The Grey Zone (Black Noir / The Boys Fan Fic)

Ch 2 A Noose in the Night

Ignoring all of Reggie's sartorial advice, Jess left for work wearing high-waisted black jeans, a black shirt and a black parker jacket to face off with New York's autumn breeze.

Enough black clothes to blend in. Enough black to look professional.

It was nice just to be out of her apartment after months hunched over her laptop. Her line of work used to involved meeting with people day in day out, but for the most part, ensnaring predators and finding out the juicy details of someone's life can be done mainly online these days.

She hit the buzzer for Phil Madison's townhouse entrance. A receiver at the other end picked up but didn't say a word. "Erm hello? I'm The Agency cleaner for Mr Madison."

The gate buzzed open and she headed down a secluded side street towards a cluster of townhouses. It was a very private setting for the centre of New York. As the gate automatically closed behind her she approached the front door which was already opening before she made it to the front steps. A nerdy, 40-something peered out of the door, sticking only his head out like a paranoid meerkat. He spotted Jess approaching and ushered her inside with something that sounded halfway between a shout and a whisper. "Can you not hurry up? Did anyone see you? Are you sure someone didn't follow you in?"

"No." was all Jess said as she walked through his door.

"No, nobody saw you or no you're not sure if someone followed you in?" He strained his voice just above a whisper again. Jess had almost forgotten how insufferable and dramatic some people could be after being stuck in her apartment for months on end. She wasn't in the mood to be treated like a servant for a Vought employee and wanted to make her boundaries clear from the offset.

"What reason do you have for being so paranoid? Cut to the chase, why do you think someone is after you?" It was swift and tactless. She had barely stepped foot into his house.

"Goodness, I didn't think you'd skip straight past foreplay." Phil straightened up, putting his fear to the side and suddenly becoming defensive. This was the first indication that he knew exactly why someone would target him. Perhaps there were a few reasons and he just needed help narrowing them down. "I could have a Vought operative looking after me you know..."

"So why don't you?" she cut him off. Jess had entered willing to remain professional but she wasn't about to suffer fools. Besides, this was a line of questioning worth trailing especially if this alleged stalker could be someone he worked with.

It was abundantly clear that this man had worked his way up Vought the hard way. He wasn't top-shelf material, but he wasn't a dogsbody either. He was well established within the company enough to afford a 4-story townhouse in Manhattan and that in itself made Jess suspicious of how many enemies he had potentially made along the way.

"Ok, we've set off on the wrong foot. I just expected them to send a tough ex-cop or something." He held his hands up. Paranoia does funny things to people, she couldn't blame him. She felt her jaw unclench as this sort-of-apology softened the tension in the room.

"Well, I'm happy to say I fit the bill. I'm an ex-cop and apparently, I'm tougher than I look, so how about we start from the top shall we?" She felt her shoulders relax and her tone lift towards the end of her sentence. Back to professionalism. It would be in Phil's interest not to cross the boundary put in place again.

Phil's brow furrowed as if he wasn't too sure if she was serious about being an ex-cop. He had faith in The Agency though, which was at this point his only option.

He ushered her into a clinical looking sitting room. Everything was white and soulless. The room looked barely used. It was a shame to see such a beautiful townhouse without any of its original character inside. The walls were white, the floor was white, the L shaped sofa was white. But the room was warm at least, thanks to the gently smouldering fireplace.

"Do you mind if I drink?" he said whilst opening a glass caddy of whisky.

"No sir." She responded, looking up at the high ceilings for any remnants of this being a genuine home and not just a showroom.

"Please, you must call me Phil. Phillip on Sundays." He insisted as he topped up his glass a little too high for this time of the morning. "I have booked 2 days off work to catch you up to speed with everything but I have a shoot next week with the marketing team that I simply cannot miss."

"That's fine. It won't take long for us to implement a security strategy that fits around your work, but I am going to need access to your internal home security cameras and possibly your personal devices." She explained.

Phil didn't enjoy a stranger coming into his home and making demands to peer into his private life, but then again that's exactly what was happening anyway before Jess arrived so it was the lesser of two evils.

She sensed his hesitation at handing over his devices and decided a softer approach would be more appropriate. He did seem genuinely shaken and for a Vought team member to take time off work away from the office - well, things must have been serious.

