Play@YSDC

Langdon’s car is parked right in front of Hirt’s building on Thomas Street when Dex drives up a bit after seven and parks about a half block down. The sun has set and the moon is rising; temperatures have dropped to the low sixties and autumn is clearly imminent.

Still, the block is fairly busy with people coming and going, especially around Trilby’s Hat (the cafe) and Simpkins’ Grocery. Over at The Book-Worm, the closed sign is up and Steve Malcolm can be glimpsed through the window, tidying up. Koslov’s Art is dark, but a light is on in an upstairs window. A couple is just coming down the steps at Hirt’s apartment building. Inside, the lobby lights are on, but there’s no sign of anyone in the lobby.

By the time Dex walks the half block, Langdon is out of his car, dressed in a long grey overcoat and a dark red scarf.

Dex pulls his jacket closed, hiding the shoulder holster with his .38 S&W revolver in it, and glances over at the building.

"Are you ready for this Langdon? Cause if you would rather not go in, you can always wait in the diner."

Dex will glance around the neighborhood while speaking to Langdon to see if anything sticks out of the norm. Anyone sitting in their car, watching the building, watching the pair of them?

(OOC edited the .45 auto for one of his two .38s that I said he was carrying on his character sheet.)

"Ready for this?" I repeat, a little startled. "You make it seem so sinister! Do you expect us to find a room full of menacing figures, with bizarre headdresses, performing some sort of sacrificial rite? Ha!" I chuckle, recalling one of the many ridiculous stories I've read in the pulps. "I think I read that one, too, Dex."

I smile and get serious. "I'm ready to go in. But let's try to be civil. We're not after anybody. We're just looking for information. We're here to help, right?"

Dexter Ford wrote:Dex will glance around the neighborhood while speaking to Langdon to see if anything sticks out of the norm. Anyone sitting in their car, watching the building, watching the pair of them?

Anyone staking out the building would have to be darn near invisible for you to miss them [Shadowing 10]. Langdon's sleek, gleaming automobile, however, is getting a number of admiring and envious glances.

Langdon wrote:"Ready for this?" I repeat, a little startled. "You make it seem so sinister! Do you expect us to find a room full of menacing figures, with bizarre headdresses, performing some sort of sacrificial rite? Ha!" I chuckle, recalling one of the many ridiculous stories I've read in the pulps. "I think I read that one, too, Dex."

I smile and get serious. "I'm ready to go in. But let's try to be civil. We're not after anybody. We're just looking for information. We're here to help, right?"

Dex nods at Langdon. "Sorry for the melodrama. I am sure this is a just a missing person's case. As long as Hirt isn't involved with gangsters or rum runners, it shouldn't be anything we have to worry about." Dex reaches into his pocket and hands Langdon the paper with the information copied on it that his partner left at the agency. "Some clues my partner managed to dig up while we were having lunch and running about the city ourselves. I sent a copy to Delores and to our colleague on the force." Dex looks both ways then crosses the street. "Do you know anything about the detective? He's been none too helpful in all of this. I'd argue he almost seems to want us to drop this and frankly, that makes me want to dig deeper."

Dex will check to see if anyone is coming in or out of the building. If yes, he will wait to slip in after them. If not, he will pull out his lockpicks and work on the front door, shielding what he is doing from the street.

The note handed to Langdon reads, as it does for all the others.

Langdon (or the appropriate name),

I am not sure this is of much help, but all pieces of the puzzle eventually prove useful.
Here is what my partner managed to dig up.

Marlene Hirt
Nothing much current
Manhattan ph. dir. - APpleton 5102 - 1288 Lexington Ave
Palatine Hirt left small fortune to her & brother Alphonse 1918
Robert Stanton executor & guardian
grad. Upper Darby Girls’ Acad. 1923
Eng. Lit. deg. Bennington 1927

Dex.

"Detective Esposito? No. I don't know too much about him that I can recall."

I'm not too sure what to do so I just follow behind Dex, trying to look like a friend stopping by his friend's place and waiting for him to open the door.

