Play@YSDC

1.30am Friday 12th March 2010, London Road, High Wycombe

Seven hours since Regina Balfour was abducted.

After a short five minute drive the leading marked police car cuts the flashing lights and comes to a stop beside the London Road, usually a busy thoroughfare but largely deserted at this time. The target house is around five doors down the road.

Kris parks behind the marked car and the ARV drives past the house and stops after it has passed a few houses.

Bates, Burke, and a female uniformed officer get out the marked car and join Kris, Simon, and Jocelyn. 'AFOs say the house looks quiet' says Bates, 'They'll stay in the car in case we need them, you take the lead Kris.'

As they approach the house they see it is a white fronted Victorian terrace sitting a little back from the road behind tall bushes. It is well maintained and stands out a little compared to the more run down houses that flank it. The dark clouds part briefly and a silvery crescent moon bathes the roof with an eerie glow.

The house appears to have two storeys, the left side of the frontage is a bay window and on the right a black PVC door with brass fittings.

There is no obvious sign of anyone in the property, no lights can be seen from the front of the house.

Kris walked quietly up to the front door and gently tried the handle, pushing down slowly to see if it opened or if it was locked.

Kris gently tries the door handle, it seems to be locked and doesn't move at all. He studies the windows and listens intently at the door, hoping to pick up any sound that might be made by someone inside. He cannot hear anything but something catches his eye, was that something moving in the upstairs window?

"We need to cover the back door too," suggests Jocelyn. "If anyone's inside, we have to make sure they don't slip away. We may also want to enter through the rear. We'd be expected to use the front door. The back door would probably be easier to force too."

"Chances are anyone inside already knows we're here," Simon points out. As opposed to earlier he is more tense, knowing well that this situation could devolve in unexpected ways that he wasn't prepared for. He's glad they have backup.

Bates signals to the uniformed officer, 'PC Holmes, take Miss Leigh round the back, cover the exit, see if there is any way in.'

She radios for one of the AFOs to join them so they have another uniformed officer present. He has not brought his weapon.

Jocelyn and PC Holmes find a small service road accessed further up the street and locate the rear of Lewiston's house. There are locked gates opening onto the rear of the property, fencing about 2m high surrounds it. An area of hard standing can be seen through the gates with garage to one side opening onto the service road. Beyond the concrete there is a well kept lawn and flower bed with a footpath down one side. The house shows no signs of habitation, with all the windows dark.

Jocelyn,Roll Spot Hidden and Listen

Jocelyn has excellent night vision, and she sees every detail. She also can hear decently enough.

OOC,Spot Hidden roll (60% skill) behind the house: [dice]0[/dice] Listen roll (55% skill) behind the house: [dice]1[/dice]

The wind is picking up but Jocelyn does not think she can hear any movement in the house. She also cannot see any sign that anyone is in the property, the windows are dark, but she does see a face peering down from the neighbouring house, a figure silhouetted in the upstairs window.

"From back here I can't see anyone home," Jocelyn reports over the radio. "The windows are dark, and I don't hear anything inside. There's a neighbour home, though, watching us."

Simon remains where he is. This is not his wheelhouse and he knows it. Part of him wants to go and see the neighbor, but the chance to get a glimpse inside the kidnapper's house was an opportunity that proved too enticing for him to pass up on.

Kris looked over to Lucy Bates. ”I saw movement upstairs,” he said quietly.”There’s someone inside.”

Kris moved up to the front door and stood slightly off to one side. “Be ready with the ‘key’,” he said to Burke, and then leaned over and rapped smartly on the door. “This is the Police! Open the door and come outside!” he said, loudly and firmly.

Kris's knock rings out in the quiet night air. There is no answer and no sign of movement in the house, front or back.

"We can talk to the neighbour later, after we're done with the house," says Jocelyn. "The rear gates are locked."

Kris waved Burke forward. ”Hit it!” he snapped, pointing at the door.

