Last Things Last

[Cearlan]

Edmund slips out of the room before he starts to yawn - "Gods does that woman ever shut up!" he mutters to himself.

Seeing Nik walking towards him Edmund smiles as he says softly

"Vanessa's doing a great job at keeping the old biddy occupied whilst interrogating her at the same time."

[Silver Priest]

OOC:   Nik can mark the skill as failed, but since you pretty much nailed it I'm going to give you the answer. I don't believe in withholding information from clever players.

It takes Nik a few minutes, but the identity of the sweet yet cloying smell comes to him. It was death. Someone had died in here, probably recently judging by the state of the room. From the looks of things Baughman had suffered some sort of episode in the shower and stumbled out of it, explaining most of the damage. And indeed, there's a slight mark on the floor, perhaps where something heavy had fallen.

While morbidly interesting ,the rest of the bathroom seems to hold no answers to their own investigation. He slips out of it just as Edmund joins him, and the pair head to the doors at the end of the hall.

The first door leads into what is obviously a bedroom. A neat queen-sized bed is at the back of the room, bordered by a dresser. It is here that the agents find the other signs of human habitation. Several pictures are framed on this dresser. They show Baughman with his wife and kids, and later, his dog. From these pictures the agents can see that Clyde is a heavyset man, powerfully built, with a grey beard and thick bifocols.

The pictures of the children seem to stop at their college graduations. Quick calculations show they'd all be much older now. A few pictures are of just Clyde and his wife, their dog with them in a few of the later ones. It would seem that Baughman chronicled his relationship here, as each picture shows the pair a few years older.

The final picture, centered in the group, are of the couple and their dog, now fully grown. Both look to be in their sixties. Marlene is in the front, sitting down with the dog at her feet, while Clyde holds onto her shoulders. Marlene has a wide smile and warm blue eyes, though Baughman's seems more tense. Still, he seems genuinely happy during the photo. A frame nailed to the wall off to the side is a colorful handprint that is identified as belonging to Cassie, but no pictures of the grandchild are present.

[Mr. Handy]

"I'm sorry to hear that," says Vanessa, waving to the Yorkie. "Hello, Mitzi! I guess she's shy. There are as many different kinds of dogs as there are people. My Rex is very outgoing, always running up to people. He's friendly, though, unless he thinks someone's bad. He's a pretty good judge of character."

[HoneyDog]

“Why aren’t there any pictures of Cassie?” Nik ponders. “It doesn’t make sense.”

To Rue he says, “You know I’ve been thinking. Remember what happened to Sheriff Colorados? His alleged suicide? I wonder if something like that happened here. You saw the bathroom”.

He searches the room, but can find nothing.

Search,Search 41: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/496504]Search[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]79[/b]

[Cearlan]

Edmund nods grimly as nik describes the coincidental similarities between the two deaths.

"Yeah, now you mention it it is pretty coincidental - 'ceptin' I ain't a believer in coincidences anymore."

Edmund helps Nik to search the room.

OOC:   (with a hard success)

[Silver Priest]

OOC:   Not quite a hard success. In DG crit successes are doubles on a roll you'd pass, so for Rue it would be 11, 22, all the way to 66. I'm pretty sure it includes 1, I'll have to check. Crit fails are the opposite.

Rue and Nik,The pair search the room. The first thing apparent is that it's quite dusty, and both agents sneeze more than once moving things around. But there's not much else to find here. A few paperbacks are scattered about. Clyde's tastes apparently went towards religion. He reads books tackling the nature of evil and attempting to explain the nature of the divine. Flipping through the books, the Agents find parts underlined or crossed out. Notes are scribbled in the margins, most of them critical of the text and what he seems to view as its naive view of the universe. These notes however are disjointed, and Clyde does not elaborate. It seemed designed for him alone. The books don't seem to be any sort of confessions as to the work he was doing, so there's no breech here that needs to be covered up. They just suggest a cynical old man. In addition the pair find a small wallet behind the dresser. It contains forty dollars and a few credit cards to local or chain stores.It also contains a picture of a newborn girl. It's labeled [i]Cassie[/i], finally offering the agents a sight of the girl. It's a small picture though, clearly designed to fit in the wallet. But the agents can find no other pictures of her within the room. In the end, the team exhausts the room and still finds no sign of anything they need to remove. At this point there is only one bedroom left. Should the agents enter it, they find it to be some sort of study. A few shelves are lined with books, these appearing to be of many different subjects, from science to history to engineering. The rest of the room is taken up by many boxes, a dozen or so of them. Inside the box is stuffed with paper. A quick check confirms all the boxes are. And the team will need to go through all of them, a process that will surely take hours.

Vanessa meanwhile finds her words make Mitzi warm up. The dog wags its tail and looks as if it will permit her to stroke it behind the ears.

"Oh my, so it Mitzi. Why, just the other day..." The woman launches into a tale that's not even tangentially related to the investigation. It would seem that she has no desire to leave without being asked to.

"And so Mitzi, she just barked when she saw the killer. Solved it before Matlock, she did! And you know Matlock always gets his man. Oh, I've always had such a crush on Andy Griffith, way back to the Andy Griffith show. He and Colombo. Oh my, what was his name? Peter... Peter something."

OOC:   If Vanessa wants to bid the woman adieu, she can make a persuade roll to convince her to leave. Any roll with technically succeed, but it will determine how much if any offense she takes.

[HoneyDog]

“Jesus” mutters Nik. “We’re going to have to search it. But we should get Marchand’s help. I want to talk to that old lady anyway.”

He returns to where Marchand and the lady are in conversation. Marchand seems a bit strained, so perhaps she’ll welcome being rescued.

