Research Project

[st_clare]

Being a bit of a history buff, Julianna had been curious enough about the history of Searchlight's mines to expand her search for information, and that was what had led her back to their library. The pamphlets she'd picked up were serviceable, but they were also meant for the odd tourist on the way to a bigger city. She wondered if she'd be able to get access to the town's official records.

She was currently seated at a back table, books stacked in front of her as she studied a surveyor's map from the year of the last gold strike. This had apparently once been a boom town, although the population rose and fell at intervals. When the money ran out, the people must have run out.

The Watcher's stomach growled, but she ignored it. She wanted to finish looking over this map, then skim through some of these books. Besides, she had a bag lunch waiting for her in the car, since the only place that sold food was the diner on the highway and she didn't want to risk indigestion. Stimulation of the mind could come before the feeding of the belly.

Julianna carefully re-folded the map and set it aside, then selected one of the titles from the stack she'd pulled from the shelves. She'd stay until they closed, then bring whatever she hadn't managed to get to back to Las Vegas with her. In a town this size, she'd probably be back before dark.

Comments

[devin_capshaw]

It turned out the library was the best place to go if one needed unfettered access to a copy machine. Devin wanted to make some duplicates that he could go over with a pen. He stood next to the machine, tapping one of the library's weird half-pencils against a wooden table as pages of copy were spit out, one by one.

It was a glamorous life, but someone had to live it.

He looked up, watching the second hand move around the clock. Devin had nothing but time, at this point.

[st_clare]

She looked up because she was rubbing the back of her neck with one hand, and she immediately looked back down at her book because she didn't want him to think she was stalking him. Not that she believed in coincidences, but there were such things as accidents. Perhaps this time they could start off on the right foot.

"Hello again, Mr. Capshaw." Julianna's voice was just above a murmur out of respect to the library's other patrons. She'd dressed down again, this time in a simple white blouse and khaki slacks. She wished he didn't make her feel so short.

"I hope I'm not intruding again."

[devin_capshaw]

Devin turned at the sound of his name. He recognized her, from the gas station. He grabbed his copies and took a few steps toward her, so he wouldn't have to raise his voice.

"Hi. But you don't have to call me Mr.Capshaw. Devin is fine." She must have looked up his book, because he hadn't introduced himself the last time.

He gestured to her books. "Don't you have a school library? I'd think it would be better stocked than this."

[st_clare]

"Devin, then. And you can call me Julianna."

Maybe she'd hoped for an accident. Not arranged one, per se, because she didn't do that, but it was rare for her to be intrigued by someone so young. The Watcher smiled self-deprecatingly, held one of her books aloft.

"I wanted some information about the mines here," she said. "It seems as if there's been quite the ebb and flow of population in Searchlight, so I decided to come check out some of the surveyor's maps, which they don't have at UNLV. There were quite a few strikes here for a while. It's apparently a thing of the past, though."

She took her glasses off, since she'd only recently begun to need them. "I read your book," she said. "It was positively chilling. I'm not over-stating the case, I had gooseflesh."

[devin_capshaw]

"Cool. Nice to meet you, again."

His hand grazed over a nicked spot on his neck from when he had shaved that morning. The papers in his hand rustled from an oscillating fan that stood next to the table.

"The mines." Devin smiled, a little warily. "They are interesting, aren't they?"

The blond man nodded. He had never learned how to take a compliment gracefully. "Thanks. I was going for that. Obviously."

[st_clare]

He'd shaved. It looked good on him, and she had wondered how he'd look without the scruff. She'd been trying to initiate conversation, but the subject of the mines clearly wasn't the kick-starter she needed. Perhaps if she just faced it head-on instead of dancing around the subject as if she were still a teenager.

"Starting a new manuscript?" Julianna asked, indicating the white sheets of paper Devin was holding. "Your publisher must be eager to see your new work. Will you be dealing with possession again?"

[devin_capshaw]

He laughed, looking at the papers as if it were the first time seeing them. "Not quite. I'm actually writing about, well, the mines. With a supernatural bent."

Devin recalled his conversation with Rhiannon. There were no coincidences.

"So you teach at UNLV?" He decided to take a seat across from her. He felt weird just hovering.

[st_clare]

"I'm a professor of linguistics, if that doesn't sound too stuffy. Languages have always fascinated me, and with a university minor in history my degree meant I'd be able to teach when I graduated. That and get published, but it's nothing as glamorous as your work."

She pushed the stack of books slightly to the side so she could see his hands. "Is that why you've settled in this place, for research purposes? As you say, the university library is a bit more well-equipped, but I imagine that if you have a certain subject of interest you want to be close by."

[devin_capshaw]

He shrugged, gave her a more open smile. "Searchlight inspires me. Small town, crazy history. My imagination runs away with lesser things." Devin doodled concentric circles on the back of one of his pages with the pencil.

"So, do you know other languages? I always wanted to learn a second language, but I'm more self-taught. I don't do well in an organized classroom. No offense."

[st_clare]

Julianna's stomach did an odd clenching thing when he smiled at her more fully, and she toyed with the cover of her notebook where it sat near her stack of library books. She could feel the corners of her own mouth lifting in response to the more relaxed expression.

"No offense taken. Teaching this subject in particular can seem terribly dry to someone who isn't inclined to learn, but language has always been a passion of mine because it's how humans first learned to properly communicate. I've had to learn a smattering of several other languages because of my travels to different schools, but I'm hardly adept. My talent, if one can call it that, is translating the languages no one speaks anymore."

