IC - 1 - Beginnings - Kris

[Mephistophilis]

7pm Thursday 11th March 2010, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, just outside London, England.
It has been a dull and overcast day in this less than scenic corner of the Chilterns. Over the grey town the last few weak rays of light from the setting sun are snuffed out by the thick clouds overhead. It starts to rain.

Kris,Where is Kris, what is he doing right now? Currently he knows nothing about the Balfour case.

[Philulhu]

Kris glanced out of the window and grunted his disappointment He had heard Bina on the phone to her sister-in-law and he’d planned to pop along to The Pheasant for a couple of pints. She’d be on the phone most of the evening so he wouldn’t have been missed.

A squall spattered heavy raindrops on the window. There was no way his hair would be in any shape if he walked and if he drove, he wouldn’t be able to have a drink so he decided he was staying in. Taking out the bottle of Grey Goose from the fridge, he sat down at the breakfast bar, poured himself a drink and started scrolling through messages on his phone.

[Mephistophilis]

Kris's phone starts to ring and he blinks at the familiar number illuminated on the display. Detective Sergeant Lucy Bates, the boss. Kris is not on-call tonight so this is probably important. He looks at his drink for a second, sighs and pushes away the glass, and presses the screen to answer the call.

'Kris, it's Lucy here, I know you're not on-call but I can't give this to Burke, you know he's an idiot. Are you in a fit state to go out this evening?'

'Good'. she says, the relief clear in her voice.

'Get yourself to the Eden Shopping Centre now. There's been an abduction, six thirty this evening, a five year old child, Regina Balfour, daughter of some minister, by which I mean priest or somesuch.

The assailant was an IC1 male in his fifties or sixties, snatched the girl and handed her off to an accomplice before rampaging through the shopping centre and offing himself when the armed response vehicle arrived. The firearms officers have secured the scene but couldn't find any sign of the accomplice or the girl.

The parents are pretty shaken up and have been taken to the station. What they have told us is that the assailant left behind her backpack which contains supplies for her insulin pump. She needs that medication to live more than a few days.'

She sighs and talks slowly and purposefully.

'This is big. I need you to act fast. You know the numbers, the first twenty four hours are critical, insulin or
not, if we don't find her in that time the chances are she will be dead. The father's got some kind of profile and we're getting help sent from the Security Service for what that's worth. But remember, this is our investigation, don't let MI5 push you around or get in the way. I'll meet you at the scene.'

Kris,Any urgent questions you can ask Lucy now but the centre is only 5-10mins away.

[Philulhu]

Kris confirmed he was on his way and ended the call. He looked at his reflection in the window and grinned. He’d been chosen! Him, not Burke. The call had probably come from on high, the Detective Chief Superintendent, or the ACC or even higher. ”Get Kris Sapru - he’s the man for this job!” - that’s what Lucy will have been told. His hard work and long hours were about to pay off. He’d wrap this case up, get the kid back to her parents and he’d be heading back to the Smoke with a commendation and a promotion to boot! His star was on the rise!

The vodka was quickly shoved back in the fridge and he located his car keys after a frantic search. He quickly told Bina he’d been called out on a job - “High profile, love!” - and he was out the door, down the communal stairs and gunning his 1.6l Vauxhall Astra out of the garage and out onto the street in just a matter of minutes...

[Mephistophilis]

Ten minutes later Kris is driving to the Eden Shopping Centre. He sees the scene long before he arrives. 'Eden', as it is officially called in typical marketing fashion, is a new shopping complex built around the old 70s Octagon Centre and the existing Tesco superstore towards the west of the town centre. It was supposed to regenerate this part of the town, which it has to an extent, although large number of retail units remain empty. The centre itself incorporates five different buildings linked together with covered walkways.

The flashing police lights illuminate the transparent plastic awnings like a tacky Christmas tree. Police patrol cars are parked haphazardly around the entrances. Uniformed officers are establishing a cordon with cones and tape. A lone ambulance sits among the police cars, while someone is treated out of sight.

