Session 2 (5/14/2003) Forums And Tailing
Session 2 (5/14/2003) Forums And Tailing
As Joe unlocked the front door, Brother Cooper studied the storefront of Griffon Comics with a mixture of confusion and discomfort. Along with the multiple layers of brightly colored, gleaming posters of various comic-book superheroes, flyers for gaming groups, and notices of upcoming conventions and tournaments, there were a number of portraits of cartoon figures in questionable poses and attire, most of which would make a moral person quite uncomfortable. Hung sloppily from the front door was a sign that read “Go Away” in bold red letters.
Joe worked the half-dozen locks on the front door until it finally gave way and the two portly figures entered the shop. As fluorescent lights flickered into life, Brother Cooper saw rows of comic books and videos filling the boutique. More posters much like the ones which papered the front window covered the interior walls and ceiling. There was a vague smell like aged cheese within the place, but nothing that the preacher could put his finger on.
Joe unzipped his backpack and removed a sleek laptop from its depths, setting the computer and a knot of cords onto the front counter, next to the register. He fiddled with the cords for a minute, and the laptop began to quietly hum as it booted back to life. Brother Cooper meandered through the aisles while waiting for the computer to boot up. He had read a few comic books when he was a kid, but had never really gotten into them. The only one he could honestly remember was Daredevil, perhaps mostly because of the recent movie, and he idled over to the D section to see what the blind superhero was up to these days.
Brother Cooper found the Daredevil section, and idly picked up on of the issues there to look at it.
“If you take it out of the bag, you pay for it…no offense, preacher,” Joe yelled from behind the counter.
Brother Cooper smiled. “Not a problem, Joseph. You seem to have quite an extensive inventory here.”
“Biggest in the city,” Joe muttered idly, while he keyed some text into his computer.
Brother Cooper returned the comic book to the rack and turned to head back to the counter, when a large gap in the merchandise caught his attention. “Has someone recently purchased all of your Doctor Strange books? You seem completely ou---”
“Yep, um…yeah, sure, someone came in and bought them all. Yeah. Hey, look, I got this site I was telling you about.” Joe gestured at the laptop, and checked the front door again out of the corner of his eye.
Brother Cooper joined Joe at the counter and looked at the laptop’s screen. “So, now, what is this we’re looking at again, Joseph?”
At that point, a teenage boy came into the store, carrying a skateboard in one hand. He waved to Joe and headed past the counter to one of the comics displays.
“Out of the store, Mike! Not right now! Out of the store! Out of the store!” Joe yelled, and motioned the kid back towards the door.
“Jeez, Joe, I just wanted to get Silver Surfer. Look, I got my money.”
“Out of the store, Mike! Not right now! Come back later! Out of the store! Out of the store!” Joe yelled again and pointed back to the door, closing the laptop as he gestured.
“Can’t I just get one comic? It’ll take ten seconds---”
Joe reached under the counter and pulled out a megaphone. “OUT OF THE STORE! OUT OF THE STORE! OUT OF THE STORE!”
The kid looked shocked and angry, and yelled something that Brother Cooper could not make out over the din that Joe was making. Finally, just before the preacher himself gave up and exited the store, the kid gave Joe and obscene gesture and stepped back out onto the street.
Joe put the megaphone down and opened the laptop back out. “Okay, so, anyway, I didn’t find that symbol we were looking for in my book from the library, so I photoshopped and posted it up to a couple of boards to see if someone recognized it.”
Brother Cooper had completely lost his concentration. “Wait, you took it to a photo shop?”
“Um…no…I drew…” Joe began talking very slowly and drawing out each word, while pantomiming drawing a picture with his hand “a picture of the symbol” Joe traced the symbol in the air. “and I put it up on the ‘Internet’…” Joe made double-quote gestures with his hands. “for people to look at…” Joe pointed at his eyes. “and asked them if they knew what it means.”
Brother Cooper sighed and skillfully maintained his patience. “Thank you, Joseph. So am I to understand then, that you told these strangers on the Internet about what happened to us in the library?”
“Huh? Oh, no way. I didn’t even post under my real address. I just said it was a puzzle for my gaming group that my DM had given me.”
“Your DM?”
“Don’t worry about it… Anyway, someone…in fact, several people, responded. It’s an Incan symbol called a quipa. This particular one means unlock, or open, or something like that.”
“And these strangers on the Internet just told you this information for free, and you believe them?” Brother Cooper raised an eyebrow and tilted back his hat.
“Hmmm…okay, preacher, how about next time we need to look something up online, I’ll just tell you what I found out, instead of explaining how I actually find this stuff out, okay?”
Another kid entered the store. Joe picked up the megaphone and cleared his throat. Apparently used to this treatment, the new kid just nodded and headed right back out the door.
“Joseph? You’re quite the businessman.”
“Thanks, preacher.”
“So, do you actually manage to keep customers coming back?”
“Um…some do. It’s annoying, though, when I’m trying to get something done and they keep coming in. But, you know, it’s a living…”
“Have you considered hiring some help?” Brother Cooper said with a smile, “There’s a kid in my congregation named Ronny, in need of a job. Maybe he could mind the store for you when you are…trying to get other things done.”
