Savoy House
Warm, elegant and inviting is the lasting impression of this house. Ranch-style, the exterior of the house is contemporary mediterranean, soft cream with a muted forest green roof and matching shutters at each window. The interior design of the house is predominantly rustic italian, the walls warm rich shades of cream, blue, brown and a faded rust red. The artwork is natural and simple, mirroring the earthy shades of the house and furniture. Low half walls separate the open area of the main house into individual 'rooms'. Deep, plush area rugs are set here and there to warm the chill from the italian tiled floor. From the entry, the house opens out into a library to the right, opposite a dining room to the left. Just past the dining room is a comfortable kitchen, and filling the rest of the space is a well appointed living room area. Past the dining room, a short hall leads on one side to a two car garage and on the other to the master bedroom. Past the living room on the right are three additional bedrooms, one guest room, one transformed into an artist's studio and one converted into a home office. A bathroom sits between the guest bedroom and the studio. French doors just past the living room lead out to a large enclosed patio and pool area, complete with an outdoor grille and kitchen. Beyond the patio is an large, well manicured yard, surrounded by natural wood privacy fencing.
——
It's been a day or so, since the house was occupied, but it seems as though little elves were busy. The house has been cleaned and everything rearranged to make moving and walking and doing without too much effort that much easier. Even the lawn has been mowed and the garden tended. A tall vase with a half dozen fresh wildflowers has been set on the kitchen island, the card it came with on the marble counter besides.
But none of that seems as important as the half gallon of hand-packed ice cream that's currently being pulled out of a paper bag next to the flowers, or the covered containers of hot fudge and nuts already waiting. Or even the whipped cream likely waiting in the fridge. It seems that tonight is be as bad as you want to be night at the Savoy residence. And Mignonette is going to be bad, very, very bad.
—-
The three knocks that rail against the hard wood door are very curt.
The voice that follows those knocks, however, just doesn't seem to fit.
"Miss Savoy?" The voice is female, accented lightly in the latino way, and sounds very…smooth. Not exactly threatening. "Miss Savoy, Dallas PD, I have a few questions for you." After that, all goes silent in the hall….
That is where Detective Penelope Garnez stands, credentials between her hands as she waits for an answer. She hardly looks like a cop - in the place of the cheap suit that public servants usually wear, this woman wears some very nice dress pants and a whispy purple shirt and dark jacket. All very expensive looking, but also just a little bit loose for those times that have cops climbing over fences and ducking down alleyways.
—-
"Always when I'm eating." Not that she's started yet, but there it is. "Just a minute!", is yelled towards the woman on the other side of her front door. Mignonette finishes getting everything out of the bag, and then makes her way towards the front door. She's moving slowly, gingerly, trying to keep her body and her back as still and as stiff as possible, so as not to disturb the lacerations there, or the stitches that are still in evidence, under the bandages she's wearing. And at the moment, she's mostly comfortable, in a pair of track pants and one of Alex's t-shirts. Being as loose clothing is not really her style, catch where catch can. Finally, though, she makes it to the door, pulling it open, the chain on the door only allowing it to open so far. She takes a moment, as one always should, to give the woman a once over. In particular, she seems to be looking for an evidence of the woman's badge. Once she gives it and the woman's ID information a once over, she pushes the door closed. But only for a moment, as you can hear the chain being unhitched from its stay, and then the door opens completely, Mignonette still moving slowly to open it, "Please come in."
—-
"Thank you," Penny says with a nice girl-next-door smile, stepping just inside the door and moving aside to let Mignonette close the door. "I'm very sorry for this intrusion, Miss Savoy. My name is Detective Garnez, I wanted to ask you a few questions about what happened." She looks over the woman, her smile not fading. "May I ask, how are you feeling? From what I heard you had quite an experience - a terrible one. I'm very sorry for what happened."
