STRANGER THINGS HAVE HAPPENED_JIM HOPPER

038

The chaos in the next room hadn't settled, per se, but the intensity must have reached its pinnacle because less banging and screaming were coming from the two men inside then. Ana took that as a good sign, it had to mean Hopper had gotten somewhere in his questioning, right? "You should just sit the fuck down," Ana order Candice, growing irritated by her anxious hovering. "It'll all be over soon," she added ominously.

Candice seemed to mull over the directive for a moment before easing into her office chair with a huff. "Good girl," Ana muttered tauntingly, same as she would to one of her meddling students, and watched on passively as the other woman began wringing her hands in unease. This was way more entertaining than teaching, Ana mused to herself. Maybe she'd give law enforcement a try if the whole education thing didn't work out.

Suddenly, Kline's door flew open, and the man himself was thrown out into the hallway. He stumbled from the forward momentum, attempting to catch himself on an adjacent wall, but Hopper forcibly grabbed Larry with one hand under the arm, and another around the base of his neck, before Larry could fully right himself. The mayor was bleeding profusely from the nose, his face reddened and ruined from the wound, as Hopper marched him past Candice. "He just bumped his head," Hopper announced to the assistant as Ana opened the door to aid in their swift exit. "Just a little boo-boo, right, Lar?"

Even while they retreated, Candice kept screaming Larry's name as the trio, two willing and one not so much, vacated the office, the door slamming harshly behind them.

After throwing Larry unceremoniously in the bed of the Blazer, not the backseat, Hopper drove the group to the mayor's mansion. Ana would be lying if she said she hadn't chuckled at Kline's pained groans each time Hopper took a turn too quickly, or stopped too short at a stoplight, resulting in their hostage jostling around in the back of the vehicle like a pinball.

Larry was limping and grasping his left side as they entered his home, but he remained decidedly mute as the group ushered themselves inside. To add insult to his already numerous injuries, Hopper mockingly stated, "wow, I love the place, Lar," upon inspecting his lavish home. Then, indicating towards the gaudy zebra skin encompassing the foyer floor, he asked, "hey, you shoot that fella yourself?"

The disgraced mayor audibly winced as they began ascending the staircase. "That's-That's not real," he murmured in obvious agony.

"No shit!" Hopper remarked snidely as he and Ana trailed after the beaten politician, approaching the mansion's second story. God, the decor in this home was ostentatious. What was it people said about the rich having terrible taste?

Regardless, Larry led them to a safe in his bedroom, inserting the combination and pulling out several folders which undoubtedly held the questionable land deeds he'd previously copped to helping secure. Hopper took them from Kline's outstretched hands, then knocked several items off a nearby desk in order to perch on its ledge. It was a childish move, but one she would grant him since Hopper was still sporting a gnarly cut and bruise over his temple.

Ana watched on quietly while he inspected the paperwork as Larry sat defeated in a neighboring chair. The mayor seemed to have accepted his unfortunate circumstances, given his slumped shoulders and downturned lips, but wasn't altogether pleased as he answered the police chief's endless inquiries. "Alright, so...what exactly are we looking at?" Hopper prodded, mindlessly shuffling through the documents.

"Land deeds, transfers of property," Larry confessed while gently prodding his broken nose. It looked crooked, slightly askew on his face, but it was hard to tell with all the dried blood coating the rapidly bruising skin.

Hopper's mind had clearly switched into detective mode, as he continued his line of questioning without pause and without remorse. "So, your buddies at Starcourt, they suddenly start buying up all this property. They tell you why?"