Cole watched as the altercation unfolded, his impatience and annoyance suddenly evaporating when Cat whipped around and pinned the Bakeneko to his own desk. A single brow arched slightly at that. He had figured she would be no slouch, but he hadn't quite expected<i>this</i>. The more he learned, the more interesting she became. When Cheshire was freed and took up his seat behind his desk, Cole's expression settled back into his usual mask of indifference. The Bakeneko actually had the nerve to interrupt himself only five words into his explanation by asking about Cole of all people!<br/><br/>"I'm a stranger." Cole answered, matter-of-factly. "And all strangers are one step from becoming allies.." His eyes narrowed just slightly, "Or enemies."<br/><br/>He glanced to Cat, still evaluating which side of that spectrum she fell on, then returned his gaze to Cheshire, "The question you should be asking yourself is if you have more to gain from someone who owes you a favor, or if you'd rather they went to the Lycans instead. I was told that you're the one to speak to in regards to items of a more peculiar nature." He made a small gesture to the display cases around them holding magical artifacts. "The jewelers was made to look like a basic robbery, but their target may have been an item of something more than stone. One of the cases was ruptured from the inside. All records of their inventory were taken. Only a hidden familiar which had been warded from harm managed to witness the heist." A lie Cat would notice for certain, but Cole needed to test this Cheshire, and it was important that they not let on that they were truly in the dark. "Given your tastes and resources, we might have reason to believe you were used to fleece the goods. In fact you were our first suspect before we realized you lack the inclination, power, or spine to pull a stunt like this." Cole shrugged, "Actually, visiting you was Cat's idea. Given your antiquated methods of containment and lax security, it's entirely possible the thieves would find the idea of relying on you as laughable." He looked to Cat and nodded, "Just as I said, this was a waste of time." He turned to begin heading towards the door.<br/><br/>Cole had faced more than his fair share of monsters in this line of work, many of which were terrifying in terms of sheer power and influence they could wield, but the one thing they all seemed to have in common, all but Ezra at least, was ego. Find what they did best, the thing they wanted to flaunt most, and then reduce it to nothing in front of their very eyes by denying it even existed. Claim a rich man was poor, and he would buy a jet within the next ten minutes just to let himself sleep at night. Claim a warlock was powerless, and he'd move heaven and earth to prove you wrong. They were puppets, all of them. Those with real power, those like Ezra, had learned long ago that any power shackled to pride wasn't power at all, but a handhold for anyone who was bold enough to use it.<br/><br/>Cole quietly calculated as he reached for the door handle. By shifting their apparent attention from finding the perps to finding the stolen goods, he had hopefully provided an easy in. After all, the item in question really was too hot right now to fleece reliably. If they had come to Cheshire, he and Cat would determine that shortly, but if they hadn't that meant the thieves still had the artifact.<i>'Find the goods, and you find the thieves.'  </i>he thought to himself. Hopefully Cat would either help sell the con, or play good cop to try and appeal to Cheshire's apparent attachment to her.<br/><br/><i>'Good cop.'</i>The words echoed again just for him, and suddenly he had this itch in the back of his mind as though he had just tripped over something important. Still, the thought was fleeting in the moment and was gone as soon as it appeared.<br/><br/>Probably nothing...