Meta: The Company We Keep (HL: The Agent #8)

[argentum_ls]

Some stories practically write themselves. Some … don't.

I started "The Company We Keep" right after finishing "Fish or Cut Bait," with a clear idea of what I wanted to write about: Cory.

"What?" you say, "That's not a clear idea. That is, at best a casting item."

As I'm a pantser through-and-through, this is pretty on par with how my stories start. And, indeed, the first couple chapters landed very smoothly on the page.

Then I wrote a scene that I quite liked, it allowed me to get some Matthew & Cory snark on the page (and to show the side of Matthew we get a glimpse of in "Manhunt" when he's a complete ass to Carl about breaking his chains) … and the story ground to a halt.

She twisted, planting an elbow on the table and resting her chin on her hand. "From where I'm sitting, it looks like the message is meant for you."

"How did he know to target you?" Matthew interrupted. He tried not to do that, well aware that some of his behaviors needed careful monitoring as he adjusted them for the tide of the modern world. This time, the question was out of his mouth before he even knew he had one to ask. "Did you talk to him on one of those conference calls? Did he recognize your voice too?"

"Nah, Marianna did all the talking. We were only there to listen and to be reminded that we weren't the ones calling the shots. For all I know, he's targeting me because of my role in this scam, and not because of our history. He might not have any idea that I am more than that alias."

Talbot raised a sceptical eyebrow. "You really believe that?"

Matthew didn't. The beheading of the fourth victim all but announced that the killings weren't merely to threaten a run-of-the-mill con man.

[…]

Matthew stood up, needing to move in order to hide the laughter bubbling inside him. Talbot wouldn't appreciate it, and Cory would leap at the diversion it offered. He crossed to the kitchenette that took up one wall of the conference room, and poured a fresh cup of coffee.

[…]

He busied himself with decommissioning the coffee maker while he stuck the cup in the microwave to heat up; he'd taken the last dredges, and he didn't see any point in making more. He also had no qualms about interrupting Cory, especially when he wanted to keep him focused.

[…]

Matthew carefully dumped his newly-heated coffee down Cory's back and Cory leaped to his feet with a howl.

"Ow! Fuck!" He scrambled to pull the sodden fabric away from his skin before it could burn further, while casting around for a cloth or napkin that he could use to mop up the spill. There wasn't one. The table held only the spread of files and papers that the agents had been working through, and the chairs, themselves, were made of a pleather that was designed to not be absorbent. "What'd you do that for?"

A smug grin etched its way across Matthew's face.

Cory had dashed for the kitchenette and begun rummaging through the drawers and cabinets. The doors slammed as he opened and closed them. "Not even a napkin? How can this be a kitchen without any napkins or paper towels?" He pulled out a package of coffee filters, considered them, then tossed them aside.

"You—You did that on purpose." Talbot glanced back and forth between the two men, perhaps trying to determine if she'd seen what she thought she had. She had also risen, yet seemed stuck on whether to help Cory find a towel or to gather up the files before any harm came to them. Only a few splashes of coffee had hit the table, yet they had already started to creep toward the folders. "You could've hurt him."

The door slammed then as Cory abandoned the cabinets and headed for the restrooms, leaving Matthew and Talbot alone.

"He'll be fine," Matthew assured her. "Damp, but fine." He blew out a long breath that carried his pent-up stress. "I've been wanting to do that since Montana."

Talbot's brow creased in question. "Montana? As in, the state? Or, is that some kind of code word?"

"The state … I believe it was a state by then." Matthew tapped his now-empty mug against his lips and considered. "Yes, it was definitely a state — at least as far as legal recognition went. The on-the-ground reality, of course, was very different; it would be decades before lightbulbs and indoor plumbing became the norm instead of high-class follies belonging to the rich."

"I … OK," Talbot uttered, after a moment, physically reeling, as if Matthew had poured more than words on her as well. "That was a lot, and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with it. So, let's skip to the real question: Why did you want to dump hot coffee on Cory?"

That might've been the easiest question Talbot had asked in weeks. "Give it a few days," Matthew answered. Setting the mug aside, he pulled a small stack of paper napkins from his pocket and began blotting up the spills. "You'll understand."

