Play@YSDC

The car leaves behind Los Angeles downtown as you make your way east towards the address you have found. The city changes here, less colorful and more... gray. The palm trees you have come to know as part of the landscape decrease in number and then disappear. This is definitely a poorer district of the city, and these places where life is cheap always look a lot like each other, west coast or east coast.

You pull off the car in front of a little house that has clearly seen better days. A single fattered sheet of filthy news-print skitters across the street - it sounds vaguely like it's hissing at you - and then lodges itself in a sewer grate where a bunch of other scraps of garbage have accumulated. You look around and see no one in sight. The silence is broken only by the sound of a baby crying somewhere you can't exactly pinpoint. At least, the windows are open and it seems like the house you're looking for is inhabitated.

"Let's go up and knock on the door," suggests Holly.

Christopher Fontana

"Do you think we ought to have a 'cover' story?" he asks, wondering what their approach to interviewing Spend's sister.

"Maybe we could say we're researching the early days of Hollywood, writing a book or something," suggests Holly. "Although that could backfire. She might not want the sordid details of her brother's death published. We could always go with the truth, or at least a limited part of it."

Christopher Fontana

"Hmm, I don't suppose she would be very obliging if she thought we were 'muck-raking'; if we keep to the 'mundane' facts ... that we have been retained to find out what happened and that our employer is very discrete then we might have better luck."

OOC:   Christopher is happy to follow Holly's lead, using his 'Assess Honesty' as required...

"Then let's do that," says Holly. "I can also promise her confidentiality. That's part of my stock in trade." She leads the way up to the front door and knocks.

A few second after knocking, a woman probably in her fourties, but showing ten years more, comes to open the door. She eyes you for a couple of seconds with a mix of interest and suspect, then she says: "Well now, who are you? Did you get lost around here?".

"No, we're in the right place, if you're Yolanda Spenzel," says Holly. "I'm Dr. Holly Chastain, and this is my colleague, Chirstopher Fontana."

The woman frowns: "Are you here for those unpaid taxes? I already told them it's a mistake", she then makes an exaggerated gesture and adds in a bitter tone: "Of course you're here for those taxes. Nobody visits me anymore. Such an old, grumpy lady. Well, I'm not paying, do you hear me?"

"I didn't even know anything about the taxes," says Holly. "We're from Boston. Believe it or not, we really do want to talk to you. We'd be glad to spend some time with you."

OOC,Using Reassurance if necessary.

"Oh.", she says, then adds: "Please wait a second". She closes the door and disappears inside the house for a few minutes. She comes back wearing better clothes and with some make-up on. She gestures you inside and towards a small sitting room. The interior of the house is decent, but smells a little, and there's dust sitting on most surfaces. In particolar, there's a bad smell coming from the kitchen, of eggs and rotten fish, but luckily it's not so strong inside the sitting room. Yolanda says: "Please, sit down. Can I offer you some tea? Coffee? Orange juice?"

Christopher Fontana

Christopher shakes his head "Oh, no thank you I'm fine.." he says, warned off by the smell emanating from the kitchen, he really doesn't want anything from there. He pulls out his note book and flips to a new page.

"Nothing for me either, thank you," says Holly, sharing Chirstopher's concern as she sits down and takes out her own notebook. "We'd like to ask you some things about your late brother, Richard Spend."

OOC,Interrogation is used in an official setting, such as police grilling a suspect. Assess Honesty is useful, and mine is "on" too.

"Oh, poor Ricky", she leaves the room and comes back after a few seconds with a photo of her late brother. In the photo, he is smiling, holding a basket ball in his hand, somewhat younger than how Holly remembered him from the movies. "Not too many people coming around and asking about Ricky these days. During that horrible summer, they were all over this place... journalists, detectives. They only knew of the last Ricky, the bad Ricky. But he was such a good boy when he was younger. He would always listen to me", she says while caressing the photo.

"We'd like to hear about the Ricky you remember," says Holly. "We want to understand how this could have happened. I know he was in some silent movies back in the 1920s. Did he work on a movie called The Twins in 1924?"

"I don't know about his work in his last months. That's when he started attending those parties that his friend Echavarria was throwing at his mansion. Did I say parties? I meant 'parties', if you get what I mean. Did he ever invite me? No, of course he didn't. Probably for the better. He never admitted it, but I think they were filming...", she adds the next few words in a whisper: "... pornography up there". She shoots you a knowing glance, then continues: "Nasty stuff, I'm sure, which is probably why he was always sneaking around about it, coming in at all hours, missing calls for his real work. But he used to be such a good man before. Do you believe me?"

Assess Honesty,She's not lying, but there's something else she's not saying to you.

"I believe that he used to be a good man," says Holly, "but I still don't understand how things went so wrong with him. How did it start? How did he know Echavarria?"

Christophef nods encouragingly, "Any information or insight you can give us will help us enormously."

