Play@YSDC

6.30pm Friday 12th March 2010, Happy Cafe, High Wycombe

Twenty four hours since Regina Balfour was abducted.

After taking a few shortcuts and driving ever so slightly faster than is strictly legal, Jocelyn and Simon reach High Wycombe.

They arrive into a grungier part of town where the Happy Cafe is situated. It still appears to be open. Inside are a few grimy looking men in overalls drinking strong tea from chipped mugs. Kris doesn't seem to have arrived yet.

Behind the counter stands a fat woman with a sour looking expression. Most of the display cases are now empty, with only a few soggy looking sandwiches left. She is busying herself wiping down the worktop.

"I was thinking," says Jocelyn, "We know Lindsay Peale's email address, and we've got a good idea she's been checking it. Maybe we can use it to communicate with her. We can send her an email, let her know that we have the medicine Regina needs, and arrange to deliver it to her. We'll have to talk it over with DC Sapru when he arrives."

"This place doesn't strike me as all that happy," Simon offers.

"It's a good plan," He tells Jocelyn. "Though I would mention at least some of our suspicions about Balfour-- perhaps Red Trumpet would do the trick, or that we know he poisoned Lewiston. Even if we're wrong, if it gets Reginia back we can always say that we said what we had to to gain her confidence."

"I doubt she's even heard of Red Trumpet," says Jocelyn, "but we can say that we know Balfour's running a doomsday cult, and that we want to protect Regina. We'll work out the exact wording of the email when Sapru gets here. We can also embed a tracking device in the backpack with the medicine. That will lead us right to her."

Simon nods in approval, then looks in at the sad state of the restaurant's stock. "I'm glad we've already eaten."

Deciding to kill some time, Simon enters the cafe and orders a soda. Then he turns on the charm and asks the sour looking woman if she and Lewiston had known each other. He's not expecting much, but maybe a smile and a purchase would go a long way.

Charm 15%,[dice]0[/dice]

Not being the most charming person, he inadvertently offends her.

"The health inspector has come around recently, correct? This place seems a bit dirty. Perhaps it's not something a woman such as yourself notices. So, yes, back to Mr. Lewiston, what did you know about him, my dear?"

OOC:   With a 100 I had to add a bit of flair to this.

The woman narrows her eyes at Simon's clumsy attempts at small talk. 'What's it to you?' she asks in a west country accent. Before Simon can even answere she harrumphs 'We're closing soon' and turns away from him.

A couple of men in the corner are quietly laughing into their mugs of tea.

OOC:   Oh yes, lay it on thick with a roll of 100

Ears bright red, Simon retreats outside.

"Rather hostile crowd in there." He admits. "I don't think we'll be getting any clues in there, unless you want to give it a try."

Time is ticking on. It is about 6.45pm and Kris has still not arrived which is surprising as he had a much shorter distance to travel coming from Aylesbury.

"Something's gone wrong," says Jocelyn, taking out her phone and calling Kris. "He should have been here by now. I hope it's not another cow."

OOC,Maybe I've forgotten something, but I'm not sure why we came here other than as a place to meet.

Jocelyn,You can post in this thread to talk to Kris: [url]https://www.callofcthulhu.org.uk/pbp/viewtopic.php?f=469&t=7225&p=243201#p243201[/url]

OOC,If you're not sure what there might be to find out you can ask Kris or look at his notes: [url]https://www.callofcthulhu.org.uk/pbp/viewtopic.php?f=469&t=7248#p242576[/url]

Jocelyn fills in Simon on the phone call and looks in the window to see if she can see anyone who has neck tattoos.

Simon perks up at hearing about the book, and abetter preserved copy at that. "As soon as he arrives I need to go check this out. Whatever Balfour is hiding in his little screed, I am quite confident I can decipher. Though I will remain away from water just in case."

The same grimy looking men are sitting in the café. No one has anything as interesting as a neck tattoo. The grumpy looking woman is starting to clear tables and stack the empty chairs.

"I'm going to try talking to her while we're waiting," says Jocelyn. She enters the café and approaches the woman. "Pardon me. May I ask you a few questions, please?"

The woman is short and round with a riot of dark brown curls on her head. She looks grumpy but smiles when she answers in a broad west country accent, 'Hello my lover, I'm afraid we're closing soon, and we've had a lot of looky-loos today so I'm a bit reluctant to say too much.'

OOC,After Simon's catastrophic interaction you'll need a successful social role and appropriate dialogue - if it's good I'll adds a bonus die

"I'm Jocelyn Leigh," says Jocelyn. "I'm consulting with the police on the Regina Balfour abduction. One of her kidnappers, the one killed at the scene, was a man named George Lewiston, but you probably knew him better by the alias he was using, Zac Newman. He was known to frequent this café. It's very important that we find out everything we can about him and who he had contact with as soon as possible. Regina is diabetic, and her kidnappers did not get her insulin. She's been missing for a day now, and her life is in danger unless we can find her and get her insulin to her quickly. Please help us with our inquiries."

OOC,Persuade roll (60% skill) to get the woman to open up about [b]Lewiston[/b]: [dice]0[/dice]

Her face brightens up, 'Oh, no problem my darling. My name is Simone, Simone Wellington, I own the Happy Caffe.'