"Why don't you tell me exactly what's been going on? I read in your file that someone has broken in before. That must have been quite disturbing." Her tone shifted, she sounded genuinely caring, sweet, almost motherly. It was how she would talk to the younger victims on her old cases. It played into Phil's ego, he just wanted someone to take him seriously and it was the first time someone had asked him if he was ok in a long time.

"It's been awful like I'm constantly looking over my shoulder. At first, it was... well I suppose you could call them gifts."

"Gifts?" She questioned.

"Yes. Offerings. Items. It all started when I received a gift-wrapped bottle of aftershave. It was my signature fragrance so it came from someone who knows me. However, what was in the bottle wasn't cologne at all, it was urine." His face screwed up as he said it. Clearly this experience would have been bad enough to go through, but as part of a series of events, it felt even more disturbing. Jess didn't find it necessary to question just how he found out the liquid inside was urine. His face said it all. "And then, I started to receive items whilst I was at work."

"Is there CCTV available?" She questioned as she bought out a small notepad and pen from her back pocket.

"Only in select areas, to protect our talent, but Vought wouldn't allow me to investigate myself. It was 'above my pay grade'. Despicable swines " He downed the last of his whiskey at the end of his sentence. He wasn't used to being told no and the experience left him feeling bitter. Years of creating propaganda films for Vought meant that everyone usually played along to his narrative. Now he was ever so slightly losing control. It would only take one look at him for someone to see he had been knocked down a peg or two. He was still impeccably dressed, but his demeanour was offbeat. Shaken from being told no and shaken from his mystery stalker, he didn't trust anyone right now but he was paying The Agency and they had cleaned up a misunderstanding for him before so it made him feel slightly better for taking a step towards getting this whole situation solved.

"Well, let me put you at ease Mr. Madison... Phil. My background is in tracking online abusers, I have 15 years of experience in finding people who certainly don't want to be found. Since this person isn't hiding behind a screen and has shown up in real life, we should be able to bring this person out into the spotlight fairly easily. You have the full Agency team at your disposal. We can start by implementing a full externally monitored CCTV package just to ensure your safety throughout the investigation. I'll also need a list of people you've worked with within the last 12 months, ex-partners, family members..."

"My films are viewed worldwide, it could be any crazy fool." He began to protest.

"I understand..." Her voice softening again to empathise. "but I do think this may be closer to home, unfortunately, especially since the gifts are so personal. Adding to that, if this was potentially a Vought fan-boy the company you work for would have made a better effort to step in. It would no doubt be a PR nightmare for them."

Jess was making some big assumptions, but she wasn't far wrong. Vought was well know to act only in their own interests. The fact that Phil was left to his own devices on this one would either mean they had no concern about how it would impact them or they were trying to protect one of their valuable assets. She could only hope it was the first choice. Whilst she wanted access to Vought for her own investigation, she didn't want attention from them directly.

"How about we create a timeline of events together and you can show me some of the items you have received." She nodded as she said this and Phil found himself nodding in return. For two hours they pieced together exactly when the events started. Phil had just started working on a holiday greetings video for The Seven, that's when the first gift arrived - the cologne bottle. It seemed fitting for the Christmas-themed project, hence why Phil wasn't initially suspicious about the parcel.

Then, two weeks later, he was mailed a blood-soaked script. Not one Phil had worked on - but it was one of his favourite films. The Titanic. It was more than enough to spook him so that's when he started to ask Vought for help, only for his concerns to be brushed off. "I can get this taken back to The Agency and swabbed," Jess explained whilst gathering all sorts of trinkets left by the stalker.

After the script, there were flowers with an apology note. They were delivered on set as he worked. Phil didn't want to be distracted so he waved the assistant away and demanded they be put away in his dressing room. When he came back to the dressing room after a full day's work, every flower had their head chopped off and scribbled over the apology note was the words 'I take it back. You're still a cunt.'

It was personal, that's for sure, and Phil had started to suspect everyone around him. Whoever it was had access to his home and film set.

Things had escalated for Phil with the latest gift. Whilst he was sleeping, the stalker had entered his home and hung a noose from his four-poster bed. "Obviously the NYPD are useless so they turned up 12 hours later and said I must have left a door unlocked because they couldn't find evidence of a break-in." By this point he was exasperated. "I'm being stalked, but I'm also stupid enough to leave my doors and windows unlocked, in New York? Give me a break."

