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Episode 1.4: Briefing and Fact Finding
Topic Started: Jul 3 2011, 02:09 AM (18,124 Views)
Cooper Mandrake
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9/22/10

I slid my chair back around to the terminal and started keying in some instructions for the search avatars.
'Ink Murphy, Johan and ..' P.I. Stark seemed to have those running, she'd ran several searches, adding in Newhall and Jiangyin for cross references. shiny.

I sent a thanks wave to my little buddy big Joe the guard that had accompanied me...

Then another thought.. I flicked the Comm,
"Hey Captain... Mac. Can anyone swing by Ink's again or I can send Joe or someone from here. Let's look through some of those boxes for this assassin, Lanyers and Kenrowe. See if we can tie them up in a rope and let em swing." long as we're here, why stop at the psychotic killers when the pseudo psychos are running things?

Then another wave, it had been thirty minutes. nothing from the Advocate. Off to the Madrassa mouthpiece then, with the details in a search avatar as well,

Quote:
 
"My apologies advocate.  Information on this case in critical, details on the murdered companions, forensics, children and the tradesman involved are required for a complete investigation."


I might need Adria for this, my bad cop had floundered. Maybe she had a good one in her.
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Skye MacKenzie
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"Mac"
9/22/10

Mac was ashamed over her outburst. Nothing could justify the way she had exploded all over Hutch, not even Jelani. She wasn’t able to meet his eyes as he explained and apologized. Having him be so understanding about her blowup only made the embarrassment more acute and if there had been a deep hole nearby, she would have crawled in and pulled the top over her. She really wasn’t any good at talking to people and conversations like this were no exception. So, she did the only thing she could do under the circumstances. She ignored it.

“It’s okay, Captain. And I’m sorry, too. I shouldn’t have gone out of control like that. It won’t happen again.”

It wasn’t much in the way of an apology herself, but it was about all she could do without dying on the spot. To avoid further embarrassment to herself or Hutch, she changed the topic.

“Did you see anything else in the data?”

Before he could answer, remembered some other ideas she’d had. She held up a hand, “hang on, I need to get this done,” pulled out her comm and sent the code for Cooper. He seemed to be the one working on the Companion angle.

“Coop, it’s Mac,” she started, trying to keep her voice steady. “Can you get into those Companion files? There are some questions I’d like to have answered. First, did either of the Companions have a living child. If so, find out everything you can about him: name, address, background, anything at all, see if he ties to Jiangyin or Newhall. And find out what you can about that tradesman. What did he do, where did he live, and did he have any children. If he had children, same search for them. I believe the Butcher is the son of a whore and this seems to be where it all starts. If neither of those pans out, expand the search for all the Companions in the House. Maybe our Butcher didn’t start with those two; maybe they just gave him ideas. And thanks.”

Reluctantly, she turned back to Hutch again and that sympathetic smile. Perhaps that’s what made it so hard; he understood her. She didn’t like anyone knowing her; there was just too much about her that wasn’t fit for human civilisation. And now here he was, asking her to talk to someone. You’re just going to muck it up, you know.

“Sorry, had to get that done. So did you see something I missed?”
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Adria Stark
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9/22/10

"The only other people that were brought in with us were let go a good bit before I was 'let go'." She grimaced a little at the mention of the Boss. "And yeah...I met the Boss. He came into the cell where Ink had me chained to the wall. Didn't stay long, though. He is one ugly hundan, too. Nearly as ugly as Ink is."

"Busy couple of days...yeah, you could say that"
Adria replied, a smile of her own dancing on her lips for a moment.

"I'll give it a shot" She said as she took the sketches back from Cooper and walked back over to the terminals. "Andrew, you start with one and I'll start with the other" Adria said, holding the sketches up for Andrew to see. "You want the middle man, or the target?" She indicated each sketch accordingly. She watched Andrew closely...particularly when she indicated the sketch she'd drawn of the 'target', her expression giving nothing away.

Why are you covering his ass? she thought. You know this is a very bad game to be playing. Why are you putting your own ass on the line like this? Andrew had been good in bed...very good...but that wasn't enough to explain the risks she was taking. Especially since she'd started covering his ass even before he got to the ship.