There are a few onlookers and at least one news van is parked outside the cordon, it is marked 'Global News Service (GNS)' with the trite slogan 'Bringing Your Story to the World'. A female reporter is haranguing a beleaguered looking policeman, who, from his uniform, looks to be an authorised firearms officer (AFO).

Kris parks his car and heads over to the AFO. As he gets closer his heart sinks as he recognises Constable Ollie Grey. Kris knows him well, he is overconfident, even reckless, and has been involved in a few questionable incidents in the past. Ollie is desperately trying to avoid answering the reporter's questions.

The blonde reporter has coiffured hair and overdone makeup and is being filmed by a cameraman: 'Julie Thomas, GNS, can you confirm there has been a terrorist attack here in the Eden Centre? How many people were killed?'

This is not going well.



Kris pushes past the reporter and crosses the police tape. Ollie greets him, 'Hi Kris, no sign of Sergeant Bates yet, I think that means you're in charge.'

[Philulhu]

Kris ignored the reporter for now, hoping that DS Bates would turn up soon. He took Ollie by the arm and pulled him out of earshot and said, ”What do you know, Constable?”

[Mephistophilis]

Ollie straightens himself up, looking a little put out at the formal tone. He takes out a little notebook, 'okay, DC Sapru, by the book, at approximately 6.30pm a five-year old girl called Regina Balfour was snatched from her mother Sarah here in the Eden centre.

I have a photo we got from the CCTV,' he gestures up to the corners of the building where Kris can see a number of security cameras.



'Her mother was standing three feet away with her back turned. It looks like he Tasered the mother before grabbing the girl. There was some struggle over the girl's backpack and then he ran off carrying the girl. He dumps her in a car waiting outside and then returns to the centre wielding a knife and a gun, running through the centre attacking random passersby, although no one was killed.

There were several 999 calls reporting an armed man in the Eden centre and me and Steve arrived in the armed response vehicle at 6.43pm. The kidnapper ran to the back of the centre when he saw us.'

He looks a little hesitant at this point but continues,

'By the time we caught up with him he'd offed himself.

'We secured the perimeter, got the centre security to go through the CCTV, circulated this photo of the girl, and now uniform are taking statements from the witnesses.

We couldn't get much out the mum once the ambulance crew were done with her, she's gone with her husband to the station. What she did say was that the kidnapper left her backpack behind which has supplies for her insulin pump, that's gonna stop working in the next day or so and she won't last long without it.

Eden centre security staff have pulled together some footage giving a timeline of what happened if you want to take a look. They still can't find any good shots of the car outside or the driver but they're working on it.

The body of the first kidnapper is still on site, we're waiting for the forensics team to get here.'

[Philulhu]

No shots of the car? That wasn’t good, thought Kris. ”Have we checked the CCTV of surrounding buildings? And what about traffic? Have they got any cameras on the junction outside?”

[Mephistophilis]

'No traffic cameras looking at the front of the centre.' says Ollie looking a little intimidated. 'I've got officers trying to get footage from the surrounding buildings but most of them have evacuated so we're having to get them back in to review it. There's some footage of the car, just not enough to make a positive ID.'

[Philulhu]

”If we can ID the make and model, that’ll be a start. Ask traffic if they can at least manage that, can you?” asked Kris testily. He glanced over to where Julie Thomas was filling the airwaves with nothing new whatsoever then looked back at Ollie.

“It looks like the DS isn’t getting here just yet, so you’d better show me the crime scene,” he said.

[Mephistophilis]

Ollie takes Kris through the centre to a large pharmacy. There is police tape across the automatic door which has been disabled. Inside Ollie points out where the abduction took place, in the middle of the aisle next to an empty overturned shopping basket there is what looks like a standard police issue Taser with the probes deployed and spooled on the ground beside a backpack shaped like a ladybird.

'Not much to be seen here' he says. 'Still waiting for forensics so we haven't searched through the backpack, the mother says it just contains her medication. The security guys have got some good footage of the abduction though, if you want to see it?'

[Philulhu]

Kris nodded curtly, indicating that Ollie should lead the way.