Matthew paused, the splash he'd been wiping up left smeared in an arc on the table, and considered. With a quick swipe, Matthew cleared the last of the smear. "While that isn't often a compliment, for what we're dealing with now, he might just be the right person to help us."

"And, yet, we only have this case because Red is trying to get Cory's attention."

"We shouldn't be so hasty to tie these victims to Cory."

"Why not?"

Matthew tossed the sodden napkin into the garbage and stepped to the small sink in the kitchenette to rinse his hands. "Because he could be after me. Or both of us."

"Talbot—"

Matthew was saved from needing to generate any further excuse or explanation when Cory crashed back into the room, a wad of paper towels clenched in his fist. "I have returned!" He moved for the table, then jerked to a stop as the sight of the surface. "You cleaned it up already?"

"We cleaned it up already," Matthew confirmed.

Talbot rounded on Cory, determined to get an answer to at least one of her questions. "Did you know Jesse James?"

Cory started, momentarily unbalanced from the whiplash, then re-gathered himself. "I've known a lot of people…"

Segments marked with […] are where pieces were pulled out and repurposed in the story. Which pieces were repurposed, I no longer know — nor do I have a complete version of that original scene to look back on.

But I do have another chunk of the scene, which I'm going to share just so you can see the kinds of notes I leave myself as I'm writing:

Talbot ground her lips together at being asked to withhold information that could help the case. "I guess you did warn me." She banged a hand on the table, the thunk sharp and definitive in the silence of the room. "So, let's build this case. We're going to make sure their families know the men died trying to do the right thing, and we're going to stop this Red-character before he scams another charity out of its hard-earned money."

"Can't object to that enthusiasm," Cory commented. "Energy like that is just what we need." He stuck the pen behind his ear, then planted his elbows on the table and cupped his chin in his hands so he could gaze upon Talbot. "Whatcha got for ideas, Sweet—"

"Oh, I did," Matthew agreed. "I reckon he got seriously scalded. Second degree burns, if we're lucky."

"Maybe it'll be enough to get the message to stick," Matthew commented, watching through the window as Cory stiffly strode down the hall, like the back of his coat and shirt weren't drenched through. "He's always been a slow learner."

"But …"

Matthew shook his head, silencing her objection before she could form it. "He'll heal. The only thing he'll have to suffer is getting the stain out of his shirt." He turned his attention back to the table. "So, we have to figure out how to connect these dots. Where do you want to start?"

Talbot could only stare at him. All the facets of Matthew she'd seen in their two years together, and this one was a first. "Not that I don't appreciate you charging to my defense," she said, "but I could've handled it. He's not the first person to call me sexist nicknames."

"I know," he answered. "But there's something else, and I didn't want to tell you in front of him."

[...]

"It's complicated," he said. "Listen …" He told her about the security recording.

"Do you think he's the one who tampered with it?"

"No." Another glance out into the hall showed no sign of Cory, though Matthew could still sense his Presence, so he had to be nearby. "I think [INSERT GOOD, PARANOID REASON HERE. WHAT ARE YOU HIDING, MATTHEW?]."

"Well, how do you know? Has it been analyzed already?" Talbot frowned. Information like that shoud have been in the casefile.

As you can see, there are several reveals in here alone, that happen differently and at different points in the completed story. That was part of the problem: too much, too fast.

There's also a rule in writing (even for pantsers) that the author needs to know more than the characters. I did not. I had no idea where this case was going nor how it was going to be investigated. It's obvious in this scene that the characters are wrapped up in identifying that there is a case, rather than taking steps to solve it.

No matter: I had time. The posting of "Fish" was going to be starting soon, and that story was set to be 13 chapters long (which would take over 3 months to post!). So, I turned my focus to revising "Fish" and getting that started, figuring that whatever was stoppering the new story¹ would shake loose in my subconsciousness.

When a few weeks passed—and it became clear that my subconscious had no solutions—I tried a different writer's trick: When a scene is stuck, chop off the last 10 lines and start over. However, instead of 10 lines, I chopped off the entire scene and went back to scratch.

This worked. Partially. I managed to write an additional 23K words (bringing the story total to ~35K) before I hit another wall where, once again, I didn't know how to get myself out of the story I'd set up. There were also several scenes that had been started, then abandoned part way through. It's a technique that works sometimes: if a scene isn't moving forward, skip over it and get on with the story. As Tornis and I have said ad nauseum through this project: We'll fix it in post.

