IC - 12 - Back in the Station - Everyone

[Mephistophilis]

11.50am Friday 12th March 2010, High Wycombe Police Station, Buckinghamshire

Over seventeen hours since Regina Balfour was abducted.

Kris ushers John Balfour into the station while Julie Thomas shouts after him 'where is Regina Balfour?' Jocelyn and Simon arrive in Jocelyn's car and enter the station at the tail end of the commotion.

The desk sergeant whispers to Kris that he has a visitor and gestures to a middle aged woman sitting in the reception area. While they are talking someone familiar squeezes past Kris to enter the station, it looks like Ollie Grey.

OOC,Lots of stuff you could do now, talk to Balfour, talk to Roxanna, go to the incident room and talk to the other detectives, have a little conflab amongst yourselves, or anything else you'd like to do

[Philulhu]

OOC,Conflab to catch up first, methinks?

[Mr. Handy]

OOC,I agree.

[Silver Priest]

Once inside, Simon works to get Jocelyn and Kris in a conference room.

"We've learned a few interesting things. Balfour is affiliated with an indigenous group known as Red Trumpet back in Kenya. It seems to be what got him on the watchlist, though we don't know much about them offhand. He first met them 15 years ago on a mission trip from his local fundamentalist church. We may want to investigate this church he previously belonged to, see if their beliefs roughly line up with his own. If not, it suggests some radicalization that may have happened overseas. He also brings in almost a million quid a year in donations, and though it seems entirely aboveboard, it's a rather high amount.

"More importantly, his church predicts the end of the world this Tuesday at sunset. This strikes me as rather too much of a coincidence. Did Lewiston and Peale have access to information that Regina was in danger? Perhaps Balfour intends a mass suicide, or maybe this was the kidnappers way of placing him under greater scrutiny. Either way, I fear he's planning something, and it's vital we find Lindsay,, both for Reginia's sake and any information she can provide us."

He looks at Jocelyn, in case she has anything to add.

[Mr. Handy]

"Yes, that about sums it up," says Jocelyn. "My boss called me at seven, and I passed it along to DS Bates. The intel actually came from MI6, but the Sister Service typically shares information with Five. What have you learned since we last spoke?" she asks Kris.

[Philulhu]

Kris felt somewhat abashed as he hadn’t actually really found out anything new. He’d just gone to sleep... ...

”Em, well, I’ve spoken to Lindsay’s boss and she’s waiting to see me now,” he said, glancing towards the door. He absentmindedly scratched at his arm. He’d worn a dark shirt today because his white shirt had shown bloody marks within minutes of putting it on. “Has anyone else noticed anything unusual?” he asked, without actually specifying what that might be...

[Mr. Handy]

"If you mean the itchiness," says Jocelyn, "both of us experienced it too. We both stayed at the same hotel, so it seemed like the place just had bugs, but it seems you've got it too. I'm ready to talk to Roxanna when you are."

[Philulhu]

”If it was just you and Simon who had the bugs, I’d agree with you, but the fact I’ve got them too... ... I’ll get the Sergeant to give the local doc a call and see if we can’t get it treated. In the meantime, let’s go and have a chat with Lindsay’s boss.”

Kris lead the way back into the reception area, where he asked the desk sergeant to call the doctor’s surgery. He also secured an empty interview room for their chat with Roxanna, whom he went to introduce himself to, and then invited to join them to talk about Lindsay.

[Silver Priest]

"Perhaps that cat had bugs then," Simon says with distaste. "Lewiston was not taking care of it, after all. I had a dream of what I presume was the Passover Angel. But given what we've been investigating it's not all that unusual."

He follows Kris and Lindsay, though asks for a cup if tea if it can be managed.

[Mephistophilis]

Kris leads Roxanna Goldfarb to the interview room. She is a woman in her fifties with slightly too much makeup, large gold hoop earrings, and a bright flowery dress.

One of the civilian administrative staff brings in some scalding hot cups of too strong tea for everyone. They're in white plastic cups, teabags still in, cups deforming with the heat.

OOC,Are you leaving Balfour to wait?

[Philulhu]

Kris paused on the threshold of the room and looked back at John Balfour. ”We’ll be with you shortly,” he said.

He didn’t wait for a reply, but entered the interview room. He asked Roxanna to take a seat, sending a quick text message to Lucy Bates as he did so. ‘Any news on Lindsay Peale’s car?’ He pocketed his phone and introduced Jocelyn and Simon.

