IC - 1 - Beginnings - Kris

[Mephistophilis]

Kris recoils at the sight but he's seen worse investigating farmers who have blown their own brains out.

The security guard doesn't have any more to show him on the tapes so Kris tells Ollie to take him to the body, 'it's a bit grim' laughs Ollie nervously.

As Kris approaches the rear of the centre he can see the body of the abductor lying in a pool of blood. There is so much blood, more than could be accounted for by one man exsanguinating, it is practically a lake of blood lapping against the walls of the corridor. In the blood, coated in it, lie scores of dead fish and shards of glass. As he gets nearer Kris can hear something, a sucking noise, 'slop, slop', he tries to localise the sound and notices something moving in the blood.

Kris,Sorry, Sanity roll again!

[Philulhu]

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

Kris held his hand up to his nose to try to block out the thick, coppery smell of blood. Spotting movement, he coughed, ”What the hell is that?!”

[Mephistophilis]

Kris,1 SAN lost

After a second Kris can see that the blood is not so extensive as he had thought, apart from the pool congealing around the dead man mostly it is water from a shattered fish tank, tinged pink and streaked with blood in places. On closer inspection what he has heard and seen moving in the water turns out to be a frog, hopping through the carnage. Looking around he sees several more frogs, clearly escaping through the smashed shopfront and slopping through the water past the dead fish and around the body.

The rain outside is starting to become heavier and Kris can hear it drumming on the plastic roof. There is some kind of leak and rain water starts to drip down into the centre, rippling out in little pink concentric circles as each drop plops into the crimson pool.

Looking directly at the body now he can see it is the same man as in the CCTV footage. He is maybe sixty years old with jet black hair and beard. He has cut his throat cleanly and clearly died rapidly from blood loss.

Kris,In terms of searching for stuff, I'll let you roll a general Spot Hidden and give you info based on the level of success, forensics will be found later so don't worry if you miss something, but if you have particular things you want to look at then you have the chance to gain more info even without a successful roll - if that makes sense (e.g. 'I remove his shoes and look for anything concealed inside them' will get you more than 'I search the body')

[Philulhu]

OOC,SAN updated.

Kris stood on the edge of the pool of bloodied water, not wanting to get his shoes wet. He squatted for a closer look.

”Have you checked the body for ID?” he asked Ollie.

[Mephistophilis]

Constable Grey looks uncomfortable, 'We didn't think we should handle the body before forensics or you guys arrived.'

[Philulhu]

”We’ve got a missing girl, Constable! Time is of the essence!” snapped Kris, somewhat pompously. Like Ollie, he didn’t want to have to touch the corpse, but he also knew they didn’t have time to wait.

“Find me some gloves. I’ll take some photos,” he said, and he pulled out his mobile and started taking photographs of the corpse and the surroundings.

[Mephistophilis]

Kris pulls on a pair of blue plastic gloves and tries to lean over the pooling blood and water without ruining his shoes.

The dead man is dressed in a white cotton shirt, now heavily stained with blood, casual brown trousers, and a heavy grey jacket. He carries no identification on him.

While looking through his clothes Kris feels something tickling his wrists, looking down he is sure that he sees the clothes are teeming with little insects, mites or lice, and it feels like some of them are crawling onto Kris's arms.

'Disgusting' Kris exclaims and pulls off the gloves, brushing his hands vigorously against his trousers.

Kris,Roll Spot Hidden

[Philulhu]

Spot Hidden,Spot hidden (40%) - [dice]0[/dice] Edit: One of those both hands and a map moments... :cry:

[Mephistophilis]

Kris bats at his arms trying to brush off the lice and steps squarely into the bloody water, soaking his shoes.

As he stares dejectedly at his feet he feels a hand on his shoulder. He turns to see the serious face of DS Bates, 'DI Marlow's been held up so I've got a press conference in five minutes. What have you got for me?'

[Philulhu]

Kris jumped. He hadn’t heard Bates approaching. His foot slipped in the bloody water but he kept his balance.

He scowled down at his shoes as he stepped out of the puddle and tried to wipe his shoes clean on the floor. ”As you know,” he started, still trying to clean his shoes, “A girl was snatched from her mother at approximately 6.30pm.

”CCTV shows the kidnapper tasering the mother, then making off with the girl. He came back for her backpack but mum put up a fight and he left without it. He took the girl out to a waiting car which drove off with her. In the meantime, he comes back in with a knife and a gun and runs amok. We’ve got a few casualties but fortunately none fatal, so far.”

