Piece of Mind: Thin Air

[The Shaman]

A few minutes before nine Slocum storms into the lounge, dressed in a pair of jeans and a pull-over sweater, a dark look on his face. He glances around before approaching the team at the bar. “Have you taken rooms here? No? Doctor, could you come with me please? The rest of you wait here.”

The two walk over to the front desk and in short order three rooms are arranged – one for Kristen, the other two for the three men on the team. After signing the receipts and picking up the keys, Slocum and Kristen return to the lounge and pick up the others before heading upstairs to the doctor’s room. The room is like the rooms in a thousand other hotels – a pair of queen beds, a table with two chairs, a television, closet, and a bath with vanity. Once inside, the door shut, Slocum wastes no time coming to the point.

“Tell me again what happened.”

 

[James Heard]

Brandon scowls at Slocum and Kristen as they leave and turns to the rest of the group.

"This is dumb- stupid, dumb, and aggravating. Secrets...Now he wants to play at secrets?" Brandon's face turns darker. "This is crap."

"All we've done since we signed up for this job is get rained on and tossed by cops." He pauses.

"And all we've got to go on is that our employer likes hiding things from us, and he hired a librarian to ride herd on us. Great, just great. Maybe it's all just a ploy to get us all to catch pneumonia so they can pop a needle in our behinds and see if our tongues bloat?"

"Tell Slocum I went for a walk. If he's got a problem with that he can shove it. He's not the one that's going to be showing up on Cops tonight and I think I'm going to see if prolongued exposure to this mess will actually let me grow gills."

 

[Bobitron]

“Tell me again what happened.”

"Sure. We get to the house, see no one watching it. I had meant to ask you for a key, but forgot to do so. Decker got is in easy enough. We went through Gold's stuff, but didn't really find anything of major significance. Hawk was outside watching the area, and the cops showed up. Someone must have been watching the house to tip them off, I can’t explain the presence of four cars within a few minutes. Decker was pretty confident there was no alarm.”

Kristen sits at this point, wearily falling into a chair.

“Anyways, Hawk must have tried to bluff his way out of it. I’m not sure exactly what he told them, but I think he said there was nobody else in the house. It was pretty obvious that there was. We all ended up outside. Decker came through, he found a key for the house, so we just told them we were there investigating Gold’s disappearance on behalf of Martin. Once I explained the situation and presented the key, there was no reason to think there had been a crime, so they let us go. The news crews were there in no time flat as well. Nothing was said to them.” Kristen shrugs. “Hawk could have been a bit wiser, but I can’t really see what we could have done differently in the situation. I mean, I didn't see a reason he should have lied. My biggest concern right now is how the police were made aware of us. Brandon wrote down the plates of everyone in the area.” Kristen sighs, slouching down further in the chair. "I'm sorry about the lack of discretion on this, Mr. Slocum. I don't know how it could have been handled better. You hired a bunch of go-getters, so I'm sure this will get dealt with. But bumps like this are bound to happen if someone is working against us. Right now, I'm tired and ready for a steak."

 

[Falkus]

"When I lied to the officers," Hawk added, after Kristen's summary of the events. "I was trying to avoid a breaking and entering charge. We were guilty of that crime, at the time."

He shrugged. "It didn't work out so well. I have to agree with the others, it sounds like someone is working against us here. And if you needed any confirmation that the good doctor has gone missing as the result of actions of others, well, this proves it."

 

[kmdietri]

Originally Posted by James Heard
"Tell Slocum I went for a walk. If he's got a problem with that he can shove it. He's not the one that's going to be showing up on Cops tonight and I think I'm going to see if prolongued exposure to this mess will actually let me grow gills."

"I'll tell him for you." Decker replies watching Brandon leave the lounge. "Keep your eyes open out there. I think someone is definitely on to us"

Originally Posted by The Shaman
Slocum and Kristen return to the lounge and pick up the others before heading upstairs to the doctor’s room.

"Brandon's out for a stroll." Decker tells the group as they head up to Slocum's room. "I think he really likes the rain."

Originally Posted by The Shaman
“Tell me again what happened.”