One of those scenes involved Maggie, because we hadn't heard from her for a long time. In the original drafting, after the agents visit the morgue, they go straight to Records.

Impatience finally made the decision for Matthew. The anticipated records hadn't shown up, so he decided to go collect them himself. Talbot and Cory rose when he did and followed him out of the office, no one speaking a word.

The temperature was warmer in Records than in the morgue, though not by much. Several of the staff huddled at their desks in sweaters, and one had on a pair of fingerless gloves. The person they'd come to see, on the other hand, wore only a regular button-down shirt, the sleeves rolled up to her elbows and revealing her heavily-inked arms.

"Ms. Holden? Would you be able to spare us a moment of your time?"

"Agent McCormick." Maggie looked up from the computer she'd been scowling into, focusing first on Matthew, then on Talbot. "You must be here about the Warehouse—" Her sentence cut off as her gaze landed on Cory.

[…] and stood, turning to the shelves behind her where a selection of manila folders stood in a file folder. These were the ones waiting to be enveloped and delivered to their respective department. Maggie rifled through the folders until she found the correct one. "I'm still waiting on a callback about one of the pages that came through the fax corrupted, so the file isn't complete," she said, handing it directly to Matthew.

"I appreciate the warning," he told her. "We'll get started with this. Do you have any sense of when you might get that callback?"

Maggie shook her head. "Between time zones and trying to find anyone competent enough to coordinate multiple types of filing systems and databases, I'm afraid there's no way to know."

"Excuse me," Tablot interjected. "I was wondering about your tattoos."

"If you're about to tell me that I need to cover up—"

Talbot held up a hand, stopping Maggie before she could get her ire up. "That's not what I was going to say. I investigate serial killers, not dress code violations." She took a breath, settling herself. "I was just curious if your tattoos meant anything."

Maggie regarded Talbot for a long second, her expression stern. This Maggie had no patience for stupid questions, and right now she was trying to decide whether Talbot's counted. Nearby, a photocopier whirred to life and began spitting out pages. Matthew counted a dozen before Maggie made her decision. "They each have their own story," she said. "Some of those stories can be shared — and some are private." She twisted her right arm as she spoke, concealing all the art on her inner arm the rolled-up sleeve had left uncovered.

Matthew was neither close enough nor paying enough attention to speculate on which of the designs could be the one she didn't want to talk about. Frankly, that wasn't his business. Maggie wasn't a suspect, and he was the last person who wanted to start prying into other people's private lives. That Talbot was asking about the tattoos at all interested him far more. Though letting them show was technically against the rules, Maggie's value in the Records department afforded her some leeway, so the tattoos had never been a secret.

"What are you thinking?" he asked Talbot. "Something to do with the case?"

Talbot shook her head.

This remaining bit is not quite 600 words long. The original was over 1000 words. And almost nothing happens in it. After Records, they return to the office for more talking:

"I don't know. It's an angle, anyway. So far, our last guy is the only one who doesn't fit the pattern. There's gotta be a reason the killer choose him. Assuming that it's not just bad luck, maybe his tattoos have a story in them we should be finding out about."

For a moment, Matthew sat stunned. It was so obvious, and yet they had missed it. He had missed it. They shouldn't have made such an oversight to begin with; Matthew had too much experience for that, and Cory was … well, that was irrelevant. What mattered was that the amount of background knowledge he and Cory brought to the case put them at risk of not conducting a clean investigation that could stand up to a good defense lawyer. Thank god Talbot had spoken up.

"She's right," Cory admitted. "We'd be remiss to rule anything out without looking into it first."

Matthew acknowledged Talbot with a tip of his chin and an "Excellent work," then tucked the folder under his arm. "Thank you, Ms. Holden. I believe we have plenty to get us started now. "

Back in the hallway, shoes clacking along the floor and scatters of a score of conversations filling the air, they walked without speaking, each wrapped in their own thoughts.

Only after they closed the office door behind them did Matthew speak again. "I don't believe you're correct." Talbot tilted her head in question. "About the relevance of the tattoos," he said.

"I don't think I am either," she said.

"You don't?"