DC Burke pulls on his gloves and steps up to the door carrying the red 'Enforcer' battering ram. He swings it into the black PVC door, punching a fist size hole with a loud crunching sound. He swings it multiple times and the plastic panels splinter and crack. When he is finished the doorframe is still locked tight but the panels lie smashed on the hall floor, the hole left is barely smaller than the door itself.

Through the hole can be seen a spartan narrow hallway with tiled flooring leading towards a closed door at the end. On the left, immediately before the door at the end of the hall, the bottom steps of a staircase can be seen. Slightly nearer the front, along the left wall, is another door.

OOC,Kris roll Spot Hidden, Simon too if you're going in

Spot Hidden 25%,[dice]0[/dice]

Simon goes in right after Kris, his eyes looking for anything that stands out.

Kris stepped carefully through the broken door, his feet crunching on the broken fragments that decorated the carpet. He glanced down the hall and up the stairs.

”Thames Valley CID. Come out with your hands in the air where we can see them!” he shouted.

Spot Hidden,Spot Hidden (40%) - [dice]0[/dice].

There is no reply to Kris's shout.

The hallway is very spartan but Kris can see shading of the paint and nail holes along the wall suggesting there used to be pictures hanging.

OOC,It is pretty dark, as you go deeper in the house it will be hard to see. Will you be turning on the lights, using a torch, or walking in the dark?

Kris pulled out his torch from his tac belt and clicked it on. He shone it on the empty picture space for a moment, then let the light play across the wall and down towards the door, before pointing the beam up the stairs.

”We know you’re here, so come out!” he called.

The beam of the torch creates a bright white circle like a full moon. As the ring of illumination moves around the floor and walls there is no sign of anything untoward.

Again, Kris's shout rings in the night air without an answer

Jocelyn keeps watching the back in case anyone tries to escape that way.

Kris sighed. They were going to have to do it the hard way.

“Burke - you search downstairs. I’ll take upstairs,” he said. “I think there might be someone there but they’re not coming down.”

He palmed his Asp, getting it ready to use it just in case, and slowly started to ascend the stairs.

Simon will follow Kris if the man has no objections; if he does, he'll go with Burke.

"I'm not a very good climber," says Jocelyn to PC Holmes, "especially in this getup. Can you climb the fence and open the gates from the other side? I can't give you much of a boost, but I'll help however much I can. Or you could give me a boost instead. Failing that, we could have the 'key' brought back here."

OOC,Holmes Climb 60%,[dice]0[/dice],[dice]1[/dice]

Jocelyn gives PC Holmes a boost and she is quickly over the fence. She unlatches the gate from the other side and lets Jocelyn in.

Burke and Bates open the door to the left of the hallway while the AFO stands guard out the front of the property.

Kris and Simon begin to climb the stairs. On the landing they can one door to the left which presumably opens onto the room overlooking the road. On the right is a short corridor with door at the end and one on the right.

All the doors are closed and they cannot hear any noise.

Jocelyn quietly approaches the back door with PC Holmes. After listening at the door and inspecting it carefully for traps, she will try the knob if she notices nothing.

Kris glanced around to see Simon had followed him up the stairs. He frowned and pointed forcefully at the top of the stairs, indicating that Simon should wait there and not get in the way.

He quietly approached the door to the left, as that seemed to lead to the room where he had seen movement from downstairs. He shone the torch around the frame of the door, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

Jocelyn's observational powers are still sharp.

OOC,Listen roll (55% skill) at the back door: [dice]0[/dice] Spot Hidden roll (60% skill) at the back door: [dice]1[/dice]

Part of the house juts out at the rear and the back door is set in the side of this. It is glazed white PVC with a cat flap in the lower half of the frame.

The house is dark but PC Holmes shines her torch through the window illuminating a small passageway with a door to the right (opening towards the rear of the house) and on the left is what looks like a kitchen, there is something blurry in the air, perhaps flies.

Jocelyn can also hear something coming from the other side of the door, a rustling or scratching sound, but she can't localise where the sound is coming from, even by shining the torch inside.

She doesn't notice anything unusual about the handle and turns it slowly. The door doesn't move, it seems to be locked.