—-
"It's no intrusion, I was expecting someone to be over from the police department." Mignonette pushes the door closed, returning the smile, then relocks and rechains the door, before she lifts a hand to sweep towards the interior of the house, "Please come in, can I get you anything?" "I have stitches, painkillers and a gallon of homemade chocolate swirl cheesecake ice cream. I'm feeling quite well, thank you." She moves towards the kitchen herself, "If you don't mind me putting a sundae together while we talk, I don't mind answering questions. Would you like one?" At the woman's apology, she shakes her head, her movements still careful and slow, even if the lure of frozen heaven is strong. "It was not your fault, it wasn't anyone's fault, no one could have seen it coming." Which is probably part of what makes these random attacks so terrifying.
—-
Penny shakes her head. "No, thank you, I'm quite alright. Sounds like all you're missing is a bottle of wine and a good book to make a perfect evening, though." She doesn't seem to be as stiff as a lot of other detectives, at least upon first glance. "I'm a little bit jealous in that respect. I just wanted to ask you exactly about what happened. It will help us decide who will handle this case. It might be a crime if someone left an animal off a leash - on the other hand, if there are wild animals that are becoming dangerous around the city, it may be time for animal services to step in. That sort of thing." The cop reaches into her breast pocket and removes a pencil and a reporter's notebook.
—-
Mignonette makes her way back to the kitchen, pulling out a sundae bowl, and a scoop, before she puts the fudge in the microwave for a few seconds to get it nice and runny. Sweets, they're a terrible addiction. Once she pulls the fudge back out, she turns back to the counter, working as she talks, "I don't have a chance to have many perfect evenings, I take them when and where I can get them, regardless of the circumstances that brought them about." The small woman nods, turning back to the topic at hand, "I was running along the lake, using the trail closest to the water, along the left hand side. I try to run earlier in the day, but when I have a late day at work, I can't. I had passed most of the benches and out of the area where it's very brightly lit, you know just around that outer bend?" It's the area where the lights are more widely spaced out, and there's darkness usually between each pool of lights.
—-
Unfortunatly, Penny doesn't know the area - being new in town - but she writes it down to go and check anyway. "And it was fully dark by then?"Penny asks - sure, her dark eyes do slip to that sundae in the making with an almost lusty look, but she looks back to the witness, compassion in her dark mirror pools. The pencil makes soft, scratchy whispers across the paper as she scribbles.
—-
Two scoops of ice cream, hot fudge, and yes, whipped cream, all come together to make the sort of balm that soothes all ills. Once it's done, Mignonette pushes it away, before she goes to get a second dish to repeat the process. "Yes, it was completely dark, the moon was out though, and that made running a bit easier, even though I did have my flashlight." If the police canvassed the area after the attack was called in, they would have found her flashlight and cell phone, though further towards the more well lit area. "I heard this really horrible growling howl, it didn't sound like a dog or a wolf, but it was definitely an animal. I kept running, because it was sort of far off." She finishes the second sundae and then indicates one of the chairs from the pub table, "Please sit, join me. I hate eating alone, and ice cream does a body good."
—-
Penny pulls the chiar out - it makes a soft grumble against the floor, as chairs do. She's able to slip into it easily enough. Someone with a keen set of senses might notice how Penny's own kick in - checking the door, the window, almost as if taking a mental check list of escape routes. Almost like a bad habbit, that. The pad is set own, and the detective pushes a loose bit of hair back behind her ears, her attention once more fully on Mignonette.
"Could you tell which direction the soudn came from? Did it sound like one animal, or multiple? Were there any other sounds, maybe footsteps or a voice, someon calling a dog maybe?"
—-
"I only heard the howl once, far away, and it was the only one, then. And it came from the trees, from the forest that's just past the grass." There's thick tree cover along the left side of the lake. Mignonette sets the sundae in front of you, along with a spoon, before she moves to grab a seat of her own, not lifting, but pushing it around to the other side so she can face you. She takes her time climbing into it, before she starts in on her own sundae. "I didn't hear or see anyone else, no voices, no movement, no anything. There was a party going on at the botanical gardens, but that was clear on the other side of the lake."
—-
Penny makes sure to underline some facts about the party. Because that could mean witnesses, or someone who lost a dog.
