Ch.11. Amesbury Re-visited (All)

[Silver Priest]

"I'll take point," Alex says. "You're all civilians." He pulls out his gun and heads deeper in, trying to locate the source of the smell.

[jp1885]

Ivy follows, ready with a handkerchief in case William’s warning holds true.

[Philulhu]

It wasn’t difficult to determine the source of the smell. As he moved forward into the house, it was just a few steps past the living room door unto the doorway into the dining room.

It was here that they found what appeared to be Mrs Webster. It looked as if she had pitched forward, with the soles of her shoes facing them and her putrescing body stretched out on the dining room carpet, in an advanced stage of decomposition...

OOC,SAN checks, please.

[Bullfrog]

SAN 68,0

"Christ almighty-" Lawrence utters in a mix of disgust and horror, hesitating before he enters the dining room. He'd seen worse, but discovering a corpse in such a state of decay isn't something you can just shrug off.

[Mr. Handy]

Having expected to find Mrs. Webster dead helps William steel himself for the sight.

OOC,Sanity roll (current level 65) for seeing the landlady: 0

[Silver Priest]

San 75%,0

Alex is about to bark instructions, but something about the state of the body disturbs him enough to force him into silence. He stares at it in silent horror, frozen.

[jp1885]

SAN 74 oh crap,0

Despite the fact that she expects the worse, Ivy is still completely horrified by the sight of the decaying corpse.

She screams and staggers backwards.

[Philulhu]

SAN Loss,Lawrence & William - none Alex - 0 Ivy - 1 Actions?

[jp1885]

Fighting to regain her composure, Ivy forces herself to survey the scene.

"Good job we are with a police detective," she declares. "I suppose you'd better handle this," she says to Alex. "Although I'm sure we could all take a look around, especially for any suspicious letters."

[Silver Priest]

"Right," Alex says, Ivy's words bringing him back to his senses. He had a job to do.

"Everyone stand back. I'm going to examine the crime scene."

He moves forward, leaning down to inspect the area around the body, careful not to touch anything at present.

Spot Hidden 75%,0

[Philulhu]

Close up to the late Mrs Webster, the smell of death was even worse. Trying not to gag, Alex looked for any signs of a struggle or violent death but the advanced putrefaction of the body rendered that task nigh impossible. He’d have to get a medical examiner to take a look and see what they could come up with.

Standing up again, he looked around the room. It was a reasonable-sized kitchen, with a small dining table in one corner. Under one of the chairs, he spotted a piece of paper - or was it cloth? - as if dropped by someone as they fell. In his mind’s eye, Alex could picture the scene. Mrs Webster walking back from the hall into the kitchen after collecting her mail. She’d already opened a letter and had started to feel unwell, she stumbled across the threshold, the letter dropping from her nerveless fingers. It span towards the floor but the force of old lady crashing to the ground caused it to tumble like a leaf in an autumn zephyr, before coming to rest under the chair... ...

[Mr. Handy]

William looks to see if there is a telephone.

[Silver Priest]

"It appears our killer has struck again," Alex says, pointing out the cloth. "She opens the letter, gets the substance on her hands, and starts to get sick. She stumbles on the carpet, falls to the floor and likely dies on impact. That's just a guess though. We'll have to get the medical examiner out there. Ms. Livingstone likely targeted Mrs. Webster due to her sending her away, which means her vengeance is not solely focused on Fraser. This could mean that more than her boyfriend's father is a target of her rage. "

"I'm going outside to report in to the officer as a common courtesy. Don't touch anything,." he says, but it's rather half hearted, and one gets the impression he'd not necessarily mind his companions doing a little more digging.

[Bullfrog]

Lawrence leaves the dining room to look around the rest of the house in search of Mrs. Webster's and Ms. Livingstone's rooms.

[jp1885]

Ivy volunteers to locate Ms. Livingstone’s room and search around there.

[Philulhu]

As William fruitlessly searched for a telephone, Alex made his way outside. The older cop was sat in his car, making notes. As Alex approached he glanced up, his look instantly turning into one of concern as he saw his hollow-eyed expression on the detective’s face. ”I take it that it isn’t good news?’ he said, as he pushed open his car door.

Inside, Lawrence and Ivy made their way up the narrow staircase and onto a small landing. Three doors lead off, one into a bathroom, and the other two doors into two bedrooms. The larger front room appeared to be that of Mrs Webster, with the smaller bedroom at the back belonging to Emily.

[Silver Priest]

"I'm afraid so. Mrs. Webster is dead, looks like she was affected with the same contact poison that struck down another man back in Arkham and it caused her to lose her balance and topple over onto the floor. Advise caution when the medical examiner gets out here; the poison is known to cause fear induced hallucinations.."

[Mr. Handy]

With no telephone in the house, William begins to check the downstairs rooms.

[Bullfrog]

Lawrence heads into what he assumes to be Mrs. Webster's room first, looking around it in search of anything of note whilst touching as little of the things inside as possible.

[jp1885]

Maintaining the same precautions, Ivy searches Emily’s room.