Adria put those particular questions aside to deal with later. Right now there was work to be done. She waited for Andrew to take one of the sketches, then scanned the other and started the search. Once that was going, she checked her other searches to see if anything had turned up yet.
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Captain Jeremiah Hutchins
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Hutch
9/23/10

On the Way to Silas Bradford's Business/Residence

"Hey Captain... Mac. Can anyone swing by Ink's again or I can send Joe or someone from here. Let's look through some of those boxes for this assassin, Lanyers and Kenrowe. See if we can tie them up in a rope and let em swing."

Hutch stopped in his tracks.

"Cooper? And anyone else there?" Hutch said sternly. "What exactly does an assassin, Lanyers and Kenrowe have to do with the Butcher case? Unless this assassin suddenly begins to hack up whores or somehow gutted Kenrowe and Lanyers while they were strapped to their beds, it might not be the best use of our resources."

Hutch knew that he probably sounded a little harsh. He sighed.

"Sorry guys. I'm just a little frustrated," he explained. "I know it is slow work going through reports looking for leads, but it has to be done. Let's put away the guy who we have been tasked with apprehending and leave the other stuff to the locals."

Hutch knew that the statement he just heard might have seemed harsh too.

"If any one of you has information from personal first hand knowledge, please forward it on to local law enforcement," he recommended. "We can see what we can do to help after we get this sha ren fan taken care of."

He looked over at Mac and remembered her words.

"Has House Madrassa been reached yet?" he asked. "Are they being hard to deal with? Is there anything I can do to pave the way?"

sha ren fan = murderer
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Andrew Williams
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AKA Panther
9/26/10

Instead of looking at the drawings, Andrew gave a dark stare of disapproval to Adria as she offered him one of the pictures. “Target,” he said, taking the sheet from her hand.

While he began scanning the drawing, he continued to stare after her grudgingly while she spoke with Cooper. He didn’t like the way this was being handled.

Not one little bit.

While waiting to the scan to complete- he took advantage of Cooper’s distraction with Hutch over the comm. Catching Adria’s eye he motioned her closer. “I need to talk to you,” he whispered. “As soon as were done here...” Rather dismissively- he returned to the work she had assigned him.
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Adria Stark
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9/26/10

Adria raised an eyebrow slightly at Andrew's expression. If he was trying to scare her or intimidate her, he missed the mark. She didn't scare easily, and compared to Ink...well...the idea of Andrew scaring her nearly made her laugh. Adria turned back to her own work, making no comment when he said he needed to talk to her. Instead of getting pissed at the dismissive attitude, she merely made a non committal noise...leaving it unclear whether or not she agreed to the little chat Andrew wanted to have later.
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Cooper Mandrake
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9/27/10

So a perp on the loose that kills a Sheriff and an Alliance Military Officer doesn't rate an investigation? Resources? Who's going to look into it, the locals...oh wait. He's the one dead.

"Madrassa, sure, work some magic there boss. They won't release documents they have sealed."

I clicked off the comm and kept reading, checked for a reply from Madrassa.
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Captain Jeremiah Hutchins
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Hutch
9/28/10

On the Way to Bradford's

"Madrassa, sure, work some magic there boss. They won't release documents they have sealed."

Hutch motioned to Mac that he'd be just a moment. He called his boss.

"Sir?" he started, seeming to stand in attention once the man picked up. "We need a little greasing. Seems like there may be a case at House Madrassa that fits the Butcher's MO."

He paused for a second.

"Yes, Sir. I'm sorry about waking you, but it is of upmost importance," Hutch looked over at Mac. "I think we are on a real cusp to find some information that will get us closer to this animal."

He turned away for a moment.

"And I am about to call the kettle black, but don't you have... interests there?"

He looked around to Mac again and smiled nervously. He was going pretty far out on a limb. He didn't intend to alienate his immediate superior the first week of taking command of a ship like the Constable.

"I'm not making any kind of judgements sir," Hutch said. "I have a similar... arrangement here.

"I just know you might be able to get the cog moving,"
Hutch added. He listened carefully and finally smiled. "Thank you sir. Detective Cooper Mandrake is compiling data with some other crew members right now. He would be the man to contact on our end."

Hutch disconnected the wave and the commed Cooper.

"I have someone working on getting you that Madrassa File. If I am right, it should be pretty forthcoming," he reported. "Mac and I are almost at Bradford's. We'll keep you updated."

He shut off the comm and turned to Mac.