Kris looks carefully around the doorframe - it is simple white gloss painted wood with no signs of any tampering, trip wires, or other concerning features. There is a simple lever handle without any lock and the door is plain painted white wood veneer, probably hollow core from the reverberation when lightly tapped.

Turning off his torch a dim light is visible around the door frame, although that could be coming from the moon or street lights outside if the curtains aren't closed.

"We're at the back door," reports Jocelyn quietly. "It seems to be locked. Looks like a kitchen on the other side. There's a cat flap, but I doubt I'm small enough to fit. I hear a scratching sound inside, probably the cat. There may be flies in there too. Can someone on the inside let us in?"

Bates's voice comes over the radio, 'Front room's clear, we're moving through to the kitchen.'

A few seconds later the light in the kitchen comes on. Bates's face appears in the window and she tries the door from the other side, rattling it until Jocelyn sees her shrug her shoulders in resignation.

Bates looks down in surprise and jumps back with an expression of disgust on her face. The cat flap opens and something slides out onto the patio.

Jocelyn sees a scrawny looking animal, its coat is thin with patches of red raw skin, weeping sores, and tense, inflamed boils. It seems to be a cat.

"Good grief," says Jocelyn over the radio. "Poor little thing. I'm no vet, so I don't know what I can do about it other than call it in. Why are there so many things that remind me of the ten plagues of Egypt? Flies, boils...Maybe I'm just attuned to it because of the Church of the Passover Angel. That's the Angel of Death, by the way. The children of Israel, before the tenth and final plague struck, were instructed to slay a lamb without blemish and put its blood on their doorposts. The angel would then pass over their homes and not slay their firstborn, hence the name of the holiday. The Egyptians weren't so lucky. An odd thing for a supposedly Christian church to revere, though there is a connection to Christianity. Jesus Christ was crucified just before Passover, and He is referred to as the Lamb and is without blemish. It's His shed blood that saves those of us who believe in Him and are protected by His blood."

Kris rapped hard on the door. ”Police!” he shouted, “We’re coming in!”

He flicked the handle down and pushed open the door, his Asp ready by his side, should he need it.

Kris shoves open the door and bursts inside the room. The curtains are open and the room is bathed in the orange glow of a sodium streetlight.

Raising his expandable baton he shines his torch into the far corner, the light striking some kind of figure, long shadows projecting onto the wall behind...within milliseconds Kris can see his torch beam is simply striking a high backed chair. He shines his torch into each corner of the room, finding nothing of significance, while Simon watches from the landing.

Once he is confident the room is empty Kris is able to look around the room. It is a good size bedroom with fitted wardrobes and a chest of drawers. The bed is covered with a bland cotton duvet and matching pillows. There is nothing to individuate it from a hotel room.

After calling someone to come collect the cat, Jocelyn speaks into the radio again. "Now that the kitchen is secure and nobody's going to slip out the back," she says, "why don't we come round the front and go inside?"

Seeing the room is safe, Simon joins Kris inside it.

"I don't believe anyone's here. Not that surprising, all told-- our man is an expert, and given the steps he took to hide his identity, I highly doubt he left even a trace of evidence behind to tell us where he may have been planning to take Reginia. My main suggestion now would be finding his computer, should he have one, and see if we can discover anything of his recent search history, who he may have been in contact with.

If he hears Jocelyn over the radio, he also responds to her. "Quite a natural reaction to have. I myself thought I witnessed a blood moon earlier this evening. It's quite amazing the sort of biases our brains fall victim to. I suggest we get someone to look at how long the cat's been ill for. Also look around the house, see if Mr. Lewiston has been neglecting to do his dishes or tidy up after himself. Perhaps we can roughly trace how long he's fallen prey to this obsession of his."

OOC:   If Simon does not have a radio he'll relay these thought to the rest of the group when he can.

OOC,Simon can hear over Kris's radio and speak to the others over that radio when Kris lets him, I'll assume he did unless Philulhu says otherwise

Bates replies over the radio, 'Yeah, come round, maybe you can help me with something.'

Jocelyn and PC Holmes, the latter carrying the manky cat, make their way to the front of the property. The AFO directs them inside the house to the front room. The curtains are open and the lights are on, shining out into the street.

