Play@YSDC

Melbourne in the spring of 1928 is a prosperous city, although the gap between the haves and have-nots is wide. About a million souls live there now, ranging from bohemians and flappers, to staid professionals and officials, to impoverished factory and dock workers, to academics at the University of Melbourne or the National Museum, to the inevitable criminal and underclasses - yet only a handful of Australia's Aboriginal population live there, most having been forced off to reservations or missions in the country.

Colin does regularly see one, however, a cleaning maid at the University of Melbourne, but the name of Lucy Brown - a name that's earned her no end of racist comments - her brother Clarence is an amateur boxer in various sporting dives around the city. The pair have been of great help to Colin in winning the trust of other indigenous people for the sake of his studies.

Right now, Colin is hearing one of those racist comments over his shoulder, but it's a lot more alarming than usual: "Good job she's got the cut, don't you think? Or how else would you tell that's a black eye?"

Colin turns around to see who made the comment.

Colin recognises two young men, Rearden and Price, both from the idle rich end of the student body's spectrum. It is Lucy they're talking about - she's wheeling a trolley bearing a mop and bucket, every line of her body suggesting she was trying not to be noticed - she does indeed have a black eye, as well as bruising on the opposite cheek.

Colin strides purposefully up to the two men.

"Why don't you both piss off?" he says aggressively. "Or does the Dean need to hear about you harassing the staff?"

HoneyDog wrote:"Why don't you both piss off?" he says aggressively. "Or does the Dean need to hear about you harassing the staff?"

"No need to be like that," Price says. "It's all in good fun."
"You don't see her objecting do you?" Reardon adds.
Nevertheless, they walk on.

Lucy relaxes slightly at their departure. "Thankyou," she says.

"Don't mention it" says Colin, looking closely at her face. "What happened?"

"Nothing," she says, hunching up a bit. With a look at your face, she changes her tune, "There's a couple of guys who have been messing with Clarence. One of them said was a warning to him."

Colin's eyes narrow.

"A warning? About what exactly?"

"They want him to lose fights in the sports clubs. They must run bets. I told him it wasn't them, but I don't think he believed me. If he goes after them, he'll get himself killed."

"Shall we talk to him together?" says Colin. "Help him think about what to do, and keep him calm. You have to tell him, you know. They'll just come back again."

"Ok. He's meeting me here at four to walk me home." [Like most of the Aboriginal population in Melbourne, Clarence and Lucy can only afford to live in the Fitzroy suburb - it's not far from the university, but is notoriously rough. Colin has the feeling that Lucy may be trying to spare him taking a trip through it with this arrangement]

In any event, he has enough work and research to take up his time until then.

And at the appointed hour, Lucy is waiting near the door, when Clarence appears. He's tall, broad, and it's easy to see why a crook might want to deliver a warning to someone besides him. He recognises you, and extends his hand in greeting.

"Can we sit down somewhere," Lucy asks. "I want to talk to you about..."

Clarence looks between Lucy and Colin, obviously a bit surprised at you being included in such a conversation, but nods. Lucy leads the way to a secluded bench.

Clarence speaks first. "I know you said it wasn't Tony Reilly who did this to you-"

Lucy interrupts. "I lied. I'm sorry..."

"That rooter," Clarence says. "I'll-"

"That's why I didn't tell you," Lucy pleads. "They'll kill you if you go after them like that."

"What else can I do? The coppers won't get involved over this, and I'm not letting it stand - you're my sister."

“Can you fight all of them? And win?” Colin asks him. “They’re an organization, aren’t they? There are always going to be more. You have to find another way to fix the problem. What options are there?”

"Please, listen to him," Lucy says.

Clarence shakes his head. "You're right, you're right. I could just give them what they want. Throw the fights they tell me to." His lips twist as he says it - clearly it hurts his pride.

"If they're an organisation, they must be doing other things," Lucy says. "If the police won't care about us, maybe we can find something they will care about."

“You don’t have to throw the fights if you don’t box” says Colin. “It’s worth thinking about.”

“Are you sure you want to go up against them?” he asks Lucy.

"Just... give up?" Clarence asks. "Let them drive me out of the sport?"

Lucy looks pained at your and his questions, obviously not wanting to answer.

Clarence sees her reaction and says, "I could do that. Lucy's more important than continuing to box."

"Would they leave it there if you did?" Lucy asks.

Colin waits for Clarence to answer.

"I don't know," he answers at last. "But they didn't hurt you just because they were afraid of me. They want me to look fit for the ring, so people will bet on me. And that means if they aren't willing to let me quit..." His meaning is plain enough - Lucy is the one they'll go after again. "I'm not taking that chance. So I give them what they want, or I find something the police will care about," he continues. "I can't see another way."

Colin sighs.

"Alright then. Tell us what you know about their operation."

