Okay. Second installment to Bugged stories. ------------------------ Re: Surveillance operation. After several months of none activity, this is the newest transcripts dealing with the M. LaCroix's BLT party. As you may have noticed, Sir, contained in the envelope is a DVD cassette. This CD contains the untranciable portion on the conversation that took place between M. LaCroix and Dr. Lambert in her apartment. To save time we have used the abbreviations 'NL' for Dr. Lambert and 'LL' for M. LaCroix. -Max Crowford ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------- NL-Coming! Who is it? LL-Lucien LaCroix. I would like to speak with you. NL - Yes LaCroix? LL- Doctor, we must speak about the events that transpired between us that night. NL- There is nothing to speak of. That happened months ago. LL- I believe it has finally come to Nicholas' attention. NL- God. Come in. LL- Thank you. NL- Would you like something? To drink I mean. LL- No. I have never been able to stomach that swill that Nicholas drinks. NL- It's not cow.... Nick has been drinking more human lately. NL- Don't look so surprised LaCroix. You must know how he has been? LL- No, no. It is not that. I knew he was drinking human again. I never thought you would keep human blood stocked for him... NL- Yeah, well...would you like a glass? LL- Yes, thank you. NL- Here you are. LL- Thank you. You have a surprisingly lovely apartment my dear...hmmm. This is a very nice vintage. NL- You said you thought Nick knew? LL- Yes I believe someone said something to him. NL- But why now? And who? LL- I do not know. All I am aware of is that Nicholas is asking around about that night. I believe he is trying to determine a time line of our whereabouts. Do you know how long we where a way from the party? NL- You don't remember either do you? LL-That does not matter. You can fane the influence of alcohol and the amount of time that has pasted since the party, but I cannot do the same. NL- LaCroix, you were as drunk as I was. Why can't you claim the same excuse? LL-Because Nicholas knows how I am when I am under that influence. He made a passing remark several days about seeing us dance or...something.... but I did not recall. NL- Yeah, from what I understand, you didn't need to be a brain surgeon to figure out what was going on there. LL-How do you mean? NL- How do I say this?...Umm...We where on each other like two very hormonal teenagers. NL- You look like you don't understand. We were... very touchy. LL- I do not recall that. NL- Well other people do. LL- What other people? Have you spoken to someone Doctor? NL- Who I spoke to is of little importance. I will say, however, that they know telling Nick, or anyone for that matter, would only send you into a murderous rampage. LL- Give me a name Doctor... NL-No LaCroix. You came to speak to me in my home. I will not have you demanding things from me! LL- Fine! At least tell me what was said. NL- Fine. We just talked about what happened. LL- How much of what happened? NL-That we both got drunk and had sex at your party. LL- What! NL- Oh! Screw you LaCroix. I needed to talk to someone! I sure as hell couldn't go to Nick now could I? LL- Then you should have come to me! NL- Yeah 'cause we're so close. Why do you care if Nick knows anyway? Wouldn't that just boost your little campaign against our relationship? What, are you here to gloat about your impending victory? Asshole. LL- No! I do not wish for things to become more complicated that they already are! NL- Things are not complicated! You fucked me. End of story! LL- Excuse me? I fucked you? I wasn't the only one doing anything if I recall. Your hands were mighty busy during the whole thing. NL- What does it matter now! If Nick knows we can't change that. Wait.... I thought you couldn't remember anything? LL- No. I said I couldn't remember anything of importance. I can, unfortunately, remember with absolute clarity the sounds of you moaning under me. I still have the noises you made while you were coming in my ears. I can't determine a course of action with Nicholas if I still want to fuck you now can I! This is the perfect way for me to get my son back. All I have to say is that you were all over me, and that I, in my drunken state, couldn't help but give in to you. But ever since that night all I have wanted to do is to have you again. It matters, Natalie, because I can't get you out of my goddamn mind! At first I thought it was some strange fluke. Something that would pass. In the beginning, it was just random thoughts. Memories of that night would flash back to me, my mind would wonder, thinking of things I would do to you, uncontrollably. I wouldn't