Reasoner thought of the scowling receptionist
"Artie?"
Reasoner looked up to find Belinda, his administrative assistant, hobbling towards him on crutches.
"What are you doing here?" Belinda asked, her face scrunched up in confusion.
"I could ask you the same question." Reasoner motioned to her bandaged ankle with his hat.
Belinda grimaced. "I stepped on a damn breath mint getting off the trolley. How about you?"
Reasoner paused for a moment before answering. "One of the women I brought to the Taconite Lounge tonight fainted after drinking some wine."
Carol Ann in the hospital
"She was acting strange before that."
"After you and Jilly left, she started laughing then crying then yelling about worms in her salad."
"From what I saw, she was pretty drunk."
"No, it was more than that. I've seen men and women who have had too much to drink. They get arrogant and fearless or they get sloppy and weepy. Carol Ann Brown went through all of that at once." Reasoner turned to Belinda. "Wait a minute. You and Jilly had some of the wine she drank. Did you have any weird episodes?"
His administrative assistant hesitated just long enough that Reasoner knew she was holding back. He raised an eyebrow in her direction.
"Okay. Okay. I did have some odd things happen after we left you and I'm not just talking about twisting my ankle on a piece of hard candy."
Belinda told Reasoner about the man with the changing faces. About the violin music and the effect it had on people, or at least how she perceived how it affected them. She told him how Jilly ate a handful of breath mints at once and how the one Belinda ate tasted like a sunrise.
"How does a sunrise taste?" Reasoner asked.
"I don't remember much now but at the time it was the most amazing flavor." Belinda looked around the waiting room. "Where's Paul and that psychic lady?"
"I sent them off to the Swann Club."
"So you didn't get to go tonight, either."
"Oh, you've got it all wrong, Bel. I'm going once I know what's wrong with Miss Brown."
A voice crackled over the intercom. "Jillian Proust to the emergency room, please. Jillian Proust to the emergency room."
Reasoner turned to Belinda. "Is Jilly here?"
"I don't know," Belinda said. "She was supposed to be meeting me. I had her paged."
Reasoner stood. He squished his bubble gum into a wrapper he tossed into a garbage can.
"Is the gum helping you kick the habit?"
"We should go find Jilly."
"Or we can just avoid the question."
Reasoner raised his eyebrow again.
"Lead the way, boss." Belinda shifted her weight onto her crutch.
"Is the gum helping you kick the habit?"
Together, they limped down the hallway, searching for Jillian. Reasoner's mind raced with questions. What caused Carol Ann Brown's episode at the restaurant? What caused her to faint? Was it something in the wine? He didn't have the answers yet, but he was determined to find out.
Call it chance or fate but at the moment Reasoner and Belinda set off to find Jillian, a doctor came around the corner.
"Mr. Reasoner?"
"Yes?"
"I understand you've been asking for me. I'm Dr. Lindquist. I treated the woman you brought in tonight."
"How is she doing?"
"Much better."
"What was it, doc?"
Dr. Lindquist looked around. "I'd feel better if we could talk privately in my office."
"Oh, this woman is with me. She was at the restaurant tonight when Miss Brown had her episode."
Belinda nodded. "I drank some of the wine,"
Dr. Lindquist looked around the hall. "Please. My office." He gestured down the hall.
Reasoner and Belinda followed him. The doctor carried a sense of urgency as he walked. By the time they reached Lindquist's office, Reasoner felt like he'd traveled a dozen city blocks in mere seconds.
A nervous young nurse sat at a table writing in a log book. She smiled uncomfortably as Lindquist brought Reasoner and Belinda into the room.
"This is Nurse Weaver," Lindquist said. "About a month ago--well, she should tell you." Linquist looked at Nurse Weaver. "It's all right, Miriam. Mr. Reasoner is a private detective. Maybe he can get you the answers the police couldn't."
Nurse Weaver tells Dr. Lindquist what happened
The nurse looked uncertain. After a moment, Belinda said, "Tonight I had half a glass of wine. Not even an hour later I was seeing and hearing things that weren't there."
