Compensation: Adequate

Ah, look at that, seems they were conveniently rolling up to their destination right at the conclusion of Sleuth’s grueling tale; and driving along that abandoned stretch anyone with a decent pair of eyes would see a rather odd gaggle of vehicles far off to their right.

Decrepit vehicles, among a veritable forest of cacti, that had sure taken a while; the hardest part had been driving three of the vehicles up the fairly steep inclines of some oddly placed stone faces. Without turning to Sleuth he stared on, driving off the beaten track and halting a fair distance from the ‘graveyard’ he’d arranged, then explained.

"I want to see something explode Mr. Sleuth, and I want the debris of said explosion to include those very cacti; I have a grudge against the things and a propensity for destruction which I’ve not being able to satisfy since my days on Old Derse."

He points with a hand towards the three cars on separate rock faces, a push of the vehicle with it’s engine going would allow the car to travel a more than satisfactory distance, serving as their moving targets; though only three, because speaker be damned setting this up was exhausting.

Sleuth's commentary ended when he noted the set-up they were coming up to, however. Befuddled, he looked at The Mayor then back at the vehicles off into the distance. Did he put all this here?

He turned back to The Mayor with his exposition, that caused Sleuth to have an amused quirk of the brow. What a quirky guy. Well, there was no point in backing down now, and there's plenty of bullets to be tossed! A little practice never hurt, no matter how odd the circumstances.

"Alright, I can work with ya deprived y'rself-a sleep t' give me. Let's move these guns up on top-a the car, because I'm goin' t' try and run through all-a them when shooting these damn things, an' I ain't stoppin' 'till it goes click or there's an explosion like ya want. All ya need t' do is ta tell me when t' start shootin', and if ya wanna join me." 

[Pvt] I’m already there.

There’s no telling when this case will already be taken! A dame is in need of a Sleuth, he has to get there fast!

Serenity tried not to laugh. She really did. But he was was actually really cute. Damn. No wonder the Mayor was such a fan of this guy. Hopefully he was as good as William said.

"The job I need you to do is simple. If you’re up for it, you’ll be well rewarded. I need you to dig up some dirt on Abel Rocha. He’s a cop here, and the Mayor’s bodyguard. He’s staying with him right now so it shouldn’t be too hard to search his apartment or something if you can manage it."

She sat on her desk crossing her legs thoughtfully and chewing her lip.

Ignoring Serenity's hardly-constrained laughter, he dusted himself off to approach the girl, his breathing finally steady by the time he gets up to her, although still audible. He then listened to her request.

Abel, eh? He's talked to the guy a few times in passing. He seemed pretty decent, though Sleuth never really got time to pal around with him one-on-one. He seemed like a sufficiently hard-boiled guy, what was it that he needed to find out about him?

"Well, a-course." Sleuth interjected, placing his hands on the girl's desk. "Anything specific I should be lookin' for, though? Drugs, weapons, dirty money?" 

Sleuth also took a brief moment to think about how odd this situation is.  He had a striking suspicion that if he did find something, he was going to be dragged into something he probably didn't want to be dragged into. Or better yet, something he DID want to be dragged into.

[Pvt] I’m already there.

There’s no telling when this case will already be taken! A dame is in need of a Sleuth, he has to get there fast!

"…uh…wow."

And suddenly a rather disheveled looking Sleuth burst into her office. Did he run here? Did he run all the way here? Wow. Wow.

Normally she was the one dropping everything to run to someone’s side when they needed something. And that someone was usually the mayor. It was absolutely surreal to be on the receiving end of such treatment.

Kinda nice.

PROCEED TO COUGH AND WHEEZE IN FRONT OF THE SECRETARY LIKE THE HARD-BOILED SLEUTH YOU ARE.

OH GOD, YOU NEED TO WORK ON YOUR CARDIO LIKE THE HARD-BOILED SLEUTH YOU ARE.

Still trying to catch his breath, Sleuth did as Serenity told, locking the door and leaning up against the wall. Taking a large gasp, he decided he was finally alright to speak.

Sleuth diplomacy? He even had a name for it? Anyone else he’d label them as a complete and absolute dork dubbing their interrogation methods as such, but to William it just sounded impressive, blinded ignorant by adoration.

Since Sleuth can't correct The Mayor's inner thoughts, all he did was keep a smug look on his face after describing some of the story. It was nice and ego inflating for someone to seem so awestruck by your story, especially with the proceeding comments The Mayor so generously spouted afterwards.

"Well uh, after that, we all kinda went our own ways with our own responsibilities. I was runnin' with the bulls f'r a while, but the ol' chief an' I didn't exactly see eye-ta-eye. Hell, if I didn't meet up with Redglare, we 'prolly wouldn' even be talkin' right now, seein' as how I started runnin' solo after a bit."

Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine

=> Ugh, doing nice things for people for free when they aren’t even part of the family. HOW DULL

I’ll help yew outta here, gimme a second.

=> Proceed to walk around the man and kneel down in front of him. Inspect that ankle for a bit and touch it with your finger. You offer him a little bit of Good Luck this time and push the foot forward to see if it’ll bend like it should.

Fuckin' shit! Agh!

==> Next time, you think you'll try to devise a better plan in your running away. Maybe get to some roof access next time. Nothing bad ever happens on rooftops.

==> Regardless, Sleuth rotates his ankle around, finding it not to be as bad as he originally thought it was. His ass is still in a pain, but it's nothing new for him to be butthurt about something.

Sure thing. I know a place th’ Chief fancies that ain’t half bad. Lemme shoot you the address.