Play@YSDC

9pm Thursday 11th March 2010, High Wycombe Police Station

Two and a half hours since Regina Balfour was abducted.

OOC,I'm going to assume you all travelled with Kris in his car, if not let me know and I'll change it

A short ride of a couple of minutes away they arrive at an imposing red brick police station. Kris parks around the back and leads them towards the night entrance at the side of the station.

Rushing from the public car park they see the blonde reporter from earlier, a breathless cameraman trailing behind her, 'Julie Thomas, GNS, can you confirm that Regina Balfour is dead?'

Kris doesn't even bother to say 'no comment' as he pushes past her to enter the station. He asks for the Balfours and the duty sergeant gestures towards an interview room just as fat and sweaty looking man bursts out followed by a female uniformed officer, 'no help whatsoever, it's like they don't even want her back.'

Kris recognises him as DC Burke. Burke gives him a sour look, 'why don't you have a go hotshot?'

OOC,You can question the Balfours together or apart, there's only one family liaison officer present though. This would be questioning as witnesses but not under caution as you've no evidence they've done anything wrong. If anyone wants to do research there are police computers and Jocelyn could probably access the MI5 systems from here.

Simon is silent during the trip, looking very much like he is sucking on a particularly sour lemon. Finally, he speaks to the others.

"Why take the backpack? Why would a grown man willing to abduct a child in such a brazen fashion have any interest in taking her backpack? It's rather perplexing."

Once they enter the station, Simon rolls his eyes. "Can anything be done about that annoying reporter woman? GNS, is anyone familiar with them?" He tries to think if he is, judging the respectability of the media source. "Perhaps one of us can offer her an anonymous tip that sends her off to Essex or some such and out of our hair."

Burke's words increase his interest, this was a most interesting case-- but he was eager to see his own impression of the family before taking anyone else's words for it.

"What is our 'game plan', as the Americans may say?"

"First I'd like to connect to MI5's database and find out what we have on Balfour," says Jocelyn. "We'll need to know that before we interview them. I'd also like to place an inquiry to see if there's anything resembling the dead man. When we interview them, we should keep them separate. Let's interview the mother first, then the father. We shouldn't let them talk to each other between the interviews. I know we don't have any evidence of wrongdoing on their part, but there's something about their behavior and the whole situation that doesn't mesh. That reporter is annoying. I walked past her as I arrived at the centre."

No one is too familiar with GNS, it isn't a major news organisation, but you all have some sense it might be at the more sensationalist end of the spectrum. Simon vaguely recalls hearing the name in connection with frontline reporting from the war in Kosovo in the late nineties.

OOC,Jocelyn will be able to access MI5 records from the police computers. There is also time for Kris to look at the police national computer, or Jocelyn could take further time doing that as well if Kris wants to do something else. Simon will have some time to look online or do something else. I'll need Library Use rolls for MI5 records, the police records, and any online research (e.g.into the Balfour's church)

”I shouldn’t imagine I could do a worse job,” muttered Kris as Burke passed out of earshot.

He looked across to the desk sergeant, stood behind the desk. “Sergeant, when the FLO returns, can you ask her to make the Balfours a drink? We’ve got a few leads to run down and then we’ll be with them.” He turned away, but then turned back. ”Do we have another interview room available? We’d like to talk to them separately.”

“Would you like to follow me,” said Kris, indicating that Simon and Jocelyn should follow him back to the CID offices deeper in the station. A few minutes later, he was showing them into the deserted office, telling them to take a seat while he switched on monitors and logged on so they could access the internet.

“Simon, can you look into Balfour’s church? Jocelyn, please check your records and I’ll run their details through the PNC.”

OOC,In the absence of any information on the suspects, Kris will look for anything to do with the Balfours first. Library Use (30%) - [dice]0[/dice]

Kris can't find any significant mention of the Balfours in the Police National Computer (PNC) beyond them owning a blue 2010 registered Lexus RX SUV. They have no convictions.

He gets a call from Josie who tells him that the handgun is a realistic looking BB/Airsoft gun firing plastic pellets which has been written over in black permanent marker to obscure anything that indicates it is not a real gun. It doesn't seem to have been fired, in that the magazine is full. The knife seems to be a standard kitchen knife, although very sharp. He dyed his hair black fairly recently and his natural hair colour seems to be blonde and grey. He's about 5'11" tall. She says 'you're not very popular with the lab techs - apparently his clothes were seething with lice.'

