"
We appreciate your help," Kathy says. She seems to mean it.
The officer opens the door and the investigators find themselves in the briefing room. It's a spacious one, certainly bigger than the San Carlos briefing room had been. A dozen or so black chairs surround a large table. The only person in it appears to be Detective Gregson. He's an older man, mid 50's and looks fairly plump. But his uniform is pristine and his yellow badge shines, suggesting a certain pride in his work. He puts down a folder he's reading and greets the team.
"
These the Agents, Greenwich?"
"Yes sir."
"
Good to hear. Please, have a sea.t I'm Andrew Gregson, the Detective in charge of this case. I'm afraid I don't know your names yet, so if we could get reintroduced. Kathy, would you get us guests some doughnuts and coffee?"
"Sure thing."
OOC: anyone who likes can make a HUMINT roll. success makes it clear Kathy's not appreciating being the team's errand girl. |
"
Now," Gregson says, folding his meaty hands in front of him after the team settles in.
"I want to start by thanking you all for coming. And I want to reassure you we're giving you full authority over this case. There won't be any power plays here between us locals and you feds. We've got a dangerous criminal on the loose, and I know my officers well enough to know we're all out of our league in stopping them. Myself included. So anything you need, I'll do what I can to provide.
Officer Greenwich returns with the refreshments. She goes to leave, but Gregson allows her to stay, and she happily takes a seat.
"
That said, let's get to it. Just be warned; some of these pictures will require a strong stomach." Taking a doughnut, Detective Gregson gets up from the table and activates the projector at the front of the room. A picture appears. It was of a smiling middle aged man with dark brown hair and eyes and perfect, shiny white teeth. He looked to be in good shape and had probably had a face lift.
"
Right, this right here is Dr. Carl Maretti, one of our local dentists. Dr. Maretti was 45, married, two preteen daughters. He was reported missing by his wife on April 3rd. when he didn't return home from work. Apparently this was highly unusual, as he usually came straight home. He was found the next morning in a culvert around 9 by a jogger in Adams Park, just off the Bay."
He flips to the next picture, and the smiling man is replaced by an obvious corpse lacking a head. Extensively mutilated, It looked like nothing more than a bashed and ripped bag of severed muscles and shattered bones.
"That's Dr. Maretti. What's left of him, at least. As you can see his spine was forcibly removed and many of his bones were completely shattered. His head was missing but was located a short way nearby in the park, lacking a jaw. Both eyes were, let's see here, ah, removed from his head like they were gouged out. Of note, this is the only body we've recovered the head for. Based on the damage we assumed it was some sort of large animal attack, but none of them are known to be loose in Glenridge. And the second murder dissuaded us of that notion."
Another picture came on this screen. This showed a small woman who seemed to shirk back from the photograph. She wore conservative clothes and her smile was very clearly forced. She was the textbook definition of a wallflower.
"
Vanessa Hatvan. 41. She was a librarian at the local high school. Unmarried, not seeing anyone as far as we knew. Few close friends, which makes it hard to pinpoint the exact time of her disappearance. She was found early on the morning of April 28th just before school started by another teacher, forty feet up a tree right on the school grounds. She was also missing her head, and we've not managed to find it." he moved forward to the next picture, which showed the librarian headless and her body absolutely devastated by severe physical trauma, her clothes torn to shreds." Gregson shook his head. "
Never gets easier to look at." He takes another doughnut.
The next picture came up on the screen. This one showed a smiling teenage girl dressed in a cheerleading outfit. She was absolutely stunning, with long blonde hair, blue eyes, and a toned, athletic body.
Lauren Harrogate. 17, Cheerleader at the high school. Well liked, very popular. She was kidnapped from her home on the night of May 6th. We actually have a witness to this one, her mother. The assailant gained entry by smashing through the balcony door that connected the exterior of the house to her room. This caused a silent alarm to go off, and the police were alerted. We got there in under fifteen minutes, but by then the assailant and Lauren were both gone. When we got there, we only found Lauren's mother sobbing uncontrollably. We suspect she witnessed the event, but due to psychological problems she could not tell us anything. In fact, since the incident she's gone into a catatonic state and had to be committed."
"
We conducted a wide scale search, but it wasn't until the morning of May 7th that we found her. She was found the next day on an electrical tower just off highway 31, sixty feet up in the air. Her body was just like the others." A picture confirmed it.
"
We're assuming the killer must have access to a helicopter to dispose of the bodies, but none have been reported rented in the area recently."
He settled back down into his chair. "
So we got some sicko offing people in this town, and Glenridge is on edge. Hence why you feds were called in. Hopefully you can use your skills and get to the bottom of this. Because I'll be honest; none of us can."
OOC: Can everyone please give me a san check for violence 0/1d3. The brutality done to these bodies has only been matched by the San Carlos killer. And given what it turned out to be, that may bode ill for the type of case this will evolve into... |