Ch.14a. Inheritance (Alex & Ivy)

[Philulhu]

Monday, September 1st, 1930 9.00am
Arkham PD, 302 E Armitage Street, Arkham, Mass.

The wind gusted through the Arkham streets as Detective Alex Reynolds made his way to the station. The temperature had cooled in recent weeks - it looked as if it might rain later and the wind pulled at the collar of his jacket.

Inside, the desk sergeant nodded in the direction of Captain Keats’ office. When he’d returned from France Alex had tried to throw himself into work but he’d lasted barely a week before having a breakdown and being signed off by the doc. All told, he’d been on leave for about five months. This was his first day back, and he had been called into see the boss already.

In Keat’s office he was surprised to see Ivy Ripley. He’d heard she’d had some sort of accident although the details were decidedly sketchy. He hadn’t seen her since the events of Oakwood House and she looked quite surprised to see him!

”You two will be working together on this one,” Keats said. ”I’ve been asked if I can loan a couple of officers to Providence PD - a bit of paperwork and some interviews. Nothing too strenuous, given that you’re only just back in the saddle.” He glanced at Ivy and blanched slightly. ”Sorry, poor choice of words…”

He cleared his throat. ”Anyway, it seems like this…” he opened the file on his desk and studied the contents, ”…Joshua Winscott inherited a house in Providence. The PD up there have had a tip off that he had something to do with the death of the old girl who owned it previously. You’re going to go up there, make your enquiries and report what you find to Captain Lawrence. Here’s the file. Any questions?”

[Silver Priest]

Alex took a deep breath as he entered the station. It was funny how the very sight of the building had started to fill him with a sense of trepidation after what he had seen. So much that he had been unable to enter it one day and had taken an extended leave of absence.

Things were somewhat better now. And maybe that was a start. He could put one foot in front of the other and do his job, and eventually maybe things would go back to the way they were before.

It was difficult, though. Knowing what evil was really out there. And knowing what evils were to come. In the end maybe humans would be victorious, but even in the 1970's mankind was held under the specter of destruction. To say nothing of the inhuman evils like Mordiggian. Could they even hope to stand against such things?

He shakes the thoughts away as best he can. He was one man, and he would focus on what he could do. Solving crimes in Arkham. Maybe it wasn't saving the world, but he could at least make something of a positive difference. He owed it to the world after sacrificing all those men back in--

No. He's not thinking about that. He heads into Keats office. Hopefully he could prove himself to the man once again as a hard worker.

When he sees Ivy it's like all the old horrors come back. She had not been there their trip through time, true, but she had been part of it nonetheless. And evidently it had left its own scars on her as well.

“Miss Ripley.” He nods, refusing to let himself flee like he very much wants to. “I'm glad to see you've recovered.” From the physical wounds, anyway. He would have to inquire about what exactly happened; he doubted her “accident” was entirely mundane.


“Understood Captain. No questions.”

This case wouldn't be so bad. A nice, normal mundane matter, far away from anything strange.

[jp1885]

Ivy's hand involuntarily went up to her head at Keats' poor choice of words. She stiffens, lowering her arm. The Captain had been kind enough to offer her a job after Fraser had made it clear that paying her medical bills would be in lieu of severance pay, but the man could be an oaf at times.

She nods curtly in greeting to Reynolds.

"Detective. It is good to see you."

The man's reappearance had done much to assuage her guilt at being unable to get to the bottom of the Brophy mystery, bring the noisome wretch back to the lake and locate her fellow investigators; and she still had no idea how they had returned, or what had transpired.

So many questions... but they would have to wait.

She takes the file and flicks through it.

"A tip off? From whom?"

[Philulhu]

”Anonymous,” replied Keats. ”The detail are in the file.”

The file that Ivy picked up contained precisely one piece of paper - a sparse report of a telephone conversation two days before.

Officer K.E.Lyon.
Providence Police Dept.

Saturday, August 29th, 1930.

At 11.36am, I received a telephone call from an anonymous caller who wished to pass on information concerning a murder. The caller claimed that the death of a Florence Winscott, who recently inhabited 79 Power Street, Providence, was not as a result of natural causes as reported.