"The two who come around the clubs are brothers, Tommy and Tony Reilly. Tommy's the brains, but Tony's not an idiot - people think he is cos his jaw's broke, and he can't talk straight. They have cafe on Cole Lane - I know where that is, Tony took me there when they made their 'offer.' I heard them talking about a fella called Kittrell - it sounded like he was their boss, but I've never seen him."

OOC, Colin's Credit Rating: 40 Rolled 1D100: 36

It's only legal to bet on sporting events on the day and at the events in question, but illegal betting shops are commonplace, and a cafe would be a good place for prospective punters to wait and listen to the match or race on the wireless. Unfortunately, that's still something police generally turn a blind eye to, but if they're into anything else, it might be the place to start.

"I can go too," Clarence says. "Distract them. If I tell them I'll do what they want, it'll keep their eyes off you. We shouldn't arrive together though."

"Wait a moment" says Colin. "What do you expect me to do? Just let me get a look at the place before you start anything."

"I'm sorry," Clarence says, looking abashed. "Of course."

Cole Lane is in Collinsport, although the similarity of name is just a coincidence. It's a working class neighbourhood, but more boisterous than rough - the locals ignore Colin rather than hassling him. The street is mostly slum housing, though there is a newsagent a few doors away from the Reillys' cafe.

The cafe itself is called Pete's, although Clarence mentions that he's never heard hide or hair of any actual Pete involved with it. Its frontage takes up three doorways, and the interior is crammed with tables - it looks like it's doing good business.

Colin enters and looks around for somewhere to sit.

There are a few empty tables. There are three doors in the back, one next to a counter, whose sounds and smells clearly mark it as leading to the kitchen - the second has the shabby air that characterises doors leading to toilets - the third is in an alcove. As you suspected, there is a radio, currently tuned to the broadcast of a horse race. The clientele show a mixture of classes from working to a shade above middle.

A harried looking waitress - seemingly the only one on duty - comes over and asks if you're ready to order. From what you can see and smell from nearby tables, the operative word about the place's cuisine is "fried."

Colin places an order, and looks with interest at the door in the alcove.

It's sturdy-looking, with a grilled peephole and a lock - though there's no way to tell from here whether it's locked.

When your order arrives, everything on the plate is indeed fried - bacon, sausage, eggs, toast, tomatoes, mushrooms - but turns out to be quite good. And fortifying in view of your present mission.

Satisfied, Colin leaves the cafe.

Clarence is waiting in a nearby alley. "I've been looking around too," he says. "The alley turns back there, and I think I know which of the back doors is theirs."

He shows you the door, which looks similar to the one from the alcove, if a bit more dirty. Before you can try it, he asks, "What if they're in there?"

Colin looks around, exasperated.

"What exactly do you want me to do?" he asks. "I don't even know what we're doing here! Are we supposed to be looking for something?"

"I'm sorry," Clarence says, leaning against the wall. "I know we're asking a lot of you. I want to do what Lucy said. The police won't care about them beating up an Aboriginal girl, or running sporting bets. But if we look in their office, maybe we can find something the cops will care about. Something so I won't have to worry about them killing her next time they want to 'warn' me."

"Then if there's someone in there, we'll just have to beat the crap out of them. Come on."

Colin tries the door handle.

Perhaps surprisingly, perhaps not, it opens.

The hallway beyond is stuffily hot, possibly because of the couple of doors along its left side that clearly lead into the kitchen - from which you can hear voices and clattering. At the far end, there is a turn to the right.

Clarence doesn't hesitate, and goes to enter the hallway.

Colin follows.

The hallway is mostly bare, though its floor is quite mucky. There are a couple of crates by the wall, marked with brands of beer. It sounds like there are three people in the kitchen, but their voices and the sounds of cooking are enough to cover the sounds of your footsteps.

However it also covers the sound of theirs. When you're halway down the hall, past one of the kitchen doors, it opens behind you, making your heart skip a beat.

OOC,Luck 75,Rolled 1D100 69.

However, the kitchen hand is carrying a large sack of garbage and turns straight to the back door without looking in your direction - but he will see you as soon as he comes back in, so your only recourse is to head for the corner ahead.

Round the corner is a small area: stairs up on your new right (making them parallel to the hallway), a door on your new left and another door opposite. You're pretty sure the door on the left is the other side of the alcove-door you saw in the cafe.

Colin points to the opposite door, making sure that Clarence can see him and understand.

He nods and tries the door. It proves to be merely a broom cupboard, but it adds enough space that you can both get out of the hallway enough to avoid the notice of the kitchen hand when he reenters. A moment later you hear him do so, followed by the door to the kitchen opening and closing.

This door leads into a cramped office. There are two chairs, one at a desk, the other against the wall next to a four drawer filing cabinet. There's also a standing lamp and a plant pot containing a cactus.