notice it until my hands were wondering down to release the tension in my groin. Then when I would look at woman, I would normally stop everything I was doing just to fuck her, I no longer had any interest in it. Gods, then the dreams started. Every night was a kaleidoscope of visions of us in my bed. I'll tell you doctor, this went on for weeks, and I can't handle it any more! So I thought of ways to get you, and your sweet scent, out of my mind. I slept with anyone and everyone. Did anything, hoping that it was just boredom that was causing it. At one point I had an orgy with five women and myself, every man's fantasy, all of them concentrating on me and doing what I told them to do. I. Could. Not. Come. Do you hear me! I couldn't do it. I finally had to take one from behind, and ram-fuck her. I came with your name on my tongue. Even then I had to drain them all to find the calm I would normally feel after I spent. Do you understand now Natalie? I can't concentrate anymore. The Gods only know what would happen if Nicholas were to confront me about you now. I am slowly losing control because of you Natalie. Normally I would just kill you, but I have the strangest felling that would only make things worse. NL- LaCroix you are hurting me. LL- I am sorry Doctor. I'll go now. NL-Wait LaCroix. It's okay. What do you need from me? LL- I don't understand. NL- LaCroix you are very, very upset and stressed. If Nick knows, he is going to confront you and soon. LL- What are you saying? NL- God, this sounds like line from a porn.... What do you want to do? LL- Are you offering to have sex with me to calm me down? NL- Yes I am. Now, tell me what you want. LL-I..perhaps we should speak first? NL- I would like that. What do you want to talk about? LL- I do not know exactly. This is a new situation for me doctor. NL- One would have thought that you had women throwing themselves at you all the time. LL- Oh I do. But rarely is one of them the woman my son loves. NL- Nick doesn't love me LaCroix. LL- You don not really believe that. NL- It doesn't matter what I believe LaCroix. It is the truth. LL- Natalie, come and sit with me. Now, why do you think that? NL- I don't want to talk about this. Not with you. LL- Natalie, if you are right, then we need not worry about Nicholas' knowledge of our night together, but if I am right, then there will be problems. Do you not think that it is in our best interest to determine which of us is in the right? NL- And here I thought you too tense for rational thought. LL- A momentary loss of control Doctor. It will not happen again. NL-I have known your son for 11 years now. He falls in and out of love on a whim. My moment has passed. LL- You have known Nicholas for only 11 years. I have seen his periods of loving. You are not one of them Natalie. NL- Am I not! If he loved me he wouldn't be fucking that little blonde down at the club! LL- Her name is Ursula. And yes he is fucking her, as you put it, but he does not love her. NL- That makes me feel so much better. LL- Natalie, he needs some relief form this life. He goes to her for that relief. He is just using her. NL- He has done this before, with Jeannette and countless others. He would lie to me about it. We would arrange to spend some time together, and then he would run off with one of them. Leaving me there, worrying. Then the next day he would give me some lame excuse. Why he goes stopped being important long ago. LL- Have you told him you know? NL- What do you think? I have no place to interfere. He has given me no promises of commitment. Once I could say something, saying to was counterproductive to the research, but now... LL- I do not believe that is the only reason you have said nothing. NL- He has never told me that he loved me LaCroix. Ever. There were times when I thought I had seen something in his eyes, but he never said it. And after Valentine's Day. LL- You remember that? NL- Some, but not all. I remember going to the Azure and finding you, then there are blank spots, then Nick talking. LL- You remember the things he said. And you have said nothing? NL- Yes. A part of me did not want to believe it, but another said that you would have known if he had been lying. I couldn't believe that he was using me though. I would hate him if I thought that. That doubt still lingers unfortunately. LL- I thought he had spoken the truth for some time, Natalie. I realized he was lying after he lost his memory. NL- I.I don't understand. What could have told you he was lying? LL- The thing that he remembered the most were his feelings for you. Yes he remembered flashes of thing, people, places, but they did not make sense to