There's no traffic in or out of the building just now. You notice a set of buttons beside the front door, each labeled with an apartment number. Through the glass doors, you can see that the dimly-lit foyer includes a row of twenty polished brass mailboxes for the residents, a pair of potted palms by the elevator and a front desk, now vacant.

Dex will use his lock picks to unlock the door rather than the ruse of ringing a buzzer until someone let's them in.

Dexter Ford wrote:Dex will use his lock picks to unlock the door rather than the ruse of ringing a buzzer until someone let's them in.

<Make a Lockpick roll with a 5 difficulty (partly due to trying to look like an ordinary visitor/resident instead of someone crouched down picking a lock).>

Dex uses the lock picks and is a bit nervous with Langdon about and it seems the locks were changed fairly recently. Muttering. "Damn Elite Sentry locks. Who woulda thought they sprung for the Tiffany of locks?" He pulls out another lock pick, twists, jimmies and a bead a sweat falls down his brow. Luckily Dex hears the click of release. "It took me a minute or three, but I got it. I didn't realize that the lock was new when the doorman opened up for me earlier."

(Dex rolls a 2, then spends sufficient Locksmith to get the 5 needed. And after checking my sheet again, I have just enough points to do it. http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2346837/)

You're in!

Knowing what apartment Hirt is supposed to be in from checking out the mailboxes earlier, Dex will head for the service stairs and take them up to the floor that Hirt's apartment is located on. To Langdon. "We promised the detective we wouldn't break in, but let's knock on the door and see if anyone is at home, shall we?"

"Excuse me, Dex, but... the service stairs?" I cock an eye at him, thinking that if I were really going up to a friend's apartment we'd be taking the elevator or the main stairwell. Some of the thrill of this only-partly-legal investigation is starting to wear off, replaced by a nervous energy.

Private,I peak through the tiny window carefully, not opening the lid, trying to see if I can spot any dates on the mail inside.

Having opened the door to the service stairs, he glances back at Langdon staring into the mailbox. "Okay, you have a point. Let us take the elevator and see what the more genteel way brings." He sighed and pushed the button to call the elevator. "Did you see anything in the mailbox of interest?"

I shrug "Just some letters. I couldn't tell how long they'd been there..." I cut myself off and take a second look at the row of mailboxes. <Does anyone else's box have letters in it? Does it look like there is a lot of mail in Mr. Hirt's box?>

Hirt's mailbox looks like it is full of mail, the front envelopes pressed right up against the little window.. Most of the others are completely empty, a couple seem to have only one or two items.

"Well... just shows I'm not a professional investigator" I chuckle to myself. Trying to maintain the image of a friend visiting a friend's apartment I chide "Dex, you really should check your mailbox more often. It looks like you haven't been home in weeks." It's clear I'm trying to be subtle and failing, as I look from Dex to Mr. Hirt's mailbox and back to Dex, clearly suggesting that Dex open the mailbox.

He glances at the mailbox, and then at Langdon, thinking for a moment. "On the way out, I'll get the mail. Let's just say, Uncle Sam is a little less tolerant of forcing your way into their property than the local flatfoots might be." He waits for the elevator to come to the lobby.

(Does it look like the mailman lowers all the boxes at once or is there a room behind the mailboxes he has access too the rear of the boxes? I have seen both, and its rare where a mailman who have to open every box individually)

I muse to myself out loud "You know... I wonder if there's anything I could do at city hall, any strings to pull, people to contact, to get access to his mail. Maybe someone from the police would know? Hmm..."

<Is there any skill I can use to make that sort of thing happen? Would probably happen the next day or the day after?>

<Well.... up to the apartment then!>

Dex will take the elevator to Langdon's Hirt's <ed.> floor, then walk down the hallway towards his apartment. If there is no one in the hallway, he will try the door to the flat, and knock on it as well. He'll also knock on the doors to either side to see if anyone his home and if they have seen anyone besides Mr. Hirt enter his apartment in the last few days. What happens next depends on who answers or if Hirt's door is locked or not.

