James opens up his laptop at his table and pulls out a small cigarillo. He lights it and then proceeds to start pursuing through the information that Wallace file shared with him. He pulls out a small notepad and starts taking notes on her current address, boyfriend's place, and the streaming and video sites she uploaded to. He pulls up her channel and proceeds to peruse through the video titles and thumbnails.
“Hey James, what can I get for you? The usual?” Frank the bartender/owner of the cigar lounge asks as he approaches the table. James feels him look over his shoulder “Oh I never figured you for one to watch streamers” he huffs and then he proceeds to pull out a cigar holder from his front jacket pocket. He pulls out a cigar, takes out a variety of cutters, and punches from around his neck and proceeds to use a punch to make a hole on the end of the cigar. James observes it is a darkly wrapped cigar, most likely a Maduro. Frank then prelights it then proceeds to put it in his mouth then takes a pull on the cigar letting the smoke enter his mouth as he fully lights it and then goes back to looking at James.
“Normally not my cup of tea,” James responds while looking at Frank “however this is for a case I just picked up. No alcohol right now but a couple of sliders and a Kristoff would do nicely.” He dispassionately retorts. Then he begins to wonder. “What is the likelihood of Frank being into this kind of entertainment? He does have long periods of time where he has to kill time and probably listens or watches stuff in the background, maybe Frank is more familiar with this stuff than he is. James then looks at Frank and curiously quips “you watch this stuff Frank? I could use a little insight if you do.”
“Oh watch some streamers, but only ones that are basically video podcasts.” Frank then takes another puff of his cigar “Mostly because I can’t always watch them. I find it helps occupy my mind when I am doing work that doesn’t require a lot of thinking. Not much of a fan of video game streamers, I enjoy video games but I would rather play than watch someone else play.” He then starts to walk back to the kitchen, “I will get that order put in and grab your cigar”
“Thanks Frank.” James then keeps scrolling through the videos looking at titles of the streams and descriptions if there were any. In many of the videos Alaina was wearing a tank top with eyeliner, a common look back in the day for those who were in the “punk” or “alternative” communities, which did show off her attractive features without going into slutty territory or gorgeous territory. Which, he surmised, means that while she may have chosen these clothes for comfort as a secondary characteristic she more than likely chose them for the exact purpose to look good without looking like she was trying to look good. “That’s a good marketing tactic” he thought “you can always claiming you wear what you wear because it’s comfortable when someone tries to shame or critique you, clever”
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While he pondered on this fact he clicked on a video from several months ago when her streaming topics begun to change. The weird thing was,he noticed,as he went from her older videos to her present ones she slowly started to change her topics from video game let’s plays to things talking about society and culture. He went through watching a clip here or there and while he was skeptical, about anyone in entertainment actually meaning what they are saying, she seemed fairly sincere. Then he happened upon one describing her breakup with her boyfriend over what each wanted in a relationship. He made a note of this in his notebook as Frank brought him the cigar and two sliders with fries.
“Frank, would you kill your ex if she left because she wanted to stop sleeping around with you and get married and you didn’t want to?”
He paused thinking on the question for a moment, “That would be an extremely petty reason to kill someone,” setting down the food he continued talking after taking another puff of his cigar “I wouldn’t but people do stupid things all the time. Do you think that’s what happened?”
James shrugged his shoulders, “I am not sure, I will have to talk to her ex eventually. I doubt it, but it is so far the only thing I can think of so far. Maybe I’ll figure out something when I talk with him, but her parents live here and will be easier to talk to them first. Now, according to her change in scenery in her streams and what she said online my client believes she moved back in with them and he did a decent amount of…” James expressed a bit of a pause to think of the best words to use for what his client did, “due diligence.”
“So he stalked her?”
“One way to say it Frank and that was my feeling as well when he told me all this and his excuse leaves a lot to be desired. But, if she is missing then it's free legwork for me. He, in person, seemed very… inoffensive but I can see how his actions could be seen by a prosecutor and police as evidence he did it so I gave him Larry’s card.”
“Larry deals with civil cases, I thought.” Frank then started to use a punch on the cigar, gave it a prelight then handed it to James. James took the cigar then started puffing as Frank lit it. The smoke entered his mouth giving off earthy tones and hints of vanilla.
“Yes, but he is better than nothing and he is a good first call if the cops start hassling him. Anyway thanks for the food, won’t be here too much longer.” James replied as the smoke came out of his mouth. He then blew some smoke rings as he contemplated the situation. James then pulled out his business card and handed it to Frank. “Thanks for the ear and food frank, it sucks how hard it is to find a place to smoke and eat these days.” James then returned to looking through the computer watching the streams and rereading the data his client sent looking for anything better to jump out at him. Frank, seeing that James got engrossed again into his work nodded his head and took the card and went back to the bar as James sat and thought about where this case may lead him.