"I still want us to look into it, but my gut is telling me it's not what we're looking for." She parked herself against her desk, positioned so she could see both the men. Her blazer hung open, revealing the straps of her holster. Though she wasn't armed right now, the presence of the holster alone carried weight. "My gut is also telling me that you both are holding out on what you know."

She looked too Matthew, seeking assurance from the person she already had a partnership with and, to Matthew's relief, not softening to Cory's teasing. "Fill me in. All the way. I already know the weird part, so the rest should be a cake walk."

Closing his eyes, Matthew fought to collect himself. This wasn't the way or the time for the answers she wanted—not that any good way or time ever existed. It had taken them three days and as many false starts before he told her the truth about his Immortality, once he accepted that he either had to tell her or cut her or of his life. Now, here they were again with even harder-to-swallow information.

"For starters," Talbot continued, "why do you both keep calling him Red? I know that's not his real name. It can't be."

"Why not?" Cory asked. "People have all kinds of strange names. You're named Talbot."

"Not the same thing," she answered, in a way that didn't invite extrapolation.

Matthew scrubbed a hand over his face, relieved that she'd at least started with an easy question. "It's because we don't know what his current name is," Matthew said. "Referring to him by a name he isn't using and hasn't used in … centuries, perhaps, isn't going to help — are you OK?"

Talbot's face had paled beyond even her foundation's ability to hide it. "Did you say 'centuries'? As in, plural?"

"I did."

Her voice lowered to a croak. "How old is he?"

"Not to be a party-pooper, but that doesn't matter either," Cory said. "He's complicit in stealing hundreds of thousands of pounds from charities and murdering up to four people within the last month alone. We can go over his biography after we catch him."

Once again, very little is happening, and Big Revelations are being treated as conversational asides.

But now, "Fish" was done posting and I needed to start posting this story. It wasn't finished yet. It was, in fact, badly stuck … again. However, with 35K in the file, that at least bought a few weeks for me to figure out and write the ending.

In the meantime, there were some more minor issues to address. In the original idea, I'd assigned Cory to Interpol. BlackDwarf, one of our amazing beta readers, suggested I use the National Crime Agency instead. A quick google revealed that this was a much better fit, so I went with it. After posting the second chapter—and completely by chance—I learned that my quick google had been too quick. The National Crime Agency hadn't existed in 2002. It took a little more digging before I found the National Crime Squad, which at least had a name close enough to not require more than a light edit².

There's also the issue of weather. If characters need to experience weather in a story, they are probably dealing with the same weather I am. Write what you know, and all. As the majority of writing for "Company" occurred in the summer, the story-weather kept slipping in summer, despite the story being set in February or March. Um. Oh yeah. It wasn't supposed to February or March, either. Our timeline required the story to be set before the new year. Fortunately, Tornis caught that before it became too big an issue.

Chapters were posting now and the story was still stuck. So stuck, in fact, that here are three different attempts to start a scene that I could not get moving:

"Nope. First answer the question, then we can talk about the job."

Resigning himself to yet another round of questions from his partner, Matthew got settled. "There's nothing that interesting, Talbot. I only wanted to get a start on crafting our update for the morning briefing."

"By which you mean figure out which parts to share and which parts to fudge." Though she gave Matthew an opening to dispute her analysis, he saw no need to take it. He'd been clear on how the case needed to be handled. For Talbot to ask again merely meant she was still processing the shift in protocol. Or, she was secretly recording him. After a moment, Talbot nodded.

Talbot pushed the folder she'd been leafing through aside and dropped her head onto her folded arms. . All we have to do is place him at the scene."

They were already several bad cups of coffee into the morning, and Cory had abandoned his chair entirely to sprawl on the floor, one arm slung over his eyes. "We also need to connect him to one or both of the murders," he pointed out, proving that he wasn't sleeping, despite appearances.

Talbot riffled through the pile of the folders that had accumulated in their inbox while she sipped at her morning coffee. "You would think that knowing who the killer is would make it easier to prove who the killer is. We have all these leads, and yet …"

"He's had a lot more experience at covering his tracks than our normal perps," Matthew pointed out. "We may have to consider the possibility that we're only going to find him if he wants us to find him."

"About that." Talbot

From where he'd sprawled on the carpeted floor, Cory lifted his head and mouthed, "Uh oh."

