Ghosts of the Past: Episode I...Serious Breaking and Entering
Sunday, Oct. 1st
The Bazaar of Wonders comic shop sat on the corner of Warwick and North Ave., in a building that looked half private residence, half warehouse. The shop occupied only the first floor of the dilapidated brick building. A worn wooden sign hung from its faux wrought iron mountings the only indication a shop was there. A large window display advertised a Magic tournament and held a painstakingly designed Warhammer 40K battle. A doorbell buzzed the group in; an awkward acne-stricken teenager looked up, surprised by the visitors.
“Uh…Hi, can I help you guys with something.” The kid looked sheepish as if he wasn’t even sure he was supposed to be behind the sales counter.
Everyone looked expectantly at Mer; boys were after all her area of expertise. Mer rolled her eyes, but stepped forward. “Oh…yes. Hi, what’s your name?”
“I’m…I’m…my names Robby.”
Mer glanced over her shoulder, starring daggers at her friends. She turned back to Robby, sauntered up to the counter. “Hi, Robby. Some of my friends were telling me about this game...Magic. Do you know anything about that?”
"Uhh...umm..." Robby struggled to put a sentence together.
Po and Rich laughed as Mer played Robby like a pro. Rich leaned over to whisper to Po and Jessica. "While the kid's distracted I'm gonna give this place a look. Let's see if we can find anything."
Rich started to wander the little shop, moving out of Robby's sight.
You know Rich, you're not so hot with girls either. I've seen Po and Jessica tie your tongue in knots too.
Shutup, Mary. I'm trying to work here.
Then may I suggest you pay a little more attention Rich, there's magic here.
Rich paused, gawking around. Really!?!? Rich took a deep breathe, preparing himself for it, collecting his thoughts and concentrating. He then closed his eyes, imagining the little shop in exquisite detail. When he opened them again everything looked different.
Rich slowly turned, looking about. He can see the blood red miasma of rage and death clinging to Po and Mer, barely kept in check, lurking within. He sees the coruscating hues that drape Jessica like a mantle, and the blazing white that shines from her eyes. More importantly though, Rich can see other auras unfamiliar ones, there is a light blue glow on the half dozen security cameras, and on the glass of the front door the word BEWARE glows in red.
All the magic stunned Rich, AJ must know more than they thought. There was just no way he could be as clueless as he seemed and have enchanted, granted marginally enchanted, security cameras. "Hey, guys. I took a look around and there's more to this place than we thought, all the security cameras are enchanted. It's minor and I'm not sure what the enchantment does but its there."
"What?! Are you serious?" Jessica looked just as surprised as Rich felt.
Po gave a shrug. "That just means we really need to take a closer look here. That's up to you two. Now watch Mer and I give this kid blue balls for a week." Po left with a wink and a grin. She sauntered up behind Mer possessively wrapping her arms around Mer's waist. Po wet her lips and nibbled Mer's earlobe, distracting Robby and Mer. "Baby is this nice boy giving you what you need?"
Robby's voice trailed off, as all decent thoughts left his head. Rich and Jessica took the opportunity to slip off and check out the storage closet and a set off stairs in the back. The stairs led up to what looked like a small above shop apartment. Rich climbed up pausing at the door, Jessica followed close behind. "Should I try it?"
Jessica rationalized for the both of them. "Its not like we haven't done worse before. And besides it's for AJ's own good."
Rich gripped the doorknob and gave it a twist. It just giggled, solidly locked in place. "It's locked, give me your key*."
Jessica stepped up and dug in her purse for a moment. She produced an antique silver skeleton key, well worn and with a deep patina of age. She slipped it into the lock, and with a click opened it. Rich gave the door a shove swinging it open. Before he could take a step alarms blared and lights flashed alerting every one of their trespass. "S***!"
Robby jumped at the awful noise of the air horn. He ran to the far side of the counter tripping over a box of comics. "Hey!! Hey, you can't be up there. That's private. My boss is gonna kill you guys, or well more like sue the pants off you."
Mer and Po jumped, both just as startled as Robby. Mer recovered first, caught up with Robby and snagged his arm in a tight grip. "Hey, Robby. Don't worry about them, just keep helping me." She looked him in the eye and could feel his resistance draining away. Robby was like a cornered mouse falling prey to a cobra. He just stood there face slack, jaw agape.