Nurse Weaver looked relieved. "So it wasn't just me."
"What wasn't just you, Miss Weaver?" Reasoner asked.
"Well, as Dr. Lindquist mentioned, about a month ago I was out with some friends. We'd gone to Wharf Forty-Nine to celebrate a friend's engagement. I don't know if you've ever seen a hen party in action, Mr. Reasoner, but they can get a little rowdy. We were no different. Loud, silly, boisterous. It was all good-natured fun. Or so we thought."
Nurse Weaver stared out the window. To Reasoner, it appeared as if she watched the events unfold.
"We rented a private trolley to carry us on our pub crawl. Our night began at the Hawaiian Isles for dinner. After we ate, we planned on going on the town. Everyone was in good spirits and I don't just mean from the Mahalo Volcanos we drank at the Isles"
The Party Trolley
Hawaiian Isles
"We made our way down Brewer Street. The crowds were lite. We didn't mind. It was Helen's night and we were all together for the first time in years."
The Knorwood on Brewer Street
Haus Lechorn
The Rum Cocktail Cafe
"As the night wore on, we found ourselves further and further from Wharf 49. We reached Tracksville. Not a great part of Wolf Bay. Our trolley driver suggested we turn back. It was getting late. He said we should stick to the main drag. Phyllis was insistent that we continue on."
Tracksville at the end of Brewer Street
Reasoner interrupted her. "I'm sorry. Did you say, Phyllis?"
"Yes. Phyllis was relatively new to the group. Helen knew her from somewhere. I wasn't really clear where or when they met but it was Phyllis that organized the night."
"Did you get her last name?"
"If I did, I don't recall it. The night comes back to me in little segments. I know she was older than the rest of us by about ten years. Is that important?"
"It could be," Reasoner said. He unwrapped a squishy square of bubble gum and popped it into his mouth. "Go on with your story, Miss Weaver."
Nurse Weaver rubbed her hands. "The places to visit grew few and far between. Before I knew it, we were in a warehouse district. When I asked why were there, Phyllis said she knew of a place called the Two-Five-Four. She said it was a hangout for the elite. I thought she was pulling our leg."
The 254
"Home to the partygencia?" Reasoner asked.
Nurse Weaver looked surprised. "That's just what Phyllis said. I'd never heard that word until that night and now here you are using it again."
"It's catching on," Reasoner said. "So, were they there?"
"I recognized a few faces. They mainly sat alone or in small groups, although if they did sit with others, it was like they weren't aware of one another. I remember one older man in an expensive-looking suit sitting alone at a table but talking to what seemed like a bunch of people all at once. Sometimes he shouted. We didn't stay long. Phyllis bought a round of drinks she called Delirium Six-Shooters. I can tell you the name because I wrote it in my contacts book before the world warped on me."
"Why did you write it down?"
"It had the most unique name. A sweet, dark liquor served with a Maraschino cherry and a pineapple wedge and something else. A flower I think. Or flower petals."
"How was it?"
"Delicious. I remember thinking, 'So this is what gentleness tastes like.' Silly I know."
An old man yelling at shadows
"My assistant here thought she tasted sunrise."
"After that, I heard the music of the cosmos."
"I may have heard music," Nurse Weaver said.
"You think you saw things you now think weren't weren't really there," Belinda said.
""It certainly seemed like they were there at the time." Nurse Weaver turned to the window once more. "We left the club. Made our way back to the trolley. That was when I started seeing the clowns."
"Real clowns?" Reasoner asked. "It is summer festival time."
"I'm not sure. I think it was how I was seeing the women out with me because we were clowning around, having fun. But then I saw our trolley driver and he looked like a clown. Some of the other clowns...they were just too sinister to be real."
Clowning around
A band of sinister clowns
Even the trolley driver frightened Nurse Weaver
"Did you report this?"
"I told Dr. Lindquist. Now I'm telling you, Mr. Reasoner."
"But not the police?"