She looks down at Jocelyn's red forearms from where she's been scratching, 'Ooh, bit of eczema my luvver, I has the same problem' and she shows hrler hands which are cracked and red.

'I never knew 'ee was called Zac, or Lewiston, only George, I only heard his surname was Lewiston when that lady from the news came round. Anyways, George is...was a regular here, came in every day, same time, just like clockwork, you could set your watch by him. He was in on Thursday just like every morning. Full English, like he does every day.

So, like I was saying to that reporter lady, there must have been some kind of mistake, George is...was a lovely man, bit quiet, but lovely. I don't believe he had anything to do with that little girl disappearing.'

"We think he believed what he was doing was in the girl's best interests," replies Jocelyn. "He may have been sincere, but he was sincerely wrong. Which reporter lady was that, by the way? Also, did George ever meet anyone else here, or did he always eat alone? And have you ever seen this woman before?" She shows her Lindsay's picture.

'I'll not believe it' says Simone, then she screws up her face thinking, 'Oh what was 'er name, Julie, Julie something, from that GNS news.'

She looks at Lindsay's picture, 'No, never seen 'er before. To be honest I don't think I ever saw George talk to anyone else while he was here, made small talk with me, but mostly just seemed happy sitting by himself. Never caused me any bother...well, I mean, except for Thursday I suppose...' She trails off.

"Yes, I've met her," says Jocelyn. "Can you please describe what happened on Thursday? What time was it?"

Kris pushed open the door of The Happy Cafe and stepped inside. He was slightly out of breath have rushed to get there.

He could see Jocelyn was talking to a woman behind the counter, so he hung back, mindful of her comments on the phone about Simon’s attempts to get the woman onside...

Simone continues, 'Well, it were nothing really, he came in like normal, seven o'clock, orders his breakfast, full English like I said. Then when he comes to pay he's not got any money on him.' She pauses and seems to be thinking hard, 'That was weird in itself, he usually pays by credit card,' she waves the point of sale terminal looking rather proud of it, 'But the last few days he paid in cash. Anyways, he didn't have any and he got a bit flustered, I said he could just pay me tomorrow but he eventually found his card, and when he went to pay it wouldn't go through, not activated or somesuch. So he had to call the card company, didn't have a phone with him, had to use mine, and it was all a pallaver. But it worked out in the end...oh, well, he paid his bill anyway, I didn't mean about the other stuff that day, you know, oh...' and she trails off.

"Thank you," says Jocelyn. She looks back and sees Kris enter. "Oh, good, you're here." She fills him in on what she's learned.

”A new card?” said Kris. “I wonder if that’s one we know about?” He turned to the woman behind the counter. “Could we see the credit card slip, please?” he asked politely.

She looks a little more nervous, 'Now then, um, I'm not sure. The young lady 'ere says you're working for the police. Do you have any identification?'

Kris shows her his warrant card and she goes to the till and starts rooting around in the cash drawer. Eventually she returns with a crumpled till receipt which lists a card number and a transaction for £4.50 dated yesterday. She also holds out a square of paper with a phone number on it, 'I think this was the number he rang to call the card company, still by the phone it was.'

”You’ve been a great help, thank you,” said Kris. ’Just one other thing, we’re looking for one of George’s accomplices. Have you seen a man with a tattoo on his neck hanging around? Answers to the name of John or Johnny?”

Seeing the others in the cafe, Simon waits outside. He feels as though he and the woman got off on the wrong foot-- though he can't imagine why. He's eager tos peak with Kris once he comes outside however and ask him more about Balfour's text.

'We get a lot of people through here' says Simone, 'Your tattooed man doesn't ring a bell, but tattoos are getting more common aren't they? Anyway, I never saw George meet up with anyone, I think he liked the alone time to be honest.'

Kris thanked the proprietor for her time, and turned to Jocelyn. ”Is there anything else you need to ask?” he said.

Almost as an afterthought, he glanced around the room, checking whether the cafe had any CCTV cameras in place.

"No, I think we covered it all," says Jocelyn. "I've had an idea while we were waiting for you that we can discuss on the way to our next stop."

Assuming they leave the cafe, Simon approaches Kris.

"Good evening, Detective. Jocelyn mentioned you had found a copy of Balfour's text? I'll get to look examining it as soon as I can, see if I can learn anything if so."

”Damn! I knew I’d forgotten something!” said Kris. ”I left the book in Balfour’s car back at the station. I don’t think we’re expecting him to come for it tonight so you should have time to take a look.”

He looked around for Jocelyn’s car. “Did you drive here?”he asked, hoping he wasn’t going to have to walk back to the station.

"Yes, we took my car," says Jocelyn, leading the way. "Hop in. I had no joy trying to convince my boss at MI5, but I did have another thought. If Lindsay is still checking her email, we can use it to establish communications with her. We can send an email to her account explaining that Regina needs the insulin or she'll die, and we can make arrangements to deliver it where she wants. Naturally, we'll have a tracking device sewn into the backpack's lining."

"A great idea," Simon says. "In the meantime I must go to the station and get the book. It's only a few minute walk from here, right? While you're doing that I can start researching it further."