Play@YSDC

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...