Kris tries to search for any possible suspects on the PNC but with the vague details he has available even restricting the search to the local area doesn't throw up any leads.

OOC,There will be plenty of interview rooms, it's the late evening so no routine work is going on

”Did you guys find anything?” asks Kris, looking over to Simon and Jocelyn. “We have nothing on the Balfours.”

"Not much," says Jocelyn. She already knows that Balfour is on a watchlist, but she'd like to find out why.

OOC,Library Use roll (20% base skill) to search MI5's database: [dice]0[/dice]

Jocelyn accesses Security Service records and finds that John Balfour and the Church of the Passover Angel are known to the intelligence services. In particular, the church has some associations with individuals from antisemitic, Islamophobic, and anti-Catholic fringe groups. However, there is no mention of the Balfours ever being investigated personally for involvement in such groups or of even making any particularly controversial pronouncements in this regard.

There are no useful hits regarding the dead kidnapper, or rather, there are so many as to be useless.

OOC,I don't think you can push these Library Use rolls (you could spend a lot of Luck) but you could take some extra time and roll again - I'll accept Computer Use instead, even Law for Kris or Jocelyn. The clock is ticking of course.

Simon settles in and looks into the Balfours church, curious to learn more about it. For all he knew it had nothing to do with the case, but it would be useful to file away. And it had been the main reason he had been brought in, more or less.

Library Use 80%,[dice]0[/dice]

Apparently he is having trouble focusing, however.

OOC:   Not going to spend the luck now, though I will likely take the next opportunity to do some research if someone else is as well.

Simon easily finds the website of the Church of the Passover Angel. It is fairly basic and could do with the services of a web designer. The content is a combination of whimsical and downright scary. The homepage has a splash of cute animated frogs and a warning to get right with God before the apocalypse comes.

A cursory read reveals that:

• The church professes to be a 'non-denominational, fundamentalist church devoted to total submission to the will of God and his herald, the Passover Angel.'
  
  The church believes that the Biblical end times are near, and that righteousness will be restored to the world by God at the rapture. They disagree that this will happen as predicted in the Book of Revelation; rather, they believe in a vengeful, Old Testament style of God who will re-inflict the plagues of Egypt on the world, sparing only the most faithful.
  
  A countdown clock currently predicts the end times to arrive this coming Tuesday, at sunset.

OOC,Designed for the original US-based version of this scenario, the following will give you an idea of what the church website might look like: [url]https://jamesalday.github.io/ladybug/[/url]

Kris raised an eyebrow at the information about the Balfour’s church. Not really what he was expecting at all!

”That sort of thing tends to attract trouble,” he said, thinking back to some of the protests he had witnessed elsewhere. “Let me try something else...” he muttered, as he tapped away on his keyboard...

OOC,Kris will look for reports linked to the address of the church this time, rather than being linked directly to the Balfours. Computer use (65%) - [dice]0[/dice]

The contact address for the church on the website is the same as the Balfours’ home address in High Wycombe. No information is provided about church meeting times or places. Kris calls down to the duty sergeant who obtains the church address from the Balfours, it is elsewhere in High Wycombe. The sergeant adds, it's eleven o'clock Kris, the Balfours are exhausted.'

There aren't any significant references to the church address in the PNC except that a John 'Johnny Zero' Allen has listed it as a contact address. He is recorded on the PNC as a former prominent London gang member and has previous convictions for drug dealing and possession of a firearm.

Kris also looks in Thames Valley Police operational records and finds a mention of officers accompanying social services to the Balfours' home address around two years ago. There are no further details regarding this.

OOC,What are Jocelyn and Simon doing while Kris is doing this? They won't be able to interview the Balfours without a police officer present

Great. Apocalyptic nutters. Points for predicting the world's end in only a week, though. Most of these groups like to give themselves more breathing room. He checks to see if he can find any missed dates or suggestions that the Balfours had wrongly predicted the end of the world before.

Looking at Kris, he has an idea.

"I think we should look up and question the Balfours on if their members are encouraged to cut off all ties with their old family and friends. We should also ask for a membership list, if we can swing it. What we might be looking for here is a parent who lost their child into the hands of a cult. The targeted abduction of Regina Balfour may be a sort of vengeance play-- they took his child, so he took theirs. It also would explain why the kidnapper had no real interest in harming others, this was personal. It's just a theory, of course, but the best one I have at present. I hope to learn more once I speak to the happy couple. Speaking of, Jocelyn, did you want to get on that now?"