The sundae looks overly inviting. She wants to take a bite. Now that an injured woman has made it for her, she'll have to. Ah well. So long, beautiful, beautiful ass. Bite. Mmmmmm.
Penny shivers at the first bite -mostly because it's cold - and cleans her lower lip with a finger before she conitnues to write. "Please continue."
—-
Mignonette tucks into the sundae like a college linebacker tucking into a steak dinner. Despite her enthusiasm, she still manages to make it look civilized. Between bites, she continues, "I probably got about…maybe a couple hundred yards further ahead, and then I heard the howl again, and this time it seemed as if it was really close, close to the lake, I mean, but I looked towards the trees and didn't see anything, so I decided I didn't really need to work off the ribs I had for lunch as much as I thought, and I turned to head back towards the house, faster than I was before, but not sprinting, I didn't want to wear myself out and run out of steam before I got back."
—-
That, too, gets scribbled onto the page. But it's happening slower now - it's very clear that Penny, like most women, enjoys her ice cream.
However, her eyes flit up, moving over Mignonettes' face. Searching for something. Searching for that slight glance that says she's thinking over actual memories instead of making them up. Watching for any dampening of the lips, any flushing - natural things to look for, when you're a detective, to make sure that everything's on the up and up.
—-
Everything about Mignonette's demeanour indicates that she does indeed seem to be recalling actual memories, her face as well as her body language loose and relaxed, showing none of the tension that might come from falsehood, "As I was making my way back, I met Mr. Marcos, a client of mine, and he offered to help me get back home." A beat, "My apologies, Oliver Marcos, he's a client who has us on retainer." Us being her firm, "I had stopped to catch my breath, and just as I straightened back up to go to meet him, something came out of the treeline, it was dark, furry, but huge, like, six or seven feet, moving so fast, I just caught it from the corner of my eye. And then I felt it claw me and I pitched forward onto the path." As the woman has moved, it's been possible to see the state of her palms, clean now, but badly scraped up. "I put my hands out to stop my fall, and I lost my cell phone and my flashlight. I had Alex go back and look for them, but he couldn't find them. I'm hoping the officers who might have been out there found them."
—-
Names! NAmes are good. The name is scribbled down. "If you have some contact information for Mr. Marcos, I would appreciate it before you leave. Just in case he saw something as well, it might be helpful." She gives the woman a smile, that same smile that seems to transform Penny from what could be a pouty, sensual looking woman into just…a happy go lucky thing. "I know there were some items found, quite a few actually, people seem to drop things there all the time. If anything is yours I'll see what we can do about getting it back to you." She dips her head, ignoring the sundae now. She's very intent on listening to this whole story. "Six or seven feet - it was on four legs and so big?"
—-
"Sure, I have him in my electronic rolodex, and I can get that for you as soon as I get on the computer." She finishes one of the scoops of ice cream, and adds a bit more nuts, "I'd appreciate it, I'll give you a description. The flashlight I don't care too much about, but it's such a hassle getting all your phone information back together when you lose one." She starts eating again, somehow managing to avoid a brain freeze, and picks back up the story. "No, was on two legs, I could see that, as I was trying to get up from the ground. Mr. Marcos was helping me. It was so dark, I couldn't get a good look at it. Big arms, big body, sort of like…maybe like a bear or something, on its hind legs. I've seen that on nature shows, when they're fighting and such, they stand up and claw. I can't think of what else it could have been…it was much too large to be a cat, or a dog and they can't get on two legs anyway. Doctor says the lacerations looks like a big cat or a bear, too." She pauses, "Are you going to need to see them?"
—-
Penny shakes her head with a smile. "No, the doctors took photographs for insurance purposes - I will have access to those. That should be all I need. But from what you say, it does not sound like it was a loose dog or something, so this iwll most likely become an issue for animal control, if there is some sort of animal on the loose. Every now and again you hear these stories about someone keeping a panther as a pet or something, and then it gets out and we have issues like this but….well we'll see what we come up with. Are you alright to continue?"
