Play@YSDC

Although she had grudgingly accepted the offer from Millicent, the writer from the club, Amanda didn't feel comfortable outside her own space and rose early. She gathered her things and quietly set off into the city, headed for King's College.

The large gothic edifice of Maughan Library was not somewhere she frequented and she fortified herself at a small student coffee shop who brewed aromatic coffee from far away shores. It piqued the imagination of Amanda who romanticised about distant lands and strange and exciting people. She was lost in her breakfast reverie for a while before she got down to the matter at hand. She had promised the detective to find out what she could, and she would try no matter what...

Amanda Somerville wraps her overcoat tighter around herself to ward off the chill morning air. A college campus is familiar territory for her, even if it is a different campus. However, she is confident that she can find her way around. I feel so bad for poor Mr. Hornely, she thinks. I've got to do what I can to bring his killer to justice. And besides, I won't feel safe until he's caught. Of course, by sticking my neck out and asking about the book I could be putting myself into danger... She trembles briefly, then recovers. I've got to try. I can't let fear rule my life. Straightening up, she makes her way across campus in search of the Literature Department and Professor Blexham.

The literature department stands in an annex of the library and sprawls across three floors. It is quiet so early in the morning, but asking around the few people she encounters, she easily finds directions to the faculty offices of the department.

The door to Blexham's office is wooden with a large pane of frosted glass set in the upper centre. Gold leaf characters spell out the occupant, they proclaim: 'Dr. H. Blexham Phd, Literature & Humanities'.

Detecting movement inside, Amanda pauses to consider her options...

Amanda's first instinct is to knock on the door, but she hesitates. I don't normally eavesdrop, she thinks, but I might learn something important. I can always knock later. She peers through the pane of frosted glass and listens closely in effort to hear what is going on on the other side.

Amanda can see a figure moving around the room; opening filing cabinets (she can tell by the metallic sound), rustling papers, opening drawers and the like. The figure doesn't seem to be moving particularly urgently or stealthily though...

Amanda stands for a moment, paralyzed with fear, every instinct screaming at her. He's searching for something, she thinks, but I'd think Professor Blexham would know where it is. My God! What if that's the killer in there, looking for a copy of the book? What if the professor is lying dead in there right this second?!

OOC,Can I roll Sense Trouble, or can I only roll that if you prompt me to do so?

Goosebumps run up and down Amanda's back.

Amanda is worried something seems off but she cannot place her finger on exactly what it is. The person in the office doesn't appear to be tossing the room, like she would expect a criminal too. The silhouetted searching in the office continues as she watches.

The phone inside the office suddenly rings, startling Amanda and she hears a muttered curse then the receiver being picked up. Listening carefully she hears half a muffled conversation...

"...This is he." A pause then; "The police, what? Really the Yard, well I could come by this afternoon? No? Later on this morning then say 11?" The receiver clicks back down into place and another curse before the rummaging resumes.

Either that really is Profesor Blexham and he's rude, uncouth, and loses things in his own office, thinks Amanda, or he's impersonating him to find something. If I knocked on his door, he'd be more likely to pretend to be Blexham than to murder me. I'd like to get a look at him, but I don't want him to see me. I wish I knew what the bloke is supposed to look like. I'd wager that was Detective Grimes on the phone just now. She checks her watch to see what time it is and looks up and down the hall to see if anyone else is around.

Glancing at her watch Amanda notes the time is a quarter to eight in the morning and there is no-one in sight as yet, she has only seen sporadic people thus far and here in the in the Literature faculty it was practically deserted.

Amanda continues to watch the man in Blexham's office, ready to press herself against the wall beside the door if he approaches it, hoping that he won't see her as he's leaving. She is curious to see if he finds what he's seeking.

Amanda estimates that around ten minutes elapses before her hand is forced. The sounds in the office seem to reach a crescendo of vexation and with a final slam of a filing cabinet drawer the door to the office is pulled open.

It almost startles the young student...Almost, she is quick to turn aside slightly inspecting a nearby noticeboard of paper grades.

From the door blunders a large man, sweating somewhat and mopping at his brow with a handkerchief. He looks annoyed and hot, clearly he has not found what he was searching for in the office. Catching a glimpse of the office behind, Amanda notes that its has not been 'turned over' like she supposed a burglar would do. Indeed the dusty suit and general appearance of the man practically scream academia rather than criminality. But one could never be too careful...

Amanda surreptitiously watches the man while pretending not to, keen to see if he is leaving the office and, if so, which way he will go in the hopes of following him without him noticing her.

He puffs his way down the corridor to the left calling out "Eileen, Eileen? Are you in yet, bother it! I can't find those damn assessment papers! Eileen?" he leaves the door open...

I suppose he really is who he says he is, thinks Amanda. That doesn't necessarily mean he's on the up and up, of course. The temptation to snoop around in Blexham's office while he's otherwise occupied proves too strong, and Amanda slips quietly through the open door.

Slipping inside, Amanda finds herself in a musty smelling office. Dust motes whirl in the air catching the thin morning sunlight slanting in through a window half covered in stacks of papers and piles of books.

There doesn't seem to be many available spaces left to stack things on, no wonder the professor was having difficulty locating a particular set of papers - it would take the work of half a dozen post-graduate students several weeks to sort the mess out. No doubt the professor claimed to know exactly where everything was though!

The office seems innocent enough, but who knows what lurks below the surface of academia...

Amanda tiptoes over to the desk and begins quietly looking through the drawers, always listening for any sign of someone approaching out in the hall.

Rifling through the drawers she doesn't find anything particularly interesting or incriminating, just the usual one would expect to find in a professors drawer: Stationary, papers, mint humbugs, a folded copy of the Times with the crossword part completed. Amanda sighs heavily, frustrated about her lack of success, but then catches the sound of the professor's voice in the distance...

Amanda swiftly and quietly shuts the drawers and slips back out into the hall.