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Bleeding Heart Blues	By : bagoas Category: +. to F > Cowboy Bebop Views: 1383 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Cowboy Bebop, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Session #27: Bleeding Heart Blues - Part 3
Her hands shook as she put the book on the shelf. Belated she realized that it was the wrong shelf and frowned. Nerina stared hard at the numbers and letters swarming in front of her face but she couldn't make heads or tails out of it. She was too shaken up by what she'd seen the night before to be of much use today.
Rad is dead. Jay is probably dead. The words kept repeating over and over inside her mind. She was sure that any moment the mobsters would coming storming into the building and shoot her dead as well. "What am I going to do?" she whispered to herself.
And then it hit her. Clutching the book tightly in her hand, Rina raced back down the stairs to her office. Once ensconced behind her desk she took out several peices of paper and began to handwrite out what she had witnessed the night before. She described every detail she could remember: the location, the men in the suits, the discussion she'd overheard between them and Rad, how Jay had jumped onto Rad's killers to distract them so she could escape, and how the men in the suits had wanted information on her. She included her confusion about why anyone would want her, as she had no criminal record and was not involved in anything criminal that she knew of.
Taking a deep breath she folded up the papers and carefully pulled the front cover off the book, tucking inside the little pocket she'd made. Rina applied a little bit of glue to the edge of the front facing and pressed it down, essentially sealing closed her eyewitness account. It would be her weapon, her bargaining chip of staying alive should she be captured by Jay and Rad's killers.
She hoped. A bit more relieved now that she'd done something, even something insignificant to protect herself, Rina left her office only to be confronted by an excited co-worker. "Rina," panted Ellen Andrews, "you have to come quickly! They've reported two murders down in the club district! You remember that old terraformer who hung out in the twentieth century history section a few years back? He's one of the victims!"
The bodies had been discovered and reported to the local police. Rina felt sick to her stomach. "You mean, Radney Acren?" she asked faintly.
Ellen didn't notice her co-worker's reaction. "Yes! That's the one." Ellen giggled suddenly. "Didn't he have a crush on you for a couple months, sending you flowers and such?"
"Yes," Rina said, swaying slightly on her feet, the blood rushing from her head. "That was him."
"Come on!" Ellen grabbed Rina's wrist and drug her to the media section where a group of the library workers who'd been at the branch for several years and knew Rad were gathered.
"Never knew anyone who'd been murdered before," someone piped up.
"Murders don't happen very often," someone else added. "They usually just get beat up pretty bad."
Which was true, Rina reflected. Murders were surprisingly uncommon in Theseus, considering its reputation and the people that frequented the city. Most of the violence stemmed from beatings or knifings. A death from such incidents was surprisingly rare. Two murders at the same time was big news.

