October 2289
A Hubflower for Magnolia: The Case of the Jilted Lovers
Chapter 1: A Priest, a Rabbi, and a Synth Walk into a Bar
The hottest dame in all of the Commonwealth didn’t just enter my office; she sashayed. Her ruby dress only highlighted those long shapely legs and a bust like ripe melons on a yellow eve. Ellie grunted in jealous disgust, and I tipped my cap and welcomed the famed singer, Magnolia, to my humble office.
“It must be quite serious for you to make your way all the way here from Goodneighbor,” I said. “Guess the Diamond City guards don’t know any of your secrets.”
She smiled and batted her eyes. “Oh Nick. You never miss a detail, huh? Can’t even let a girl blip and smile.”
At that moment, I had something blipping, too, but it wasn't my synth component. I could see the way her eyes shifted that we were getting into an uncomfortable position, even for a dame as confident as Magnolia. I decided to shift gears on the problem at hand: if she was sitting in my office on this chewed up Friday afternoon and not hanging around the Third Rail or practicing her seductive evening serenades, then something was amiss. And, boy, would this something be amiss.
“So tell me, doll, why’s a looker like you have a face like you got stood up on a second date?”
She shifted in her chair and all of her body shifted with her. “Well, Mr. Valentine, you see, in my line of work, there are people hunting for something I don’t have to give.”
Magnolia is a legendary singer of the Commonwealth. Before getting in league with John Hancock and making Goodneighbor more than just a safe haven, but also an entertainment hub, she was a little more of a wilder lady of society. You could say that the boys were not always teased. You can hear it in her songs. We in the Commonwealth probably think her songs give her access to her more than we should. For some of the young men, that feeling of access is dangerous for them…and her.
Now, I may be a bucket of bolts but my blood boils hot. Magnolia telling me she has a passionate path of emptiness is like telling me super mutants prefer barbecue over a salad. Ain’t no doubt in my mind. I also see that Magnolia wasn’t going to blurt out what she needs, so it was time I pushed her for what she needs.
“Magnolia, I know you aren’t here to tell me the obvious, so let’s start talking about what’s nibbling at your toenails. Who knows how long this old synth pacemaker keeps ticking, so time is of the essence.”
“Yes, yes. I’m getting to that. You see, I need you to find out something for me.” She fished a cigarette out of her cleavage. I extended my lighter. “As a lounge singer and radio star, I get a lot of fans coming through. A lot of those fellows got it in their head that I’m singing directly to them, and I understand how they feel. But, sweetheart, let me tell you, those every-night-is-a-get-laid kind of nights have been over for a very long time.”
At that point she was telling me what I already knew. I wanted to know what I didn’t know. I pulled out my notepad. She stopped talking. I urged her to keep going.
She eyed what I was writing. “This is a…secret conversation, right?”
“Top secret. Only you, me, and my girl Ellie right here know anything about this.”
Magnolia turned her attention to Ellie who had been standing behind Magnolia rifling through the same file over and over. I knew Ellie was eavesdropping, but I didn’t pay her any mind. Ellie can be a tad jealous around other dames.
“The, um, well, Nate—you know, um, that Nate—won’t hear about this either, will he?”
“Not unless you want him to. He’s off gallivanting as the Silver—“
“Shroud. Yes, I know. His partner with the molerat face and eyes always looking well below mine is always going on and on about the Shroud and Grognak every time he comes into our joint. What's his name, MacCready? I know all about what Nate’s up to. So that means he’s not working any cases with you?”
She shifted again and I swear her entire body shimmied when she moved her hourglass frame in my beat up old divan. I must have had a fuse or two acting up because I suddenly had to fight off the urge to loosen my tie. The temperature of the room most certainly continued rising.
“You see, I have been having quite a few admirers, but on one lonely night when I was feeling a bit blue and perhaps a little nostalgic after kicking back a few too many glasses of wine, I took on a lover for the night. He seemed like a nice kid. Nothing like the man of a man Nate is, but he was a caring lover and did his best to make me feel good. I appreciate that. The thing is, he was back the next night, and I had to tell him I was a one-trick pony kind of girl. He started saying that he had dreamed about being with me for a very long time, and he wasn’t going to let a little word like ‘no’ get in his way.
“That’s when I felt real uncomfortable, you know, where the fantasy and reality of lovemaking just don’t mix. Hancock is usually pretty good at rooting out the crazy dangerous in Goodneighbor. Sure, the uncrazy dangerous run rampant, but the crazies don’t usually get through the door. And I thought this kid was so innocent and hadn’t even seen a raider or anything dangerous in his life. But when he said those words to me, I, um, haven’t felt dread like that in a very long time.”
Magnolia kept on her spiel about the young man. He was young, about 18 or so, by her estimate. He had dirty blonde bed hair and dressed in nice clean pants. There was a drifter’s air to him, but she had guessed he had been a part of a settlement somewhere in the Commonwealth based on his mannerisms.
“The thing is,” she paused and took a long swig of Ellie’s Nuka-Cola, “I am so good at reading people, but this guy was like day and night all in the matter of minutes. And then, after Whitechapel Charlie and Ham and Clockspring Davis got rid of him, the incidents started to occur.”
“Incidents?” I asked. Nobody was less forthcoming in all my time as Magnolia was. They usually blabbed away the good parts before I could even start peeling the tato. Mystery solved, usually. Magnolia wasn’t giving me much, though, other than her charity case was a stalker creep. Got no shortage of those in the Commonwealth.
“Yes, incidents. They were small events, but I suspected it was the boy. Things like my room in the Rex suddenly being rearranged without anyone seeing someone go in or out. And there were notes in places where I could find them. I was in the bathroom in the Third Rail, and there was a paper on the stall door that read, ‘No NO.’ I have it here. She again reached into her bosom and fished out a crumpled paper. For the first time I could remember as a synth, my hands were shaking as I reached out. Magnolia seemed to blush.
“Blood,” I said. “Could be human. I’ll keep this as evidence, if you don’t mind.”
She nodded. “There were other things, too. I couldn’t gather it all. One day, all the outside of Goodneighbor was surrounded by hubflowers.”
“Hubflowers, you say,” I said. That reminded me of something.
“Then, there was the murder,” she said, as if murder was just a matter of fact.
Murder. Stalkers and creeps, that’s the job of security. Missing people and murder. That’s my cup of mirelurk egg soup. While my mind was on the case, I realized my beady yellow eyes were fixated to the place from where the note came. Suddenly Jenny came to mind, but she wasn’t important. Not at that moment. I forced myself to look up and apologized from my drifting laser beams. I scribbled a note and handed it to Ellie. She started searching files.
Magnolia began again. “Well, anyway. My stalker, or so I thought, was pestering me until I told him to go away. The next day a headless corpse carved to hell was found in an alley of Goodneighbor and the man’s carved out torso was stuffed with hubflowers. And there was a note: ‘Nobody bothers the Flower.’ The Flower is me, Nick. And nobody has seen the boy since. Frankly, I’m terrified.”
I offered Magnolia a safe house. Since Nate was out of town, she could shack up in his place at the Home Plate until I could figure out where her stalker could be. She declined, stating she needed to work because she needed the caps. I suspected it had something to do with past habits. But that problem was for another time. In the meantime, there was a crazed psycho murderer-lover on the loose, and Detective Nick Valentine was on the case. Magnolia waited for me to escort her back to Goodneighbor.
I put on my hat and buttoned my trench coat. “Hold my calls, Ellie. I have a case to work.”
Ellie handed me the file I needed. “We don’t have a phone, Nick.”