him. Natalie, he did not know what he was! A thing he had been for nearly 800 years! But he knew he loved you. LL- Say something my dear, I fear you have gone mute. NL- Why have you not called in the debt? LL- When you sent him to me, at first things went slow, I told him of how he came to be a vampire. Gave some details, hoping that the memories would start to return. When it became clear that they were not, it came to me that I could tell him anything I wanted. He would never have to know how we had once fought as we did, the pains we caused each other. I looked into his eyes, so full of trust, but before I could begin to with hold his life from him, I realized that I was doing what you had. NL- I wasn't lying to him. I was trying to see if it was really mind over matter. If the vampire element could be cleared from his system using a clean slate. And if. LL- And what? NL- And what he was like without the guilt. I have rarely seen Nick happy. I wanted to know what he was like. I wanted to see him smile and have it reach his eyes. I wanted him to look at me and not know the things when had seen and done and been through. LL- Shhhh now. Stop crying child. It does not suit you my dear. NL- LaCroix, I don't know what to do. He is my best friend, I love him dearly. There is so much distance between us now. LL- I know. He told me. As I said before I was at an empass, I could withhold the truth from him, betray the trust I saw in his eyes, or I could tell all, and hold back nothing. NL- So you told him all? LL- Yes and no. I told him the things that happened in our past together, what I knew of his life apart from Jeannette and myself. NL- What did you hold back? LL- His sister. I told him that we went to his home in Barbant to see his family, and after three nights stay, we left. NL- You did not speak of the bargain? LL- Nor of the night at Azure. NL- Why? LL- After the three days it took to tell the story, he rested. When he awoke he came to me and asked if I would explain your relationship to him. I told him that he should go to you for that. The pain I saw in his eyes when he said he had asked you things, but you had held back, was enough to pay Nicholas' debt to me. He felt your lose though you were not dead. I concluded from my conversations with him that you had either wanted to break it off with him, or you knew that a relationship would never work, and felt that that was the easiest way to end things. NL- But after, for a time, we were close. LL- As I was with him, so I did not care. I had my son back Natalie, and you had sent him to me. I could not be angry with you after that. Especially when it was plain how his distance hurt you so. NL- What? What do you mean plain? You were never around me; the times I let anything out were here, alone. You bastard you were spying on me! LL- Well, did you actually think I would not? You are the only person more influential in my son's life than myself. I had to know what you were doing. It was even more important when Nicholas started coming into the club, running off paying customers, bemoaning about you. NL- Nick went to The Raven and bitched, to you, about our failing relationship? LL- Yes he did, much to my displeasure. You have quite an effect on him my dear. NL- Ohhhhhhh! Let's stop talking about this, I hate crying. Besides we should be working out your head, not mine. ------------------------ Sir, To fully understand all that happens past this point, it is best to start viewing the DVD now. It contains full video surveillance of the evening, but is automatically cued to start here. To start from the beginning of the transcript you must go to menu and select start transcript. Again if there is anything you need please call me, any time, Max When the man arrived at his desk, he was please to find that it was indeed >from his trusted employee, Max Crowford. Peeling back the metal tap, and opening the flap, he found the contents of the envelope, a letter, one-set of transcripts, and a DVD case containing a CD. Curious, he read the letter first. Reading over the short message left by Max, curious to know what"untranscribable" truly meant, the man quickly moved to the transcripts. Over the next ten minutes, he read the pages in his hand. He had found portions amusing, but none so surprising as LaCroix's admission that he was obsessed with the good Doctor. Wanting to see this in action, the man moved to the other side of the room, with DVD case in hand. With a slight push of a panel, a portions of the wall sunk in and up into the wall. Then a large, flat screen was placed flush with the wall. Walking over to the nearest overstuffed chair, the man reclined in