[devin_capshaw]

"Like Latin?" Devin had researched that for his first book. His editor's help had been invaluable.

"I thought humans first communicated through body language. You know, like primates." He shook his head at himself. "Sorry, you're the expert."

The blond nodded toward her notebook. "I'm addicted to those things. I go through about four a month, and most of them contain these." He held up the doodles. "It helps me think, I guess."

[st_clare]

She could have said something pedantic about the difference between communicating like animals and communicating like humans, but it might have come off as churlish. One shoulder went up in an elegant shrug. "Don't apologize, Mr. Cap-- Devin. Purists have debated the subject for years, and I don't mind a dissenting opinion."

"I used to write notes to myself," she confessed. "Grocery lists, ideas for future classes, reminders to pick up the dry cleaning. In my early days of teaching, I was the stereotypical absent-minded professor, and it was only with age and experience that I got out of the habit."

She was going to have lots of notes to go over tonight, because she'd been jotting down points of interest in the books she'd been reading for further study. Blip on the radar or not, she could see how a town like Searchlight could fascinate someone.

"As for your earlier question, yes I can translate from Latin. Greek as well, and some Sumerian. You might say I moonlight."

[devin_capshaw]

Devin nodded, listening to her. She was being slightly less formal than at the gas station. He wasn't quite as guarded now. Her accent helped quell the residual resentment he harbored toward scholarly figures; she didn't remind him of any teacher he had ever had.

Yeah, Devin respected them. He just didn't like them most of the time.

"I guess the question would be, why Las Vegas? Aren't there some pretty fancy universities in Britain?"

[st_clare]

"Inter-office politics. Even though this is the eighties, it's still very difficult for women to get ahead in my line of work, especially at home. I love many things about England, but if I want tenure it will have to happen over here."

And at least she was finally beginning to find things she enjoyed about Las Vegas. Her day job was fulfilling, and while there were challenges involved with the yearly check-in, it was nothing she couldn't handle. She was learning to manage.

"So what does a published author do when he isn't typing away at his next piece of work?"

[devin_capshaw]

Devin sat back in the wooden chair, frowning. "Huh. That's pretty shitty." He glanced around, making sure no one heard him. No one was currently near their table. "Sorry. Habit."

He set the pencil down. "Good question. Lately? Not much of anything. I drive around sometimes, hang out in solitude. I don't know why people rag on this place. It's beautiful."

Beautiful and creepy, but isn't that what Devin had wanted?

[st_clare]

She covered her mouth to hide the smile at his use of profanity, then took it away when she'd sobered her expression. But there was a small twinkle in her eyes when she looked across the table at him. Had the ice been broken adequately?

"I should like to take you out some night. For dinner. As fellow researchers. I was very intrigued by your first book, and I'm interested to see what you come up with next."

Julianna let the last sentence hang while the silence stretched out, and the right corner of her mouth twitched upwards into a half-smile. "Unless it would be an imposition. I've been told I'm presumptuous."

[devin_capshaw]

"Um." He scratched the back of his neck.

"I usually just eat dinner at the diner. Yeah, I pretty much have the menu memorized." Devin looked at Julianna searchingly. She didn't seem like the type to eat at the Nugget, or even read his book.

Stranger things have happened.

"Just as researchers? Though I'm not worthy of that title. I receive a lot of help."

[st_clare]

He had the most intense eyes. Julianna looked down at her notebook, then flipped it open to distract herself.

"Perhaps I could assist you," she said, still looking down. "I've collaborated with writers before, although never for a fictional work. It could be a change of pace for me. Something different from the tedium of academic research. I love teaching, but it does get a bit tiring at times."

The Watcher looked up, met Devin's gaze across the brief expanse of polished hardwood. "I know where they serve a very good steak in Las Vegas, unless you happen to be a vegetarian. I can write the bill off as a business expense. Unless you'd...rather not."

[devin_capshaw]

Devin stood, grabbing the small pencil. "Sure, I mean, Vegas isn't really my style, but I'm a meat and potatoes kind of guy."

Was she asking him out on a date? He shook his head slightly. Don't be stupid.

He scribbled his phone number on a piece of scratch paper and slid it across the table. "Tell you what, call me here and we can arrange something. But I should probably go, because..."

Devin trailed off, looking at the clock. "I have to call my editor before he rushes out of the office to Limelight. It's three hours ahead there, I think."

[st_clare]

"Oh, of course. I don't mean to keep you. I'll call when I know what my schedule is like."

There had been a slight knot of tension in Julianna's stomach, and it relaxed when Devin handed her his phone number. And she hadn't been presumptuous, at least not by much. She would give it a week, or at most a few days, then ring him up.

"Give your editor friend that call. If business hours are the same everywhere, he's likely to lock up as soon as he can make his escape."

[devin_capshaw]

He grabbed the small stack of papers, nodding. "Yeah, he's notorious for it. Anyway, thanks for the praise."

Devin gave her a small wave. "Nice to see you again." He turned and walked out of the small building. Outside, he rubbed his eyes in the sunlight. His car was parked a few yards away, the rays reflecting off of it.

He was really in a hurry to get back to his room. Julianna had given him an idea.

[st_clare]

She suppressed the giggle by a hair's breadth, returning his wave before returning to her reading. She was going to stop off at the motel where Rhiannon had been spotted, then perhaps leave a note for Holiday. She could eat once she'd gotten back to the city.

It was turning out to be a very productive afternoon.