[Mephistophilis]

Ollie takes Kris into a complex of offices towards the front of the Eden centre. Inside there are two uniformed security guards looking at computer monitors where they seem to be scanning through recordings of various CCTV camera feeds from around the shopping centre.

Ollie asks one of the men to 'show him the abduction'.

The recording shows the aisles of the pharmacy. A well dressed black woman in her thirties is browsing the shelves while a young girl, recognisably Regina Balfour from the photo, is standing behind her wearing a backpack shaped like a ladybird. An older white man, probably in his late fifties or early sixties, walks brazenly and with purpose up to the woman while her back is turned. As he draws near he takes something out of his jacket and fires it at her, causing her spine to arch before she falls to the ground.



'Taser' says Ollie proudly and he pats the one he is carrying on his chest.

The assailant then grabs the little girl, who struggles and kicks ineffectually but drops her backpack. He walks towards the exit and momentarily leaves camera range but then returns still carrying the girl. He tries to retrieve the ladybird backpack from the ground but the woman manages to rouse herself enough to grab onto the straps, and a brief tug-of-war ensues. The man knees the woman in the face, but lets the backpack go as a bystander tries to intervene.

He then flees out of camera range with Regina; a security guard runs through the frame a minute later in pursuit.

'That's the shop CCTV' says Ollie. A second security camera at the exit of the Eden centre shows more. The abductor knocks over a uniformed greeter with Regina obviously struggling and screaming. Outside the entrance a car can just be seen, it is a white hatchback, perhaps a VW Golf or Vauxhall Astra. He throws Regina into the back seat and it speeds off. Neither the driver nor the number plate is visible.

The abductor then pulls out what looks like an automatic handgun and a large knife and marches back into the store. He stabs the greeter in the kneecap as he goes in.

'He spends the next ten minutes attacking passersby' says Ollie.

The security staff show Kris several different video feeds where the abductor wanders through the shopping centre, gun in one hand and knife in the other, toppling displays, brandishing his weapons at customers, and generally causing a panic. Shoppers stampede toward the exit.

After about ten minutes Kris sees two armed police officers entering the centre, one is clearly Ollie, they shout towards the assailant (there's no audio) but he turns and runs towards the back of the centre.

'And then he kills himself' says Ollie.

One of the security guards says 'When you're finished with this I've got some footage from the pet store at the back of the centre if you want to see how he died?'

[Philulhu]

OOC,Can Kris have a crack at identifying the type of car? There are a few differences that should be able to tell the two types apart, even if the images aren’t that great.

[Mephistophilis]

Kris,Sure, roll Luck or Drive Auto, if you roll Drive Auto have a bonus die for...a reason. If you miss it you can push the roll at the risk of making the wrong identification - the second roll should be Drive Auto with a bonus die

[Philulhu]

OOC,Hmm, Luck at 50% or Drive Auto at 26% with a bonus dice... Drive Auto [dice]0[/dice] (bonus dice [dice]1[/dice])

Kris peered closely at the monitor but couldn’t make out enough of the car to conclusively identify it. The lads in traffic would take the piss relentlessly if he called it wrong, so he shook his head and straightened up. ”I can’t be sure,” he said, “And we don’t have time to be chasing the wrong car, so get traffic to look at it.”

”Right, let’s have a look at the corpse.”

[Mephistophilis]

Kris,CCTV of the death or straight to the corpse first?

[Philulhu]

OOC,CCTV first, please.

[Mephistophilis]

The security guard switches to a feed from the back of the shopping centre centred on the frontage of a pet shop.

He rewinds back through the video and then sets it to play. It clearly shows the same man running into shot. He is still carrying the knife and gun. He looks around then takes the knife and grimly slits his own throat. As blood spurts from the wound he stumbles backwards and seems to crash through the window at the front of the store. After a few moments Kris see a police officer enter the shot and look down at the body obscuring the view from the camera.

Kris,Roll Sanity

[Philulhu]

SAN roll,SAN (70%) - [dice]0[/dice]