Girl Master of Disguises (Lesbian Story, GirlxGirl)

Chapter Twenty-Six - 'Captured'

Twisting the key in the lock, Buggy looks around the hallway before entering Laina's apartment. Her suitcase is still by the kitchen, and she unzips it. Setting articles of clothing aside, she makes a mental list of items stashed in the suitcase. 

     The conductor's suit is present, and so are the costumes for the geek, the boy, and the emo. Buggy almost panics when she doesn't find her nurse's outfit, but then remembers that Laina took it for the hospital. "Note to self, get Laina to give the uniform back," she mutters. 

     She puts the outfits (all except the nurse are accountable) in the washing machine to launder while she goes through the little things. Nail polish is good. The tape on the glasses is slowly peeling off. Most of the wigs are in need of care, but otherwise fine. The guy's hat is . . . 

     Where's the hat?

     Buggy goes through the inventory again, checking things off twice. She stops the machine and goes through the load in case she accidentally put the hat in. She looks around the rooms where she could have been in the last twenty-four hours. No hat anywhere. "That's just dandy," she says. "I spent a week looking for that last year."

     She stands in her place for another minute before starting up the machine again. Buggy turns to go back to the living room, but stops. Something catches her eye in another room, most likely Laina's bedroom. When she looks real close, the something fades away, causing Buggy to naturally get in the room and look.

     The bedroom looks nicely put-together. A bed is by the window the opposite of the door, and a rug with the Fibonacci sequence is placed in the center of the hardwood floor. To Buggy's right, a half-open closet reveals a wardrobe of clothes. To her left, an old and scratched-up desk stands against the wall, the top covered with piles of papers. 

     Not bothering to resist, Buggy carefully picks up the papers on top and looks at them. At least half of the paragraphs on each paper are blacked out. She doesn't find anything useful, so she puts them back where she found them. Her hand brushes against something firm, and Buggy cocks her head to see something poking out in between piles. Careful as to not disturb the piles, she takes it out.

     The object now in her hands looks like a package of photos. Buggy opens it and takes the small amount of glossy pictures out. She looks through each of them carefully, unsure of what any of them means. A picture has a balding man in his fifties waiting in line in a grey place. Another contains a much younger man aiming a rifle at an unsuspecting deer. A black woman is counting bills on a counter in the third photo, and a Hispanic man is looking away as he looks to be shoving something in another man's pocket.

     And the only thing all the photos have in common is one word etched at the top right: 

Captured

     Buggy looks at the first few pictures again. Are they criminals? she thinks, searching for anything 'villainy' about the woman. Why does Laina have these photos? 

     She places a photo behind the rest. It takes her a moment to recognize the man as the one she caught in the museum, on the same night Laina took a picture of Buggy on the roof. Like the others, the word 'Captured' is scratched at the top right. 

     Buggy hears the front door open. "Hey Buggy!" Laina calls out. "My shift ended a little early, so I figured we can plan out some more." A couple of footsteps, and then, "Buggy?"

     "In here," Buggy responds. 

     Laina practically clomps her way to the room. "I can call someone to check and see if there are going to be any news about Malik anytime soon," she adds. She enters the room and sees Buggy holding the photos. The girl looks confused, and then pales slightly. "Um, where did you find those?"

     Buggy gestures to the desk. "In between some piles," she says. "What are they? Trophies?"

     Shifting her weight from one foot to the other, Laina answers, "Kind of."

     Buggy waits for her to keep talking. "What do you mean, 'kind of'?" she asks finally.

     "You know how bounty hunters work, right?"

     "Yes . . ." Suspicion creeps into Buggy's tone. "What about them?"

     Laina extends a hand, gesturing for Buggy to hand the photos over. Buggy hesitates, but Laina gives her a look. Biting back a grudging sigh, Buggy places the photos on the outstretched hand. Laina flips them around and shows Buggy the backs. Every one of them has some sort of number, ranging from five thousand to fourteen thousand.

     "What do the numbers stand for?" Buggy asks, annoyed now. 

     Putting them back in the envelope, Laina responds with, "They're prices. In order for me to be paid for my service, I have to show these to my supervisors. If they're satisfied, I get paid. Simple as that."

     "So," Buggy starts, processing the facts. "You consider yourself a secret agent, but you're really a bounty hunter." She gestures to the package. "There's a photo of the man from the museum. Did, did I caught him for you?" Disbelief is etched onto Buggy's face as she keeps staring at Laina. 

     However, Laina doesn't seem all that troubled. "It's more complicated than you think," she says. "I've explained your guy to the other agents, but their thing is if someone outside captured a criminal, they can't get paid." She puts them back where Buggy found them just minutes before. 

     "What's that supposed to mean?" Buggy asks. 

     "I'm getting there," Laina grumbles. She opens the single desk drawer and pulls something out. She gives it to Buggy. "I haven't gotten it processed."

     Buggy glances at the slip. The check is formally white and plain, with a black price amount. It's addressed to Laina, and in the 'For' line, there's just "Museum" written. It's dated a month ago. "You've had this in your desk the whole time?" Buggy questions.

     She looks up in time to see Laina nodding. "I didn't catch him, now did I?"

     Buggy wants to keep discussing this, but honestly, it's going nowhere to catching Blond Beard and Dean. She hands the check back. "You know what? We'll deal with this later," she orders. "Right now, my hat's missing, and in a short amount of time there's going to be some breaking news about Malik."

     "That's what they took?" Laina asks. Buggy nods. "Well, hopefully you're not too attached to it. I doubt you'll get that back."

     "Thanks for your help, Laina," Buggy deadpans. "I feel so much better now."

     Laina chuckles. "See, you're still you," she says. She pulls out her phone. "I'll make that call about keeping an eye out for any more news."