The caller claimed that Mrs Winscott was murdered by her nephew, Joshua Winscott, so that he might inherit her home (the Town Hall has confirmed a recent change of ownership). I asked the caller what proof he had to back up his assertion. He replied, “It’s there. You’ll see.” I pushed the caller for more information and he said, “Do your d****d job and you’ll find it!” before ending the call.

The caller was male and sounded as if he were a younger man. He had a Mass. accent, possibly Boston, but the background noise made it difficult to tell. It sounded as if the call was made from a public call box.

[Silver Priest]

"Could be someone with a grudge against the younger Winscott," Alex noted. "His reaction makes me believe he doesn't have anything in the way of evidence, just a gut feeling."

"That said,something gut feelings shake out. I'll be happy to swing by there and interview Mr. Winscott and see if anything seems off."

[jp1885]

“Indeed,” Ivy concurs.

“I presume there’s a coroner’s report on Ms. Winscott?”

[Philulhu]

Keats looked at Alex with a raised eyebrow. ”It’s an assignment, Detective Reynolds. Your ‘happiness’ doesn’t really come into it.”

He turned to Ivy. ”If the Police haven’t already picked it up the autopsy report, I’m sure you’ll be able to get a copy when you’re up there,” he said. ”There’s a car available for you, when you’re ready.”

Providence is a couple of hours from Arkham.

[Silver Priest]

"Right, Captain." Alex responds, chastened.

[jp1885]

Do you know if US telephone companies keep logs back then? I’m wondering if it’d be possible to locate the phone box.

[Philulhu]

Poor Alex! He’s just trying to make his way in the world and pretty much everyone he meets tries to kill him or is a dick to him…

Keats hmmphed and shook his head. ”On your way,” he said, nodding in the direction of the door.

Around the back of the station house there was a Chevy Superior in civilian colours. One of the mechanics handed Alex the keys, telling him there was a full tank of gas and reminding him that the Captain would deduct the cost of any bumps or scrapes from his next pay packet.

[Philulhu]

Sorry, just spotted this. We were still in the era of manual switchboards when an operator would connect the call. I’m not sure if records were kept, to be honest. Perhaps a Luck roll might garner some results if you pursue that line of enquiry.

[jp1885]

[5] = 5
Luck 60 1d100: [ 5 ] = 5
Extreme success

Before heading out to the automobile, Ivy takes a few minutes to contact the operator up in Provedence.

That done, she marches over to the car.

“I trust you’ll drive carefully,” she says, somewhat archly, before settling in the passenger seat.

[Silver Priest]

Alex is a bit wrong genre savvy. He thinks he's in a standard police procedural when he's really in a cosmic horror story.

"I'll do my best, ma'am." Alex says. He begins to drive.

"I'm glad to see you're well," he tells his companion, after a moment of awkward silence. "Do you mind telling me what happened?" Really the detective is fishing for any information that indicates Ivy had encountered something unnatural like the rest of them had.

[jp1885]

Ivy pauses, managing to fight the urge to touch her head this time.

"After you all disappeared, I tried to do some research on Brophy and his accursed book to see if I could bring you back. I drew a blank until I received a somewhat singular visitor in the middle of the night - appeared at the foot of my bed of all places."

"He was some sort of Indian medicine man, Told me how Brophy had desecrated his tribe's sacred lake with his evil ways. He demanded I take the man's spirit to Squatter's Lake so that he could be held accountable for his crimes. Naturally I had no idea how to achieve this, and the Indian was hardly full of helpful advice, but there it is."

She stops, wincing at painful memories.

"My research took me to North Windham, where the Brophys owned a plantation. Thank the Good Lord that I told the police to come looking for me if I didn't return! After finding a diary in the ruins of the worker's huts, I resolved to search the barn. I found a badly decomposed corpse and then a horse: a poor emaciated wretch of an animal. I went to comfort the creature, and found the thing was somehow changed - tentacles growing out of it's flank! Before I could react, the beast was trampling me under it's hooves. Before I lost consciousness I heard a gunshot - the police had come looking for me."

"Next thing I know, I'm in hospital, swathed in bandages. What happened to the horse I don't know, nor the plantation house. I've tried to make enquiries but everyone is tight-lipped. With any luck the evil place has been levelled to the ground!"

"That's it in a nutshell. And you? Where did you go to?"

[Silver Priest]

Alex listens to Ivy's tale, quietly thankful the woman had experienced some of the strangeness surrounding the case as well. He did not relish telling her their own story otherwise!

