2015.10.15 - A Case of Lost Keys

*The slayer Faith helps the new doctor locate his car keys at the mall.*

Oct. 15th 2015, 6:00PM

The Richland Mall, Beacon Hills

Outside the Richland Mall, early evening, and there's a woman in her early twenties fiddling with something on a motorbike. After a moment, she straightens, a satisfied look on her face. Dark hair, fair skin, very fit looking and dressed like, well, a biker. Stepping away from the bike, she glances around, her gaze seldom lingering on any one person or object. She's not currently wearing her helmet - it's on the back of the bike.

A mall is a great place to go to get to know the locals, and it also conveniently has stores. Perfect for replacing things that got lost in a cross-country move. Quincy Merritt, a middle-aged man of average build, heads across the parking lot, away from the mall and back toward his vehicle. He's got a shopping bag in his left hand, and is fishing his keys out of his jacket pocket with his right. He walks past the woman and her bike, offering a quick glance and a friendly nod her way.

Faith Lehane nods back, giving the man a quick look over. He pretty much radiates mundane. It's not quite dark yet, so after a moment, Faith secures her bike and starts to move into the mall herself. Malls are, after all, handy places.

The painfully mundane Quincy stops next to a dark blue Jeep Grand Cherokee, and proceeds to re-check his jacket pockets. And his pants pockets. "Dammit," he mutters under his breath as the third try reveals that he's managed to leave his keys somewhere that they aren't supposed to be. He tries to look in the tinted windows of the vehicle to see if they're in the center console, they're not, then concluded the keys are somewhere inside the building. This puts him heading the same direction as the young woman, only this time there's more urgency and annoyance in his step.

As she reaches the door, she realizes the man is behind her. And she picks up, perhaps on that urgency. "Are you alright?" the young woman asks. Her accent shows clearly that she's not a local. New England.

The man had been mostly lost in his own thoughts, trying to recall the most likely place the keys would have ended up, when the woman's voice snaps him out of it. "Oh, I've managed to lose my keys," he replies as he reaches for a door to pull it open. He'll let the young woman walk through first, if she choses.

Faith Lehane ducks inside. "Do you remember where you last had them?" she offers in a perfectly friendly manner. Ordinary stuff. It makes a nice change from what she spends her life doing. She moves with an unusual grace, very controlled. Dancer, maybe?

Following Faith inside, Quincy sighs lightly. "The parking lot," he replies. "I swear I put them in my jacket pocket." The man is quite the opposite of the woman, moving in an obviously tired manner, shoulders hunched in embarrassment. Been in town only a couple of days, and this is how he makes his first impression on the general public. Hopefully his first day at the hospital will go smoother.

"Hrm. Probably best to retrace your steps then." As if made paranoid by the talk of dropped keys, she checks her pocket. Yup. Still there.

Quincy Merritt nods in response, keeping an eye down toward the ground in hopes of spotting the bundle of keys. "I had just come from the electronics store over there, so I guess that's a good place to start." He glances up long enough to nod toward the miniature Best Buy store across from the entrance.

There's definitely something about the way this young woman's gaze sweeps over the place. Economical. Paying attention to everything - taking it in. Very alert and still that sense of control. "Alright." She heads over towards the Best Buy.

Situational awareness isn't something most people have, especially not most young adults who hang out in the mall. Quincy picks up on that much, even though he's still mostly distracted by his missing keys. Gang banger, maybe? No, she doesn't quite look that part. Plus, the doctor moved out here to get away from that. He follows her in silence for now.

Just biker, maybe. "Hold on." She moves to the side. "No, silver candy wrapper." A pause. "We should also probably check the customer service desk in case somebody handed them in."

Quincy Merritt skids to a stop when Faith spots something, but he slumps his shoulders again when it turns out to be nothing. "That's probably the smartest thing to do," he replies with a forced chuckle. "Hopefully someone has turned them in and I can get on my way. Not how I planned to spend the evening."

"Never is. I've had some doozies of evenings," the young woman admits. "I was going to pick something up, swing by home, then go find a bar."

"If you have plans you don't have to stay here on my account," Quincy replies, feeling slightly guilty and more than a little sheepish that his misguided evening has ended up skewing someone else's. "I can always call a locksmith out."

"Eh. I'm not in a hurry." Then she seems to realize something. "Oh. I'm Faith." And she'll probably actually be killing vampires. Before or after the bar.

The doctor offers a smile. "Quincy, nice to meet you, Faith. And thanks for your help, I feel like an idiot losing my keys my second night in town." As for vampires, he's completely clueless, for now.

Lucky man. "Let's go try customer service." She's still keeping an eye out for the keys as she heads in that direction. A teenaged boy wolf whistles her. She rolls her eyes, but otherwise ignores him.

Wolf-boys are also a complete unknown as of now. "Sounds like a plan." Quincy says, also keeping an eye out for keys as he follows Faith toward the customer service kiosk. She likely knows the mall a lot better than he does and will navigate there a lot quicker than he would. "So what's this town like? Pretty quiet?"

"Just lively enough not to be total deadsville," Faith admits. "But I don't live here all the time. Business, you know." She looks young for business.

Quincy arches a brow, but doesn't question Faith on her 'business'. It's none of his. "Good to know. I haven't had much of a chance to see anything beyond the place I'm moving into, and the grocery store down the road."

"You'll get used to it. But it's a nice enough town. Like I said, lively enough not to be boring. Small enough not to be unfriendly." Honestly, Faith likes it here, but...

The doctor smiles a bit again. That sounds a lot better than working a downtown hospital that regularly plays host to gang members, criminals and drug addicts. "Sounds like it's going to be nice here. Have you lived here long?" The accent pegs her as not from around here, but she still could have moved here at a young age.

Faith Lehane shakes her head. "No. I'm pretty new to the area. Was in Los Angeles before then, and I spend quite a bit of time in San Francisco. I have a friend there who's a private investigator."

"The Bay Area is a nice place," Quincy comments as he looks toward another shiny on the floor that's not his keys. "Though I wanted away from big cities for a while. That's why I'm out here." Not that Denver is really /that/ big of a city, especially compared to some of the older, east-coast cities. But it was more than enough.

"I'm not going back to Los Angeles any time soon." Quite determined that. "I like cities, but Los Angeles is a bit much."

"I don't blame you there," the man replies. "Only been out there a couple times for conferences, and it wasn't my kind of place." He shifts the bag from his left to his right hand.

"Hey." Faith has got to the desk. "We're missing a set of keys here." She glances at Quincy. "What's the fob look like?"

Quincy steps up to the desk, beside Faith. He's taken a back by her forward nature for a moment, then answers the question. "Oh, it's a Jeep remote, and there's a Cessna keychain on it."

The customer service person nods. "Got it." And...hands over Quincy's keys. Faith grins. "See. Small town. People actually turn stuff in."

Quincy Merritt lets out a sigh of relief. "Thanks," he says to Faith, then looks to the customer service rep. "...To the both of you." He offers the young woman a nod as he turns to take his leave, keys in hand. "Have a good evening, see you around sometime. I owe you."

"I don't do favors," Faith says with a soft, but oddly dangerous smile. "Take care out there. Especially at night." Which it's heading towards rapidly. With a smile for Quincy, she turns to disappear into the mall.