Nurse Weaver threw up her hands. "What would I tell them? I had too much to drink? I saw clowns instead of pink elephants?"
"But you suspected it was something more."
"Nurse Weaver had me conduct tests," Dr. Lindquist said. "I'm sorry to say I couldn't find anything."
Belinda turned to Dr. Linfquist. "So, whatever she and I and Miss Brown ingested there's no way to know what it is."
"Unfortunately, that is the case." Dr. Lindquist said.
"Hold on, Doc," Reasoner said. "We know a few things. According to Bel and Nurse Weaver, the person swallowing whatever toxin is in the drink has a moment where the taste suggests a flavor to a variable not known to taste like anything. That's got to be the moment before the episode is triggered."
Nurse Weaver's face brightened. "She did tell me the wine was as sweet as a joy."
"True. And we do have additional data with Miss Brown."
"You might have a fourth," Reasoner said. "If my office manager is here. She drank some of the wine, too, before I arrived with Miss Brown and her friend."
Belinda looked around at the people around her. "If we can show this is happening to more people, that the random episodes are happening more frequently, the police will have to investigate."
"I don't think these are random," Dr. Lindquist said. "I think some is deliberately spiking food or drinks."
"For what reason?" Nurse Weaver asked.
"Hard to know," Reasoner said. "Control. Manipulation. Twisted curiosity."
"You're forgetting your Tenets of Crime, Artie." Belinda said. "Your fourth tenet is Crime of Greed. Maybe someone is conducting trial runs with some new psychotropic drug and will threaten to use it on a wider audience. Like put it in the water supply unless he or she or they are given millions of dollars."
"I hope you're wrong, Bel. I hope you're wrong."
Dr. Lindquist shook his head. "Odorless. Colorless. Easily mixes with liquids. It's a very dangerous situation."
"Yes, it is, Doc. If you'll excuse me, I have some places to be." Reasoner turned to Belinda. "Sit with Miss Brown for a while, would you, Bel? Have Jilly paged to her room."
"Off to the Swann Club, Artie?" Belinda winked at her boss.
"I'm working my way there. First, I want to ask Nurse Weaver here what she remembers about Phyllis. Then I want to see if I can find this Door Two-Fifty-Four Club. After that, if it's not too late, I'll make my way to the Swann Club."
"Were you invited, too, Mr. Reasoner?"
"Invited to what, Doc?"
"Vitto Pederson is hosting an announcement rally."
"What's he announcing?"
"He's going to run for mayor of Port Pinnebog."
Artie Reasoner nearly choked on his bubble gum.
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
I opened this segment with a blended prose of A I prose I tweaked and rearranged. I ask for 50 words of describing private detective Artie Reasoner seeing Belinda at the hospital. The first attempt was okay but it had Reasoner going to the hospital to specifically find Belinda who he wouldn't have known was there. I tweaked it to say '100 words describing private detective Art Reasoner going to the hospital to see Carol Ann Brown when he is spotted by his administrative assistant Belinda Doyle.' It was better but about a third of it was Artie smoking. So, I tweaked it again, asked for more words, and got a pretty good direction from it.
I think at this point I have generated close to 300 A I images. Fotor produces the best pictures but I've already sunk $30 into it for a month of pro status. I burned through my first allotment then purchased 100 additional images twice. NightCafe Creator gave me some of the excellent city street scenes but if I ask for too many people in the image I get some severely mutated faces and bodies. The sinister and horror filters have created some frightening clowns. Thanks to Nurse Weaver, I got to use them.
I'll admit I wasn't sure what to do with the Void. I decided to keep him/her/they in the city, at least for now. When Carol Ann passed out in her salad, I thought it was a little much for the amount of wine she drank. I had to work in Belinda's hallucinations and Jilly's mood swings. I walked away and a couple of hours later the idea of Delirium came to me. I didn't want it to just affect women. Thanks once more to Nurse Weaver for heading through Door 254 and describing the old man. yelling at shadows, I had a MacGuffin.
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