“999 calls go in and the ARV is sent to the scene, but the perp kills himself by cutting his own throat before they reach him. We’ve got CCTV if you want to see it. I’ve checked the body for ID but he’s clean - Forensics haven’t touched him yet but I though if we could identify him or find an address then it would be worth any potential contamination of the crime scene.”

Kris paused. He knew he should have taken notes but the situation had him flustered. “What else? What else?” he said to himself. “Oh, the kidnapper’s vehicle is a white hatchback - a VW Golf or an Astra. I’ve had a look at the tape but couldn’t see the reg, but I’ve asked Ollie - Constable Grey to get it over to Traffic so they can at least identify the type of vehicle and hopefully link it to their traffic cameras.”

“I think that’s all the critical stuff,” he says, bringing his report to an end.

[Mephistophilis]

'No, good call, this is a live kidnapping case, finding the girl takes priority over the forensics, it's a pity he had no ID.' She looks at Kris's jacket and brushes something off.

Bates leans forward and squints at the body. 'So, if he killed himself by cutting his throat, who shot him then?' and she points out two bullet wounds in his torso that have now been revealed by you moving the body in your attempts to search his jacket and trousers for any identification.

Ollie turns pale.

[Philulhu]

Kris Swore to himself. How had be missed that?!

His colour rising, he snapped, ”Constable Grey - did you shoot the suspect?”

[Mephistophilis]

Ollie starts stammering something about taking a shot to stop the kidnapper kiling himself. Kris realises that one of the shots must have shattered the window and fish tank in the pet shop.

'Oh for fuck's sake. PC Grey you muppet, did you even call this in? Get out of here now. We have to inform the IPCC. This is the last thing I need. You'd better get your story straight Grey.' spits Bates.

'How did you miss this Sapru? Look, I don't have time to clear up this mess right now, I'll catch up with you after the press conference. Get me some photos we can circulate to the media'

As she is leaving she says 'I've got a couple of MI5 consultants coming, I want you to babysit them. They might prove useful, one of them is a hostage negotiator apparently. And Kris, keep Grey out of my sight.'

[Philulhu]

”Yes, ma’am,” stammered Kris, feeling like a naughty schoolboy who was being told off.

As DS Bates headed off for her press conference, Kris rounded on Ollie. “Let me get this straight, Constable,” he said in an icy tone, “Your story is that you shot a man dead to prevent him from killing himself?!”

[Mephistophilis]

Panic fills Ollie's eyes, 'But, uh, when you put it like that it sounds stupid. He was already cutting his throat, I didn't have time to go for my Taser, and I was too far away to disarm him, I took a shot, well, maybe a couple of shots, thought I might wing him and stop him from killing himself.' He looks a bit more defiant. 'He bled out in seconds, there's no way my shot killed him.'

[Philulhu]

”Nevertheless,” Kris replied firmly, “The IPCC are going to be all over this like a rash. You’d better get your notes written up.” He thought about telling Ollie not to say he’d shot the bloke to stop him killing himself but if he was stupid enough to put it like that in his report, then he deserved everything coming to him! Besides, it would give the IPCC something else to focus on, rather than the fact that Kris hasn’t spotted the gunshot wounds when he’d checked the body...

“It’ll probably be admin leave for you while they sort this out,” Kris continued, trying not to enjoy the other officers discomfort too much. “We’ll have to see what the Chief Superintendent has to say.”

“Now is there anything else I need to know that you haven’t told me about already?”

[Mephistophilis]

Ollie shakes his head dejectedly, 'there's still some witnesses being questioned by officers at the scene, take a look by the security office' and he slopes off.

A voice pipes up from behind him, 'Hiya Kris, looks like we're all in for a long night'. It is Josie Long, a crime scene investigator from the forensics team. She and a male colleague start unloading their equipment. 'This guy's a right mess' she laughs.

A uniformed officer strolls down the corridor and catches Kris's attention, 'We've got a couple of people on the cordon say they're MI5 and you're expecting them. What do you want us to do with them?'

[Philulhu]

“Ollie Grey shot the perp to try to stop him committing suicide,” said Kris to Josie, dryly. “Look, we need an ID as quick as you can because the girl’s still missing. Let me know as soon as you’ve got anything, preferably before the DS gets out of her press briefing!”

He turned and signalled to the PC. ”Bring them over,” he said, and he stood up a bit straighter, put his shoulders back and tried again to scrape the bloody traces from his shoe...

[Mephistophilis]

Josie laughs nervously, not sure whether Kris is serious about Ollie.

OOC,We're moving to a new thread: [url]https://www.callofcthulhu.org.uk/pbp/viewtopic.php?f=469&t=7114[/url]