"I'm sorry to hear that. Sounds a miracle you survived; good thinking on informing the police." He wants to ask more questions about the Indian and Brophy, but forces his natural inclinations down. He wants nothing to do with that anymore.

"Crazy as it sounds, we ended up traveling through time." He looks at her, half expecting a laugh. "The 1970's first, in England. It was a strange place." It's unclear if he is referring to the country or the time period. "We learned a lot about what the future will hold. There's going to be another great war starting in the late 1930's, and it's going to be even bloodier than the last. But we'll eventually win.The two superpowers after it ends are America and the Russians, if you can believe that."

"In any case, we eventually were able to track down Brophy, who had possessed someone and was using their body as a vessel. I don't know what his full plans were, but we needed him to get home. so I made a deal that I'd give him my body if he sent William and Lawrence back here. He agreed and began the ritual, but it was interrupted by other cultists who disliked Brophy for some reason. They killed him-- I believe it stuck this time-- and tried to kill us, but the ritual had been conducted enough that we were able to go through a portal again. This time, we ended up on the western front in the great war. Or World War 1, as it will be called."

"We quickly discovered that a cult apparently unrelated to Brophy was operating in the area, preaching that injured soldiers could regain their limbs or loved ones by worshiping a foul being known as Mordiggian. We tried to stop him from being summoned but failed. The creature turned on its worshipers, but spared us, knowing we were from a different time period. It sent us back here a few months ago. I'm not entirely certain why, but want nothing to do with such things anymore." Alex is unwilling to tell her exactly what they had to allow to be sent back. He would carry that secret shame to his grave.

[Philulhu]

Thanks to the extreme success with her Luck roll, Ivy had been fortunate enough to speak to the operator who had connected the call to the Police Department. The call had come from Marconi’s Roman Gardens, a restaurant on Bradford Street, Providence. The operator recognised the number as she lived nearby and at times had used the restaurant herself.

[jp1885]

Ivy remains silent for a considerable time. As much to her surprise as to Alex’s, a tear runs down her cheek.

“I- I must apologise,” she stammers. “I have in my possession a translation of a… well, a magic spell I suppose; from Brophy’s journal. Also photographs of the paintings that opened the portal. If I had taken them to Squatters Lake and read the spell, rather than getting my head caved in, perhaps I could have brought you all back and given Brophy over to the medicine man. Then you wouldn’t have gone through all of that.”

She sniffs, pulling herself together.

“Most remiss of me. Most remiss.”

[Silver Priest]

Of all the surprising things he had witnessed, seeing a tear fall down the notoriously unsentimental Ms. Ripley's face surely ranks near the top.

"Please do not be upset," he says, seeking to comfort her. "We were all dealing with things widely outside our areas of expertise. There's no guarantee it would have worked, anyway. Even when Brophy cast it that second time we ended up in the wrong place, and I imagine he was an expert in it. I don't know if you'd have been able to pluck us out of time, especially when you had no idea where we were."

He takes a deep breath.

"Thankfully that matter's behind us now. I... cut off contact with William and Lawrence, I could not handle seeing them after everything that transpired. Both were in dire mental condition upon returning home regardless. William remained still as a statue, and Lawrence had regressed to a child like state, caught in some sort of delusion. I do hope they've been able to recover, but I fear they seek, or would seek, to continue their investigations into this sort of thing. And I can't go through any of it again." He admits bluntly. "I've learned what happens when you go poking your nose in that sort of thing."

[Philulhu]

Monday, September 1st, 1930 9.00am
Providence, Mass.

The journey up to Providence was uneventful but about half-way there the weather broke and rain spattered the windscreen steadily, although it had eased again by the time they reached the outskirts.

As they drew closer to the centre of the town, they could see a plethora of grand buildings in Victorian and Art Deco styles lining their approach. Providence was certainly a step up from Arkham.

Where would you like to go first?

[jp1885]

Following a rare display of emotion, Ivy was content to continue the journey in silence.

However, upon reaching Providence, she sniffs.

“We should introduce ourselves to the local police; speak to Officer Lyon if he’s available,” she announces without preamble.

“Canvass potent witnesses at Marconi’s Roman Gardens; oh, and interview Winscott of course.”