Opposite the door you came in through is another, which going by direction and distance leads back into the public part of the cafe.

Clarence looks at you. "Do you want the desk or the filing cabinet?"

Colin crosses over to the cabinet.

Clarence takes the desk.

All four drawers of the cabinet are filled, though not to the same capacity. The bottom one is the most full - the files all appear to be about sporting contenders, mainly boxers and race horses - opening one up reveals a record of wins, losses, and other statistics. Evidently the Reilly brothers take the research for their gambling enterprise seriously.

The second drawer up is half full. The files all contains lists of coded entries - Colin can't make head or tails of them, except inasmuch as the layout is consistent with them being records or ledgers.

The third drawer only has a few files, all of which seem to contain personal letters to one or both of the brothers.

The top drawer is half full, and mostly seems to concern the mundane details of running the cafe. One is labelled "Legal."

Which drawer do you want to concentrate on first?

Colin takes the third drawer.

Most of them are from family members - a mother named Mary and an uncle named Paul, both in Sydney - at first it looks like usual family talk, somewhat awkward to be going through. But a recent letter from Mary expresses concern for them, about their involvement with a man named Austin Kittrell - she doesn't think they should have anything to do with him, thinking that a man from Melbourne's upper crust wouldn't be interested in a doing business with cafe proprietors from Collinsport unless he was about something nefarious (she seems to be unaware that the brother are about nefarious things themselves).

You remember Clarence mentioning the name Kittrell as maybe some kind of boss - there can't be many Austin Kittrells in the city, let alone one among the wealthy.

Colin tries to look for any correspondence from Kittrell.

You can find one letter from him. It says he's been called away on urgent business for a week - though it's dated from a month ago, so that week would be over by now - but the deal with "Diamond" (from the context of the sentence it appears in, this clearly refers to a person), is important enough that Kittrell has to be there, so it must be held off until he returns.

Asking Clarence who Diamond is elicits that he's never heard the name - which at least means he's not part of the city's boxing scene.

There are no more letters from Kittrell, but you do find a letter to him. It's from a bank, acknowledging his authorisation of a payment of $2000 to Thomas Reilly. It's not addressed to the cafe, but to - prsumably - Kittrell's home address in the McKinnon suburb.

Colin sighs. There doesn't seem to be anything useful here. He hopes Clarence has had better luck.

Clarence disagrees - "I want to take a look at who this Kittrell is. That letter from their Mum said he was rich. He might be mixing them up in something more than match fixing. Plus one of the buggers has mentioned him here:"

He shows you a letter that one of the brothers is apparently in he middle of writing, to that uncle Paul in Sydney. He says Kittrell has put them on to someone who does business with people in Sydney as well - if he gets some names, it might be a 'chance' (though it doesn't say a chance to do what) for Paul too.


Be that as it may, the desk has some more papers to do with running the cafe - it's doing quite well for itself. There's a pocket ledger, with lists - there are entries in the same kind of code as you found in the second draw, but next to them are monetary amounts - most marked with a plus, but a few with a minus.

OOC,Idea 80; rolled 1D100 46.

It occurs to you that if the files record the same transactions as the ledger, then comparing the two might give you an in to breaking the code, although you'd have to take them.

"This is probably a record of who owes what" says Colin. "If we take it, they'll raise hell trying to get it back."

"You're right," Clarence says. "It looks like whatever they're up to, it's this Kittrell who's behind it. I'm going to take a look at his house."

"I'd better come with you then" replies Colin, not wanting his friend to get into any further trouble.

You're able to slip back out of the cafe without incident - once you get there, you find substantially more sacks of garbage then when you left - that must be what the kitchen hand was up to.

McKinnon is quite a long walk from Collingwood. On the way, Clarence thanks you several times, obviously well aware that this is a lot more than you strictly agreed to.

It's around 7 by the time you arrive at the right street. Kittrell's house is Ilarge and detached, with an extensive but well kept garden. The walls are faced in a mid-brown plaster.

There's also a mild commotion outside. A blonde girl is trying to storm her way off down the street, while another girl is holding onto her hand.
"Let me go," the blonde is saying. "I never want to look at this place again."
"I know, but we can't just go. Sara's still in there."
"I'm going!"
There's a guy with them, who says, "Go with her Carol, I'll get Sara."

He turns and heads in the direction of Kittrell's house. Clarence raises an eyebrow. "What the...?"

Colin approaches the girls.

"Is there a problem, miss?" he asks.

"Oh wonderful," the blonde says. "How many more people have come to see what an idiot I've been?"

"I-" the other girl starts helplessly. "I'm sorry. My friend just had some bad news."

You see the guy who was with them emerge from Kittrell's garden with a third young woman.


And here we go to part 2...