The front room itself is sparsely furnished with a television, matching beige settee and armchair, and a glass side table. Over the original cast iron and tile fireplace hangs a clock and on another wall there is a red electric guitar mounted.

Sitting on the beige settee is DS Bates talking to a South Asian woman in a muted shalwar kameez and headscarf. Jocelyn reckons she is in her late fifties. Coming in on the middle of a conversation it is difficult to figure out what she is saying as she has rather hesitant English, but she seems to be quite upset and is repeatedly asking something like 'You find George? Is George alright?''

When the lady sees the cat she reacts in horror, 'Oh, poor Starbuck!'

Simon and Kris,I can describe what they find upstairs if Kris has nothing else specific he wants to do

Kris sighed heavily and lowered his baton. For a moment he thought he’d seen something in the corner of the room but it was just a shadow...

Simon chattered away next to him as Kris took stock of the room, then he turned abruptly and walked back onto the landing, pushing open the other doors to see what’s inside the rooms.

Kris and Simon look into the second bedroom at the rear of the house. It has only a freestanding wardrobe and a double bed and nothing else of interest.

Walking into the third bedroom in the middle of the house they see it has a single bed with a desk pushed up against the wall. The desk has great dents and splinters in its surface. Sitting on the desk is a home shredder, a laptop with a smashed screen and keyboard, and the remains of what appear to be a hard drive and a mobile phone. There is a sledge hammer propped up against the desk.

In the corner there is a plastic bag filled with tiny pieces of shredded paper from the cross shredder and a scattering of undamaged documents on the floor.

On the bed there is a Bible, it is creased open with a ribbon bookmark down the centre of the page. Beside it is a battered paperback.

Kris held up a hand to caution Simon to remain at the threshold while he took a closer look. Kneeling down, he looked across the floor to make sure there were no tripwires to catch out the unwary.

Satisfied that it looked clear, he moved over to the desk to examine the remains of the laptop. ”We’ve found a laptop,” he said into his radio, “Has anyone got the number for PC World’s tech support?”

He sighed and beckoned Simon into the room, and turned to look at the Bible and paperback on the bed.

The Bible is a fairly old looking leather bound copy of the King James Bible. The bookmark is in Exodus 11-12.

The paperback is a well thumbed copy of 'The Book of the Passover Angel'. The briefest of skims indicates a cheap paperback printed by a vanity press, about 200 pages in length, the first two chapters seem to be reprints of the books of Genesis and Exodus while the third chapter is written by the Reverend John Balfour and is titled 'Kenyan Revelations', a fourth chapter seems to be an appendix for the third.

Simon picks up the Bible and reads a passage from Exodus 11:5, 'And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die...', he shudders involuntarily and for a second has a panicky feeling, the sensation that there is something moving in the periphery of his vision, something shadowy and malign.

As quickly as the sensation comes over him it is gone. Obviously the coincidence of Jocelyn's talk of the plagues of Egypt and then reading the same section of the Bible has affected him for a moment.

"If anyone can recover data from the laptop, it's MI5," says Jocelyn over the radio. "It'll take time, though, which is in short supply, but I'll arrange for them to pick it up and get started working on it." Once she has done this, she greets the South Asian woman. "Hello, I'm Jocelyn Leigh. Perhaps I can be of help. Do you live here?"

"I should have known," Simon sighs when he sees the smashed computer. "Our man is sharp. Or was, I suppose."

He picks up the bible. Briefly glances around before he berates himself for it.All this nonsense was getting to him.

"Interesting. Seems as though Lewiston still kept up with the Reverend's work." He looks through the book quickly, curious if Lewiston had underlined any particular sections or quotes that held importance to him.

As far as Simon can gather from a brief look at 'The Book of the Passover Angel', Balfour and his church believe that the end of the world is coming and that it will culminate in a return of the plagues of Egypt ravaging the world, sparing only the faithful. This belief seems to have come from some kind of revelatory experience he had in Kenya.

Perhaps surprisingly, nothing is underlined or otherwise marked.

