. The point was that the woman had broken into Jess's question and finished the wording for her, naming Josie. "... Yes," Jess said in quiet, disbelieving confirmation. "Can I-?" The PI tried to juggle her coffee and phone and notepad, but wasn't making any progress. Plus, the holdup she'd created on the way out of the café was starting to draw pointed looks, tapped feet and profanities that were muttered in a stage whisper. The last part was what pissed Jess off the most. If you were gonna cuss at her, f**king do it to her face.

"Here, we can talk outside-" Jess opened the door for the young woman, glaring at the man steaming behind them. When the teen/young adult had made it through, Jess used her strength to ignore the slow closing door mechanism to shut it between her and the guy, who had tried to force his way past. A large part of her really wanted to break the handle to get the asshole stuck in there, but she didn't want to screw over the owners of the place.

Fortunately, the prospect of progress on her case was enough of an incentive to help Jess shoulder her irritation out of the way. "Yeah. So, hi," she said, refocusing on the young woman, shoving out a gruff, fingerless-gloved hand to shake. "My name's Jess. I was hired by Ms Kothari, but she hasn't been seen or heard of in a while. I'm trying to track her down. Make sure she's okay. How do you know her?"

Anya Corazon

Anya kept her eyes trained on the phone’s display until Splenda spoke, asking her a question that dragged the young heroine’s attention away from the screen. "Do you know her? Her name's-"
“Josephine Kothari,” Anya finished quickly, frowning a little. “But, she prefers Josie…”
There were any number of reasons someone might have had a picture of Josephine Kothari on their phone – perhaps Splenda and her were friends, or dating, or distant relatives. All of those options – possible. But there was something in the way the black leather jacket asked if Anya knew Josephine, the hope and interest in catching the younger woman’s attention, which made Spider-Girl think there was something more to the digital photograph, and not necessarily something positive.

"... Yes. Can I-?"

“Sure,” Anya replied, waiting patiently as the other woman began trying to juggle coffee, phone and notepad, largely unsuccessfully. She figured the unspoken question ended with ‘talk to you’, and if it had something to do with Josie, Anya was more than happy to give up some of her time. “Can I help you with any of that?” Her offer fell on deaf or stubborn ears, with Splenda eventually managing to achieve some sort of balance that allowed her to carry all three items at once, and then she made for the door, casting some rather unpleasant looks at the people behind them – those that had been getting itchy their path to the door wasn’t immediately clear.

"Here, we can talk outside-"

Anya left first, offering a “Thanks” when the dark-haired woman held the door for her, and then made her way to an awning a few feet away from the coffee shop’s entrance. It would, she hoped, stop people pushing past them mid-conversation. She was joined a few moments later, the woman approaching with a "Yeah. So, hi."
“Hi,” replied Anya, and after the woman stuck out a miraculously free hand following a brief introduction, Spider-Girl reached out and shook it gently. “Jess…I’m Anya.”
What followed was an explanation – a simple relay of information regarding Jess’ reason for having a picture of Josie on her phone.

When she was finished, Anya sipped her coffee, frowning at the insinuation Josie was missing, annoyed at herself for not noticing it sooner, and doing her utmost to remember anything she could about Kothari.
“Uhm…Josie moved into a block of flats near me a while back. I helped her carry some boxes up after she’d dropped a few in the street. She was new to this part of the city so…we hung out every now and again. Like we’d grab a slice some evenings or get coffee before classes? She was a mature student…wanted to be a professor I think but…was doing a teaching support job to earn a bit of money…”
Anya and Josephine hadn’t exactly been best friends, but they’d been more than acquaintances. They didn’t text hourly or see each other every day, but every so often, they’d catch up. However, since Anya had been away – roaming the multiverse with the Web-Warriors – she’d not been great at staying in touch with anyone. Guilt welled up inside the young woman – even after returning from her travels across the interconnected web of realities, she'd been lost in heroics. She'd not really gone out of her way to contact many of the people she used to know.

“I guess we haven’t spoken in a while…” She looked to Jess, raising a questioning eyebrow. “Why did she need a PI? Is…she in trouble?”


Jessica Jones

Honest to God, Jess thought that the universe had forced her through all the raging a**holes up until that point on Josie's case to make up for the girl standing in front of her now. Not only was she eager to answer Jess's question, but the information she gave? Jess was used to having to hold someone's hand in a conversation like this one. Like freaking milking a yak for information - could you milk yaks? She didn't care. The analogy worked either way.

By the time Anya finished her description, Jess gave a final jab of her pen to the notepad, because she'd been etching broken bullet points the whole time. Then Anya did something that impressed Jess even more: she asked if Josie was all right. Not in a snooping, annoying way, either. Jess could see genuine concern and compassion in Anya for the other woman and that was rare in... Hell, in people, let alone people as young as she looked.

"'Fraid I can't say, exactly. Confidentiality and all that jazz," Jess answered. She could've been a little more clipped in it, too, but Anya was nice and helpful so far, and Jess wasn't about to do anything but answer that kindness with her own version of it. Which was largely why Jess continued, when ordinarily that would've been it. "The PI stuff wasn't anything crazy," she said by way of consolation.

"This city, on the other hand, is. Josie's kinda my business until her case is closed and payment hits my bank account. Do you know of anyone in Josie's life that was... not so great? Any pissed off exes? Stuff like that?"

Anya Corazon

Anya nodded a little when Jess responded to her final question, the PI unable to answer in any great detail, keeping the information she revealed to a minimum in order to protect her client’s confidentiality. Really, Corazon should have guessed that would be the case: her father had been an investigative reporter, not the same job, sure, but there was definitely some overlap. Anya felt some of her concerns relieved knowing that Kothari hadn’t hired the private investigator for ‘anything crazy’, though they quickly returned when Jess refocused on the fact Josie was currently missing.

The Web-Warrior’s slow head nod became a slow head shake, unable to think of anyone in Josie’s life that might have caused her a sudden and unexpected disappearance. “She argued with her sister a lot? Like, every time we spoke they’d had a fall out over something. But it was usual sibling stuff.” The young woman’s eyes lit up a little at that recollection. “Maybe she might know something? She’s probably noticed she’s not been berated in a while.”

Pausing for a moment, Anya then reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out her mobile, tapping at the screen and glancing between it and Jess. “Uh…look. I know you’ve…probably got all this under control buuuut I know someone who might be able to help you.” That person just so happened to be Anya, though she’d be wearing a much tighter costume, a face-covering mask and be readily willing to show her ability to climb walls free hand and shoot webs from her wrists. “I’ve sort of worked with uhm…Spider-Girl before? You…might have heard of her.”

She smiled awkwardly. “If I could just get your full name and y’know, somewhere to meet in twenty minutes or something…I’ll text her so she can meet you at a convenient place…” The awkward smile only grew bigger. “She won’t…ask for any of your fee or anything! I’m pretty sure she works for free.”

Jessica Jones