Ship Inn - Dunwich, England 10:55 AM - Thursday, September 5, 1985
Raymond MacIntyre and Salem Shields walked through the front door of the inn. The lobby was decorated with nautical themes. A couple of doors at the back led further inside, and a flight of stairs went up. There was a wooden counter with a bell on it, behind which stood a petite young woman with big brown eyes and black hair. Tobias was at the counter speaking to her, and Chad and Leonek stood to one side.
Leonek is looking obviously agitated, casting angry glances at Tobias.
Between clenched teeth he whispers to Chad, his accent coming through because of his excitement.
"Ho..how is this possible, ve are here on a mission and all he can do is think vith his spodnie!"
Chad shakes his head and sighs. "I don't know." But he laughs, "The least he could have done is tried to get us a discount." He notices Salem and Raymond enter the inn, taps Leonek with the back of his hand, and directs his attention at the arrival of their companions.
Raymond nods lightly to the other members of the group before heading to the counter and to the young woman working. "Good morning Miss, I was wondering if you could tell me if a Ms. Kirby has checked out already. She told me that I might be able to catch her early in the morning here before she checked out, but I had a bit of an accident on my way here so I am quite late. I'm afraid I might have missed her."
Exchanging looks between Leonek and Chad, Salem felt a bit bewilder at the sight of both of them bickering with each other as he arrived at the the Ship Inn. Lightheartedly Salem asks,"So what's going on over here fellas?", as Salem hid his concerns with an amusing smile.
Even though Raymonddidn't notice anything off about her demeanor or what she was saying, he knew that she was lying in some fashion. After all, Ms. Kirby wasn't checking out today, and had already gone missing during this mission. While the receptionist wasn't explicitly saying that she checked out today, she was acknowledging that she was here and no longer is - meaning something had happened.
"Oh, that's too bad. Oh well, I'll just catch her another time. Thank you ma'am."Raymond went back to the group and asked "You got the rooms, right?"
Salem Shields,[b]Salem[/b] noticed that the woman had a sort of tell: she raised a hand close to her mouth in an indication of deception when she replied to [b]Raymond[/b]. He also noticed that her fingers were slightly webbed. This coupled with the large eyes were reminiscent of the mutations he had observed on [b]Simon Armistead[/b]'s body, though they were far less obvious and not pronounced enough to make her unattractive, which was evident from the way [b]Tobias[/b] looked at her.
"Maddox, but please call me Tobias. Many thanks Miss Howard." Tobias takes the keys from the receptionist with a smile. As he turns round to the others he drops the smile but keeps his voice light. "Well fellas this lovely lady has arranged for two rooms now and hopefully two later on today. I'm happy to come back later to pick up my key." He turns and winks at Miss Howard. "So you guys take these." He holds out four keys: two for Room 3, and two for Room 106.
Annie Howard smiled and waved at Tobias as he walked away to join the rest of his group. "Room 3 is down the corridor through that door," she said, pointing to one of the doors at the back. "Room 106 is up the stairs and down the hall to the left."
Leonek and Salem each took a key to Room 3 and passed through the indicated door into a hallway stretching left and right. Their room was to the right, the second (and last) door on the left in that direction.
Chad, Raymond, and Tobias went upstairs, where they found themselves in a similar corridor leading left and right. Down the right-hand side, Room 101 was the first door on the left. Room 104 was the second and final door on the right. That door was currently ajar. A large, bald, muscular man in overalls sat on the floor in the doorway, his back to the group. Next to him was an open toolbox, and he appeared to be attaching the lower hinge to the door. It did not have an upper hinge. The left branch also had two doors on each side, with Room 106 being the first on the right in that direction. There was also a door at the very end of the hall that way, where a sign indicated that it was the fire exit.
Chad points to the fire escape door. "Good, easy access." At any questioning glances, he simply says with a small shrug, "Have to know your exits! That's the UN... you know... way."
Glancing back at the open door to 104, Chad cocks his head, absently wondering what happened to the door.
As Salem approached the door of Room 3, he produced a key out of his front coat pocket. Wearily looking around the hallway for any unwanted ears, Salem looks at Leonek with a big smile on his face, "Tobias sure has an interesting taste in women." With a smug look on Salem's face, he inserted the key into the door handle and unlocked it.
Tobias walks up the stairs with the others. Once Annie can't see him he shudders and makes a face. As they reach room 106 he glares at Chad for nearly slipping up and cocks his head towards the workman. Then he frowns and turns back to room 104. "Hi. Sorry to trouble you while you are busy but I think I may be renting this room later. What happened to the door - is it fixable?" He asks the workman with a smile.