Simon,To get anything else out of the book you'll need a more detailed study which will take several hours

Jocelyn greets the woman. Her English is very poor and difficult to understand but it seems she is Lewiston's next-door neighbour.

Jocelyn,It is going to be difficult to talk to her about anything beyond very simple information. Jocelyn doesn't recognise the language she's speaking in except for a few words. She could roll a combination of Idea roll and Arabic (need to roll under lowest) to identify it

Simon pockets the book, intending to study it later. Technically he supposes he should give it to the police, but he trusts his own abilities far more.

Jocelyn has no idea what the language is. It's clearly not Arabic, the only other one she knows. "When did you last see George?" she asks the woman.

OOC,Idea/Language(Arabic) roll (31% skill) to identify the language: [dice]0[/dice]

While Simon skimmed through the book, Kris checked out the wardrobe for any further clues.

The woman manages to get across that she last saw George early on Thursday. And something about the cat, perhaps that she was feeding it. When the woman stops talking in English and lapses into whatever her first language is, Jocelyn thinks she might recognise the occasional word but isn't sure where from, Farsi perhaps.

Kris looks in the wardrobe and finds nothing of any interest, there are a few old coats and empty boxes.

”I don’t think there’s anything else in here,” said Kris said to Simon. “I’ll just check the bathroom and head downstairs.”

As he headed out of the room, a thought occurred to him and he scanned the ceilings of the upstairs rooms, looking for a loft hatch.

Kris sees loft hatch over the landing but it seems painted over and probably hasn't been used in some time.

There is no bathroom upstairs, presumably it is downstairs.

"Has George had any visitors?" asks Jocelyn.

The woman looks baffled at Jocelyn's question.

Kris extends his baton and pushes against the loft hatch until the paint begins to crack. Satisfied that no-one could have been up there for a while, he heads downstairs to report to DS Bates.

He joins the others in front room, where Jocelyn is trying to talk to an older woman, without a lot of luck.

OOC,Is it a language Kris recognises? He has Hindi to 40% - [dice]0[/dice]

Kris is a pretty good Hindi speaker and he can tell the woman is talking in Urdu. Usually it would be fairly easy for a Hindi speaker to talk to an Urdu speaker as the languages are largely the same but Kris finds her accent and level of agitation make it more difficult than he was expecting.

Kris,Roll Hindi with advantage

Kris pushed past Burke and sat down opposite the woman so he was at the same eye level. ”कृपया धीमें बोलें।,” he said.

OOC,“कृपया धीमें बोलें।” = “Please, speak slowly” (according to internet translation, anyway!) Hindi (40%) - [dice]0[/dice] Bonus dice - [dice]1[/dice]

Kris thanked Samira for her help, and recounted what she had told to everyone else.

”We need to contact his daughter and check out the cafe,” he said, looking for directions on his phone. “According to Mrs Sindhu, Lewiston ate there every morning, so there’s a chance he might have used that as a meeting place.”

Kris,The cafe is a few minutes walk from Lewiston's house but it's the middle of the night so will be closed

Simon,Sorry, forgot to say above, nothing is marked or underlined in the book

"It seems like the only lead worth pursuing now is contacting his daughter and determining if she knows anything," Simon says. "Given the circumstances I see no reason to wait until morning; she would probably appreciate knowing her father was dead, if nothing else."

”Not something we would normally do over the phone,” said Kris, although he dreaded having to tell relatives about the loss of a loved one.

He looked back over to Mrs Sindhu. ” क्या आपके पास उनकी बेटी का पता है?”

OOC,”Do you have an address for his daughter?”

"No, we definitely need to go see her in person as soon as possible," says Jocelyn, "and not just for that reason. Remember, there's a female accomplice. Who else would he have trusted to help him? See if you can get a description of the daughter. There must be pictures of her around her somewhere, too."

”See if you can find a picture of the daughter,” said Kris, before turning back to Mrs Sindhu. “ मुझे डर है कि कोई घटना हुई थी।. George मारा हुआ।,” he said, before leaning forward and awkwardly patting her hand.