The door to apartment 302 is locked and no one answers your knock. dex's Locksmith skill determines right away that the lock has been tampered with by someone not nearly as expert.

When you knock at apartment 301, a heavyset man in a dressing gown answers, holding the newspaper in his hand. No, he says, he hasn't seen anyone go in and out of Hirt's place. Who is it? asks a female voice from inside. Some guy wants to know if we've seen anybody next door, he answers. Just that woman, she says, Tell him to make her keep that dog quiet! They don't know who she is, but have seen her in the company of Mr. Hirt.

There's no answer at apartment 303.

At 304, a stooped and elderly man answers. He seems hard of hearing. Yeh, I've seen that dame comin an goin, he says, she's quite a looker, huh? He didn't catch her name.

[Since there are four apartments per floor, I went ahead and gave you all of them.]

After talking to the last of the neighbors and noticing the lock to Hirt's apartment has been tampered with, I look at Langdon. "Well that wasn't particularly helpful. We suspect that the false Miss Hirt has been here and with a dog, that's a new wrinkle. No one is home. I still say we try to snoop around the place, but if the police catch us, I am not sure I can talk both of us out here. However, if we do discover a dog, in distress, perhaps that might be a cover story that will carry a little weight. But I am willing to leave it to the police to formally investigate if you think the risk is too great."

It is obvious that Dex is eager to open the door, damn the consequences, and talk himself out of the mess. But he won't put any undo pressure on Langdon to break the law or their word.

"I don't suppose you have any way of contacting Detective Esposito, do you? After all, a tampered lock is suspicious. But do you really think it's grounds to enter the apartment? Maybe we can speak to the building manager?" I'm clearly losing the gall for something like this. It's one thing to read about it in the pulps, another to dream about it, still another to entertain the notion and possibly facilitate it by misusing official documents...

"Look, Dex, I ... Maybe we should try another way? This just doesn't seem right."

Langdon wrote:"Look, Dex, I ... Maybe we should try another way? This just doesn't seem right."

Dex nods his head. "Let's go down to the local coffee shop, get a cup of joe and a slice of pie, and I'll call the local station house and see if they can't send someone around to take a looksee. That way when they send a squad car out to investigate our suspicions, we can always start the ball rolling for a more formal police investigation with the full mail slot, the neighbors' comments about not seeing Mr. Hirt and the strange woman, etc. While I do that, why don't you give Detective Esposito a call. I am pretty sure he is none to fond of me at the moment."

He steers Langdon down the hall and to the elevator and then next door to the coffee shop. It's the most likely place for a pay phone, or for a dime to be slipped across the counter for a call to the police.

Trilby's Hat is going strong this early in the evening, most of the tables are crowded and every booth is occupied, except the one closest to the door. The clientele is a mix of young artsy students and older bohemian types. Everyone is smoking and drinking coffee or beer and arguing at the top of their voices. Joe Makropolos gives Dex a wave as he comes in. Cassandra L’Argent weaves among the tables carrying orders and empties from kitchen to customer and back again.

There is a telephone booth to one side of the entrance, a mahogany box with glass windows.

Dex's attempt to arouse police interest founder on the question of who is he and how did he come to notice tampering to the lock? Is he the householder or the landlord or a neighbor? Can he say when the tampering was done? Are the premises secured now? What about the dog, maybe he wants the SPCA? Has a missing person report been filed? A full mailbox isn't much to go on. They'll try to send someone around to see someone, probably Monday. Who is this again?

Langdon has better success getting two cups of coffee from Cassandra.

Dex comes back and sits down in the booth. "No luck with the normal police routine. They don't seem to care and they are asking some mundane question I can't answer. So either we call Detective Esposito and get him to open the door to the apartment, or I risk my PI license and we do it ourselves. Any suggestions? I really don't want to contact my captain in the force yet if I don't have to. Besides it's a holiday weekend and that might not get much done."

<trying to jump start what seems to be a bit stalled/or wrap things up for the next day>

<fine by me. I'm leaving shortly, so won't be able to post again until Monday. enjoy the holidays>