The Shed

[Laraqua]

The shed smells of wood chips, lantern oil, straw and old death and the shadows loom menacingly as she moves her flashlight through the depths of the room, playing it over the pile of extra sleepers, rusty old fence railing, tools hanging from the walls and the heap of replacement parts strewn across the wooden tool bench to one side. It then stops to linger over the noose slung over the central beam and attached to one of the wall struts to give it the necessary tension. It creaks as it moves slowly this way and that. Something drips from the rafters further down the shed.

Investigating the dripping,reveals it to be blood. If you touch it, you'll find that it's still warm. What could be on the roof?

Searching through the tools with Mechanical Repair or Crafts knowledge,locates a bolt cutter that has suspicious reddish brown stains along its edges. One thing's for sure, it's not rust.

Evidence Collection Knowledge,notices the fingers of a hand poking out from between some of the railway sleepers piled up by the wall. The fingers look cold and … dead.

Photography Knowledge,gives you the eerie sensation that you really should take a picture of this place. Such a thought worms into your mind and will continue to distract you now and again with the thought of how beautiful this place would look when captured on film.

[Charlie Hagan]

Charlie steps into the shed and glances around, following the play of the light. "Good god," he mutters, smile disappearing from his face, "is that... someone's hand?" He gestures towards the stacked pile of sleepers. "What do we do? The coppers wouldn't want us disturbing it... right?"

[Mr. Handy]

Kate steps inside and puts a hand to her collar, gasping in shock. "Th...that's blood..." she chokes out, pointing at the dripping liquid coming from the ceiling. "I shudder to think of what we might find on the roof. I hope it's not poor Miss Aston. That was her coat we passed outside. There was blood on it too, and something moving in it. I didn't have the nerve to see what it was. Probably a rat, but still something I'd rather not see." She points out the bolt cutters on the tool bench. "That ought to make quick work of the chains, just as long as we're careful not to touch them. They've got blood on them too, most like. You're right, we're best off not disturbing the scene. I should take a picture, though." She shuts the door behind them after verifying that it isn't locked so that no light from the flash will escape, then takes out her camera and snaps a picture of the shed's interior.

[Laraqua]

She is drawn to taking a picture from a few different angles, though without disturbing the scene. Does she do so?

[Mr. Handy]

OOC,Yes.

[Charlie Hagan]

Charlie backs up to avoid getting in the way of her shots. Frowning, he says, "Miss Aston? That doesn't add up, we would have noticed blood on the ground. But what about that other fellow who came down with her?" He waits for her to finish, careful to stay of the pictures, before adding, "I'm gonna take a look and see what's up there," and opening the door to leave.

[Mr. Handy]

"That's a bit of a relief," says Kate. "I'd hate to think...but if it's not her, then it's someone else. Be careful. Whoever did this might still be around." She lines up the next shot, but she waits to snap a picture until the door is closed so as not to let light be visible from outside.

[Charlie Hagan]

Charlie closes the door on his way out then waits for his night vision to adjust after the flashing from the camera. Once it has he circles the shed to find an easy way to get to its roof.

[Laraqua]

It's dark, cold and foggy out here. More than it even was a minute ago and the ground is rutted enough that it's a little hard to walk safely around the shed. Even by keeping one hand on the shed, he kicks a brick and stubs his toe. Thankfully there's a ladder around the back of the shed, though it looks quite rusty and doesn't appear to be secured in place. There's also the small matter of heading onto a shed roof without a light to seek out a potential dead body.

[Mr. Handy]

Kate takes pictures from different angles, oblivious to what's going on outside.

[Charlie Hagan]

Swearing under his breath, Charlie adjusts the the ladder to try to make it as stable as possible. He climbs up on to the lowest rung, with a sharp intake of breath at the feeling of cold metal against his hands, and tentatively gives it a downward kick.

[Laraqua]

It wobbles but doesn't collapse. In the silence of the shed Kate would be able to hear the thud of ladder against metal as it wobbled up against it on the other side.

[Charlie Hagan]

"Ok Charlie," he mutters under his breath as he starts to slowly climb up. "All you have to do is climb up the cold ladder in the dark to find out what the blood's coming from. This isn't a stupid idea at all."

[Mr. Handy]

Kate puts her camera away, grabs the bolt cutters, and exits the shed, closing the door behind her. She heads over to where Charlie is to see what the noise is all about. "Here, let me hold that ladder for you," she says, steadying it.

[Charlie Hagan]

"Thanks," Charlie replies gratefully without looking down.

[Laraqua]

He reaches the top of the shed and sees its corrugated lengths are pitched at an angle, preventing him from seeing what might be dripping that blood which would come from the other side of the roof. It's impossible to see the roof's condition in the foggy darkness, but the metal feels a little rusty, the smoothness giving way to rough patches and even the jagged edges of small holes leading downward. As he steps off the ladder and it tips slightly, he doubtless feels very grateful to Kate for having steadied it for him.

[Charlie Hagan]

Charlie carefully adjusts his position so that he's able to reach a hand down. "Looks like I might need to crawl over the top, could you pass up the flashlight?"

[Laraqua]

The shed is tall enough that she will have to climb up the first four steps in order to reach him with the flashlight.

[Mr. Handy]

"I'm not tall enough to reach up that high," says Kate. "If you hold the ladder from the top of the roof, I can climb up a few rungs and pass you the torch."

[Charlie Hagan]

"Eh, probably a better idea than tossing it up, hold on, let me just..." He wiggles around some more so that he can get both hands firmly on the ladder. "Okay, we're good to go."