Said the Joker to the Thief, [Maverick]

[Michael Archer]

"Do you have any others?"

[Maverick McCormick]

"No." His reply was measured carefully to be quick, but not too quick.

[Michael Archer]

He gave the man a moment to adjust his answer, but when it became apparent that he wouldn't, Michael spoke again. "Do you mind if I borrow this?" he asked, pulling the knife out of the table without waiting for an answer. "I'll return it, don't worry."

He gave it another cursory glance before looking back up at Maverick McCormick. His head told him that this was the guy who stabbed his daughter. His heart told him the same, if only to bring someone to justice, and at the moment he was the most likely suspect.

But his gut told him otherwise. It told him that this man wasn't the kind of person who would stab a teenage girl. And he'd learned that he could well rely on his gut. More than his head or heart, anyway.

Even so, he had one more question before he decided.

"Do you have any nicknames? Something that people call you for short, instead of Maverick?"

[Maverick McCormick]

"Of course you can borrow it." Why would he have a problem with a man he didn't know borrowing his knife? Maverick held in a sigh and fiddled with the glass on the table instead.

Nicknames? Aliases he had plenty of, but nicknames were less common. "Well, I've got a few friends who call me Mav. I don't use nicknames much though." He used to know a girl back home who called him Sully, just to tease him once she heard his middle name. Maverick didn't feel like that counted though.

[Michael Archer]

"What about Matt?" That was what his daughter had heard, but he supposed it could have been Mav. He would have to double-check with her.

[Maverick McCormick]

"No. That one doesn't really go with Maverick. It's just Mav." Come to think of it, he didn't think he'd used Matt as an alias yet. He'd have to remember that one.

[Michael Archer]

He nodded. That made sense. McCormick was looking pretty innocent at this point. The . . . interview was almost over. "What do you do for a living, Mr. McCormick?" He had Gordon's information on this particular question, but it was rather vague and Michael was looking for specifics.

[Maverick McCormick]

What did he do? Well that was a difficult question to answer. "It depends on what I'm getting paid to do really. I've done a little bit of everything."

[Michael Archer]

Not even an example. That definitely wasn't helping the man's credibility with Michael. "What was the last thing you were paid to do, then?"

[Maverick McCormick]

"Last thing I got paid to do?" Damn, that wasn't going to help his credibility. "Iwas hired to dissolve the marriage of a politician on Una. He wanted to be with his mistress, but still look like a good guy to the voters. So I secured grounds for divorce." Not a job he was proud of, but the payoff was huge and money was tight at the time. And as a result of the methods he had to resort to, an entire courtroom had seen his backside in all it's natural glory. At least his face wasn't in any of the shots.

[Michael Archer]

Michael's eyebrows rose slightly as McCormick told him about the job, but it was hardly even noticeable. He had certainly not been expecting that, but it was better than 'stabbing a nineteen-year-old girl', so he wasn't going to hold it against him.

He was a con man, not a murderer. Not a smuggler, either, if Michael had his guess.

"Alright, Mr. McCormick," he said, standing. "You're free to go. I'm fairly certain you had nothing to do with this, but there's still a few threads to follow." He had the knife to check out, and Hannah's hearing. Perhaps she had heard Mav instead of Matt. Though it might have been too long after the incident for her to remember properly.

In a purely businesslike tone, he stated, "If I find anything that links you to my daughter's stabbing, I'll kill you myself." With that, he stuck out his hand for McCormick to shake. Business -- that's all this was.

[Maverick McCormick]

"Well, looks like I had better hope you don't find something that looks like a link." Unfortunately, a man like him had links in a lot of bad places. A lot of odd places too. He's just have to hope for the best. At least he knew that knife was a very standard knife, widely produced. Not much to worry about there. Unless this man was really out for blood.

Maverick pushed himself out of his chair and eyed Michael's hand warily. He really, really didn't want to shake it. However, it would be incredibly rude not to and while Maverick didn't care about getting in this man's good graces there was no sense in pissing him off just yet. Maverick shook the man's hand and exited the room. He needed to get back to the boarding house, to call a man about information and see a friend about a gun.

[Michael Archer]

He said nothing as the man left.

Then he called Rags in.

The large man looked at him, waiting patiently for some sort of instruction.

After some contemplation, Michael said, "Here," and shoved the knife, blade first, into the wood table. "Find what whatever you can about that."

Rags, not sure how exactly to respond, stepped over to the knife and pulled it out of the table with ease. "McCormick's?"

"So he says."

"You believe his story?"

"Guilty until proven innocent, Rags. You know that." With that, Michael stepped out of the room and sent a glance toward Gordon, who was wiping down the bar like he had actually been working the whole time.

Rags followed, at a distance. Not that he knew how to go about it, but he decided he would get to work on the knife. How did you find things out about a knife?