“Hello!” says Nik cheerfully to the old lady. “That’s a nice dog.” He bends down to have his hand sniffed.

To Marchand he says “There’s a lot of paperwork back there. Mr. Baughman was very conscientious about his job. We need to look at it.”

He turns to the old lady. “Excuse me Ma’am, I have a question. Did you ever talk to Mr. Baughman about his granddaughter, Cassie?”

[Silver Priest]

The old woman stops mid-sentence and greets the newcomer. "Oh, hello. Yes, her name is Mitzi."

The dog allows the affection.

"I'm glad Mr. Baughman had something to occupy his time. The thought of him here all alone is just so sad to contemplate."

She considers. "I don't believe so. Mind we never really spoke that much to begin with. Marlene never mentioned a granddaughter, though she passed some years back. It's possible one wasn't born yet. I don't recall ever seeing his family stop by since her death, and Mr. Baughman never really went anywhere that I observed. How sad if he never got to meet her!"

[Mr. Handy]

"It was Peter Falk who played Columbo," says Vanessa, bending down to scratch Mitzi behind the ears. "My mom loves Andy Griffith just as much as you do. She grew up watching The Andy Griffith Show, and I grew up watching Matlock with her. Oh, and there's this really excellent movie from 1957 he was in, A Face in the Crowd. He's great at being scary in that one. I'd love to stay and talk some more, but I really ought to be getting back to work. The taxpayers are paying my salary, and they ought to get their money's worth. It was nice meeting you and Mitzi!" Vanessa waves and heads down the hall.

[Silver Priest]

Mitzi rewards the affection with a few licks while her owner says goodbye to Vanessa.

Vanessa finds the room a study, filled with a dozen or so boxes piled high with papers. It's going to take some hours to get through this all and ensure that none of it is sensitive content that must be removed.

OOC:   Everyone going through the study can make search and bureaucracy rolls. Search to find anything of interest, bureaucracy to discern more quickly what they're looking at and get through the boxes quicker. It's currently 2 pm. A success on a bureaucracy roll means you get through all this in let's say 3 hours. If you all fail, it might take twice that. Only one of you needs to succeed on either roll, but I don't mind you all rolling for it. multiple success might mean you get through it quicker.

[Mr. Handy]

Vanessa begins sorting through the paperwork, but she isn't finding anything of interest.

OOC,Search roll (51% skill) looking through the papers: [dice]0[/dice] Bureaucracy roll (40% skill) looking through the papers: [dice]1[/dice]

[Cearlan]

Edmund,Search
[dice]0[/dice]

Edmund,Bureaucracy
[dice]1[/dice]

"Hey this could be something!" Edmund exclaims.

[HoneyDog]

"Perhaps Baughman was estranged by this point, and never really saw Cassie", thinks Nik. "Poor guy."

“Did Mr. Baughman ever give you anything to look after for him Mrs… I’m sorry, I don’t know your name! I’m Baxter. Everyone calls me Bax.”

[Silver Priest]

Vanessa and Rue begin the long process of sorting through the papers.
***

"I'm Mrs. Janowitz. But you may call me Miriam." She smiles. "And no. Our talks after his wife's passing were short and reserved. And before that, I mostly spoke with Marlene. He never came with her to tea or anything like that."

[HoneyDog]

Nik

“Thanks Miriam! Yes, from what I hear Mr. Baughman was quite reserved. The loss of his wife must have been very hard for him. When he died, did any other police or agents come around talking to you?”

[Silver Priest]

"Oh, it was. I know Marlene adored him, and from what I saw the feeling was mutual. I expected him to go much sooner, being honest."

"Police?" She pauses to think. "No, I don't believe so. I did speak to one of the officers who came to check on him when they found him. It's how I know how he died. He apparently had a massive heart attack in the middle of showering. I'm sure you already knew about that, but it's still so sad."

[HoneyDog]

Nik

"Yes, it is sad. I really feel for him" says Nik, sincerely.

"Listen, Miriam" he continues. "I really should go and help the others. Can I stop by your apartment later to say goodbye?"

[Silver Priest]

"Oh, of course. I'll let you get back to it. Come on, Mitzi."

"Stop by anytime, dearie. I'll put some tea on for you." With that, Mrs. Janowitz leaves the apartment, Mitzi quickly following behind.

OOC:   If Nik goes to help the others, please give me Bureaucracy and Search rolls.

[HoneyDog]

Nik

Nik heads back to help the others. He sighs as he looks at the boxes.

Bureaucracy,Bureaucracy 11: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/497393]Bureaucracy[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]98[/b]

Search,Search 41: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/497394]Search[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]90[/b]

OOC:   ooc,Perhaps its time to let Nik go.

[Silver Priest]

The team digs into the boxes, finding them stuffed with papers. These papers range from Clyde's official IRS work to junk mail and other random assortments. The agents need to read every piece, because they can not determine a pattern to all of this. It all seems random.

In the end, it takes almost six hours to go through everything, allowing for a break or two here or there. It's mind numbingly tedious, even by the standards of government work. None of it seems to ring any red flags for the team. Though Baughman should probably not have brought his work for the IRS home, it was not their responsibility to clean that up.

But near the end of their work, Edmund finds something. It's a deed to a cabin, roughly three hours away from here. It appeared as though Clyde owned it, having purchased it back in the early 80's. The team is obligated to check it out and conduct a search of it, as well.

Of course, they could just go back to Delta Green and report an all clear. Judging by the orders they received, DG did not know of the existence of the cabin. And this one slip of paper seems the only one referencing it in the entire apartment. There was a good chance neither of Baughman's children knew of the place.