“ हमें उनकी बेटी को जल्दी खोजने की जरूरत है। क्या आप उसका वर्णन मुझसे कर सकते हैं?”

OOC,“ I am afraid there was an incident. George is dead.” “We need to find his daughter quickly. Can you describe her to me?”

Mrs Sindhu looks shocked but is able to pull herself together enough to say that George Lewiston's daughter Nicole lives somewhere in Wycombe, she isn't sure where. She says she is pretty, fairly petite, and has brown or black hair, aged in her late twenties or early thirties.

Simon and Jocelyn look through the rest of the house. Towards the back there is a small dining area opening onto the kitchen with a bathroom at the rear of the property.

The dining area has a rustic kitchen table, four wooden chairs, and a battered looking black leather sofa. There are a couple of abstract paintings on the walls.

The kitchen is modern and clean. However, there are some small flies buzzing around the worktops like there is something on the turn in the bin. In the little area between the kitchen and the bathroom there is a glazed white PVC door looking onto the garden with a cat flap. There is an empty cat bowl and a half full water bowl.

The bathroom is a standard extension into the original Victorian outhouse. There is a bath with a shower head over the top and a glass shower screen to the side, a sink, and a toilet, with a small stand for toiletries. Some black dye staining is visible around the sink.

What they don't see is any photographs, although there is some evidence that there may have been some on display in the past with shading on the walls and nails or nail holes.

”’Twenties or thirties’?” said Kris. “That could be the driver of the getaway car!” He keyed his radio to speak to the station. “Control - the female IC1 driver of the getaway car could be Nicole Lewiston. Can you check her details against the partial licence plate on the PNC?”

While he is waiting for a response, he calls out, ”Can someone get that back door open and check the bins to see if the photos have been dumped in there?”

There are no local hits for a Nicole Lewiston on the PNC, not even as registered keeper for a car. The control room confirm that the partial number plate ended up matching a registration from a scrapped vehicle so was probably a fake. There's still no more hits for it on ANPR so it has either stopped somewhere or the plates have changed again.

PC Holmes returns from the garden, 'Bins are empty DC Sapru, but there is a garage out the back, it's locked, maybe his neighbour has the key like she does for the back door?'

"Good thinking," says Jocelyn. "I'd wager he dyed his hair in the bathroom sink. I wasn't expecting him to leave any pictures in the rubbish since he went to so much trouble to get rid of them. He probably shredded them too. There must be some sort of public record of Nicole Lewiston with a photograph. Once we get that, we can run it through facial recognition. Wouldn't NHS have records? We need her address too. We could do an online search on her, and check the telephone directory."

"Unusual," says Simon. "And looking more like she's involved. Or her father drilled an unhealthy sense of paranoia into her."

"Still, I can check to see if she has any social media accounts." He pulls out his phone and looks up Nicole Lewiston, specifically any that may be within an hour or so radius from where they are.

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

OOC:   Let's try for a hard success. Hopefully if I fail someone will be smarter than Simon.

Luck 42%,[dice]0[/dice]

"Take a look at this," Simon shows everyone the ad. "I believe this is our woman. Can we get an address for a Nicole Brown? I think it's best we visit her in person-- if she's involved in this, giving her a call might alert her we're onto her."

"That sure sounds like her," says Jocelyn. "She has the same first name, but a different last name. It could be she used an alias, or maybe she got married and changed her name legitimately. If she has a husband, that could also be someone involved in this."

OOC,Idea roll (70% stat) about [b]Nicole[/b]: [dice]0[/dice]

"Now that we've got her phone number," says Jocelyn, "we can contact the phone company and get her address from them - provided it's a contract phone and not a burner. She probably does have a burner too, but I'd guess she has both: a regular phone for routine things like reporting a found dog, and a burner for working with her dad on a kidnapping. They may not have even been plotting the kidnapping last year, which makes it even more likely that the number in the ad is not a burner."

”I’ll call it in,” said Kris. He put in a quick call to Control, giving them Nicole Brown’s details and mobile number.