—-
Mignonette nods, taking a moment to catch her breath from all the eating and talking, and then nods, "I'm alright to continue. Anyways, we were closer to where the picnic tables and such are, where there's more people." Which she does, after another bite, "Mr. Marcos helped me get to my feet and we got ready to run, I'm afraid I don't have more details for you. My back was hurting, I was terrified, my hands hurt." She pauses, looking down at her bowl, as if the admission is shameful, but once she's ready to speak, she looks you in the eye, "I have a fear of the dark, I can't even sleep in here without a nightlight, that's why I always have the flashlight, once I lost it, it was…I'm sorry." A shake of her head, "Just before we got ready to run, once I was stable enough on my feet, two large dogs, I think, attacked whatever it was, the bear. I don't really know what direction they came from." She sets down the spoon, "I'm normally not a supporter of letting your animals off leash, even when there's nobody around, but whomever owned those two, saved my life. They must have heard the commotion and me screaming, because they starting biting an snapping at it. After that, Mr. Marcos and I just ran, we didn't stop until we got back to the house and them only long enough to get my car and get me to the hospital."
—-
Penny shakes her head, her smile fading, but her face compassionate. "Don't be sorry at all, particularly not of being afraid of the dark. I've always found it funny to hear parents say that children grow out of a fear of the dark. It's smart to be afraid of what you can't see. Cautious and smart. Any parent who ever tries to teach their child to have comfort in a situation where they are at a grave disadvantage is a foolish parent in my book."
She ducks her head and continues writing, scribbling things down in a shorthand that is sometimes cursive, sometimes print, sometimes english and other times spanish (whichever is the shorter word). "What kind of dogs were they, the ones that showed up? If owners let them off their leashes the owners may have seen something as well."
—-
"I always hoped i would grow out of it, but I never did. I always have to have something with me, even in the middle of the day, just in case." She's almost finished, and doesn't seem to be looking to add to her dessert. "I only got a brief look, just before we took off running, one was big, black, a grand mastiff, I think, the other I only caught a glimpse of, but it was lighter, brown or red, sort of like Lassie, maybe?" She finishes her sundae, pushing the dish aside and wiping her hands and mouth, polite as always. "That's all I can remember. Maybe Mr. Marcos might be able to help more. I was facing away from the thing, but he was facing me, he might have gotten a better look."
—-
"I'll ask him, and hopefully we can get this all sorted out." Penny gives her another smile, folding up the notebook and tucking it away. Out of a little black leather case comes an embossed card reading DETECTIVE PENNY GARNEZ, with contact information and the shiny seal of the Dallas PD. She slides it across the table. "I want you to have this in case you remember anything, or if you should ever need anything at all. In the meantime, I'm going to do what I can to make sure that whatever problem there is, be it a black panther on the loose or just some wild creature, that it's taken care of so that no one else gets hurt." She says the words, determined word, but with such a lightness and reassurance that there doesn't seem to be any implication of ciolence at all.
—-
Mignonette reaches over to accept the card, with a grateful smile, "Thank you, Detective Garcia. I'm sorry I don't remember as well as I should. It all just happened so fast and it was terrifying. I know they have animals in the woods around here, but I never expected something to happen like this." A beat, and her expression, if possible, grows even more serious, "I hope that you do. I don't want to think about anyone else having to go through what I did."
—-
Penny smirks a little bit. "It's Garnez," she corrects easily. "But please, call me Penny anyway." It's nice to hear her name - her own name - after so many years. "And we'll do our very best to make sure that people are kept safe. But from one young woman to another, may I suggest perhaps taking a safer route for late-night jogs? Or perhaps a treadmill - just for the late night ones, anyway." She doesn't seem to need an answer to that, but she stands slowly, the chiar once more groaning against the floor, as she prepares to go.
—-
Mignonette's cheeks colour in a blush of embarrassment, "I'm sorry, Detective Garnez…Penny. I guess I'm still recovering from the painkillers they gave me in the hospital after my surgery. I'm usually so good with names, I have to be." As she sees the detective start to come to her feet, she moves to rise as well, "Let me go and get that contact information for you, before you go." She starts off on her slow and steady way towards the office, pushing the door open and leaving it so, as she moves to her computer.
~Fade~
