Samuel reclined at his table, gazing idly out the window at passersby on the street as he waited for his order, half-listening to the quiet chatter within the coffee shop. He paid little mind when a dark haired stranger entered after him, asking after the phone. He passed his attention elsewhere for a moment until a small snippet of a one-sided conversation carried itself to his ears. Oh. Samuel closed his eyes, steepled his fingers, and rubbed gently at his temples, frowning softly. Elijah Craigh. The man wasn’t lying, and that could be a problem.
He slowly opened his eyes, trying not to draw attention to himself as he listened to what he said carefully, hoping that whatever had brought him here had nothing to do with one Samuel Capricorn. It wasn’t until he left the building and was well out of sight that he relaxed, letting out a long, slow sigh. “Well,” He muttered softly, rising from his seat, “I suppose that puts a damper on lunch”.
Samuel paid idle attention as one of the identical gentlemen moved to try and comfort the rather understandably distraught waitress who had taken his order a few moments before. The other remained in his seat. Samuel wasn’t certain, but he got a vague feeling that the man was watching him. As the pair regrouped, Samuel stepped away from his table, reaching into his pocket and removing a thin phone, his fingers brushing across the smooth surface, he quickly dialed in a government number, followed by a series of extensions.
“Hello, this is Samuel Capricorn, I would like to provide some information. I won’t even charge you for it.”
The voice on the other end took a moment to respond. “Well that’s a relief, we let you charge us too damn much in the first place. What is it, then?”
“Are you familiar with one Elijah Craigh? Made nasty work of some officers of the law a while back.”
“No shit, who isn’t? He got pardoned a few years ago. Why, you hear something about him?”
“He just interrupted my lunch break.”
“What?”
“It’s when I stop working to eat. I do that sometimes.”
“Fuck you, Capricorn, you know what I meant. Where are you? What did he do?”
Samuel rested his back against the doorframe, looking down the street in the direction that Elijah had left. “Now, now, no need for that sort of language. I’m at a café called Lattetude, about a block and half south of my office. He just walked in and asked to use the phone. Made some rather thinly veiled threats. He mentioned a place called Club Chaos, I assume he’ll be headed there. I think he was looking for somebody, but he didn’t mention who”.
“You’ve gotta be… If I didn’t know your shtick, I would’ve hung up by now. Do you know how crazy that sounds? He just… walked in?”
“That is what I said, yes”.
The voice on the other end sighed. “Well, we’re on it. Thanks. Call us if you learn anything else”.
“Of course,” Samuel smiled and then hung up, slipping the phone back into his pocket.
He glanced at his watch. The entire scene actually hadn’t taken much more than a few minutes. He might be able to finish his lunch after all. Samuel returned to his seat, glancing at the table beside him and tucking a stray lock of sandy-blonde hair behind his ear. “Well, that was an interesting little diversion, wasn’t it, gents?” He mused, giving a small smile to the matched set of men next to him.