For someone seasoned in creep crime, Jess had to admit that the noose in the night was unnerving. The best course of action would be to have home CCTV fitted immediately, new locks fitted in case someone had their own key cut and then she would shadow Phil herself for a week, maybe more if needed.

"Just continue with your week as you usually would. This person knows your patterns so we must allow them to show their face again." By the time they'd finished out mapping a timeline of events, The Agency heavy men had arrived to fit the CCTV. Phil felt on edge reliving the events, but having a full team of workmen fitting cameras and working for him made him feel at ease again. It was like being back on set, everyone was matching to the beat of his drum.

"With the CCTV, you won't need someone with you 24/7, but I would like to shadow you for at least a week to examine those around you. From a distance of course."

"That can be arranged... and thank you." Phil's anxiety had quelled somewhat from the day's consultation. After weeks of not being taken seriously by his employer, it felt good for him to finally have someone listening to him. However, he didn't miss a beat in reminding Jess that she would be entering his world. "I don't want to feel like I have the grim reaper over my shoulder so if you're going to be 'shadowing' me can you at least not wear as much black." He may have been grateful for her assistance but he was still technically her employer and he wanted her to remember that.

Jess clenched her jaw but managed a smile. "I won't be upstaging you. I'll keep a slight distance. I would suggest introducing me as your..."

"My spiritual adviser." he interrupted.

"Wait what?" Jess asked.

"I'm not too sure how kindly my employer would take to me bringing a third-party security detail, so I've already planted the seed that I'll be contacting a professional just in case this was a paranormal issue." He explained.

"Wow well, I was going to say assistant but I guess Spiritual Advisor works." Jess conceded. It was actually a clever idea and something that someone of Phil's demeanour could get away with. After all, he was one of Vought's top media spin doctors so it shouldn't have been surprising that he'd already lined up the plot for Jess' entrance into his inner circle.

Phil's work formed a major part of Vought's propaganda machine. He was at the helm of most of their box office films, including 'Homelander the Brave' which essentially won the public over after Homelander (the psychopath) publicly crushed the skull of a terrorist. They turned the whole scenario into a fast-paced action film where Homelander faced his worst fear - a threat to the American people. It was enough to make you want to vomit. The general public loved it.

For the next week at least, Jess would chaperone Phil whilst right under the nose of Vought. She was certain this posed no threat to herself. She assumed that if Vought knew she was involved in the questions surrounding 'The Incident' in Thailand all those years ago, they would have taken her out by now. That said, she needed to ensure her curiosity didn't get the best of her. If she was caught snooping around Vought affairs, they would easily dig up her past and put 2 and 2 together.

After 2 years of pushing her superiors in the field to follow the case, she quit in quite an anti-climatic fashion. The 'White Widow' simply handed in her notice and faded away into obscurity. Considering the darker elements of her job that she got away with, it never made sense to her that she wasn't allowed to question the Homelander incident. It drove her slightly mad. She took most of her anger out on her targets, chopping off Derek Haslam's hands was just the tip of the ice burg. Despite putting on her best 'caring private investigator' charm for Madison, she could be senselessly sadistic at times.

Despite her success in the field, letting Vought get away with lasering through an entire village felt like her biggest failure. To Jess, it didn't feel like a co-incidence that her witness was caught up in the wreckage. She felt immense guilt. The young girl, Sammorn, was placed there by Jess and her team for protection. They had promised to keep her safe and they failed. It was like a cold case that was always on her mind. She had put a bloody end to many human trafficking groups, sex abuse rings and come up against some truly horrific cases - yet this incident stuck with her more than any. If her superiors weren't so set on covering it up, maybe she'd be happy passing on her evidence in the hope someone would crack Vought right open and she'd be able to continue as normal.

Yet here she was, years later, investigating a low-rate stalker a world away from her old position. If it wasn't an opportunity to get more intel on Vought, she wouldn't have looked twice at the case.

She stayed for the afternoon, while the other team members fitted the CCTV and got ready to leave when they had finished.

"Ok, Spiritual Advisor, I'll see you on set next week." Phil cracked a smile as he said this. The CCTV and afternoon with The Agency had clearly given him some comfort.

"I'll be there." Jess smiled back.

"Oh and less black!" He quipped as he closed his front door behind her.