its warmth and comfort. Reaching under the table next to it, and triggering a button, a CD tray and remote control popped out of the side of the table. Cueing the DVD to start, the man setback to watch. "Nick went to The Raven and bitched, to you, about our failing relationship?" "Yes he did, much to my displeasure. You have quite an effect on him my dear." " Ohhhhhhh! Let's stop talking about this. I hate crying. Besides we should be working out your head, not mine." The man regarded the screen with interest. The lights in the Doctor's apartment were low, and there was a fire was lit. The luminescence of the room made Natalie's face glow with warmth, made the tear track on her cheeks seem like lines of gold on her skin. She wore a black skirt and button down white silk blouse. LaCroix in his custom black. They sat together on the coach, close. Wiping the moisture from her face, LaCroix said, "Ah, but we are my dear. We are much alike, you and I. We each care for something more that ourselves, yet that thing torments us. It rips at our hearts, dares us to defy logic to protect it, to love it. We now find our hearts and minds in total opposition. Our hearts tell us to stay, our mind to go. Which do we lessen to? Our hearts tell us that there is the possibility of bliss, that everything we want and need is at the end of the journey. All we must do is follow it down its path. We long to take it, but our intuition tells us of past times. That no matter what our hearts my promise odds are there will be nothing but more pain at the end of the road. "Our minds agree with our intuition. Our minds know that nothing will come form following our hearts now, not if things stay as they are. Our minds tell us that life does go on. That Nicholas is not, and should not, be the center of all things. They tell us, Natalie, to move on. To live our lives without the complication of another. To live our lives alone and free, as we see fit. Yet there is that familiar tugging of our heartstrings; it will not let us go. And that tugging does hurt." "If I cannot stand it LaCroix, how have you for so long?" Natalie asked with tears again filling her eyes. "I fear what you fear; being truly alone." LaCroix let it seep into to her, the meaning of what he said. Surprisingly she began to laugh. "It's funny the way that works. Because if we are so alike, then you know that our very nature pushes people away. We are always alone, and we hate it." The tears came harder now. He gathered her in his arms. Soothing her with the strokes of his hand in her hair, her head resting on his broad chest. For what seemed like forever she sat there safe in his arms. When the tears stopped their horrid flow she sat up, almost entirely in his lap, wiping the tears from her eyes. " You know, I should be mad at you right now. You were spying on me." He chuckled at her response. " Not spying. Think of it as looking in on you." She was silent for some time. "I don't want to argue right now. I am tired." "Then I shall let you sleep." "You are leaving?" "Yes." "No, stay. Please." LaCroix regarded her with a look of conflict. "Natali-" Then the screen went black, and cued back to the main menu. The man was confused. There was obviously more to see. He wanted to know if LaCroix would stay! The man scrolled through the menu, and started the DVD. It played through again to the place where it cut off. Something had malfunctioned. As calmly has the man could he stood and stalked over to the phone on his desk. Dialing Max Crawford's number without breaking the cordless phone in half proved to be somewhat of a difficulty. After only two rings, the phone was answered. "Crowford." "The DVD you sent me is incomplete," "Sir, I do not understand." "I said the damned DVD is incomplete! It does not show the full evening!" "If you can give me one moment Sir, I can determine the problem." "Fine." In the background, the man could hear what was apparently Crowford's wife complaining about the hour of the call. After a few moments, Crowford cameback on the line. "Sir, I have determined the problem." "Well?" "The video equipment we used in Doctor Lambert's apartment was powered by a battery. It has expired, I think." The man was so enraged that he was incapable of thought or action for sometime. After he calmed, he spoke. "Consider all standing contracts I hold with you cancelled. I will pay the balance for all other operations; this one shall not be paid. Good night." he slammed the phone in its receiver just for good measure. "If you want something done right, it is best to do it yourself." The wheels in the man head began to turn. ------------------------- Okay, the end