"I don't know how they met, probably on some film set or at some party. He always thought he knew better, Ricky. But I told him those people were dangerous. I confronted him about it. I wasn't scared of him. I never was. I told him he was being stupid. Putting everything we had worked for at risk like that. And for no reason. He laughed at me, laughed right out loud. Who's laughing now? Nobody, that's who". She pauses for a few seconds, then continues: "Later on, I did kind of start to get scared of him. He was moody. Sometimes he got violent. Sometime he just sat on a chair until he started, you know... drooling out of his mouth". She shakes her head. "I was right. I always was. Do you have a sister?", she asks Christopher, then continues without waiting for an answer: "You should listen to her if you do".

She seems lost in thought for a few seconds, then adds: "You know, now that I think about it, the police came around once, asking about Ricky, before he died. There were plenty of people asking after he died, but now that we're talking about it, there was this pair of detective that came around before he died. They were asking about Echavarria, too. Weird questions, too - what was Ricky reading, did he take any drugs, did I know anything about 'honey'. No, that's not it, not 'honey'", a couple of wrinkles form on hr forehead as she thinks deeply, trying to remember: "Yes... 'Nectar'. They asked about 'nectar'. I'm sure that was the name of some perverted movie he was working on. Or the name of a hooker".

Assess Honesty,She seems to be telling the truth, and she definitely gets a great deal of satisfaction from being right, and the fact that her brother ought to have listened to her.

"Did these detectives give names?" asks Holly. "Can you describe them?"

Christopher Fontana

Christopher writes down the new information, underlining the words 'drugs' and 'nectar';if the police were investigating Echavarria and asking about drugs then there could be a very strong possibility that was where Echavarria's wealth came from and if Echavarria was the manufacturer/distributor then who has stepped into that gap since his death.

"Are you saying that the detective's had a link between this drug and Echavarria? Is that the impression you got from them?" he asks.

OOC:   Shame this isn't a modern game, could call the others on their cell-phones to ask questions at the police station.

"Oh no... I don't remember their names... it was so long ago. But I remember their faces... I always had a good memory for people, you know". She makes a brief description of two men, providing a good amount of details.

Holly,You remember the portraits on Henslowe's notebook and, while you can't be 100% sure, you think there's a good chance the two men might be Walter Winston e Vincent Stack.

"Thank you," says Holly, nodding and adding her conclusions to her notes. "Maybe it was the drugs that turned your brother into a different person. That happens all too often."

"Yes... Yes, perhaps it is as you say", she says, then falls silent, probably reminiscing the past.

"Do you know which movies Ricky starred in?" asks Holly, planning to compare the list to Olivia Clarendon's filmography to see if they were in any of the same movies.

"Oh, that... I don't remember most of them... but I kept some articles... from newspapers, and tabloids, you know...", she disappears again in another room and returns a few minutes later with a series of newspapers clippings, reviewing and discussing movies that featured Richard Spend. You check the list and can definitely find some movies that starred both Richard and Olivia Clarendon. They were taking lots of minor parts in those days, though, and it doesn't seem like they were always starring in the same movies - just sometimes.

"Did you know that Olivia Clarendon starred in some of Ricky's movies too, before she was famous?" asks Holly.

"Olivia Clarendon? No, I didn't... what's she got to do with Ricky?, Yolanda asks, puzzled.

"I'm not sure," says Holly. "They were costars in a few different films. I just thought it was interesting that they knew each other and wondered if they were close."

"I'm not sure... I don't think I ever met her. Do you think she was involved with the pornography?!", she gasps and cover her mouth with her hand in an exaggerated gesture of surprise.

"I've seen no evidence of that," says Holly carefully. "Without it, all there is is speculation."

OOC,Does her surprise being exaggerated mean she isn't truly surprised? What does Assess Honesty tell me about her reaction?

Assess Honestly,It seems that it's news to her, but she probably expects all the people in the cinema industry to be corrupt, and she likes a good scandal. You identify her as the classic middle age woman in love with gossip.

"Oh... sure... I see", she looks mildly disappointed, and let the conversation fall, focusing again on her brother's photo.

"Do you know anything about any of the other members of the cult that Ricky joined?" asks Holly. "Have you ever met any of them?"

"A cult?! What are you talking about? He was doing some nasty stuff, with the drugs and the... the... the pornography... but he surely never worshipped the Devil or anything like that!", she stands up and cross her arms, "I would like you to leave now".

"I'm sorry, Miss Spenzel," says Holly. "I hadn't meant...we'll leave now. Thank you for your time, and I'm sorry for your loss." She rises and leads the way back outside. She has already asked all of the questions she had wanted to ask, so she doesn't feel like she is missing any information.

OOC,Can I use Reassurance here?

After apologizing to Miss Spenzel, you are hurriedly escorted out of the house, and the door shuts down behind your back. There's nothing else to do here, and with the sun that will soon start setting, you decide to head back to the hotel and meet the others.

OOC:   Continues here: viewtopic.php?f=352&t=5853