“I’ll hold,” he said, when Control asked if he wanted them to call him back. With his hand over the phone speaker, he continued, ”We’ll be moving out as soon as we get an address. If there’s anything you want to look for while we’re here, now’s the time!”

"Let's check the garage while we're still here," suggests Jocelyn.

Simon nods and follows.

Mrs Sindhu gives them a ring full of keys and Simon and Jocelyn open up the rear door to the garage. Inside they find a rather fine looking red vintage Fiat 124 Spider convertible sports car squeezed in between the benches that surround three of the walls, covered in various tools, car parts, and other odds and ends.

As Simon and Jocelyn go to look in the garage, Kris will look through the kitchen drawers as he waits for Control to come up with Nicole’s address.

OOC,Spot Hidden (40%) - [dice]0[/dice]

Jocelyn examines the car first, looking for any items of interest in it, making sure to check the boot and the glove box.

There is little of any interest in the car. It is in pristine condition and, you suspect, hardly used.

Jocelyn and Simon,Roll Spot Hidden

Kris finds nothing significant in the kitchen. It doesn't seem to have been used much and apart from cat food there is little in the cupboards. Despite the flies the bin is actually empty.

Phone glued to his ear, Kris stepped out the back door and headed over to the garage. ”Have you found anything?” he asked.

Kris sees the car, a number of benches covered in tools, car parts, a large old fashioned looking radio set, some boxes and metal cases, and sundry other bits and pieces you might find in a middle aged English man's garage.

Jocelyn takes a look around.

OOC,Spot Hidden roll (60% skill) in the garage: [dice]0[/dice] Can I spend 4 points of Luck to make that a success, please?

Jocelyn,Of course, deduct the Luck

Although the car is spotless, in one of the footwells Jocelyn finds a receipt. It is for the Eden Centre Tesco and dated early in the day on the 11th March.

There are a number of items including cereal bars and other packages of easily prepared foodstuffs, children's clothes, a first aid kit, toiletries, about a dozen DVDs with titles like 'Cinderella' and 'The Little Mermaid', a portable DVD player, lots of energy drinks, and several bottles of Night Nurse (a sedative cold and flu remedy).

Simon,Do you want to spend the Luck?

Kris,You can also roll Spot Hidden

"Find anything?' Simon asks.

Assuming she shows him, he nods, grave. " This shows premeditation, though that was already all but confirmed."

OOC:   I'll keep my luck for now.

Jocelyn shows them the receipt. "It also shows they intend to keep her alive and happy," she says. "That's a good sign."

"Yes, but without the medicine in that backpack, she may not have long," Simon points out. "Perhaps that can help us appeal for her return, but I doubt it. A man was willing to kill himself to get her away from her family, so these are zealots. Though I'm beginning to wonder if they feel they have cause. Most kidnappers of this type would want to harm the child, but they seem to be taking great care not to. Rather curious. Hopefully the daughter can tell us more. Even if she's not involved, she may have a good idea of her father's headspace. "

Burke wanders into the garage and starts rooting around in boxes of tools, 'Just junk' he says dismissively. He flicks on the radio set and is greeted by the crackle of static.

Finally Kris hears back from control over his mobile phone, 'We have an address here in Wycombe, only about ten minutes away, do you want us to send a car or will you go direct from Lewiston's house?'

Before Kris can answer Lewiston's old radio crackles into life and they hear a familiar voice, simultaneously the police radios blare out the same message, 'DS Bates, control here, some additional information on Lewiston, our records indicate a current shotgun license, recommend caution in apprehending his accomplice.'

Burke laughs, 'Thank you control, understood.' He turns off the radio. 'Looks like Lewiston was listening in to the police frequencies, naughty boy. Chances are his daughter or whoever is helping him already knows we're here.'

”Shit!” Kris swore. He keyed his mic again. “Be advised this frequency is not secure!” he warned the control room. “We’ll go to the property but if you’ve got a car closer, send that and we’ll meet them there!”

He looked to Jocelyn and Simon and hooked his thumb back towards the property. “Wrap it up,” he ordered, “We need to get over to the daughter’s ASAP!”