Mer had always been good with people, charming. But since her turning she'd become even better with people. She didn't understand it but people would just fall for her, overpowered by her will. Po couldn't explain it either; she just said it came naturally to Mer, a manifestation of her powers.
Rich peeked back down the stairs to make sure everything was ok. Theres no telling what those two will do.
Rich pitied Robby, he really had no idea what hit him, he just stood mute, staring at Mer's chest. Rich shook his head and got down to some serious breaking and entering. He paused at the top of the stairs, searching with his hands until he found the air horns mounting. With a sharp tug and the splinter of wood he ripped the offending horn from the wall. The horn died with a squawk like a plucked goose.
AJ's apartment was a simple single bedroom, single bath affair. It had a large combination dining/living room and a small kitchen. The whole place was layered in strata of refuse and garbage. The kitchen featured Domino's boxes, Doritos bags, and Zebra Cake wrappers. The living room was littered with everything from dirty socks and dishes, to Diet Coke cans. Piles of comics, cards, and role-playing books were stacked in precarious piles. Newspapers, magazines and clippings carpeted the floor like leaves in an autumn forest.
Jessica looked around in disgust. "How are we going to find anything in all of this?"
Rich began to gingerly pick his way through the living room, making his way towards the two computers on the far wall. "Let's see if we can find anything useful on these. Then we can tackle the rest."
Jessica nodded and stepped up to the second computer. A Windows screensaver password screen greeted her as soon as she moved the mouse. She sat in thought for a moment looking around her trying to judge what AJ would use for a password. "Rich this is hopeless; we can't just guess a password like this." She realized how impossible this would be as she looked around. AJ's tastes were bizarre at best and as paranoid as he was he likely had an obscure password.
Rich scanned the room, cursing AJ's paranoia. He tried to put all the skill he acquired in the force to use. He needed solid investigation skills to find anything in this mess. Rich's diligence was well rewarded. He found peeking out from under a pile of X-Men comics an e-reservation for an Econo Lodge in Williamsburg. The confirmation date read 9-27-05.
Jessica searched through the papers on the desks looking for anything of note. As she scanned the countless slips of stickies and scrap paper notes she found the name and number of a contact in Williamsburg, a Sherry Turner of the Berkley Plantation.
Jessica and Rich turned to one another and simultaneously said, "Found something!!" With a laugh they exchanged pieces of paper.
"We can call that hotel and see what room he was staying in. And maybe this Mrs. Turner will be able to tell us what AJ was doing up there." Rich tucked both pieces of paper into his pants pocket and resumed rifling the apartment. A final look around turned up a small worn notebook covered in notes for Red Herring articles, the name Steven Giapolis and an address were written on the open page. "Bingo, you find anything else?"
"Nah, just more garbage and geek gear."
"Ok then lets rescue that kid from the ladies downstairs before they drive him nuts."
By the time Rich and Jessica came downstairs again, Robby spoke in single syllable words only. Po and Mer were leaning on the sales counter arms around each other asking him question after question about the game of Magic. Rich waved the notebook and the two pieces of paper in the air. "Ladies lets go, leave the poor kid be. I think he's seen more than enough for one day from you two."
Mer gave Rich her best Who-Me? look and batted her eyes at him. "You know you get what you ask for Rich. Remember that."
The group left as quick as they'd come. Leaving Robby dazed and confused, and strangely aroused.
Rich passed the clues they'd found upstairs around and described everything upstairs. "Looks like that'll be enough for a start. The hotel narrows our search down, and hopefully Mrs. Turner will be able to tell us a little about what AJ was working on."
Everyone climbed into the car, as Po started it up to head back to the house. Jessica pulled out her cell phone, double checking the number for Mrs. Turner at the Berkley Plantation. With luck there'd be some trace of AJ left in Williamsburg.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* - Ok so I forgot to explain that one until now, duh. The key is a unique reward Jessica earned for herself on a surreal trip to the realm of the fey. It's a simple magical key, able to unlock any mundane lock. It's powers come with a price, Jessica just doesn't know what that is yet. Its been incredibly useful so far for the group, even though they try to use it sparingly.