"Based on what we've learned, I understand Marianna's motive for killing Esposito and Lee, and I think I understand Red's motive for killing Marianna. She'd become a liability, and Red saw a way to tie off some loose ends."

Cory rolled to a sitting position, back against the drawers of his desk, but didn't interrupt. Signs of his new resolve showed in his dress: Suit slacks with the ironing line sharp along the legs and a shirt collar that lay stiff and flat. He hadn't grabbed these clothes off the floor or the chair he'd flung them on, uncaring of their condition.

"And I understand that he killed Gideon to get to you," Talbot continued, nodding at Cory. "But why? What's his goal of 'getting at' you?"

"Are you asking about their history?" Matthew inquired. The earlier answer he'd given about Cory and Red being on the same side until they weren't was true enough, if thin on specifics.

While facing the need to, once again, rip off a chunk of story and backtrack, I also started editing chapter 3 for posting and discovered that I hated it. It was too calm. Everyone goes to a place and talks about a thing. Everyone mildly adjusts to the new knowledge. Yuck. This was the Cory-reveal chapter, and calm-and-measured is no way to do a reveal. Fortunately, I had another reveal scene already written at something like chapter 9. So I ripped that scene out of its place and swapped it in chapter 3.

Here's a chunk that remains from the original version of chapter 3.

"Officially, we don't have any," he finally admitted. "We're still going to have to build the case."

"It could just be a coincidence," Talbot pointed out, echoing Matthew's thoughts of a moment before. "We can't lose track of that, or we might miss catching the actual person responsible."

Talbot clapped her hands. The sound cut through tension that had narrowed Matthew's focus so much that he'd all-but-forgotten he and Cory weren't alone.

"Excuse me." She capped the marker she'd been using and waved it like a pointer. She'd been focused before, caught up in the challenges of a new case; now her features were set in an expression that she'd likely perfected with her misbehaving cousins. "What's going on here? Do you two know each other already?"

Matthew's head dropped back. How could he have messed up so badly? Over almost two years of partnership with her, he'd managed to keep all the truths of his nature from her. Mostly. Now they were tumbling out, and Matthew seemed to have lost any ability to stop them.

Cory glanced at Matthew again for guidance. "You … could say that. Work in the field long enough, and—"

Matthew shook his head, cutting off Cory's attempt at an excuse. Talbot would see right through whatever he came up with, and that would only lead to more problems. "We've known each other for a long time," he confirmed. "A very long time."

Talbot stared, her response stuck while she tried to figure out what if he was insinuating what she thought he was.

"Cory's like me," Matthew confirmed. "Immortal."

The marker dropped from Talbot's hand and landed on the carpeted floor with a dull thunk. "Wait? Really?"

Standing, Matthew went around the room and partially lowered all the blinds. If they were going to discuss this case meaningfully, they needed to be assured that no one was going to interrupt them. Or eavesdrop on them.

Once I moved the second reveal back, then I had to fix all the continuity around and in it. Thank god for Tornis and idelthoughts³, and both of them insisting on holding my feet to the fire.

"Company" was also originally set up to be 12 chapters long. This number was a complete ass-pull, but it seemed reasonable given the length of the previous two stories. As I kept writing, revising, and trying to fix all the issues that kept breaking the story, it also became apparent that each chapter had a lot of room to grow. While editing "Fish" for posting, each chapter grew about 400 words between my final draft and the post-edited draft. This number was so consistent that I started making posting plans based on that 400 word growth. While editing "Company" for posting, each of the early chapters nearly doubled in size, resulting in the repeated need to add chapters to the count.

The story still wasn't moving forward, though. Finally, I busted out the last of my tricks: retroactive outlining. Here's what that looks like:

NCS

Has been investigating a charity fraud case. This is not the first case, which is why they suspect Marianna and Jason. They sent undercover agent, Cory Salisbury-Green, in to gather intel. Cory is successful and is able to initiate an arrest for Jason. Before they have the chance to arrest Marianna, she flees the country for the US.

What they know:
1. Marianna and Jason are serial white-collar charity scammers
2. Jason is in custody
3. Cory is an undercover agent who has spent most of his almost five years with the agency undercover.
4. Cory is in the US on a "personal matter."
5. Marianna died in the US in an apparent murder-suicide.
6. The FBI has opened an investigation into it.