"You ready to get back on track?"
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Skye MacKenzie
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"Mac"
9/29/10

Mac had walked along in silence while Hutch did his job, not wanting to interrupt in case she jinxed the process. They needed data… badly. And if he could get it, she’d whoop and cheer along with the rest. She wasn’t about to comment on how he managed it.

Her mind kept going round and round the reports they had so far, trying to tease out any more information from them. There really hadn’t been much on the surface she could use, so she put all of it in the back corners of her brain and left it to its own devices, hoping that something useful would pop up at some point.

It was almost an interruption of her thoughts when Hutch spoke to her.

Hutch wrote:
"You ready to get back on track?"


Without thinking first, she responded, “more than ready.” Which was sort of an odd reaction as she didn’t feel ready. She hardly felt like herself and her normally brusque manner was even worse, so while a few days ago she’d have had little chance at getting Bradford to talk, today she felt she had no chance. She looked at Hutch in concern.

“Okay, not really. Look, si…. Hutch. (It still felt like she had to choke out the name.) I don’t get along with people on my best days and I’m far from my best right now. I'll try my best with Bradford, but if I get into trouble, can you bail me out?

“Oh, and you never did tell me what you had found in the data we acquired.”
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Adria Stark
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10/3/10

Adria had spent so much time staring at the screens her vision was starting to blur and her head was starting to ache. She rotated her shoulders and cracked her neck to relieve some of the tension in them. After a few more minutes, she stood. Everyone seemed to be starting to drag a little, and her stomach rumbled a little. "I'm going to go make a pot of coffee and some sandwiches for everyone. Andrew...would you mind giving me a hand?" she said, heading towards the door. "Back in a few." Adria set her PDA to alert her when her searches turned something up in case she was away when it happened. She waited for Andrew before she headed down the hall toward the galley.
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Andrew Williams
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AKA Panther
10/4/10

The conversation he could overhear between Hutch and Cooper concerning Ink kept him on edge. He was a little more relieved, however, when Hutch dismissed the whole thing altogether. When Adria gave him an opening, he got up and followed her without any delay.

When they reached the kitchen, he made sure they were the only ones within earshot before closing the hatch. Leaning against the bulkhead by the door, he sighed and look to her.

Be calm.

“Are you crazy?” he said through gritted teeth. “I mean, jesus, Adria... I’m not here to question your ability as a cop... But shouldn’t you know better?”

“I know you want justice for what Ink’s done, but if they bring him in here and question him on what happened... who’s to say he’s not going to tell them everything about me. He can contradict everything we’ve told them. Who I am, the sketch you drew... It’ll just raise more questions... further suspicion. If by some glorious chance he is the butcher- then he’ll have other things to worry about. But if he’s brought in here in charges over what he’s done to you, he’s going to be using my identity and your involvement as leverage.”


He paused then, as if having just nearly choked while a single thought swept through his mind. Why should she care so much... Why should she have to let that man walk free so I can be free? He stared at her then, wondering how he could kill so willingly... yet when it came to disappointing Adria it made him feel like...

Scum.
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Adria Stark
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10/4/10

"Well I rutting well had to tell them something" Adria replied. Her tone was a bit snappish, but she was careful to keep it down. "I couldn't outright lie to them, and I sure as hell couldn't tell them the entire truth." She worked as she talked, tension clear in the set of her shoulders. Part of her knew that she could have told the entire truth, but she'd chosen not to. "The chances of them being able to actually do something about this are next to nothing. The Boss wouldn't let his pet brown noser be brought up on charges for something like that. If Ink is the Butcher though, the Boss will have no choice in the matter." She didn't say anything about Ink ratting the two of them out, though. That idea hadn't occurred to her. Still...she couldn't really be held responsible for that. She'd been halfway delirious when she'd first talked about what had happened after Hutch and Eva found her. "As for crazy...I must be. That's the only reason I can think of why I'd be risking my own ass to cover yours" she added, her tone a combination of dry humor and exasperation.
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Cooper Mandrake
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10/4/10

Oh, that's innocent enough. Adria and the puppy finally went in the other room. puppy... hm... more like some kind of junkyard dog, he looks like he's ready to bite through his leash...

saay...... I called back the Crime Lab vid and manuevered it about until I got a good picture of them both and sent it out on a face recog, reply back to me in my secure Marshall folder.

