Deceptive

Another Attempt

Foxy decided to give the whole question-thing another try the next day. He headed over to Elizabeth's office after work and knocked on the door.

"Come in," came her voice from inside.

Taking a deep breath, he turned the doorknob and stepped inside the small space.

Elizabeth looked up from the bills she was busy paying, her eyes meeting his. "Need something, Fox?"

"I...uh..." Oh no. It was happening again. For the love of Scott, what was wrong with him?! He had rehearsed this time and everything! Never before had he wanted so badly to slap himself. He couldn't do this. He couldn't. "Could you..."

He attempted to come up with something to say. If he wasn't going to ask the stupid questions he at least needed to say something.

"Could you help Freddy with a math problem? He's playing 'D-Co 9 and Friends: Puzzle Problems' on the computer and he's stuck on a puzzle. He wanted me to ask you." Foxy had seen Freddy playing it on his way over. He was struggling a bit from what he could see.

"I'd love to help, but I'm a bit busy right now. If he can wait a few, I'll be there. If not, I'd ask Lor instead."

Foxy narrowed his eyes. "Alright." He stood in the same spot for an uncomfortably long period of time before awkwardly shuffling away.

That hardly went any better. He wasn't quite sure what his problem was -- he wasn't usually like this, but it was clear that he ought to try something else. But what?

He brushed shoulders with someone as he walked down the hallway.

"Oh, sorry, Bal."

"It's alright."

Suddenly, Foxy stopped, whipping around to face the dancer again. "Wait!" he all but shouted.

Ballora flinched at the volume of his voice. "Yes?"

Foxy grabbed her shoulders, guiding her further down the hallway and around the corner. He poked his head back around, making sure that Elizabeth didn't come out of her office before turning towards Ballora, who had an eyebrow raised in question, looking at him expectantly.

Foxy lowered his voice, remembering that despite the fact Elizabeth's hearing wasn't very great, it was possible that she'd hear him shouting less than ten feet away from her office. "Okay, you're really smart and stuff. I need your help with something." He looked over his shoulder once more before continuing. "It has to do with Baby."

"Does it now?"

"Yeah. Have noticed how she's been kind of different since she came back?"

"Well, yes. She nearly died, Foxy. I don't think that a slight change in her demeanor is completely out of the realm of plausibility."

"I know," Foxy said quickly. "I thought the same thing. But now I think it's because of something else."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. That's what I'm trying to figure out."

Ballora looked at Foxy as if what he was saying was complete nonsense.

"Okay, it's not even just the way she's acting. There's other stuff too. Like this!" Foxy reached into his pocket and pulled out the photos Charlie had given him, practically shoving them into her hands without even thinking.

Try as she might, Ballora couldn't make out either of them with her horribly blurred vision. They were just a couple of smudged, vaguely square-shaped things to her, really. "Um, what am I supposed to be seeing?"

Foxy wasn't sure how he had managed to forget that she couldn't make out details like that. He took the pictures back. "I'll just describe them to you. They're uh, they're both pictures of the photographer and a... a dead body..."

Ballora's eyebrows shot up again. "It's... Do we know whose body it is? Or who the other person is?"

"You see, that's the thing. It looks like..." Foxy uttered the name so quietly that it was barely audible, but Ballora still managed to catch it. She didn't say anything immediately after.

"Are you absolutely positive?"

"I mean, it's a little hard to tell. The body's a bit... er, mangled and it's dark, but it... it can't be a coincidence, can it?"

"I don't know," Ballora said uncertainly. "That doesn't make any sense. Where did you even get those from?"

"Charlie gave them to me. Didn't get the chance to ask where she got them, though." Her words echoed in the back of his head but he still wasn't really hearing them. They were stuck behind too many other thoughts. "We need to figure out what's going on. I tried to ask Elizabeth a subtle question about it, but it didn't go too well."

"Is that why you ran off yesterday?"

Foxy smiled sheepishly, "Yeah. I tried again before I ran into you but that didn't go well either. I ended up asking her if she could help Freddy with a puzzle instead of what I intended to ask her so clearly, I need to try something else. And that's where you come in."

"You want me to help you scheme?"

"I think—" Foxy fell silent as Elizabeth very suddenly rounded the corner.

She quirked an eyebrow. "What are you two plotting over here?"

Ballora stood silent as Foxy started to reply, stumbling on his words and starting his sentence over repeatedly.

Elizabeth flashed him another one of those uncharacteristic smiles. "Jeez, I was kidding. Calm down." And then her expression became more serious. "Unless you two actually are plotting something over here."

"We—"

Ballora finally cut in, "No, of course not. Foxy was just telling me about Freddy's puzzle problem."

"Ah, okay. I guess you've got that handled then." Elizabeth began to walk away.

Foxy and Ballora waited until she was completely out of sight before continuing.

"Thanks for the save."

"You're welcome. I'm not sure if I know how to help you, though."

"You're not?"

"No. I have no idea what sorts of questions you could possibly ask about that and be indirect. We don't know enough about them aside from the fact that they exist. And obviously, plainly confronting her about it would be very foolish," Ballora told Foxy. "I suppose we could attempt to look for some clues, or just contact Chief—"

"Oh, I know what we could do." Foxy began to explain a plan he had just thought up, making up many of the finer details as he went along.

The look on Ballora's face did not seem the most supportive as he spoke.

"No offense, but that sounds completely ridiculous."

"I think it's a good idea!"

"Foxy. We can't do that."