<hr/><div class="floatleft">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/f/f2/Beardycox.jpg)</div><br/><strong>Name:</strong>Avery Burnam<br/><strong>Faction:</strong>Law Dogs (1)<br/><strong>Date:</strong>May 17th, 1876<br/><strong>Time of Day:</strong>Evening<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Burnham Detection Agency<br/><strong>Tagged:</strong>Nicodemus Whateley; Closed<br/><hr/><br/>Whateley.  One would have to be deaf, blind, and both kinds of dumb to live in Gomorra a month without coming across that name.  Avery had constructed a kind of mental ledger on possible clients who would fit his needs -- those needs mainly being an ability to pay his fees -- and Whateleys took the top three slots.  They might have taken even more but he hadn’t learned all their names quite yet.  Nicodemus, for example, was a new one to him.  Judging by his tasteful but expensive mode of dress, he possessed the necessary qualities for an excellent client though, and in spades.<br/><br/>"First allow me to give you the guarantee I give all my clients."<br/><br/>'All my clients' was more a theoretical than a reality of course, but he truly had thought this through in advance.  He had not come to Gomorra and simply set up an agency willy-nilly and hoped for the best.  He had done his research.  He felt he knew how this was going to work, had to work, if it was to prove viable for him.<br/><br/>"And that is the guarantee of utmost discretion.  Anything you say within this office will not leave the room.  Whatever you and your family confide in me will go to the grave with me.  I ask only in return that you not abuse that trust and that you be perfectly honest in all things.  I cannot work at cross purposes.  Anything you know about this situation and your wife's involvement must be shared.  I will be hard pressed to help you otherwise."<br/><br/>His tone and manner was at once quite serious as Avery the professional emerged.  He did not soften his words with one of his usual genteel smiles but let them sink in before he continued.  "I am no lawyer.  I have studied American law privately and will do what I can along those lines, but you may still wish to attain the services of a professional.  I am not sure if your wife has been charged yet, but I will say that I think your odds of her release are very good either way.  Even in this country, it would be difficult to find a jury who believed a woman capable of such savagery, as I understand it."<br/><br/>Avery believed women were capable of a bit more than he was letting on but it was essentially true. Rapings and bloodbaths were the province of men in his opinion.  Women killed their husbands and children at times but rarely had he run into a case where one killed for the pure joy and thrill of it.   Men were different that way.  Some men, anyways.<br/><br/>"I will need to speak to her personally as you say.  Is there no one else who might have any knowledge of what happened that day?  Do the authorities have any sort of evidence beyond the circumstantial one of her presence? The names of the arresting officers might also be helpful, particularly any who might have a penchant for…let us say, graphic detail?  The more grotesque the crime, the more a jury is likely to dismiss a young woman as a believable suspect for it."<br/><br/>Avery opened a drawer on his desk where two bottles rested next to his revolver.  The first was cheap rot gut whiskey, little better than the kind they were giving out free at Babel's grand opening a week ago.  The other was an expensive bottle of fine bourbon and it was this one he produced for this particular client, pouring a stiff shot for both of them.  "I will require twenty-five dollars a day.  This covers not just my fee but work related expenses.  At times wheels must be greased if you are to get anywhere, as I'm sure you understand.  This is not a great deal of time for me to work but I do believe I can help you.  I will take your case, Mr. Whateley.  Your wife should not be made to suffer for the law's inability to solve this case properly."