Then I called up the vid in the other room but apparently there wasn't any, like the police would be spying on themselves. Good thing the lab kept a running vid, just in case someone said something, it could be cross referenced back by voice recog. Fancy smancy stuff they got... I took a look to see how that worked but gave it up quick. Needed that Foster kid, she seemed to have the split brain to do all these cortex wizzes at the same time.
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ILEV Constable
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10/4/10

The Constable's Security Center

Another wave came in. When answered, it is again Advocate Henry Dabner from the Companion Guild. He didn't look happy.

"Apparantly, I have been ordered by the higher ups here to discuss the events that happened at House Madrassa," he scowled. "I am transmitting the files right now. As I said before, I am the person to ask if you need to know something that might not have been included in the records or if you need anything clarified."
Quote:
 
Record found: House Madrassa
Location: Sihnon
Status: Unsolved
Case File: CGHM-467923-Murder
Date: 2490

Summary: Two women were murdered right inside of one of the Companion Guild's largest houses. The first one was found in her room, tied to the bed with her organs removed. No known enemies, but reports did show that earlier that day, the victim had a heated argument with a young tradesman in the area. It was also confirmed that the victim was also pregnant.

The second one happened three days later. Found in the same way with her organs arranged on bed next to her, but this time, it was especially macabre. The victim's face had been removed.

*****

June 13, 2490: Celine DuMont was found murdered in her suite in House Madrassa by an incoming client, NAME BLACKED OUT.

Preliminary Information: Miss DuMont was found restrained to her bed by high end silk fabric (both arms and legs - Such a fabric would be hard to find on other worlds, but here on Sihnon it is quite common).
Her organs were lined up neatly next to her. She had been gutted by a large knife.
A ball gag was found lying next to the bed and based on the bruising around the mouth, it was used to keep her quiet.
Definite ligature marks were present, trace evidence from the woulds suggest a high end silk fabric.

Cause of death: Strangulation

Autopsy: Completed
Findings: Bruising on Ms. DuMont's body (back of shoulders, skull, right hip) showed that she was overpowered and thrown against a wall immediately prior to death.
No sexual intercourse was involved.
Her tongue was cut out and was not found with the body. By the blood splatter found, the tongue was removed when the victim was still alive. It may have also been done when the victim was conscious.
Her hyoid bone was crushed rather significantly.
The amount of blood on the bed was abundant, but the pattern suggests that the organ removal was done post mortem.
Ms. DuMont was pregnant at the time of her death, but had yet to inform the Guild. There is no information on hand to suggest who the father was. A pamphlet on adoption was found on a nearby table. She may have been looking to place her unborn child up for adoption.

Pictures attached.

Ms. DuMont was seen earlier that day in a heated argument with a visiting tradesman. The tradesman himself was not found and could not be questioned.

*****

June 16, 2490: House Mistress Lureena Wong was found murdered in her suite in House Madrassa by her executive assistant.

Preliminary Information: Mistress Wong was found restrained to her bed by leather restraints (both arms and legs).
There was bruising around the Mistresses' mouth, suggesting that some kind of gag was used. Most probably a ball gag.
Evidence of strangulation was present.
Her throat was cut and organs were removed. Organs were lined up neatly next to her.

Cause of death: Exsanguination

Autopsy: Completed
Findings: Evidence of chloroform was found on her lips and face.
No sexual intercourse was involved.
Her throat had been cut from ear to ear and blood covered pretty much most of the bed and much of the wall next to it.
Trace from the fibers on her wrist indicate that the restraints were brown leather. A very common material for lesser class individuals, but straps such as those would NOT have been used by the House Mistress.
Lastly, Mistress Wong's face had been removed. Her face was never recovered and the funeral was carried out with a closed casket.

Pictures attached.


"Well, is there anything else you would like to know?" Advocate Dabney asked, seeming put out and less than jovial. "Oh... By the way, these records are encrypted and will only be available for a short time, so I suggest if you do have any questions, you should ask now."
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Cooper Mandrake
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10/4/10

"Thank you Advocate, your assistance is critical." Though for the moment, I couldn't see any help... wait.

"This executive assistant stated to have killed Wong? Apprehended? You got a name and I.D.? Conviction?" what the hell, they had a suspect of a killer with a similar method and they're just now telling us. I smiled and hoped the thought of shoving his diploma through his hairy nostrel didn't show through the comm channel.

The murders still followed what we had, and had traced. Were there two styles though, organs... and not always the faces cut?"
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