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[wasplisbeth.livejournal.com]

"Smart phones make information gathering cake."

Comments

[tenuesale.livejournal.com]

That gets Aubery to laugh a little around the filter of his cigarette. It's not a humorless, hollow laugh; but it's not particularly amused either. She'd done her homework and done it well, and Aubery's curious exactly how far she had gone. The impulse to ask if she'd read his father's books is there, but he doesn't act on it in the end, just shrugs and smokes some more.

"The symptom of an absentee father." Aubery's father had left England in the mid-90s, leaving his mother to fend for herself and her six year old son. "Couldn't be helped."

[wasplisbeth.livejournal.com]

He either laughed because what she said is funny or because it's a handy defense mechanism. It's not particularly funny, having daddy issues so she is leaning toward the latter. Her hunch is rewarded with what he says next. For a moment she feels she needs to debate him on his statement that it couldn't be helped but for some reason she doesn't feel like getting into it. So instead she watches him smoke his cigarette and shrug while she remains rather passive with not much to add to her observations.

[tenuesale.livejournal.com]

It's possible some people would find Lisbeth's passiveness unsettling, but Aubery -- who can be fairly passive himself when it came to other people -- doesn't seem to mind it. As he smokes, he watches her watch him and wonders if she finds it interesting or simply lacks anything else to do. His mind wanders back to the idea that she rifles through other people's business for a living. Aubery wonders if it's entirely legal. So he asks, because he has nothing really to lose:

"Are you a criminal?"

[wasplisbeth.livejournal.com]

Well that certainly is a question isn't it and slightly subjective depending on who you were asking and their set of rules are. Sure, what she does might not be entirely legal but a criminal? Well that seems rather harsh, still if you were going by Swedish law or even American law enforcement might consider her a criminal. However they can suck it and he doesn't need to know that.

"Does it matter to you?"

[tenuesale.livejournal.com]

"Not really." He's being honest, though Aubery's demeanor has a way of seeming disingenuous and detached. It makes him seem like he's trying too hard not to care when, in actuality, he doesn't. Criminality and the rules of law were relative, depending on where someone went. His brain automatically glosses over major universal sins as off the table for discussion. "Would you like it to?"

[wasplisbeth.livejournal.com]

Her eyebrows furrow and she looks at him trying to gauge his response and how she should respond to his question. Why would she want him to care if she was a criminal or not? If he did care and thought she was then he'd rat on her, if he doesn't care then he stops asking questions about her profession. "Why would I like you to care?"