As Kristen gives her explanation Decker makes his way over to the window pulling the curtain aside to peer outside. With Kristen finishing Decker turns, letting the curtain slip back in place "I'd say that pretty much covers it."

OoC:

Spot: 3

 

[Bobitron]

"When I lied to the officers," Hawk added, after Kristen's summary of the events. "I was trying to avoid a breaking and entering charge. We were guilty of that crime, at the time."

"Just so you know, Hawk, I can't blame you for what you did. You had everyone's best interests in mind. It's easy for me to reflect back on it and say that was stupid, but who knows? I might have freaked out and done something similar in your position."

Kristen turns back to Slocum. "Anywho, any bright ideas?"

 

[The Shaman]

Slocum listens quietly, pokerfaced, until Kristen mentions “news crews.” “There were news crews there?!?” His head drops and he rubs his eyes as Kristen finishes her story, then looks at the floor for a minute before responding.

“One of the detectives who initially looked into Gold’s disappearance is a client of mine. He called me as soon as he heard that you’d been caught at the house,” explains the attorney. “When the call hit their dispatch it set off a flag and he was called by the supervisor at the scene. The report was of a break-in at Gold’s address – the caller refused to state a name and hung up immediately. The detective said they’re going to run down the number on Monday.” He considers for a moment. “Any idea how the news crews were notified?”

Slocum stands up and gets a drink of water in a little plastic cup from the bathroom before resuming his seat. His finger taps absently on the side of the cup as he thinks. “I think there’s something to what you said, Mr. Hawkins. Who would go to this kind of trouble? It’s very strange.”

He gulps down the last of the water and tosses the cup in the trash bucket. “Doctor, you said you didn’t find anything of interest? Could you walk me through what you looked at?”

 

[Falkus]

Slocum stands up and gets a drink of water in a little plastic cup from the bathroom before resuming his seat. His finger taps absently on the side of the cup as he thinks. “I think there’s something to what you said, Mr. Hawkins. Who would go to this kind of trouble? It’s very strange.”

"Follow the money," Hawk suggested, as he leanedb ack in his chair. "Find the people or groups that would profit most from his disappearance, or by kidnapping him, or both, and then we'll have a suspect list. People are stabbing each other in the street over wallets of cash. Same principle applies here, except there's a lot more money involved."

 

[Bobitron]

He gulps down the last of the water and tosses the cup in the trash bucket. “Doctor, you said you didn’t find anything of interest? Could you walk me through what you looked at?”

Kirsten pushes her hair back from her face and leans back. "Not as much as we had hoped, to be honest. There were manuals for Quattro Clinical and CAVS, but I didn't notice them loaded onto his computer. Maybe he had another computer we were unaware of? We found his daughter's info, and a reference to a 'Mr. Lucky', but there really wasn't much more than what we found on the files at work."

She pulls out her laptop and opens up the folder marked 'Gold' on her desktop, typing in the password to get access.

ooc: Explain what we found in Gold's files, which I noted in the attached document.

 

[The Shaman]

“Follow the money,” Hawk suggested, as he leaned back in his chair. “Find the people or groups that would profit most from his disappearance, or by kidnapping him, or both, and then we'll have a suspect list.”

Slocum nods. “I believe that’s exactly what the corporate security people are working on,” he replies, “but so far they haven’t turned up any leads. It’s a pretty rarefied profession. It’s not like there are a hundred thousand researchers out there doing this kind of work. Or that many places that employ them.” He shakes his head. “Still, nothing’s turned up.”

“There were manuals for Quattro Clinical and CAVS, but I didn't notice them loaded onto his computer,” says Kristen. “Maybe he had another computer we were unaware of? We found his daughter's info, and a reference to a ‘Mr. Lucky’, but there really wasn't much more than what we found on the files at work.”

Slocum listens, his hand resting on his chin. “I don’t remember any large purchases like a computer from his financials. Just his laptop from work and his PC at home,” he says thoughtfully. “Could that be something to do with ‘Mr. Lucky’? I don’t know what that means. Did you try searching for that term?”