"...authorities are still either unsure or unwilling to disclose a possible motive for the shootings. However, it is believed that the famous nightclub singer The Nymph may have information regarding the crime, if she is not directly involved herself. The ISSP is asking for any information regarding these murders or the whereabouts of The Nymph."
The Nymph may have information regarding the crime, if she is not directly involved herself.
'I'm a suspect!' Rina thought in shock. 'Oh my God, they think I was involved!'
Ellen turned around in time to see her friend sink gracefully to the floor. "Rina!" Several other co-workers knelt down beside the fainting woman. Ellen chafed her friend's wrist and confided to them all, "It's because one of the victim's was an old flame."
***
*THUMP*
"Uhn!"
"So you're going to tell me you don't know nothing about The Nymph?" *THUMP* "She's worked at this joint for how long and not one of you punks have any idea who she is?" *THUMP*
Seven employees of the Memphis Blues stood petrified, a gun to each head as the head bartender was continuously kicked, punched and systematically beaten for the information the suits wanted. One waitress made a motion to say something but a warning look from her two neighbors silenced her quickly.
Not quickly enough.
"What do you know?" The lead suit grabbed her from the line and jerked her toward him. As she stuttered incoherently, he slowly backed her against the wall, rubbing suggestively against her as he did so, the others winced. Susan would be the first to crack; they'd hoped she wouldn't. "I said, what," the suit grabbed the top of her skimpy blouse, "do, " he jerked hard, making the material rip, "you," the material was slowly torn downward, exposing her to everyone, "know?" Susan whimpered as the suit's hand closed over her ample breast and squeezed hard.
"The Nymph isn't her name," blubbered Susan in terror, eyes wild. "Rad always called her Rina."
"Rad always called her Rina," mimicked the suit in a high voice. "Rina what?"
Susan mutely shook her head. Finally the head bartender managed to take in enough answer to reply. "We were never told. It was a closely guarded secret. We just know the The Nymph helped Mr. Acren get information on the place."
"Meaning?" asked another suit, poking a waiter with the barrel of his pistol.
The waiter only trembled. "Meaning," spat out the bartender, "that she helped him find all the vintage stuff he used for the decor. And she came up with all the numbers, the dance steps, the music, the costumes, everything. She kept to a rigid schedule and they guarded her identity real close."
"Why?" asked one of the other suits. "What's she hiding?" He gave the bartender another kick to the ribs. There was a crack that indicated a bone gave way.
"If we knew, I swear to God we'd tell you!" gasped the bartender before he blacked out from the pain.
The head suit frowned. "We'll take the bimbo here," he squeezed Susan's breast again and she began to cry softly, "and shoot him and..." The suit motioned from the unconscious bartender to the lead trombone player in the live band, "him. Let the rest go." He smiled charmingly at the assembled group who was staring back at him in horror. "Pass on the word that The Nymph's being hunted. There's a bounty on her head by the police, thanks to our interference, and we'd like to get her before they do. Less trouble hushing up our operations with the corrupt cops if we get her first. If you bring her to us, you get to live."
"We know where you live," warned the suit pointing his pistol at the waiter. He transferred his aim to the bartender and pulled the trigger. Another shot rang out andenceence reigned once again over the jazz quarter of Theseus.
***
"They're dropping like flies," muttered Jet to himself. He switched off the news report in disgust.
Spike woke up from his quick nap and stretched. "What's that?"
"Two more deaths of Memphis Blues employees. Witnesses claim men in suits exited the alley with a hostage. The bounty on The Nymph went up another five hundred thousand woolongs." Spike's expression darkened.
"They're going about this all wrong. The employees of the Memphis Blues don't have the foggiest idea who she is," groused Spike.
"You spent an hour in her presence," Faye piped up from her corner of the living area. "Didn't you get her number when you were finished?"
"Ha, ha," the frizzy haired bounty hunter growled. In an undertone that only Jet could hear, Spike added, "Bitch."
"Who? Me or the bountyhead?" Faye asked innocently.
"The Nymph at least gave me something nice to remember her by," snapped Spike.
"All right, children!" Jet raised a hand to silence the two. "You'd think you were siblings the way you carry on." The two younger bounty hunters looked scandalized by the very thought. "So what are we going to do?"
"Hit a library!" crowed Ed, making a beeline for his couch. Where she'd been was anyone's guess. Ed knew more about hiding places on the Bebop than anyone else. Jet was never sure if that was a good thing or not.
Spike's attention was arrested from his sparring with Faye. "What did you say?"
Ed looked at him sadly, as if she were ashamed he was that dense. "A library is a place where information is stored, usually through analog material such as books. Books are -"
"I hate females, no matter their age," snarled Spike, making a half-hearted swipe at Ed, who squealed in delight and bounced away from his reach. "What the hell are you babbling about, Ed?"

"Computer terminals are scarce in Theseus," Ed dutifully reported. "Anyone wanting to do the kind of research required for the amount of authenticity that the Memphis Blues is reported to have likely would have been camped out in the library doing research. There are free public terminals at the Theseus Public Library, as well as an impressive collection of books."
At Spike's blank expion,ion, Faye sarcastically added, "Books are these bound peices of paper that have words printed on them in a formation called sentences. Sentences strung together can relay helpful information for many subjects like science, literature, history, and hey! Where are you going?"
Spike had sprung from the couch like he'd been poked in the rear with a pin and darted for the door of the living area, obviously intent on going somewhere. "The library. You know, where they store books?"
Jet grinned as both Ed and Faye gave identical 'humphs'.

Thanks to my whole two reviewers: Emely and Vixen.

Emely - glad you like it. It's smooth sailing at the moment but its about to get bumpy in a hurry and I don't mean in a pleasant way either.

Vixen - Ah, that's the beauty of fan fiction. Everyone sees a character in a different way, and considering this is post-Julia, so to speak, Spike's reactions to life now that there isn't a Julia is an unknown factor, an empty slate, if you will. Ready to be rewritten all over again. The driving force behind the character is now gone, he needs something new. As for the one night stand, its out of character for both Nymph AND Spike, so no worries there. As for it being so "clean" so far, see my comment to Emely above. Never underestimate the writer. Despite the "tameness" so far, its not going to be tame for long. However, Faye and Spike has never interested me. They've always been too sibling-like to my mind and that smacks of incest, which is not attractive but just disgusting to me. So sorry, no Spike/Nymph/Faye combos. Plus I've never been very good at sex scenes, plots are more my thing, but fanfiction.net frowned on the scene in chapter one, so alas, I wandered here. (shrug)

To everyone else who hasn't reviewed...SHAME ON YOU! Vixen left constructive criticism and I didn't go ballistic. Criticism and negatfeedfeedback is good, as long as it doesn't consist of "you suck, your story sucks, and you shouldn't write" or some such three year old mindsets. Feedback please?

-Bagoas Alexandros
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Bleeding Heart Blues