Ch.11. First Arkham Bank (Ivy)

[Philulhu]

There was a sharp rapping noise from her desk that caused Ivy to jerk upright and open her eyes. Gerald Fraser stood on the other side of her desk, looking distinctly irate.

”Are you asleep?!” he snapped, his colour high. ”I don’t pay you to sleep on my time, Miss Ripley!” Without waiting for a response he stalked into his office, slamming the door behind him.

[jp1885]

It is a brave man who speaks to Ivy Ripley in such a manner.

Ivy stiffens and her knuckles tighten on the wooden arms of her chair. Jaw clenched, she opens her bag to see if the envelope is still there.

[Philulhu]

The letter addressed to Mr Fraser was still in Ivy’s handbag, nestled in the bottom next to her diary.

[jp1885]

Not, I suspect, for the first time, a stony-faced Ivy marches into Fraser’s office.

“The reason I had my eyes closed is because you’ve received another poisoned letter and I was fighting off it’s effects! Sleep indeed! Be grateful sir that I didn’t smash my head into a cabinet like the last poor fellow!”

Her rebuttal said, she pauses for a moment.

“If you wish, I will take the letter to the detective and have it analysed.”

[Philulhu]

Ivy found herself talking to an empty desk in a lit but empty office. The door to the vault in the corner was still open, and from beyond, she could have sworn she heard voices...

[jp1885]

Her hackles still raised, Ivy storms into the vault, ready to give her boss a piece of her mind.

[Philulhu]

The vault wasn’t large, no more than four feet wide between the two walls of drawers, and around twelve feet long. The electric light in the vault was on and reflected from the silvered handles on the drawers that held the papers of the bank’s more discreet customers.

At the end of the vault was a heavy, dark curtain. Ivy could hear muffled voices beyond...

[jp1885]

Ivy marches up to the curtain, but has enough sense to stop and listen before barging in.

Listen 50 fail,[dice]0[/dice]

[Philulhu]

Ivy thinks the first voice is almost certainly Mr Fraser. The second voice seemed familiar. She had heard it before but couldn’t place it.

[jp1885]

Well, with nothing else for it, Ivy walks through the curtain, preparing for a few harsh words.

[Philulhu]

It seemed to take Ivy longer than she expected to push through the curtains, as if she was walking between two long curtains, rather than two hung side-by-side. She’d expected to just push them apart and step through, but this really felt as if she was having to fight through the folds until she eventually saw daylight and broke free.

Ivy found herself in front of a wood panelled door, which she pushed open to see into the room beyond. With a start, she realised that she was stood in the corner of Mr Fraser’s study, looking on as Fraser was sat at his desk, being questioned by Detective Reynolds...

Roll against SAN,please.

[jp1885]

SAN 75 hard pass,[dice]0[/dice]

Ivy steps into the office, open mouthed. She looks behind her to see if the curtain is still there, before turning back to the two men.

"What-?" she splutters. "Mr. Fraser, weren't you just at the bank? Is this real or am I having visions again?"

[Philulhu]

Fraser didn’t turn around. Alex glanced in her direction but other than that, she got no response.

”Spare the rod and spoil the child,” laughed Fraser. He had a whiskey glass in his hand and he sounded half-cut. He pointed at Alex with his cigar and continued. ”I’m still a young man! It isn’t too late for me to have another child. Perhaps I should look up that Emily girl. If she was good enough for James, she’ll be good enough for me!”

[jp1885]

Ivy frowns.

“Hello? Can you hear me? I may only be a secretary but that doesn’t make me invisible!”

To make her point, she picks up a ledger or somesuch off Fraser’s desk and waved it at the men.

[Philulhu]

Alex guffawed at Fraser’s ribald remark. It was like the sort of sexist chatter Ivy would have expected at a working men’s club, not the sort of thing she would have expected between a grieving banker and a police detective.

Ivy picked up a ledger from Fraser’s desk and waved it at them but got no response.

[jp1885]

In her frustration, Ivy flings the ledger back onto the desk. She is about to remonstrate with the two men, but stops, her eyes narrowing.

"I'm still hallucinating aren't I? Or dreaming. Whatever this is. Come on, snap out of it Ivy Ripley! You've no time for this nonsense!" she yells.

[Philulhu]

”Who knows what is real and what isn’t,” said a voice behind her, and Ivy almost jumped out of her skin as an older man walked past her to stand in front of the fireplace. He must have followed her into the room via the curtained doorway but until he spoke he hadn’t made a sound.

The man glanced in the mirror, smoothed down his spartan hair over a balding skull and smiled a crooked smile in Ivy’s direction.

OOC,I think that calls for a SAN roll, please.

[jp1885]

SAN 75 fail!,[dice]0[/dice]

Ivy can’t help but give a shriek in surprise at the man’s sudden appearance.

[Philulhu]

SAN loss,[dice]0[/dice]

The old man gave a dry chuckle, although neither Alex nor Fraser appeared have noticed him, nor the effect he’d had on Ivy.

He waved towards her, as if shooing her away and Ivy felt herself staggering backwards, getting entangled again in the heavy drapes, pushing through the heavy fabric, turning this way and that, not being able to find her way out, until...

”Miss Ripley? Are you unwell?! We heard a commotion!” Ivy’s eyes blinked open. She sat at her desk, with the head cashier in front of her, halfway between the office door and her desk, with a wary look on his face, as if he didn’t want to get caught in there in case something was wrong and he was keeping his escape route open. Behind him, some of the younger clerks peeked around the doorframe, wondering what was going on...

[jp1885]

"Ah, hum!", Ivy splutters, blinking as if suddenly walking into bright sunlight. "Bit of a turn, that's all - been working too hard... Unlike the rest of you it seems!"

She waves her arms to shoo them out of the office, supressing a shiver as it reminds her of the way the strange man similarly shooed her away.

When they are gone, she breathes deeply, collecting her thoughts and nerves before going back into the vault to check behind the curtain...