What they don't know:
1. Cory is Immortal
2. Cory's "undercover" job may be as an agent, because he is primarily a thief and outlaw in his own right
3. Marianna was working with someone other than Jason, Cory, and one or two other mortals (who aren't relevant to the story, as they were innocents).

FBI

Is called in to investigate a beheading. This is the first beheading, but the fourth brutal murder within a span of days in the same general set of warehouses. They send agents Matthew McCormick and Francesca Talbot in to investigate.

What they know:
1. A man was found beheaded in a warehouse
2. Several days before, a woman and two other men were found in an apparent murder-suicide in a nearby warehouse.
3. The cases may or may not be connected; the LEOs only alerted the FBI because of the proximity and timing of the murders.
4. The media has been going crazy with the murder-suicide (which is how the NCS found out about it?) because it feeds all the excitement about fraud and crime.

What they don't know:
1. Matthew is Immortal
2. Matthew suspects the beheaded man was Immortal
3. Matthew knows Cory
4.

Matthew, Talbot, and Cory

Are assigned to perform a joint investigation into the two (possibly separate) crimes.
1. Marianna's charity scam —> her murder-suicide as she attempts to start up another scam in the US.
2. Gideon's murder, which may be the fourth in a string of murders

What they know:
1. The beheading in the warehouse looks similar to, but not definitively like, how an Immortal looks who's lost a Challenge.
2. There's another person involved in the scam whom Cory believes is his old friend Will Scarlet.

What they learn:
1. The fourth victim was not Immortal
2. The fourth victim was a recent lover of Cory's
3. Marianna did not commit suicide; she was murdered
4. The fourth murder was specifically done to hurt Cory and to get Matthew's attention

What they need to do:
1. Identify Marianna's murderer
2. Identify Gideon's murderer
3. Identify Marianna's secret accomplice
4. Connect the various crimes to Will Scarlet
5. Arrest Will Scarlet
6. Clear the two innocent men of the allegations against them

Chapter 13

Case info & official recognition of Will

Chapter 14

Go to do interviews. Discover Joyce has decided to get her own answers. (Joyce is a plant, possibly a confederate of Red's.)

Chapter 15

Return to warehouse. Red is waiting. Cory is pissed and wants to fight him, so he demands Matthew hand over his sword. This is the first Talbot has seen of the swords. Red plays his trump card: he has Sam for real this time. He doesn't want to fight anyone; he wants Matthew to kneel and Cory to watch. It's also fine if Talbot watches since he will kill her last.

With the posting of chapter 12, I had now posted 46k words of the originally-written 35K. Yes, those numbers are in the correct order.

Now, I was out of excuses, out of time, and out of patience. Finally, though, I'd managed to shift the characters to solving the case, rather than just opining about its existence.

Let me tell you: this was hard. The weather, plotting, and scene-restructuring were small potatoes compared to the need to define and keep clear which character knew what about what at which point. The above outline shows some of that. I have multiple other sets of notes in which I tried to get a handle on, and keep track of, that. It doesn't help that Matthew draws a wrong conclusion early on ¹, and then can't see past it. This is intentional on my part, but damned confusing to write.

Trying to keep track of the knowledge was also compounded by the persistent difficulty of trying to remember what information had actually made it into the story, and when.

Panic is a helluva pantser drug, though, and finally I managed to get the remaining chapters written. Quite a lot of previously-cut material made a comeback.

At 73,000 words and 20 chapters, it finally concluded!

At last, Tornis can take the reins back and post stories 9 and 10. More importantly, at last, I can finally go read stories 9 and 10 and properly cheerlead them, as I've been unable to do while trying to get through "Company."

For everyone who stuck with the story—and everyone who commented at any stage—thank you! Had I been writing this story just for myself, it would have stalled out at chapter 15 and never been finished—at least not for another decade or so.

^1. At that point, it was going by its placeholder title, "A Wild Cory Appears" ↩

^2. Almost a week after posting the final chapter, I'd discover that I missed one reference.↩

^3. Unfortunately, BlackDwarf was not able to help on this story, beyond those early suggestions. :( ↩

^4. That Red is only there for Cory ↩