“Thanks for coming to see me,” he said. “It seems that Lindsay may be involved in the abduction of Regina Balfour. Is she someone you have been involved with?”

[Mephistophilis]

Roxanna gives quite a theatrical sigh, 'Oh yes, we, or rather I should say Lindsay, has been involved with Regina Balfour before. It was about two years ago. Lindsay started proceedings to remove Regina from her parents. She bypassed all the usual checks and procedures and basically sweet-talked a judge into moving forward immediately on unsubstantiated and vague claims of child abuse and Regina was taken into protective care - they turned up at the Balfour's door with the police and took her away. She claimed she was acting on an “anonymous tip,” but no one thinks the tip was anonymous, she was either protecting her source or there was no source. She got several adjournments and continuations of the order, dragged it right out for more than a week, but when it came to court the presiding judge accused her, in effect, of making up the whole thing and the case was thrown out.'

Roxanna leans forward and puts her hands on the interview room table. Lindsay was suspended without pay for a month. I was there at the disciplinary proceedings. She didn't say anything to explain herself, she just accepted the month’s suspension, apologised, said she did what she had to do and that we wouldn't believe her if she explained why she did it, and said she'd never do anything like that again - well, that clearly wasn't true.'

She looks strained for a minute and says, 'The thing is, apart from that, and some harassing "welfare checks" on Regina about three years ago, Lindsay has always been an exemplary social worker. Efficient, calm, level headed, compassionate. It's only because of that she wasn't fired. I stood up for her, and now I'm starting to regret it.'

She sighs and slumps back in her chair. 'I don't know why Lindsay is so fixated on this girl but I have no doubt she's involved.' She stares intently at her cup of tea and then starts sipping it.

[Mr. Handy]

"Thank you," says Jocelyn. "Have you any idea where Lindsey might have taken Regina?"

[Silver Priest]

Simon tries his tea, immediately regrets it, and puts it back down.

"Thank you for your information, Ms. Goldfarb." Simon responds after she's done. "Your story confirms much of what we already suspected. Reverend Balfour seems to belong to some sort of fundamentalist sect, and he believes the world will end within a few days. Perhaps Lindsay got it in her head Regina was in danger. We're still trying to determine her full motive, which I suppose we won't have until we question her. But this is frankly secondary-- Regina is very sick, and if she does not get her medicine within a few days she'll die. Do you or any of her coworkers know where Lindsay might go to hide out she needed to get away? He adds to Jocelyn's question.

[Mephistophilis]

Roxanna says 'I'm afraid I don't know where Lindsay might go, I presume you've already been to her house?' She thinks for a moment, 'I'm not sure she was particularly close to anyone at work, maybe Annette, I can get you her office number. Other than that I don't know what to say, I can give you access to her work emails, we keep them backed up for legal reasons, perhaps there might be something there?'

After a long pause she adds, 'I saw the Reverend Balfour outside, I'd be careful about assuming there is something wrong with the Balfours, sure their little church is pretty strange but we found no evidence of any child neglect or abuse when we investigated them after Lindsay's allegations, they seemed like loving parents.'

[Philulhu]

”If we could have Annette’s contact details, that would be very helpful,” said Kris, wondering if she was the person who had left the second message on Lindsay’s answering machine.

“Access to her work email would also be useful,” he continued. “Anything we do to get a lead on where she is. Would we also be able to see her case files for the Balfour case?”

[Mephistophilis]

Roxanna gives Kris the number for Annette, it's the same one on Lindsay's answer machine. Kris calls her but she doesn't have much to add, they are friendly at work but not close. She has no idea where Lindsay might go with Regina. Asked how she has been recently she says that Lindsay had seemed extremely stressed and distracted lately, but had not told her why. Annette found her distraught and sobbing in the bathroom earlier this week, but Lindsay waved her off.

Roxanna says that they are welcome to review Lindsay's emails and she will try and get the Balfour case files from the archives. However, they'll need to send someone to Aylesbury to look at either.

Kris looks down at his phone and sees a text message from DS Bates, 'See you in the incident room'.

[Philulhu]

”Thanks for coming in,” said Kris. “If anything else occurs to you, no matter how trivial it might seem, please get in touch. I’ll speak to you about coming to see the files once I’ve had a chance to catch up with my superior officer.”

He showed Roxanna out and headed for the incident room to find Lucy.

[Mephistophilis]

OOC,If no one else has anything they want to ask Roxanna we can move to the incident room, but what about Balfour?

[Mr. Handy]

OOC,I have no further questions for her.