The church website indicates that they have previously predicted two other days of judgment. The last was roughly two years ago and prior to that a little over five years ago.

OOC,If you want to know anything else you'll need to make a roll

Simon makes a note to look up the specific dates later and see if they were popular amongst those who subscribed to end of the world theories. Now however he wants to interview the Balfours as soon as the others are ready.

OOC,Thinking about timing, Kris has made two research rolls taking him a few hours total time, everyone else has made one roll. If you're going to start interviewing the Balfours at the same time as Kris then Simon and Jocelyn have time for one more research roll each. Otherwise they could start interviewing one of the Balfours with another officer while Kris finishes his research. We'll say anything he finds he will feed in to you while you're interviewing so you have access to what he has found above.

OOC,Simon can make an Occult roll to see if he recognises the dates, Kris or Simon can make an Idea roll about the dates. Or you could just suggest a date/event in the story and ask if they coincide

Simon looks up the dates.

Occult 75,[dice]0[/dice]

There's nothing about these dates that jumps out at Simon. Obviously most dates have been associated with some saint's feast day or astrological phenomenon but even with a bit of online research Simon can't find anything special about these three dates from a religious or occult perspective.

"I'd like to start the interviews as soon as possible," says Jocelyn to Kris. "Perhaps I could interview the mother, and Dr. Eagleton the father. I can bring in DS Bates, and he can take DC Burke. That way we can do both in parallel and save some precious time."

"That works for me."

”I’m not sure Burke’s such a good idea,” replied Kris. “Frankly, he’s an idiot and by the sounds of it, he’s already got under the family’s skin...”

He paused and thought for a moment. “You can’t interview with a police officer present, so I’ll ask Lucy - DS Bates - to lean on him so he does the introductions then keeps his mouth shut. Does that sound ok?”

OOC,I hadn’t anticipated the research taking that long. I’d have preferred Kris to have been involved in the interviews but if he’s busy researching, that’s a non-starter. You live and learn!

"We can just use a different officer if Burke's a problem," says Jocelyn. "You know the people in this station, so I'll leave that to your judgment."

"Before we go in I suggest we try and appear sympathetic," Simon offers. "By which I mean we wear a cross or the like. Let them think we're people of faith, even if that's not true. Chances are they'll feel more at ease-- cults tend to believe they're being persecuted, but if we go in and appear at least non threatening, they may relax enough to where we can get things out of them they might not reveal to a normal officer."

"A good suggestion," says Jocelyn, removing her jacket so that her crucifix necklace is visible. "When we ask them about their church, we should do it in such a way that they think they might win a convert. They will probably be eager to tell us all about it."

Kris makes a call to DS Bates and within ten minutes she is walking through the door to the incident room in CID with DC Burke trailing behind her, his face like a thundercloud.

'Jesus Sapru, you haven't even interviewed the Balfours yet. Your research had better find something we can use.' She looks at Jocelyn and Simon, 'and you two had better get more out of the Balfours than him,' she says, looking sourly at Burke who gives a petulant look.

'I do have some good news, ANPR picked up a car matching the description of the white Astra, last seen near the Beaconsfield services on the M40 motorway towards London around 7pm, bad news is the plate is probably a fake, registered to a scrapped vehicle. It's not clear why ANPR didn't pick it up after that, I've sent some officers to check out the motorway services in case the car parked up there and we're checking out what happened to that scrapped car.'

'Miss Leigh, I understand you and me are going to talk to Mr Balfour, Dr Eagleton and Constable Burke will be questioning the wife. DC Sapru can join one of the interviews when he's done here.'

Kris,Which interview will Kris join when he's done? Also, [b]Kris[/b]'s forearms are feeling quite itchy and he starts scratching at them absent mindedly

Jocelyn,Moving to this thread [url]https://www.callofcthulhu.org.uk/pbp/viewtopic.php?f=469&t=7122[/url]

Simon,Moving to this thread [url]https://www.callofcthulhu.org.uk/pbp/viewtopic.php?f=469&t=7123[/url]

Kris,Tell me what interview you want to join and I'll introduce you in the thread after a little while

Kris takes a look at DS Bates’ face and decides that he’ll join Simon and PC Burke...