“Hmmm…that would be easier than chasing them out all the time. And I do have some upcoming projects that I am going to really need some time to work on.”
. . .
Willie adjusted the microphone on his headset, and tugged again at the earpiece. “Okay, Tee, you read me? I’m crossing the line now.”
“Why you call me Tee?”
“Um…in case anybody’s listening on this channel.”
“Jeez, you hanging out with Joe too much. Okay fine, I hear you, Double-You.”
Willie tried to remain casual as he stepped over the police tape and entered the crime scene. The lobby of the Sports Medicine Center was trashed. There was broken glass from a glass display case and a stained glass window intermixed all over the floor, as well as half-day old bloodstains, and a taped outline of a body on the floor. The now-familiar ‘unlock’ symbol was carved into several of the walls. An wall-sized empty picture frame was left broken on the floor.
His radio crackled in his ear. “I don’t like calling you Double-You. Name too long. I’m going to call you ‘Black Guy’.”
Willie ignored the voice in his ear and approached the broken empty picture frame more closely, picking through the piles of broken glass to avoid disturbing anything more than he had to. The frame had once held a portrait which had been ripped from the frame and apparently taken away, either by the vandals or the police. A small plaque attached the bottom of the frame identified the portrait as the Center’s benefactor, Dick Scorse.
“Tee, I got a broken portrait here of Dick Scorse. Looks like a definite link over.”
“I got you, Mr. Black.”
Willie rolled his eyes and looked around further. There was little else of interest in the room. The vandals had obviously come in through the stained glass window, avoiding being seen from the street. The detective was about to leave when he spotted a dark substance under some of the broken glass.
“Tee, I got something here. Some kind of black goo, like mud. Not like the stuff from the other night. This stuff has some green specks in it. I’m collecting some for later study. Over.”
“Sure thing Black Ball.”
Willie stopped when he heard voices nearby, in a hallway adjoining the lobby. After a moment they moved on, and he climbed out the broken window to the back of the building. He paused to make sure he had not been seen, and noticed an electrical box beside the window. With just a glance, he could see the same symbol scratched into the electric box that he had now seen in two other boxes before.
“Black Guy! Double-Black! Double-You! Get over here! Guy in parking lot! Guy in parking lot!”
Willie cursed and began limping and dodging behind the landscaped bushes of the Sports Medicine Center. He rounded a corner and stumbled into an alleyway. “What’s going on, Tee? What do you see? What guy?”
“Okay, he not see me! I’m hiding in the car! I see the same guy from the library! The big ugly bald guy! Bolling! He’s here in the parking lot!”
A moment later, Willie was hiding behind some kind of air conditioning machine between two buildings. He could see Taylor’s car, and could see Taylor trying to disappear down into the driver’s seat.
Across the parking lot, he saw the man, Jack Bolling, entering the front door of Green Hospital.
“Okay, Tee, coast is clear. Stay where you are and keep an eye on that door. I’m going in.”
“Okey-dokey, Black Man.”
Willie limped as fast as he could towards the front doors of Green Hospital. He was drenched in sweat when he finally got inside the lobby. The place was a cheap state hospital, intended only for those too poor to afford better care. He approached the nurse at the front desk. “Hey, baby, did you just see a bald guy come through here?”
The nurse directed him with a smile and wink, and Willie ducked down a hallway off the lobby. He limped as fast as he could down the poorly lit hallway, and after a couple of turns, was amazed at how empty the place way. There was another hallway off to his left, and he stumbled and caught himself as he rounded the corner.
Willie’s blood went cold. Jack Bolling was standing right there. In fact, he was leaning against the wall, and smugly staring at Willie.
Willie swallowed hard, and turned away, pretending to not know or recognize the man. He kept walking down the main hallway. Just a few more steps, and he could duck into a nearby stairwell. He knew he was about to get shot in the back. He could tell. This was it.
Then the stairwell door was there, and Willie ducked inside. He drew his gun and held it ready, watching the corner, panting. His leg ached miserably.
A minute passed.
“Black-Black! I got him! He’s back out front! He’s looking right at me! He sees me!”
Willie cursed and headed back out into the hallway. Checking carefully down each side passage as he went, he saw no sign of Bolling as he limped back down towards the lobby. In a moment he was outside again. Taylor had pulled the car up to the front door, and the engine was still running.
“Which way did he go?”
Taylor pointed off to the left. Willie could see that she had her gun ready in her lap. He limped over to the corner of the building, but saw no sign of Bolling. Wherever he was, Willie was suddenly not so keen on catching up to him. Slowly Willie limped back to the car.
“He left something for us,” Taylor said, and gestured towards the bushes by the front door.
Willie looked at the bushes and saw a crumpled piece of fluorescent pink paper sticking out from the leaves, impaled on one of the branches. He ripped the paper free from the bush and slid back into the passenger seat. “He left this for us?” he said, while pulling the earpiece from his ear.
“I think so,” Taylor said, pulling out of the parking lot and getting away from the scene as quickly as possible. “He looked straight at me, and then he pulled out that paper. He waved it around, and then stuck it into the bushes like that.”
Willie carefully unfolded the paper. It was a flyer for the grand opening of the new “Shadow Magick Shoppe” in Hoover.
